Vietnam War, The

The Vietnam War is a chronicle of victory, defeat, and political blundering on both sides of the DMZ and beyond. Opening with accounts of Vietnam's tumultuous decades as a French possession and of the civil war that came in the wake of France's humiliating withdrawal in 1954, the book then describes American's gradual entry into the conflict after efforts to curtail Communist aggression through monetary and military aid to the South came to nothing.
The Vietnam War also explores the many singular aspects of this seemingly endless conflict, concluding demoralization and drug use among U.S. troops at the front and antiwar protests at home. To facilitate the reader's grasp of the war and its background, the book provides an informative listing of the key individuals in the conflict and a substantial chronology of all the important events from 1945 to 1995. The final section lists the names of almost 4,000 U.S. military personnel still missing in action, ending the book on a justifiably somber note.