THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERHis masterpieceAntony Beevor, SpectatorA masterful performanceSunday TimesBy far the best book on the Vietnam WarGerald Degroot, The Times, Book of the YearVietnam became the Western worlds most divisive modern conflict, precipitating a battlefield humiliation for France in 1954, then a vastly greater one for the United States in 1975. Max Hastings has spent the past three years interviewing scores of participants on both sides, as well as researching a multitude of American and Vietnamese documents and memoirs, to create an epic narrative of an epic struggle. He portrays the set pieces of Dienbienphu, the Tet offensive, the air blitz of North Vietnam, and less familiar battles such as the bloodbath at Daido, where a US Marine battalion was almost wiped out, together with extraordinary recollections of Ho Chi Minhs warriors. Here are the vivid realities of strife amid jungle and paddies that killed 2 million people.Many writers treat the war as a