Viet Nam War Books
Administrator’s note.
The Viet Nam War was, unquestionably, America’s longest war and a war that deeply divided America in the sixties and seventies. It has incited many authors, historians and scholars, military and civilian alike, to analyze and write about this complex war.
Vietamericanvets.com is creating this page to post those Viet Nam War Books which we feel confident will provide our readers with impartial, truthful account of that past conflict.
Customer review: If you've ever wondered how you'd respond to an environment of prolonged terror and assault, please read this book, to see the courage with which ordinary Americans upheld the dignity of their nation and returned with honor to their homeland. After describing his middle American upbringing, Phil Butler recounts 8 years of brutal incarceration during which he reveals the intrepid resistance and resourcefulness with which he and most of his fellow prisoners confronted their often sadistic jailers. The final chapters of peace, learning, and reconciliation after his return are likewise a testament to the most noble attributes of human nature. We should all be very proud of this man and his companions for their struggles on our behalf.
Customer review: This book takes you there, Vietnam, that is. Christopher talks about what it is like to be on the sharp tip of the spear day after day after day, with little rest. Leadership in such circumstances takes its toll. He survived somehow despite all of his close calls. A Ranger and Cavalryman both, he was a great soldier and a good man in a bad place, but he kept his man alive.
If you are or were a soldier, especially cavalryman, read this book!
Customer review: You can't fight a Guerrilla War without Guerrillas and Ronald Lee Christopher appears to be all of that and had to be even more when chosen to lead a team of LRRP's into a deadly An Lao Valley in South Vietnam. All wars are basically a battle for land and these six-man patrols are constantly in danger of their lives and, as the author states, only "nuts" volunteer for Long Range Reconnaissance Patrols. The rice paddies and elephant grass in the valley were a virtual training "school," for Guerrillas to learn and practice their skills; the only trouble being that death was always just ahead, hiding in the elephant grass or behind a tree, aiming their AK-47's at their sworn enemies, the American soldiers. The author formed and led the First Cavalry Division's LRRP and claims to remember exactly what he has written. Considering the life or death nature of his work behind this statement I would tend to side on believing him. Here is a Staff Sergeant, the backbone of every army, who not only wants to lead and has a desire to lead but actually believes he is the "only" one qualified to lead the LRRP's for the First Division because he had done it once before, in Germany and was now itching to build a patrol unit from the ground up. I think I heard another soldier say once that he was the only one he knew qualified to do the job: General George S. Patton. You'll meet many characters in this story but ten of them will standout and in the end you'll also find out what happens to them all. I recommend this book to all ex-military and all who wish to read a first-hand account of a life-long soldier's days in a faraway land known as Vietnam.
Customer review: I read your book and was very pleased. You tell it first hand, and it is obvious you know what you are saying. I could relate to the emotions and feelings of a combat veteran of the 1/9 Cav Blues. The whole idea of returning to the old battlefields in the An Loa Valley was fascinating. Any thoughts about making this into a movie?
Customer review: This is an extremely well written and well-documented book. Pres Kennedy observed that the real enemy of truth is not the lie but the myth. This book goes a long way to confront and refute so many of the fallacies and myths about the war and the soldiers who fought it. I just wish this were required reading in high schools and colleges to offset the Zinn/Chomsky propaganda.
Customer review: Edward Jay Epstein's News From Nowhere provides a focus on television and the news, probing the decision-making processes involved in network programming and news presentations and showing how internal politics often dictate the content and direction of television coverage. An excellent view on television content.
Customer review: He began to realize that his radical politics had turned moral norms upside down, making heroes out of thugs, bombers and murderers and demonizing ordinary decent Americans. This caused many years of soul-searching. When he re-emerged, his whole worldview had changed. Like I said, powerful. Read it and cry for a lost generation.
Customer review: A down to earth personal perspective on how the Viet Cong was able to recruit, maintain their force and fight the US and South Vietnams armed forces. It gives a view of how and why the insurgency was successful among a rural people. The story holds some valuable lessons that can be appled today to the current conflict.
Customer review: Ride the Thunder is fresh in every respect, well-written, and often thrilling. Most of it you have never read before.
Customer review: With firsthand
research, Wiest provides the crucial missing voices, those of the South
Vietnamese often misportrayed, overshadowed, and underappreciated by their
powerful American allies.
A Better War: The Unexamined Victories and Final
Tragedy of America's Last Years in Vietnam (Paperback)
by
Lewis Sorley
"WHEN, IN JANUARY 1964, General
William C. Westmoreland was sent to Vietnam as deputy to General Paul
Harkins-and became, a few months later, his successor..." Published by Harvest/HBJ
Book.
Triumph Forsaken: The Vietnam War, 1954-1965
(Hardcover)
by
Mark Moyar
"FROM ALL DIRECTIONS, FROM HANOI AND FROM THE SURROUNDING
countryside, several hundred thousand Vietnamese converged on a large square
called the Place Puginier, next to..." Published by Cambridge University
Press; 1st edition.
The Battle Of An Loc (Twentieth-Century Battles)
(Hardcover)
by
James H. Willbanks.
Published by Indiana University Press.
Vietnam at War: The History, 1946-1975 (Hardcover)
by
Lt. Gen. Phillip B. Davidson
– Published by Presidio Press.
Whitewash/Blackwash: Myths of the Viet Nam War
by Bill Laurie & R.J. Del Vecchio. Available at TechConsultServ@Juno.com
Vietnam Chronicles: The Abrams Tapes, 1968-1972
(Modern Southeast Asia Series) (Hardcover)
by
Lewis Sorley
(Introduction) "During 1968
major changes took place in just about every aspect of the war in
Vietnam..." Published by Texas Tech University Press.
Abandoning Vietnam: How America Left and South Vietnam
Lost Its War (Hardcover)
by
James H. Willbanks.
Published by University Press of Kansas.
The Tet Offensive: A Concise History (Hardcover)
by
James H. Willbanks
– Published by Columbia University Press.
A Sense of Duty:
My Father, My American Journey (Hardcover)
by
Quang X. Pham. Published
by Ballantine Books.
A Bitter Peace: Washington, Hanoi, and the Making of
the Paris Agreement (Paperback)
by
Pierre Asselin
"By 1968, the United States had
been heavily involved in Vietnam for nearly three years..." Published by
The University of North Carolina Press.
No Peace, No Honor: Nixon, Kissinger, and Betrayal in
Vietnam (Hardcover)
by
Larry Berman
"By 1968 Lyndon Johnson had become
a war president..."
Published by Free Press.
More Than a Soldier's War: Pacification in Vietnam
(Hardcover)
by
Edward P. Metzner. Published by Texas
A&M University Press.
Peace Is Not at Hand (Hardcover)
by
Sir Robert Thompson.
Published by Chatto & Windus.
Vietnam : The Necessary War (Hardcover)
by
Michael Lind.
Published by Free Press.
ARVN: Life And Death in the South Vietnamese Army
(Modern War Studies) (Hardcover)
by
Robert K. Brigham
"In the Republic of Vietnam of the mid-1960s, as in the
United States, citizens' attitudes toward military service varied widely-and
underwent momentous change. Published by University Press of Kansas.
More books will be added onto this list….