AllMovie

This program chronicles the history of American involvement in warfare during the 20th century. Starting with the Spanish American War and ending with the Gulf War, the United States participated in a century of turmoil, marked by two world wars. Wars took a huge toll in lives and suffering in a steady course of conflict, punctuated by a few years of peace. The Time Life series evaluates the causes and costs of warfare in the last century. After the horrors of World War II, America settled into a time of relative calm and prosperity, while still fighting against the specter of communism in the Cold War's first conflict in Korea. But it was Vietnam that was a watershed for America, causing great changes in American foreign policy as well as a social revolution at home. The program traces the development of the war, from first advisors sent to Vietnam during the Eisenhower administration to the withdrawal of troops under President Johnson. Archival film clips, photographs, news accounts, interviews, and scholarly commentary tell the story of the war that changed a generation -- and a generation that changed a war.