The Struggle for Indochina, 1940-1955

Ellen Hammer, 1921 - 2001 Ellen Hammer was born in 1921 and received a bachelor's degree from barnard College in 1941. She worked for several years as a research assistant for the Council on Foreign Relations in Manhattan. Soon after she received her doctorate in Public Law and Government from Columbia where she specialized in international relations. She is best known for her book "The Struggle for Indochina", which discussed the struggle of that region for independence from France. Hammer was known as an authority on French Colonial rule in Indochina. She also became interested in the on going problems in Vietnam. When the war ended so terribly, Hammer moved to France and vowed to have nothing more to do with the subject. Hammer died on January 28, 2001, in New York City of lymphoma. She was 79 years old.