The Vietnam War: A Comprehensive Look at a Tragic Conflict

Edward Ford: Great read gave more insight into the DVD series. Very good resource for anyone wanting to understand what happened during that conflict.

United States on Jan 06, 2024

MK: Normal book - no issues

United States on Dec 13, 2023

Akshay: There are a lot of books on the war in Vietnam, both technical and illustrative, but this one stands out for its value in combining both the above aspects and its social implications to the wider society in the USA & Vietnam for decades.

I first came across the author after watching the documentary on the war covered in the book, but somehow I feel this book is more comprehensive with its visual representations and the power of written words to connect with emotions. If you are looking to understand battles, this is not the book to go to, but it gives a clear understanding of how the US got sucked deeper into a hellhole of its own making and creating war-scarred societies in both the countries.

Plus, the quality of the book is terrific, the pages are of the highest quality and the pictures tell a thousand stories with detailed explanations written alongside. A must read to understand the Vietnam war and the hollow silos it created in the minds of generations to never recover from its unfathomable traumas.

India on Dec 11, 2023

Larry Langgard: I’ve watched the documentary three times, and it is excellent in every way. But reading the book, I still learned a great deal. I have the hardcover, but I borrowed the Kindle version while I was away for the winter, and the Kindle version is very good.

Canada on Oct 29, 2023

Leonard S.: Good synopsis.

United States on Sep 29, 2023

Dr. Rigoberto Ortiz Treviño: Me gustó mucho su cronología y claridad

Mexico on Apr 04, 2023

Funkadoodlebingbong: All wars are a tragedy and the American war in Vietnam encapsulated the misery and pointlessness of all of those wars.

United Kingdom on Feb 27, 2023

Thistle: History like I had never read before. I had always wondered, upon reading many other history books cramming with kings and rulers of all kinds, dates, political events, stadistics, battles and so on, what the ordinary life at times of war was for ordinary people ( both soldiers in the battlefield and civilians of all kinds) and how they dealt with the death, horrors and misery brought about by all wars. Well, Geoffrey C. Ward does exactly that: he, in a wisely interwoven chronological depiction of events, takes you all along from the highest political decision makers in their safe and comfortable desks to the more realistic down-to-earth commanding officers in the battlefield, the VCs and GIs struggling ( and dying) in the mud of impenetrable jungles, and the exposed civilian population, mostly poor peasants in a poor godforsaken country, all of them ( save for the first) victims of a monstruous state of things which, at times, seems to have a mind of its own and go its own way out of control. One of those books hard to put down every time you turn over each and everyone of its leaves and one of those books which, if you ever or still had any, clears all doubts as to the true evil...

Spain on Aug 08, 2022

Albert G. Smith Jr.: I watched the PBS series, and bought the dvd set to have the ability to watch it always, not being reliant on being able to find it on some medium that might not offer it. I also bought this book, because I was enthralled by the great still photography during the series. I was a fan of photo journalists the way many were fans of sports figures. I knew many of these photos, the subject, the photographer, the stories behind the shots. I have many books from many of these shooters, but bought this book to have a single volume with this great work.

I was happy to see virtually every shot from the series in this very thick book. I was disappointed however, and enough so to reduce the overall rating by one star, to see the well captioned photos do not include the photographer's name with the photo. This would have been so simple. No, to see who the photographer was requires you to go to the back of the book and look for the page number (and many pages are not numbered), then look for the shooter's name. Making this even less efficient, pages that have more than one photo make it hard to determine which name in the back of the book goes with which photo... the photos are not...

United States on Sep 30, 2017

M Tucker: With this book Geoffrey Ward and Ken Burns have presented a very balanced account of America’s Vietnam War, but it is much more than that. The story begins with the French colonization of Vietnam in the 1850s and ends with the fall of Saigon in April of 1975. It actually ends with an examination of how the war is remembered in both the US and in Vietnam. Very well written, liberally adorned with stunning photographs, this large volume is both a deep sweeping coverage of the First and Second Indochina Wars and a beautifully produced piece of art. And, once the First Indochina War concludes, the story incorporates the personal stories of some of those directly involved. We hear from Americans and Vietnamese, civilians and soldiers, supporters and detractors, those from the winning side and those from the losing side. It really is the product of years of research and interviews, stunning to contemplate and a joy to read.

In some respects the book gives a better account of the developing history than the film it is a “companion” to. The reader will get a much better understanding of the changing Vietnamese government as the French desperately attempted to establish some...

United States on Sep 26, 2017