Fifty Books about the Vietnam War
This list is a part of the the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) from the usenet Newsgroup "soc.history.war.vietnam". Used with the permission of the list moderators.
Below are listed fifty books which comprise a recommended reading
list on the Vietnam Wars. These books where chosen by polling a
select group of newsgroup readers representing academics,
veterans and anti-war. An attempt has been made to give the
listing both variety and depth. All entries where selected by
multiple respondents. The top fifteen recommendations are
designated by the word *CORE* after the bibliographic listing,
and these may be considered a "short list". Respondents were
asked to give preference to books in print where possible.
Adams, Sam, introduction by Col. David Hackworth. War of
Numbers: An Intelligence Memoir. South Royalton, VT:
Steerforth Press, 1994. *CORE*
Anderegg, Michael, ed. Inventing Vietnam: The War in Film and
Television. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1991.
Arnett, Peter. Live from the Battlefield: From Vietnam to
Baghdad, 35 Years in the World's War Zones. New York: Simon
& Schuster, 1994.
Bilton, Michael and Kevin Sim. Four Hours in My Lai. New York:
Viking, 1992. *CORE*
Brennan, Matthew. Brennan's War: Vietnam 1965-1969. Novato, CA:
Presidio, 1985. *CORE*
Broughton, Col. Jack. Thud Ridge. Philadelphia: Lippincott,
1969; New York: Bantam, 1985. *CORE*
Browne, Malcolm. The New Face of War. Indianapolis:
Bobbs-Merrill, 1965.
Bui Tin. Following Ho Chi Minh: The Memoirs of a North
Vietnamese Colonel. (Vietnamese original Hoa xuyen tuyet).
Translated and adapted by Judy Stowe and Do Van;
introduction by Carlyle Thayer. Honolulu: University of
Hawaii Press, 1995.
Caputo, Philip. A Rumor of War. New York: Holt, Rinehart, &
Winston, 1977; Ballantine, 1978. *CORE*
Chomsky, Noam. Rethinking Camelot: JFK, the Vietnam War, and
U.S. Political Culture. Boston: South End Press, 1993.
Del Vecchio, John. The 13th Valley. New York: Bantam, 1982.
Downs, Frederick Jr. The Killing Zone. New York: Norton, 1978;
Berkley, 1983.
Edelman, Bernard, ed. for the New York Vietnam Veterans Memorial
Commission. Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam. New
York: Norton, 1985. Paperback New York: Pocket Books, 1986.
Fall, Bernard. Hell in a Very Small Place: The Seige of Dien
Bien Phu. Philadelphia: J.J. Lippincott Company, 1967.
Fall, Bernard. Street Without Joy. 4th ed. rev. Harrisburg,
PA: Stackpole, 1964. *CORE*
Flynn, Robert. A Personal War in Vietnam. Texas A&M University
military history series, no.13. College Station, TX: Texas
A&M University Press, 1989.
Gelb, Leslie H. with Richard K. Betts. The Irony of Vietnam: The
System Worked. Washington: The Brookings Institution, 1979.
Gibson, James. The Perfect War: Technowar in Vietnam. Boston:
Atlantic Monthly Press, 1986. Paperback titled The Perfect
War: The War We Couldn't Lose and How We Did. New York:
Vintage, 1988.
Grant, Zalin. Facing the Phoenix: The CIA and the Political
Defeat of the United States in Vietnam. New York: Norton,
1991.
Hallin, Daniel C. The "Uncensored War": The Media and Vietnam.
New York: Oxford University Press, 1986. *CORE*
Herr, Michael. Dispatches. New York: Knopf, 1977; Vintage
International, 1991. *CORE*
Herrington, Stuart. Silence was a Weapon: The Vietnam War in the
Villages. Novato, CA: Presidio, 1982.
Hickey, Gerald C. Free in the Forest: Ethnohistory of the
Vietnamese Central Highlands, 1954-1976. New Haven: Yale
University Press, 1982.
Hickey, Gerald C. Shattered World: Adaptation and Survival among
Vietnam's Highland Peoples During the Vietnam War.
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993.
Hickey, Gerald C. Sons of the Mountains: Ethnohistory of the
Vietnamese Central Highlands to 1954. New Haven: Yale
University Press, 1982.
Isaacs, Arnold. Without Honor: Defeat in Vietnam and Cambodia.
Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1983.
Karnow, Stanley. Vietnam: A History. New York: Viking, 1983.
*CORE*
Krepinevich, Andrew F., Jr. The Army in Vietnam. Baltimore:
Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986.
MacPherson, Myra. Long Time Passing: Vietnam and the Haunted
Generation. Garden City, NY: Doubleday and Company, 1984.
Martin, Andrew. Receptions of War: Vietnam in American Culture.
Oklahoma project for discourse and theory, v. 10. Norman,
OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1993.
Mason, Robert. Chickenhawk. New York: Viking, 1983.
-------------Addition from Tony Edmonds----------------------------
McMahon, Robert J. ed.,
__Major Problems in the History of the Vietnam War__, 2nd ed. (D.C. Heath,
1995). The books from which the essays come provide an interesting bibliogra-
phy in themselves. Main weakness: Little from the "grunt" point of view.
Mainly political/diplomatice/strategic.
-----------------------------------------
Moore, Lt. Gen. Harold G. and Joseph L. Galloway. We Were
Soldiers Once . . . and Young. New York: Random House,
1992. *CORE*
Oberdorfer, Don. Tet. New York: Doubleday, 1971; DaCapo: 1984.
Palmer, Laura. Shrapnel in the Heart: Letters and Remebrances
From the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. New York: Randon House,
1987.
Pentagon Papers: *CORE*
U.S. Congress, House Committee on Armed Services. United
States-Vietnam Relations, 1945-1967: A Study Prepared
by The Department of Defense. Washington, DC: U.S.
Government Printing Office, 1971. 12 volumes.
The Pentagon Papers: The Defense Department History of
United States Decisionmaking on Vietnam. Boston:
Beacon Press, 1971, 1972. 5 vols.
The Pentagon Papers. New York: Bantam Books, 1971.
Prados, John and Ray W. Stubbe. Valley of Decision: The Siege of
Khe Sanh. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1991; New York: Dell,
1993. *CORE*
Puller, Lewis B. Jr. Fortunate Son: The Autobiography of Lewis
B. Puller, Jr. New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1991; Bantam,
1993.
Race, Jeffrey. War Comes to Long An. Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1972.
Sansom, Robert L. The Economics of Insurgency in the Mekong
Delta. MIT Press, 1970.
Shafer, D. Michael, ed. The Legacy: The Vietnam War in the
American Imagination. Boston: Beacon Press, 1990. *CORE*
Shawcross, William. Sideshow: Kissinger, Nixon, and the
Destruction of Cambodia. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1979.
Shay, Jonathan. Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the
Undoing of Character. New York: Atheneum, 1994.
Sheehan, Neil. A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America
in Vietnam. New York: Randon House, 1988. *CORE*
Sheppard, Don. Riverine: A Brown-Water Sailor in the Delta,
1967. Novato, CA: Presidio, 1992.
Snepp, Frank. Decent Interval. New York: Random House, 1977.
*CORE*
Thayer, Carlyle A. War by Other Means: National Liberation and
Revolution in Viet-Nam, 1954-60. Cambridge, MA: Unwin
Hyman, 1989.
Tollefson, James W. The Strength Not to Fight: An Oral History
of Conscientious Objectors of the Vietnam War. Boston:
Little, Brown, 1993.
Turley, Col. Gerald H. The Easter Offensive. Novato, CA:
Presidio, 1985.
Turley, William S. The Second Indochina War: A Short Political
and Military History,1954-1975. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1986.
Westmoreland, General William. A Soldier Reports. New York:
Doubleday, 1976.
Back