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.


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