The Vietnam War

The Vietnam War

An Intimate History

Summary


**The New York Times Bestseller**
**The book of the landmark documentary, The Vietnam War, by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick**

The definitive work on the Vietnam War, the conflict that came to define a generation, told from all sides by those who were there.

More than forty years after the Vietnam War ended, its legacy continues to fascinate, horrify and inform us. As the first war to be fought in front of TV cameras and beamed around the world, it has been immortalised on film and on the page, and forever changed the way we think about war.

Drawing on hundreds of brand new interviews, Ken Burns and Geoffrey C. Ward have created the definitive work on Vietnam. It is the first book to show us the war from every perspective: from idealistic US Marines and the families they left behind to the Vietnamese civilians, both North and South, whose homeland was changed for ever; politicians, POWs and anti-war protesters; and the photographers and journalists who risked their lives to tell the truth. The book sends us into the grit and chaos of combat, while also expertly outlining the complex chain of political events that led America to Vietnam.

Beautifully written, this essential work tells the full story without taking sides and reminds us that there is no single truth in war. It is set to redefine our understanding of a brutal conflict, to launch provocative new debates and to shed fresh light on the price paid in ‘blood and bone’ by Vietnamese and Americans alike.

Reviews

  • Stunning ... the best single-volume history of the war
    Mark Bowden, bestselling author of BLACK HAWK DOWN

About the authors

Geoffrey C. Ward

GEOFFREY C. WARD is the author of nineteen books, including A First-Class Temperament: The Emergence of Franklin Roosevelt, which won the NBCC Award, the Francis Parkman Prize and was a finalist for the Pulitzer.
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Ken Burns

KEN BURNS is the legendary producer and director of numerous film series. His landmark film The Civil War was the highest-rated series in the history of American public television. His work has won numerous prizes, including the Emmy and Peabody Awards, and a nomination for an Academy Award.
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