What is the importance of the Vietnam War in the book, Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War?

The Vietnam War was fought between the Communist North Vietnamese and anti-Communist South Vietnamese, with the support of French and American forces, during the late 1960s and 1970s. It is the primary subject of this book. The author, in an effort to avoid preconceived ideas and show its connection to war generally, chooses to refer to the Vietnam War as simply “the war."