I’ve been looking forward to the upcoming PBS series on The Vietnam War, which I expect to be another in Ken Burns’ consistently outstanding series. I was in high school and college in the late 60s and early 70s, I still don’t understand the why of this war and I get angry when I consider the incredible loss of life and the way the country of Vietnam was changed forever. So I was very pleased to receive an advance copy of the companion book in exchange for my honest review (thanks to Knopf Doubleday and NetGalley).

In a nutshell, the book exceeded my high expectations. It is gorgeous (and BIG. And LONG. And THOROUGH). It provides an outstanding history of the war, like many other books. What really sets it apart is the way it presents more than the U.S. perspective, reminding us that this was didn’t just affect US.

The photographs are amazing. And, like some of the text, occasionally upsetting. But this book belongs in every library and will be appreciated by anyone interested in Military History in general or Vietnam in particular. If I could give it six stars, I would.