The Art of War partitioned Vietnam into North and South. General Võ, later the main PVA military commander in the Vietnam War, was an avid student and practitioner of Sun Tzu's ideas. America's defeat there, more than any other event, brought Sun Tzu to the attention of leaders of American military theory. Finnish Field Marshal Mannerheim and general Aksel Airo were avid readers of "Art of War". They both read it in French; Airo kept the French translation of the book on his bedside table in his quarters. The Department of the Army in the United States, through its Command and General Staff College,
The Book of the Short Sun which point the narrative connects with the opening of "On Blue's Waters". For much of the first-person account, the narrator is imprisoned on Blue in a town called Dorp on trumped-up charges, and must use his various powers to foment a revolution against the unjust judges who rule the town. In the course of this effort, he again visits the Red Sun Whorl, where he meets a young Severian and inspires him to write a book. Once free, he returns to Lizard and New Viron, where the final riddle of his identity is solved, and helps defend against a massive