The Introduction argues that war’s danger, nuances, complexity, and impact on humanity demand further study, despite our seeming reluctance to do so. It contends that war is rife with contradictions which call out for further examination. For example, war evokes humanity’s worst traits, including vengeance, treachery, and hatred, and it has claimed millions of lives, spawned atrocities, and caused massive destruction. Yet, war has also inspired courage, honor, sacrifice, and loyalty, deposed tyrants, led to larger, more peaceful civilizations, and produced remarkable innovations that protect and preserve life. The introduction concludes by recommending that war’s repulsiveness and complexity should inspire, not deter, scholarly attention, for as with any dangerous phenomenon, understanding war’s nature is the best way to gain enough control over it to prevent wars and to diminish their hazards and prevalence.

Chapter 1 examines war’s place in a universal paradigm of order and chaos, balance and imbalance; explores war’s origins and relationship to human nature; and concludes by formally defining war. After relating Aristotle’s “four causes” model (material, formal, efficient, and final) to war as an organizing concept, the chapter articulates war’s alignment within a universal theme of balance and characterizes war as an amalgam of twenty “dialectics,” including order-chaos and creation-destruction. It highlights how political imbalances can spark war and how dialectical disparities undermine war theory and strategy. Next, the chapter marshals multidisciplinary evidence to argue that evolutionary processes have imbued humanity with warlike and peaceful attributes and that war ultimately reflects human choices arising from various motives including Thucydides’s fear, honor, and interest. Finally, the chapter concludes by defining war as the nexus of a new trinity – humanity, politics, and combat – evaluating the boundaries between war and peace, and taking a first look at the question of war’s inevitability as a human activity.

Chapter V applies concepts from preceding chapters to investigate the future character of war and war’s future as a human activity. The chapter begins by exploring the challenge of future forecasting and strategy development, which is compounded by the accumulation of human and environmental effects that invalidate assumptions. The chapter asserts that forecasting may be improved by considering three sets of factors: history and trends, current circumstances, and theory. Next, it explores political, technological, and doctrinal developments that could impact war’s future character, like artificial intelligence and nanotechnology, and provides strategic advice for both high and low capacity groups. The chapter’s latter half uses the history-current circumstances-theory model to assess the feasibility and desirability of ending war forever. Using evidence from archaeology, anthropology, history, trends, and war and peace theories, the chapter concludes that war’s existence is inextricably linked to humanity, i.e., eliminating either eliminates both. It wraps up by offering practical suggestions for minimizing the potential for war.

It is common to argue that the communist-led Democratic Republic of Vietnam, following the theory of "people's war," defeated the French in the First Indochina War. This argument is correct everywhere except for southern Vietnam. France's slow and systematic implementation of what it called "pacification," in concert with allied self-defense and paramilitary forces, slowly brought increasing parts of the Mekong Delta under the control of France and its allies. In reaction, The Resistance pursued a four-prong strategy: 1) they strengthened the communist core of the Resistance by recruiting cadres, purging "unreliable" non-communists, and working to capture control of the Resistance at all levels; 2) they reached out to potential allies like the Khmer, Chinese, Buddhists, and Catholics; 3) they practiced outreach towards rivals and enemies through proselytization (Địch vận); 4) they strengthened Resistance ability to engage in a sophisticated repertoire of violence ranging from intimidation to conventional warfare. Despite this sound strategy, the Resistance precipitously shifted to conventional warfare. The French-led forces took advantage of this costly mistake. France's commission of war crimes in keeping food from the population, its access to increased American funding after 1949, and contingent factors also contributed to Resistance failure.

In the standard arguments about the First Indochina War, 1945–54, known in Vietnam today as the Resistance War against the French, a resolute, initially outmatched, and broad-based Vietnamese revolutionary nationalist Resistance fights against a powerful French military, ultimately triumphing against great odds. This is usually presented as a very ‘northern’ story. In contrast, this book centers on the South, with its own particular history, where the communist-led Resistance failed to win. Why? One reason: this was both a civil war involving Vietnamese (and Khmer) and a war pitting Vietnamese against the French. It was not, in other words, a simple two-sided conflict. To understand this complexity and its dynamics, this chapter examines in depth the issues of sovereignty, institutions (and their collapse), and violence, as this discussion helps to frame the book as a whole.

Chapter Four, ‘On Leave’, explores tourism in Cairo, Alexandria and London. The chapter begins with the Egyptian cities to explore how the men responded to their expectations of an ‘ancient’ space that was brought to life by its tourist infrastructure: from the perceived ‘sideshow’ of the Middle East, expressions of racism towards the Egyptian people and the clash of ancient and modern. At the same time, though, the men exploited their newfound status as soldiers to access elite spaces and enjoy the cities’ pleasures. The chapter then turns to London. Coming ‘home’ to the metropolis called into question the colonial troops’ relationship to the British Empire – this was not straightforward tourism but had crucial stakes for identity, through better understandings of Britain and their place within it. The chapter concludes by comparing representations of sexual activity while on leave.

In the standard narratives of modern Vietnamese history, France's agreement to make Vietnam "independent" in 1949 within the framework of a new entity, the French Union, is seen as a sham. Instead, the DRV's military victory over France at Điện Biên Phủ in 1954, immediately followed by negotiations in Geneva, marks the key point of rupture: the collapse of the French empire in Indochina and the beginning of a new era of contested sovereignty in which two Vietnamese states vied for control of one Vietnam. In this view, the non-communist State of Vietnam (1949-1955) is treated as an ersatz state, a product of French machinations. This chapter contests this view. The creation of a new Vietnamese state, despite all its flaws, inaugurated the transition of sovereignty from the French colonial state to its new Vietnamese successor. The chapter shows the relevance of the precolonial heritage to decolonization. It looks at the "unmaking" or "disassemblage" of the French colonial state and its "reassemblage" into the new Vietnamese state. It examines issues of ethnicity and citizenship.

The history of the Mekong Delta, late 1700s to 1945, in Vietnam. Before late seventeenth century, this area was a lightly settled region far from the centers of Cambodian or Vietnamese power. The chapter sketches out the character of this region over time. It examines the emerging conflicts between Khmer, already settled in this area, and new settlers. The chapter argues that this conflict was not resolved when France, from late 1850s onwards, conquered these territories. In fact, the Khmer-Vietnamese conflict over sovereignty was simply put in abeyance. The chapter also sketches out the Mekong Delta by 1945: its different populations, especially Vietnamese, Chinese, and Khmer; some comments on religion as well. It examines the economic dislocations up to 1945 that shaped the delta during the First Indochina War.

By 1947, "normal" state and village institutions had either collapsed or were destroyed. Food insecurity dramatically increased, and parts of the delta experienced acute hunger. Violence marked the delta. In this situation of radical uncertainty, people felt more vulnerable as outside forces reshaped local lives. Many fled short distances, or out of rural areas to towns and cities. Perhaps a half a million fled the delta altogether to find security. This chapter gives an overview of the process, and provides vignettes of individual experiences.

Chapter Six, ‘On the Wards’, shifts to hospitals. Hospitals were sites of colonial entanglement in the ‘in-between’ zones bestriding active combat and civilian life. Despite the apparent limitations of the space, where men were rendered immobile by the injury or illness, hospitals facilitated encounters, particularly between patients and nurses. For nurses in these spaces, new responsibilities were expected, as chaperones of racial, national and sexual boundaries. Using not only the men’s letters and diaries but those of the women who nursed them – from Britain and the dominions – the politics of caring for colonial troops, white and of colour, are examined. Complex responses to nursing by both the men and the women surpassed existing maternal motifs of caregiving. The threat of racial mixing placed new limits on ‘care’ but there were complicated individual reactions to the new and intimate contact between white women and men of colour: neglect, anxiety, apathy, curiosity and even desire.