Vietnam and the United States

"If there is an overall theme to this study, it relates to the American response to the Vietnamese Communist revolution, or more specifically, to the August Revolution, which in 1945 brought Ho Chi Minh and his movement to prominence and power. Throughout the several phases of U.S. involvement - the support of the French war effort, the fostering of an independent South Vietnam, the years of intense warfare, and the postwar hostility - the American opposition to the Vietnamese revolution has been unrelenting. How a Communist revolution in such a relatively obscure and economically backward county came to be perceived as a challenge to U.S. national security can be answered in part, but enough uncertainty remains that it continues to be an intriguing question and one with long-range implications for U.S. foreign policy"--Preface.