Vietnam Documents: American and Vietnamese Views

   The documents collected here illustrate the differing perceptions and beliefs that led the United States and Vietnam to fight a war that claimed more than two million lives.    In selecting the contents of each chapter, the author has attempted to provided a balance so the reader can experience directly these conflicting points of view.
    Contained here are the words of American presidents and Communist theoreticians, antiwar activists and Vietnamese allies of the United States. By juxtaposing these contradictory views, it is hoped to develop a "sociology of knowledge" perspective—to create a prism that clarifies our perception of the reality of the conflict.
   After all has been said and done, wars are themselves irrational, and a sociology of knowledge perspective is perhaps the only hope of explaining their origins and histories. This is particularly so for the Vietnam War, since it remains controversial nearly two decades after the peace treaty formally ending it was signed.