An account of the impact of the Vietnam War on American intellectual life. Aiming to shed light on the demise of Cold War liberalism and the development of the New Left, the book examines the steady growth of a conservatism that used Vietnam and anti-war sentiment as a rallying point.

Before the Vietnam War, American intellectual life rested largely on shared assumptions and often common ideals; for the most part, intellectuals supported the social and economic reforms of the 1930s, the war against Hitler's Germany, and US conduct during the Cold War. By the the early 1960s there existed a liberal intellectual consensus. The war in south-east Asia shattered this fragile coalition, which dissolved into numerous camps, each of which questioned American institutions, values and ideals. Aiming to shed light on the demise of Cold War liberalism and the development of the New Left, this text examines the steady growth of a conservatism that used Vietnam and anti-war sentiment as a rallying point. It presents evidence indicating that neo-conservatism retreated from internationalism partly as a result of Vietnam, only to regroup later with substantially diminished goals and expectations.