The time is ripe for a comprehensive, fair-minded history of America's war in Vietnam. Stanley Karnow's magnificent book is precisely that-an enthralling narrative that clarifies, analyzes, and demystifies this tragic ordeal. Panoramic in scope, profound in understanding, and compassionate in its human portrayals, it is filled with fresh revelations drawn from secret documents and from exclusive interviews with hundreds of participants on both sides. In its wealth of detail and its sure grasp of the issues, Vietnam: A History transcends the past and contains lessons relevant to the present and future.

Karnow elucidates the American involvement in Vietnam, explains all the political and military events that occurred in Vietnam after the Americans arrived, and delves deeply into the decision-making process in Washington and Asia. Throughout, he focuses on people: his book opens with the deaths of the first GIs in Vietnam and ends with the Communist officer who accepted the surrender of the South Vietnamese regime in 1975.