Ho Chi Minh's revolutionary army forms in the closing days of World War II, and this thirteen-episode series follows the conflict it eventually ignites all the way to the fall of Saigon in 1975. Written by CNN correspondent Peter Arnett, the series draws on archival footage shot by both American and North Vietnamese cameras, cut together with interviews spanning infantry soldiers, generals, and diplomats from both sides of the war. Originally produced as a 26-part Canadian television series before being consolidated into these thirteen hour-long episodes for American syndication, it moves chronologically through French colonial rule, the escalating American commitment under Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon, and the war's slow collapse into stalemate and withdrawal. Rather than assigning blame to any single administration or foreign power, the series treats the war as a gradual slide, one decision compounding the last, until the human and political costs became irreversible. The series won a National Education Association award for best world documentary.