David L. Anderson is professor of history emeritus at California State University, Monterey Bay, and past president of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations. His books include Trapped by Success: The Eisenhower Administration and Vietnam and The Columbia Guide to the Vietnam War.

• Preface Abbreviations Introduction: The Vietnam War and Its Enduring Historical Relevance David L. Anderson Part I. Chronological Perspectives 1. Setting the Stage: Vietnamese Revolutionary Nationalism and the First Vietnam War, by Mark Philip Bradley 2. "Dealing with a Government of Madmen": Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Ngo Dinh Diem, by Richard H. Immerman 3. South Vietnam Under Siege, 1961-1965: Kennedy, Johnson, and the Question of Escalation or Disengagement, by Gary R. Hess 4. Lyndon Johnson and the Bombing of Vietnam: Politics and Military Choices, by Lloyd C. Gardner 5. Turning Point: The Vietnam War's Pivotal Year, November 1967-November 1968, by Robert J. McMahon 6. Richard M. Nixon and the Vietnam War: The Paradox of Disengagement with Escalation, by Jeffrey P. Kimball Part II. Topical Perspectives 7. American Strategy in the Vietnam War, by John Prados 8. The Village War in Vietnam, 1965-1973, by Eric Bergerud 9. Fighting for Family: Vietnamese Women and the American War, by Helen E. Anderson 10. Vietnamese Society at War, by Robert K. Brigham 11. "Hey, Hey, LBJ!": American Domestic Politics and the Vietnam War, by Melvin Small 12. Cambodia and Laos in the Vietnam War, by Kenton Clymer Part III. Postwar Perspectives 13. The Legacy of the Vietnam War, by Robert D. Schulzinger 14. The Vietnam Syndrome, by George C. Herring List of Contributors Index

[A] brilliantly edited anthology featuring a wide variety of essays by the finest experts in the field... Essential. Choice An accessible and coherent account of the war's course, from before the United States' involvement to the North's eventual victory. -- Lawrence D. Freedman Foreign Affairs Essential reading. Masterfully written by the most prominent authorities on the Vietnam War. -- Shelton Woods Journal of World History A timely book with contemporary relevance, published at a time when America's experience in Vietnam continues to figure prominently in discussions about strategy and defense... Highly recommended. -- James H. Willbanks Parameters