Was the Vietnam War a tragic mistake? Or was it, as President Ronald Reagan would claim, "a noble cause"?

In an enthralling book, Newbery Medalist Russell Freedman provides a succinct account of perhaps the most puzzling and contentious of America s wars. Describing how a superpower caught up in Cold War politics became increasingly enmeshed in a conflict over 8,000 miles away, he then explainswhy twenty years later an exit was so difficult. In words and photographs he chronicles the unfolding events in Vietnam and at home as increasing numbers of young men were sent into the jungles to fight.

After assessing the catastrophic damage, Freedman concludes the book with a hopeful epilogue on Vietnam today.

A glossary, source notes, bibliography and index are included.