"Since the United States "discovered" Vietnam in the 1960s and subsequently left that tortured land in defeat, hundreds of books and films and plays have been written or produced as we struggle to come to some understanding of what we did and who we fought. Only now, in the new millennium, are we beginning to approach some sort of closure.".

"This study by Arthur J. Dommen sets the Indochina wars - French and American - in perspective as no book that has come before. He summarizes the history of the peninsula from the Vietnamese War of Independence from China from 930 to 939 through the first French military actions in 1858, when the struggle of the peoples of Indochina with Western powers began.".

"This is a book for anyone who wants to understand the complex political history of Indochina and the people who fought against the United States and won."--BOOK JACKET.