Could the United States have won the Vietnam War if it had been able to cut off the Viet Cong from their North Vietnamese support by severing the Ho Chi Minh Trail? Acclaimed historian John Prados tackles this crucial question in an unprecedented work of historical scholarship.

Built as a vital gateway inside a divided nation, the Ho Chi Minh Trail embodied the dreams and aspirations of an entire people. As the North Vietnamese struggled to open and sustain The Trail, the American and South Vietnamese forces struggled to close it - a life-and-death contest that tells the intricate and dramatic story of the Vietnam War in microcosm.

Aided by formerly secret government documents and previously unavailable oral histories, memoirs, and interviews, Prados explores all sides of the conflict, providing details of the action in Hanoi and North Vietnam and avoiding the narrowly focused battle histories, atomized individual accounts, and overly generalized vision that have dominated previous histories.

Prados considers each of the multiple perspectives that shaped the conflict: the struggle of the Vietnamese soldiers in the jungles, the heroism of American troops, the highly influential antiwar protests of the period, the intricate machinations of the generals and diplomats, and the lingering impact on the people and governments of neighboring Laos and Cambodia.