Publisher description: This landmark volume at last gives us a full picture from both sides of the Vietnam conflict, from Ho Chi Minh's first call for revolution to the fall of the U.S.-backed government in Siagon. Decision-makers whose words come to us in over 300 documents spanning almost 35 years. Many of these documents come from recently declassified U.S. archives. They combine to show the step-by-step process by which Franklin Roosevelt's early support for Vietnamese independence moved in succeeding administrations to support for French colonial rule, and then to our own direct armed intervention. They form a record, too, of changing North Vietnamese policy as hope of peaceful triumph faded and struggle against vast military odds became a necessity. Charged with a sense of tragic inevitability as American misconceptions compounded themselves and North Vietnamese militancy stiffened, this revelatory compliation gives eloquent answers to agonizing questions raised by one of the great turning points of modern history. Here is what really happened. And here is why.

Fifty documents, including Vietnam's declaration of independence in 1945, the final declaration of the 1954 Geneva Conference, CIA reports, US presidential addresses, anti-war leaflets, thoughts by Vietnamese and American intellectuals, and statements by the Vietnamese government and NLF. Paper edit

"The new evidence uncovers a number of behind-the-scenes plays - such as Nixon's secret nuclear alert of October 1969 - and sheds more light on Nixon's goals in Vietnam and his and Kissinger's strategies of Vietnamization, the "China card," and "triangular diplomacy." The excerpted documents also reveal significant new information about the purposes of the linebacker bombings, Nixon's manipulation of the pow issue, and the conduct of the secret negotiations in Paris - as well as other key topics, events, and issues. All of these are effectively framed by Kimball, whose introductions to each document provide historical context."

This insider’s account of CIA operations in the Vietnam War is “a major contribution to scholarship” on US counterinsurgency programs (John Prados, author of Lost Crusader). Vietnam Declassified is a detailed account of the CIA's effort to help South Vietnamese authorities win the loyalty of the Vietnamese peasantry and suppress the Viet Cong. Covering the CIA engagement from 1954 to mid-1972, it provides a thorough analysis of the agency and its partners. Retired CIA operative and intelligence consultant Thomas L. Ahern Jr. is the first to comprehensively document the CIA's role in the rural pacification of South Vietnam, drawing from secret archives to which he had unrestricted access. In addition to a chronology of operations, the book explores the assumptions, political values, and cultural outlooks of not only the CIA and other US government agencies, but also of the peasants, Viet Cong, and Saigon government forces competing for their loyalty. “This long-awaited volume, finally cleared for open publication and filled with fascinating detail, insider perspective, and controversial judgments, is a must-read for all students of the Vietnam War.” —Lewis Sorley, author of Westmoreland