Book Review: 'The Vietnam War: An Intimate History'
(C) 2017 Alfred A. Knopf Books; Cover art by Public Broadcasting Service On September 5, 2017, almost two weeks before The Vietnam War: A Film by Ken Burns & Lynn Novick premiered on TV's Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), Alfred A. Knopf published the companion book, The Vietnam War: An Intimate History. Co-written by the series' writer, Geoffrey C. Ward, and producer-director Ken Burns, this 640-page volume brings the tragedy of the Vietnam War back to life on the printed page with the same sense of historical sweep as the 10-part documentary it complements. The Vietnam War was more than a Cold War-era clash of arms fought mainly by the U.S. and its South Vietnamese allies against the Communist-led government of North Vietnam and its guerrilla allies of the National Liberation Front - known by Washington and Saigon as the Viet Cong - in the South. It was that, of course, but the war was also the most divisive event in American history since the Civil War of the m