A firsthand report on contemporary Vietnam presents a portrait of a nation that is struggling under the hold of Communism and places the Vietnam war in the perspective of a four-thousand-year-old history.

Love history? Know your stuff with History in an Hour.‘War, what is it good for?’ THE VIETNAM WAR: HISTORY IN AN HOUR gives a gripping account of the most important Cold War-era conflict, fought between the United States and the Viet Cong, the Vietnam People’s Army and their Communist allies. It was one of the most traumatic military conflicts America has ever been involved in – and provoked a backlash of anti-war protests at home.Here are the key events leading up to the V...

WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZEONE OF THE MOST ACCLAIMED WORKS OF HISTORY IN RECENT YEARSWinner of the Francis Parkman Prize from the Society of American Historians • Winner of the American Library in Paris Book Award • Winner of the Council on Foreign Relations Arthur Ross Book Award • Finalist for the Cundill Prize in Historical LiteratureNAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BYTh...

Hailed as a "pithy and compelling account of an intensely relevant topic" (Kirkus Reviews), this wide-ranging volume offers a superb account of a key moment in modern U.S. and world history. Drawing upon the latest research in archives in China, Russia, and Vietnam, Mark Lawrence creates an extraordinary, panoramic view of all sides of the war. His narrative begins well before American forces set foot in Vietnam, delving into French colonialism's contribution to the 1945 Vietnamese revolut...

A Story of Vietnam is the first comprehensive and inclusive history of Vietnam written in English. It relates Vietnam's past from its origins to the present (2010). It gives as much emphasis to culture as to politics. I call it a story and not a history, because I do not want it to be the usual conventional textbook, overburdened with interminable references and footnotes.A Story of Vietnam can provide a substantial reading material to students who are interested in Asia. To the hy...

"Magnificent . . . [It] has managed not only to fill in the missing pieces of Ho's life but to provide the best account of Ho as a diplomat and a strategist." — The New York Times Book ReviewA New York Times Notable BookA Los Angeles Times Best Book of the YearTo grasp the complicated causes and co...

A finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, Duong Van Mai Elliott's The Sacred Willow illuminates recent Vietnamese history by weaving together the stories of the lives of four generations of her family. Beginning with her great-grandfather, who rose from rural poverty to become an influential landowner, and continuing to the present, Mai Elliott traces her family's journey through an era of tumultuous change. She tells us of childhood hours in her grandmother's silk shop, and of hiding wh...

A "compassionate and penetrating" landmark history of Vietnam and the Vietnam War ( New York Times Book Review)."Fitzgerald's Pulitzer Prize– and National Book Award–winning study of the Vietnam War remains essential reading thirty years after its initial publication." — Library JournalThis magisterial work, based on Frances FitzGerald's many years of research and travels, takes us inside the history of Vietnam—the tradition...

In this "essential" memoir, a former marine returns to Vietnam years later to try to make sense of the war (Anthony Swofford, author of Jarhead).When William Broyles Jr. was drafted, he was a twenty-four-year-old student at Oxford University in England, hoping to avoid military service. During his physical exam, however, he realized that he couldn't let social class or education give him special privileges. He joined the marines, and soon commanded an infan...

In Ho Chi Minh (1890-1969) the author reflects Hos life, his good and bad relations with the Big Five, and his influence in the Third World countries and his place in the Vietnam history. Some interesting comparisons are seen in this book. The author writes it with all his historic impartiality in the hope of helping the future generations have the right knowledge of their country s historic events which are compared to the rain. Facing it people have different feelings. It is up to their ...

Laos, perhaps the least known country in mainland Southeast Asia, stands at the region's crossroads. This small 'land in between' is surrounded by China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Burma-countries that, in pre-modern times, provided Lao kings with a field for territorial expansion. But more often, Laos has been a bridge between these powerful neighbours, and an arena in which they and their allies have interfered.Here, Grant Evans brings Lao history vividly into focus. From an...

In September 1962, when Martin Dockery landed in Saigon, he was a young, determined, idealistic U.S. Army first lieutenant convinced of America’s imminent victory in Vietnam. While most of the twelve thousand U.S. military advisors in-country at the time filled support positions in Saigon and other major cities, Dockery was one of a handful of advisors assigned to Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) combat units.For eight months Dockery lived and fought in the heart of the Mekon...