Nearly half a century after the end of the Vietnam War, one of the most relevant questions remains: how did we wind up there in the first place? Using newly available documents from both American and Vietnamese archives, Michael Hunt reinterprets the values, choices, misconceptions, and miscalculations that shaped the long process of American intervention in Southeast Asia.

"Immensely valuable. Like the war itself, [this book] offers no easy answers—and no simple moral judgments."—Washington Post