Vietnam and the Cold War 1945-1954

John Pike is a military historian, barrister, and General Legal Counsel to a company on the Singapore Stock Exchange. He graduated in Politics, Philosophy and Economics (PPE) at Oxford and after the College of Law was called to the Bar at Lincoln's Inn in 2003. Previously an economist and Investment banker in London, Tokyo and Germany for 20 years, as a barrister he specialised in banking, fraud, mercantile and competition law but also handled many political asylum cases. He has over the years advised the governments of Cambodia, Sri Lanka and the Bahamas on matters ranging from corruption to shipping policy. Over the last thirteen years he has lived and worked in Phnom Penh, Rangoon, Singapore and Lisbon, He was for a time a special adviser to a defence team at the Khmer Rouge UN War Crimes Trials in Phnom Penh. In Cambodia he worked for an NGO involved in rural and agricultural development working on EU, AUSaid and USAid programs. In 2004 he published, with Sir Jeremy Lever QC, the authoritative legal academic work on criminal price fixing cartels which was widely cited in the Court of Appeal and Supreme court. He is a military historian but steeped in the multifaceted aspects of war. His historiography of war includes grand strategy, battlefield tactics and weaponry, the international relations dimension, law, politics, and economics of war; and the social and cultural effects on society and even individuals - war is a personal story. He 'involves' his readers and brings to life heroism and tragedy but also the essential state- and geo-political developments in modern warfare. Having lived in Indochina for twelve years the author writes with an authentic knowledge of the its peoples, culture, topography, and battlefields, located in remote jungles and wetlands. Publications and future works contracted and contracting: The Thirty Years War 1618-1648: The First Global War and the End of Habsburg Supremacy (released); Ending the Thirty Years War: War, Diplomacy and Westphalia - 2 vols; Gustavus v Wallenstein: Military Revolution, Rivalry and Tragedy in the Thirty Years War; The Age of Firepower: Military Revolution 1600-1650 and Beyond. Future possible titles include The Gothic Legend and the Thirty Years War; and Boxer's War (Second World War memoir).