Like the commonly praised unique, this new version is compact, basically written, and obtainable to the nonspecialist. First, the booklet chronicles and analyzes the twenty-year fight to take care of South Vietnamese independence. Joes tells the tale with a sympathetic specialize in South Viet Nam and is very severe of U.S. army technique and strategies in struggling with this battle. He claims that the autumn of South Viet Nam was once no longer inevitable, that an abrupt and public termination of U.S. relief provoked a challenge of self assurance within South Viet Nam that resulted in the debacle. scholars and students of army experiences, South East Asia, U.S. international coverage, or the overall reader drawn to this attention-grabbing interval in twentieth century historical past, will locate this re-creation to be worthy reading.

After discussing the critical American errors within the clash, Joes outlines a manageable substitute technique that might have kept South Viet Nam whereas minimizing U.S. involvement and casualties. He files the large sacrifices made by means of the South Vietnamese allies, who in share to inhabitants suffered 40 instances the casualties the americans did. He concludes via linking the ultimate conquest of South Viet Nam to an elevated point of Soviet adventurism which ended in the invasion of Afghanistan, the U.S. army build-up lower than Presidents Carter and Reagan, and the eventual cave in of the USSR. The complex elements serious about the warfare are right here provided in a consolidated, goal shape, allowing the reader to think about the results of U.S. stories in South Viet Nam for destiny coverage in different international areas.