DIRTY WARS: The French in Indochina and Algeria: While much has been written about the aftereffects of the war in Vietnam on American society, the conflicts there were but one act in a much larger global drama. Editor Michael Keating examines how France’s military failures at Dien Bien Phu became a catalyst of the Algerian War for Independence. In a sidebar, historian Lady Borton describes the Vietminh agitprop program aimed at “re-educating“ North Africans serving in the French forces. [on the cover]

FROM ANTICOLONIALISM TO ANTICOMMUNISM: The Genesis of the American War in Vietnam: Marc Leepson examines the changes in American policy and worldview that caused us to betray our staunch anti-colonial principles in the name of stemming the tide of communism.

ANGEL FIRE: A New Status, A New Mission: Many Vietnam veterans have visited the iconic Angel Fire chapel in New Mexico’s Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Loana Hoylman provides an update on the memorial—and on plans to build a Vietnam veterans cemetery on its grounds.

42,000 Native Americans—one in eight—served in Vietnam, the highest per capita rate of any ethnic group in the United States. In this issue, we examine both the service and struggles of American Indian veterans:

In FORTUNATE SONS: American Indian Troops in Vietnam, Marine veteran Delphine Red Shirt highlights the service of three American Indians who served in Vietnam and the effects of that service on their lives after.

Longtime VVA writer Bill Triplett’s FORGING A VISION: The National Native American Veterans Memorial provides an update on the memorial under the auspices of the National Museum of the American Indian.

In CHALLENGES FACING AMERICAN INDIAN VETERANS: An Entanglement of Agencies, VVA’s Robert Primeaux discusses how the huge number of tribes, hundreds of languages, and vastly different mores and cultural expectations create difficulties in Native American outreach.

QUI NHON CHRISTMAS 1967: Santa’s Misadventure: British nurse Anne Watts graces the pages of The VVA Veteran once agin; this time with a wartime Christmas story of good intentions gone wrong.