ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book focuses on all of Indochina and its struggle for independence. It provides more balance so that many Indochinese voices can be heard. The book analyzes the Vietnamese struggles for independence from the earliest stages of French colonialism in the 1850s, through US interventionism beginning in 1946, and through the postwar years from 1975 up to the present. It also provides a broad and inclusive overview of Cambodia's historical development and also presents a general picture of early Laotian history continuing through the colonial and postwar struggles for independence. The book shows how the Rambo-type symbolic and mythic rewriting of history fulfills deep psychological needs and contributes to the evasion of the lessons of the war. It considers both a personal and historical account of the experience of the war from the perspective of US veterans.
