Publisher's abstract: The book by retired US Army Lieutenant General Philip B. Davidson is dedicated to the wars in Indochina in the 2nd half of the 20th century - bloody and protracted conflicts in which two "great powers" - France and the USA - were defeated. The author, who served in Vietnam as chief of the intelligence department of the American command headquarters, knows the topic perfectly and provides a comprehensive military-political analysis of the events of 1946-1954 and 1964-1975. The first work translated into Russian describing the war in Vietnam from the perspective of an American specialist.