A Time for War

Robert D. Schulzinger is Professor of History and Director of the International Affairs Program at the University of Colorado.

• PrefaceIntroduction: Memories of the Vietnam War Part I: International Affairs1. Bitterness Between the United States and Vietnam, 1975-19802. Estrangement and Détente, 1980-19883. Normalization, 1989-2000 Part II: Veterans and Vietnamese Americans4. Vietnam Veterans' Readjustment5. Vietnam Veterans Memorials and Memories6. The Vietnamese in America Part III. Cultural Legacies7. The Burden of Memory in Vietnam Literature8. Vietnam Memories Through Film Part IVConclusion: Political Echoes of a War9. The Living Legacy of the Vietnam War NotesBibliographyIndex

Schulzinger succeeds in recapitulating the political and social atmosphere of the 1960s in the United States, as its leaders and people coped with an increasingly frustrating conflict. Particularly useful is the author's examination, based on much new information, of the often acrimonious debates with the government. But the tone of the volume is not argumentative or strident; on the contrary, Schulzinger, a noted historian of twentieth-century U.S. foreign relations, shows empathy with all the actors in the drama. There are no particular heroes or villians in his story; they are all, in this book, ordinary human beings trying to do what is best but ending up with an increasing sense of helplessness. Thus the book offers a wonderfully crafted saga of the Vietnam war era.