This work is a cultural history of the Vietnam War and its continuing impact upon contemporary American society. The author presents an investigation of how myths about the war evolved and why people depend on them to answer the confusing questions that have become the legacy of the war.

H. Bruce Franklin is the John Cotton Dana Professor of English and American Studies at Rutgers University in Newark. Among his books are M.I.A. or Myth-making in America and War Stars: The Superweapon and the American Imagination.