Introduction : the Vietnam War : a look back, a look ahead ; Vietnam and its wars : a historical overview of U.S. involvement / William Head -- The global dimensions and legacies of a brushfire war / Marc Jason Gilbert --The Johnson administration's conduct of limited war in Vietnam / George C. Herring -- From the Tonkin Gulf to the Persian Gulf : the devolution of the Senate's role in war making / Caroline F. Ziemke -- China and the revisionist thesis / John W. Garver -- Bombing our way back home : the commando hunt and menu campaigns of 1969-1973 / Earl H. Tilford, Jr. -- Of demons, storms, and thunder : a preliminary look at Vietnam's impact on the Persian Gulf air campaign / Mark Clodfelter -- North Vietnamese air defenses during the Vietnam War / Douglas Pike -- If at first you don't succeed, try to rewrite history : revisionism and the Vietnam War / John M. Gates. (cont.) Everything is perfect and getting better : the myths and measures of the American ground war in Indochina, 1965-1968 / Larry E. Cable -- The lessons and ghosts of Vietnam / Lorenzo M. Crowell -- Reflections on the Vietnam War : the views of a Vietnamese on Vietnamese-American misconceptions / Bui Diem.