Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War: A Political, Social, and Military History

The Vietnam War was the defining event of recent U.S. history, a tragic struggle that cost the lives of 58,000 Americans and 970,000 Vietnamese, and that is still being debated today. The three-volume Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War, edited by Spencer Tucker, has been hailed as the most comprehensive reference work on that watershed event. Now Tucker has produced an abridged one-volume edition, a miracle of concision that includes virtually all the entries found in the parent volume, in condensed form. Here are more than 900 alphabetically arranged entries--plus 39 primary source documents--that illuminate every aspect of the Vietnam War. There are entries on Buddhists, defoliation, post traumatic stress disorder, the fall of Ngo Dinh Diem, and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, to name just a few. The volume covers military and domestic fronts; air, land, and sea campaigns and battles; weapons, strategies, and tactics; key Vietnamese and American figures; the anti-war movement and international repercussions of the war; and the impact of the war on film, art, literature, and society. The volume also includes important background information, such as the developments that lead to the US involvement in the war as well as postwar Vietnamese history to the present. A highlight of the book is Tucker's extensive coverage of both American and Vietnamese perspectives, and he has incorporated numerous entries by Vietnamese contributors. The three-volume Encyclopedia is the finest source of information available on the Vietnam War. Now, with the one-volume Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War, everyone can own the definitive reference work on the pivotal event of modern American history.