Table of Contents

Introduction
Chapter 1: Legacies of Time
Chapter 2: Between Two Wars
Chapter 3: Fateful Decisions
Chapter 4: Americanization
Chapter 5: Air War
Chapter 6: Tet
Chapter 7: The Road to Paris
Chapter 8: After the Americans
Chapter 9: Of Lessons and Their Price
Appendix A: Annual Troop Movement from North to South and Casualties en Route, May 1959 to April 1975—Group 559 and American Estimates
Appendix B: Revolutionary Armed Forces and Population in the B2 Theater
Further Reading

About the Author

William S. Turley is professor emeritus of political science at Southern Illinois University.

Reviews

Turley is a leading scholar on Vietnamese politics, and he has updated his classic account of the Second Indochina War to reflect not only the latest scholarship and memoirs but also the perspective gained from more than thirty years of peace. There is never a 'last word' on a complex event, but for scholars, veterans, and anyone else who wants to understand the war in its context, this excellent and judicious book is the place to start. I look forward to using it in class.
*Brantly Womack, University of Virginia*

By viewing events almost as closely from Hanoi and Saigon as from Washington, Professor Turley spares us the rampant self-absorption so characteristic of most American accounts of the war. For younger generations wondering 'Why Vietnam?' this book is the best place to start seeking answers.
*David G. Marr, Australian National University*

This new edition, buttressed by twenty years of new scholarship, is even more satisfying than the original impressive book. The author's lucid prose and keen analytic bent give the work a distinctive tone and penetration, and his mastery of Vietnamese-language material allows for a balance and depth not found in other surveys.
*David Hunt, University of Massachusetts–Boston*

Mandatory reading for everyone concerned with any of the Indochina states. Turley elegantly and vividly provides a comprehensive overview of the war, perceptive analysis of calculations at the top in Hanoi and Washington leading to the war's end, and compelling details of the prolonged and complex disputes within the Vietnamese communist leadership and followers and among Vietnamese, Chinese, Lao, and Cambodian actors.
*Jeffrey Race, author of War Comes to Long An*