In April 1975, as Saigon fell to the North Vietnamese Army, John Bissell, a former Marine officer living in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, was blinded to his television. Struggle to save his marriage, raise his sons, and live with his memories of the war in Vietnam, Bissell found himself racked with English and horror as his country has been granted a cause for which many of his friends had died[D] Opening with a gripping account of the chaotic and brutal last month of the war,The Father of All Thingsis Tom Bissell's powerful reckoning with the Vietnam War and its impact on his father, his country, and Vietnam itself. Through him we learn what it was like to grow up with a gruff but oddly tender veteran father who would wake his children in the middle of the night when the memories got too painful . Bissell also explores the many Debates about the war, from where it was wonnable to Ho Chi Minh's motivations to why America's leaders led so often. Above all, he shows how the war has continued to affect American views on foreign policy more than thirty years later. At the heart of this book is John and Tom Bissell's unforgettable journey back to Vietnam As they travel the country and talk to Vietnamese veterans, we relive the war as John Bissell experienced it, visit the site of his near-fatal waving, and hear him explain how Vietnam has shrouded him and so many of his generation[T] This is the first major book about the war by an author who grew up after the fall of Saigon. It is a fascinating, all-too-relevant work about the American characterand about war itself. It is also a wise and moving book about fathers, sons, and the universal desire to understand who our parents were before they became our parents.