Many Americans fought and died in Vietnam in a war that almost no one understood and many protested. In this book, the roots of the war are explored, stretching back thousands of years before America joined the battle. It is necessary to look at these roots to understand what happened then during the war. Two thousand years ago, to be exact, China invaded Vietnam for the first time. For centuries the Chinese and Vietnamese competed for control of the territory. During the brief periods of freedom from the Chinese, the Vietnamese often fought among themselves to see who would be able to rule that part of Indochina. When the Vietnamese were finally free from Chinese rule and enjoyed some neutrality among themselves, the French came to take over the nation as a colony for nearly a century. During World War II, the Japanese conquered Vietnam and took it from the French for four years. Upon the return of France, at the end of the war, a part of the Vietnamese people rebelled to free themselves from the foreign rulers. The Franco-Vietnamese War ended in 1954 with the country divided. During this period, the United States became increasingly involved in the war, until the Americans discovered that their country would be involved for the long term. Ten painful years passed before the American side of the war ended. This story is about the Two Thousand Year War in Vietnam. By looking deeply into this past, we can better understand what happened to the Vietnamese, French, and Americans who lived and died in Vietnam. The word “Vietnam” means many things to many people today. For many it means a conflict that has been given a lot of attention for eight years of American life. For others, who fought there, this involves the friendships and pain of combat, or... middle of paper... being able to fully understand what happened in Vietnam. The war in Vietnam is not simply something to glean information from. This too is a story. It was a battle between Western technology and Eastern tolerance; between two different social systems; between the New World and the Third World. Within these battles there are countless gruesome stories. The stories of political struggle, soldiers at war, and protests in the hometowns of government actions in both the United States and Vietnam. In World War II, most of the major events took place on the battlefield with thousands of soldiers and citizens witnessing it. In Vietnam, these events took place in the President's office in Washington or in Ho Chi Minh's office in Vietnam. We know a lot about what happened in Washington and little or nothing about the reflection process in the city of Hanoi in Vietnam.