Includes bibliographical references and index. Chronicles American involvement in Vietnam, from the 1950s through the 1970s, documenting strategic and tactical failures and reviewing the charges made against the American conduct of the war.

The roots of involvement -- The big-unit war -- The failure of attrition and pacification -- Disengagement -- The travail of Vietnamization -- Vietnamization on trial: the collapse of South Vietnam -- American military tactics and the law of war -- Terrorism, counterinsurgency and genocide -- Atrocities: fiction and fact -- The punishment of atrocities and war crimes -- The bombing of North Vietnam -- Epilogue : The legacy of Vietnam.