The conflict in Vietnam continues to attract enormous attention as one of the most divisive and traumatic events of the post-1945 period. For too long the issues have tended to revolve almost exclusively around American culpability, and this book is an attempt, using a wide range of contributors, to explain the wider meaning and effects of the Vietnam conflict. Providing comparative assessments of North and South Vietnam, China, the Soviet Union, Australia and the U.S., as well as looking at the anti-war movement and the origins and international response to the war, these essays will give a greater depth to an understanding of the war.