Stanley Karnow's Vietnam: A History is a companion, though standalone, book to a PBS documentary series. The book is mostly about the behind the scene politics starting from before the French became involved to after North Vietnam conquered the South. Karnow was a newspaper correspondent and was in Vietnam from 1969 to 1974 so he developed contacts and friendships with many people North and South.

It's an interesting perspective. As a major person is introduced he goes into historical background. He covers what different people were thinking and does a lot of 20-20 hindsight about how the French, the Americans, the North Vietnamese, the South Vietnamese could have done things differently and achieve a peaceful solution if only they had had a better understanding of the other side. At times it's a bit melodramatic about what various people are doing because they are focused on their thing not on the North vs South conflict.

I read almost half the book. In the end I wanted a more military history look at the Vietnam War and from what I was reading this book was not going to be it. Definitely good history (though I'm not sure how impartial it is, seems to have too many personal anecdotes) but I wasn't willing to spend another couple of months reading the rest of it.