Ho

In exploring the life and career of Ho Chi Minh, Pulitzer Prize-winning author David Halberstam provides a window into traditions and culture that influenced the American war in Vietnam, while highlighting the importance of nationalism in determining the war's outcome.

David Halberstam (1934-2007) was the author of 20 books, the last 14 of which have been national best-sellers. His most recent book, The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War, is about the Chinese entry into the Korean War. He was the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for his reporting in Vietnam and was a member of the elective Society of American Historians.

Much has happened to our understanding of Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam's Communist Party, and the war in the thirty-six years that elapsed between the first publication and this new edition. This is an interesting read to catch the flavor of the 1960s. The Historian A fine and vividly-drawn sketch of Ho Chi Minh's life-long struggle for Vietnamese independence through political mobilization, diplomacy, and warfare. Anyone who wonders why the French and the American armed forces with their overwhelming military superiority could not defeat the Vietnamese resistance should read this book. -- Frances FitzGerald, author of Fire in the Lake: The Vietnamese and the Americans in Vietnam