It was the longest and most controversial war in American history. Fought in a small Asian country previously unknown to the American public, the Vietnam War became a cause that divided the nation and defined the times. It was the first war on television. It created the largest antiwar movement in history, the first to bring widespread violence to the cause of peace. It took the lives of Americans on the battlefield and destroyed lives at home when a nation turned against the men it had sent to fight.

The small, divided country of Vietnam was the focus for all the conflicts and contradictions of the times. How could the army that won a world war lose to an under-armed guerrilla force? Why would our country pay for a war overseas, when we were losing the "war on poverty" at home? Why did a war fought to bring democracy to Vietnam make Americans question democracy in their own country? These were some of the issues that forever changed the way America saw itself and its place in the world.

In his riveting style, Albert Marrin explores the American experience in Vietnam through the war's political history, its day-to-day horror and heroism, and its repercussions on the world today—a world that still struggles to understand the lesson of America and Vietnam, the Elephant and the Tiger.

From the dust jacket