Showing results by author "Robert K. Brigham" in All Categories

Not since the Civil War had the American national consciousness been as strained as it was by the conflict in Southeast Asia. Indeed, the controversies that the Vietnam War spurred on the home front are more familiar to many Americans than the policies and motives that guided the conflict. The History of the Vietnam War fills that gap. From a distance of 50 years, you will reexamine the war and its lessons. Throughout, Prof. Brigham sheds light on the United States and its place in the world today.

The American war in Vietnam was concluded in 1973 after eight years of fighting, bloodshed, and loss. Yet the terms of the truce that ended the war were effectively identical to what had been offered to the Nixon administration four years earlier. Those four years cost America and Vietnam thousands of lives and billions of dollars, and they were the direct result of the supposed master plan of the most important voice in American foreign policy: Henry Kissinger. 

Through vivid accounts and insightful analysis, Prof. Brigham shows you that America’s ascent into world leadership was neither preordained nor accidental. Rather, from its very beginnings, American foreign policy has been central to the country’s national identity. While the Founding Fathers used foreign relations to secure the young republic’s political experiment, subsequent leaders have consistently wielded American power to ensure the country’s prosperity and security.