The Columbia Guide to the Vietnam War

The Vietnam War remains a major point of reference in discussions of U.S. foreign policy and national character. The lessons and legacies of the most divisive event in U.S. history in the twentieth century are hotly debated to this day. Written by a renowned scholar of the conflict, The Columbia Guide to the Vietnam War provides students and researchers with the materials to think seriously about the conflict's many paradoxes and ramifications.

More than a quarter of a century after the last Marine Corps Huey left the American embassy in Saigon, the lessons and legacies of the most divisive war in twentieth-century American history are as hotly debated as ever. Why did successive administrations choose little-known Vietnam as the "test case" of American commitment in the fight against communism? Why were the "best and brightest" apparently blind to the illegitimacy of the state of South Vietnam? Would Kennedy have pulled out had he lived? And what lessons regarding American foreign policy emerged from the war?

The Columbia Guide to the Vietnam War helps readers understand this tragic and complex conflict. The book contains both interpretive information and a wealth of facts in easy-to-find form. Part I provides a lucid narrative overview of contested issues and interpretations in Vietnam scholarship. Part II is a mini-encyclopedia with descriptions and analysis of individuals, events, groups, and military operations. Arranged alphabetically, this section enables readers to look up isolated facts and specialized terms. Part III is a chronology of key events. Part IV is an annotated guide to resources, including films, documentaries, CD-ROMs, and reliable Web sites. Part V contains excerpts from historical documents and statistical data.

David L. Anderson is professor of history and interim dean of arts and sciences at the University of Indianapolis. He is the author of Facing My Lai: Moving Beyond the Massacre and Trapped by Success: The Eisenhower Administration and Vietnam, 1953–1961.

Andrew L. Johns:
The Columbia Guide to the Vietnam War is an outstanding primer to the conflict and the scholarship it has inspired.

Anderson expertly reviews the considerable accumulated opinion on the Vietnam War... highly recommended.

Matthew Stewart:
This volume is practical, useful and trustworthy, and will become indispensable for many teachers and scholars, whether they approach the war from a traditional historical, a sociological, a cultural studies, or an interdisciplinary framework.

Mark Bradley:
A well-organized, succinct, and welcome work of synthesis that brings together the main lines of historical controversy in particularly engaging ways... clearly the best short introduction available to the scholarship on the wars in Vietnam and deserves a wide and appreciative audience.

Successfully compresses the copiously documented, labyrinthine history of the Vietnamese conflict into a single economical volume... a fascinating survey of the war... expertly crafted... strongly recommended.

[A]n outstanding ready-reference source.... [Anderson] should be commended for compiling such an informative, balanced, and unbiased reference source for the most contentious war in American history.