"Like the resistable rise of Adolf Hitler there was nothing inevitable about our engagement in a war in Vietnam, in 'a wrong place at a wrong time.' For this war to happen, this costliest and most protracted of all our wars, hundreds of crucial decisions had to be made. Eisenhower decided not to be a signatory to the Geneva Peace Conference of 1954. Kennedy decided to send troops. Congress, on the basis of informatioon which later proved to be false, hastily passed the Tonkin Gulf Authorization. When you read and study Vietnam: The Definitive Documentation of Human Decisions you will be amazed at the amount of manpower, brain power, imagination, personal involvement and adventurousness of the decision makers that had to underlay all the documents presented in this book. One cannot study the roots of the Vietnam War nor the course of events once we were committed to it without having at hand this massive work which documents it all" --Jacket flap.