Vietnam and the Transformation of American Life

Acknowledgements vi

Introduction: Intersection: The Vietnam War and the Social and Political Movements of the 1960s 1

Part I The Vietnam War

1 Containment, Liberalism, and Vietnam: Background to the American War 13

2 Why (Not) Vietnam? The Vietnamese, the French, and the Americans to 1960 22

3 Destroying the Country to Save It: The American War on Vietnam, 1960-1968 61

4 The Empire Strikes Back: The Vietnam War from 1968 to 1975 101

Part II The Movements of the 1960s

5 “Many Deeds of War”: Hope and Anguish in the 1960s 139

6 Love Me, I’m a Liberal: The Politics of 1960s and Vietnam 150

7 The Struggles at Home: Civil Rights and Women’s Liberation 191

8 “One, Two, Three, What Are We Fightin’ For?” Cultural Politics in the Vietnam Era 234

Notes 252

Bibliography 264

Index 270