By David Lamb

When Vietnam War correspondent David Lamb returned to the country in 1997, he thought the U.S. involvement in the conflict would remain a sore subject among the Vietnamese. Despite the horror of the war and the hardship that followed, though, people who were once considered the enemy "treated me as an honored guest," writes Lamb.

Part political history, part memoir, Vietnam, Now has a simple thesis: It's time for the U.S. to reach a similar sense of closure. At times Lamb seems too eager to embrace the optimist's viewpoint and makes generalizations about the Vietnamese based on limited information. But the eloquently told stories of the vets (both Vietnamese and American) expats and widows he meets (others are profiled in Vietnam Passage: Journeys from War to Peace, a documentary narrated by Lamb that airs on PBS May 23) have an emotional resonance that drives home his point. As one elderly Vietnamese villager tells Lamb before giving him a farewell hug, "The war's past now. It belonged to my generation, not my sons'." (Public Affairs, $26)

Bottom Line: Eye-opening look at the other side