While most historians of the Vietnam War focus on the origins of
U.S. involvement and the Americanization of the conflict, Lien-Hang
T. Nguyen examines the international context in which North
Vietnamese leaders pursued the war and American intervention ended.
This riveting narrative takes the reader from the marshy swamps of
the Mekong Delta to the bomb-saturated Red River Delta, from the
corridors of power in Hanoi and Saigon to the Nixon White House,
and from the peace negotiations in Paris to high-level meetings in
Beijing and Moscow, all to reveal that peace never had a chance in
Vietnam.
Hanoi's War renders transparent the internal workings of
America's most elusive enemy during the Cold War and shows that the
war fought during the peace negotiations was bloodier and much more
wide ranging than it had been previously. Using never-before-seen
archival materials from the Vietnam Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as
well as materials from other archives around the world, Nguyen
explores the politics of war-making and peace-making not only from
the North Vietnamese perspective but also from that of South
Vietnam, the Soviet Union, China, and the United States, presenting
a uniquely international portrait.