Alternatively candid and self-serving, How We Lost the Vietnam War is an autobiography and history by South Vietnam's onetime Prime Minister and Vice President. Ky rose through the ranks as a pilot, missing out on most of the French War while training in Morocco, flying secret CIA transport missions over the north, and then becoming head of the Air Force. Ky ended the post-Diem round of coups, providing a semblance of stable government before elections in 1967. He was politically outmaneuvered by President Thieu, and spent the latter part of the war with little official power, looking on as his country fell apart around him.

A staunch anti-communist, Ky hates the North Vietnamese and their "puppets" in the NLF. He berates the American aid effort for being too heavy, too lavish, training the Vietnamese in compliance to American authority and wealth, rather than scrappy bravery. Special hatred is reserved for Thieu and civilian leaders, who are presented as venal, corrupt, and unable to take any action even with the wolf at their door.

Of course, the key word in the title is "We", and Ky avoids taking personal responsibility for the fall of South Vietnam. The closest he comes is saying that if he had seized power, he'd have fought on and made the Communist pay a higher price. But he doesn't seem to have much grasp of what to do, beyond authoritarianism.