Light at the End of the Tunnel

A Vietnam War Anthology

Edited by Andrew J. Rotter

Not available to order

Publication date:

16 March 2010

Length of book:

516 pages

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

ISBN-13: 9781461638896

Of all of the wars in which the U.S. has been engaged, none has been as divisive as the conflict in Vietnam. The repercussions of this unsettling episode in American history still resonate in our society. Although it ended more than 30 years ago, the Vietnam War continues to fascinate and trouble Americans.

The third edition of Light at the End of the Tunnel gives a full overview of the conflict. Starting with Ho Chi Minh's revolt against the French, editor Andrew J. Rotter takes the reader through the succeeding years as scholars, government officials, journalists, and others recount the important events in the conflict and examine issues that developed during this tumultuous time.

This book is essential reading for anyone who has an interest in understanding the Vietnam War. The readings in it will enlighten students about this turning point in the history of the United States and the world. The third edition includes greater coverage of the Vietnamese experience of the war and reflects the growing interest in understanding the war as an international event, not just a bilateral or trilateral conflict.

Chapter 1: Getting In, 1945–1952
1. Ho Chi Minh: The Untried Gamble
2. The United States, Its Allies and the Bao Dai Experiment
Chapter 2: Fighting Shy, 1953–1961
3. Dwight D. Eisenhower and Wholehearted Support of Ngo Dinh Diem
4. Geneva, 1954: The Precarious Peace
5. The CIA Comes to Vietnam
Chapter 3: Digging In, 1961–1968
6. No "Non-Essential Areas": Kennedy and Vietnam
7. The Tonkin Gulf Resolution
8. Lyndon Johnson Chooses War
9. The Tet Offensive, 1968
10. A Dissenter in the Administration
Chapter 4: Getting Out, 1968–1975
11. Nixon, Kissinger, and a Pax Americana
12. Bombing Hanoi, Mining Haiphong, and the Moscow Summit
13. Stabbed in the Back
Chapter 5: Allies and Enemies
14. Ngo Dinh Diem, the Impossible Ally
15. Ngo Dinh Diem, Modernizer
16. The Foreign Policy of North Vietnam
17. The National Liberation Front and the Land
Chapter 6: The Battlefield
18. Getting Hit
19. Feeling Cold
20. Nursing and Disillusionment
21. They Did Not Know Good From Evil
22. My Lai: The Killing Begins
Chapter 7: International Dimensions of the War
23. The Soviet Union and American Escalation
24. China and American Escalation
25. The Vietnamese and Global Revolutions
Chapter 8: Laos and Cambodia
26. The War in Laos
27. Bombing Cambodia: A Critique
28. Bombing Cambodia: A Defense
Chapter 9: Interpreting the War
29. A Clash of Cultures
30. An Opportunity for Power
31. A Defense of Freedom
32. An Act of Imperialism
33. An Assertion of Manhood
Chapter 10: The War in America
34. Working-Class War
35. Seeds of a Movement
36. Women at the Barricades, Then and Now
Chapter 11: The Legacy of War
37. Saigon: The End and the Beginning
38. Homecoming USA
39. Amerasians: A People in Between
Chapter 12: Afterword
40. Letting Go

As in the earlier editions, Andrew Rotter shows a keen understanding of the best ways to enhance classroom debate, compiling a text that is accessible, readable, and sensitive to the deep interest in Vietnam shared by today's students. In its diversity and centrality of topics, its balanced inclusion of readable, accessible and academically respected articles, and its genuine tolerance and sympathy, this text remains one of the best options available in support of Vietnam courses.