If you had only ONE book to recommend on the Vietnam war, which one would it be?

[Elspeth]

I am starting a summer reading list and am looking for the best histories of the Vietnam war.

[Sheets of Easter]

1. "Dear America:Letters Home from Vietnam."

Real letters written by the people who were there. I read it for a college course. Excellent read.

[Zorro]

2. Dispatches

Michael Herr.

[thereismore]

3. You need to specify if you want history or first-person accounts. nt

[flowomo]

5. right, just what I was thinking

n/t

[Elspeth]

16. That's a good question

I was looking for an overall history but first person accounts are always helpful

[Dunedain]

30. Everything We Had - Al Santoli

[blm]

31. Historian Douglas Brinkley combined the two, the history WITH the first

person accounts of Kerry, his letters home which were saved by his mother, close friends, and girlfriend/wife - and includes the accounts of his crew members.

Brinkley remarked at the time he had no idea he'd get such an enormous amount of preserved material.

Tour of Duty - but probably better to read it AFTER you know the basic history so you can put their experiences in context.

[Elspeth]

39. Thank you. This thread has become very educational

I appreciate everyone's time and suggestions.

[DemoTex]

4. A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam

By Neil Sheehan

[jonnyblitz]

21. I"ve been meaning to read that one. thanks for reminding me. nt

[babylonsister]

6. One I've wanted to read is the one Senator Webb wrote; supposedly used

as a teaching manual iirc.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Webb

Webb's successful first novel, Fields of Fire (1978), drawn from personal experience, tells the story of a platoon of US Marines in late 1960s Vietnam. Reviewers hailed its pull-no-punches descriptions of infantry life and combat.<46>

[arbusto_baboso]

7. Street Without Joy by Bernard Fall

Okay, yes, it's about the FRENCH involvement in Vietnam, but it was written and published when the US was getting mired there.

It also CLEARLY can be used to draw parallels between Vietnam and Iraq currently.

Hmmmm. Maybe that's why France wasn't on board with the current US adventure in Iraq? Did they learn the lesson and we did not? :shrug:

[Elspeth]

15. This looks interesting

..

[arbusto_baboso]

19. It was also required reading...

when I was in US Army Special Forces in the late 80's and early 90's. A lot of tactical stuff, but still a good read.

[maui9002]

26. "The Best and the Brightest" by David Halberstam

I've read most all of the books already mentioned. "A Bright Shining Lie" is in my view a better story and more interesting read (mostly because it focuses on the main character, John Paul Vann, who was a unique soldier and interesting character), but I believe the best history of the tragic conflict, and how and why we screwed up in Vietnam, is David Halberstam's "The Best and the Brightest." And an interesting and ironic note. In Amazon.com's description of the book, it excerpts the followig forward in the book, from none other than John McCain. If only he'd learn the lessons Halberstam put in that book.

"For anyone who aspires to a position of national leadership, no matter the circumstances of his or her birth, this book should be mandatory reading. And anyone who feels a need, as a confused former prisoner of war once felt the need, for insights into how a great and good nation can lose a war and see its worthy purposes and principles destroyed by self-delusion can do no better than to read and reread David Halberstam’s The Best and the Brightest."
--from the Foreword by Senator John McCain


Honorable Mention: "Our Vietnam" by A.J. Langguth.

[Elspeth]

37. Thanks

It seems I have a lot of reading to do

[leftofcool]

8. "A Bright Shining Lie"

[taterguy]

12. Seconded

Although a close second would be Halberstam's The Best and the Brightest.

It just depends on whether or not the OP wants to know what happened in Vietnam or they want to know about the US government's decisions in Vietnam

[Warpy]

9. "Fire in the Lake" by Frances Fitzgerald

was written and published during the whole misadventure. It gives a comprehensive history of the region and many of the series of blunders that led us into that disaster.

It's important enough to understanding the whole mess that it's still in print: http://www.amazon.com/Fire-Lake-Vietnamese-Americans-Vietnam/dp/0679723943

[Journeyman]

14. Second this, as a contemporary history of the region, culture, and conflict. . .

as a first person take, Dispatches by Michael Herr, or Everything We Had by Al Santoli -- the former a journalist's take on his experiences, the latter a collection of reminisces by grunts of all grades.

[Blue_In_AK]

38. Excellent book - I'd recommend that one, too.

[msmcghee]

10. Several good ones already listed. Here's a great . .

. . novel that produces a form of truth about such things that only good fiction can deliver.

"The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien

BTW - I have a very large collection of non-fiction first-person accounts of that war - almost all in paperback - in case anyone else here is in to collecting / trading, etc.

[mahina]

11. Recovering from the War: A Guide for All Veterans, Family Members, Friends and Therapists

Helped us. Highly reccomended.
Talking to some vets is a good idea.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1892220075

[jpak]

The 10,000 Day War: Vietnam by Michael MacLear

n/t

[A HERETIC I AM]

29. Agreed. I have a copy and it is an excellent, detailed book. n/t

[jpak]

13. self delete

n/t

[Two Americas]

17. The End Of The Line

The End of the Line - the Siege of Khe Sanh
by Robert Pisor

"A war correspondent's searching account of a crucial battle in the Vietnam War. It was the most spectacular battle of the entire war. For 6,000 trapped marines, it was a nightmare; for President Lyndon Johnson, an obsession. For General Westmoreland, it was to be the final vindication of technological weaponry; and for General Giap, the architect of the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu, it was a spectacular ruse masking troops moving south for the Tet offensive. In a compelling narrative, Robert Pisor sets forth the history, the politics, the strategies, and, above all, the desperate reality of the battle that became the turning point of the United States's involvement in Vietnam."

- from Newsweek

http://books.google.com/books?id=G35yog6wKv0C&dq=pisor+siege+of+khe+sanh&pg=PP1&ots=fTp8kF8SAJ&sig=f6XoxDmbK9k7RGZZUEBmw05yeJA&hl=en&prev=http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=pisor++Siege+of+Khe+Sanh&btnG=Search&sa=X&oi=print&ct=title&cad=one-book-with-thumbnail

[madokie]

18. Heres one from one of our local teachers

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1316/is_n9_v21/ai_8017733


I have to admit I haven't read the book but thought I would post a link

What Should We Tell Our Children About Vietnam? - Bill McCloud

Washington Monthly, Oct, 1989 by Michael Massing

E-mail Print Link What Should We Tell Our Children About Vietnam In February 1987, Bill McCloud, a junior-high-school teacher in Pryor, Oklahoma, decided that the time had come to teach students about Vietnam. McCloud, a veteran of the war, found few teaching aids, so he wrote to a variety of people connected with the conflict--cabinet officers, generals, pilots, and protestors--asking what they thought was most important to teach about the war. More than 120 people wrote back, including George Bush, Dean Rusk, Henry Kissinger, McGeorge Bundy, and even the notoriously uncommunicative Robert McNamara. Now, with this slim volume, we, like Oklahoma's students, have the benefit of their collective wisdom.

Most Popular

More » Alas, What Should We Tell Our Children About Vietnam? contains few revelations. Vietnam was so complex that even 800-page tomes have not been able to do it justice. Most of the letters in this volume come to no more than a few paragraphs and some only a few sentences. The book consequently reads like a collection of soundbites, or the history of Vietnam according to USA Today. Cliches abound. "Many precious American lives were lost," declares Jimmy Carter. "War is a terrible thing," announces Shelby Stanton, a Vietnam vet and military historian. Harry McPherson, special assistant to Lyndon Johnson, rues our "lack of a clear objective."

[blindpig]

20. War in the Shadows, Robert Asprey n/t

[cornfedyank]

22. "about face" by col david hackworth

[deminatl]

23. If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/If_I_Die_in_a_Combat_Zone,_Box_Me_Up_and_Ship_Me_Home

[EFerrari]

24. An important novel "In Country" -- Bobbie Ann Mason. n/t

[GP6971]

25. The Perfect War by James Gibson e/m

[FredScuttle]

27. The Pentagon Papers: The Defense Department History of United States Decisionmaking on Vietnam

[taterguy]

40. Which version?

I read the 500 pages of "excerpts" that the NY Times put out in paperback but I've never sought out the other 19,500 pages. Should I?

[floridablue]

28. A Bright Shining Lie.

[Mike03]

32. Hands down, it would be Neil Sheehan's book "A Bright Shining Lie." NT

[Bigmack]

33. One book? Shiiiiiiit....

go big and read 2 or 3. Skimp on cholesterol and drugs, but not books.

Lots of the above are great.

I'll add "The Short-Timers" by Gus Hasford about his time as a Marine in the shit.

"Full Metal Jacket" was based on it, and a lot of the dialog in the movie comes directly from the book.

[trof]

34. "Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers."

Daniel Ellsberg

[Cirque du So-What]

35. The Tunnels of Cu Chi

by Tom Mangold and John Penycate
http://www.amazon.com/Tunnels-Cu-Chi-Tom-Mangold/dp/0425089517

This book demonstrates why a US victory in Vietnam was impossible. The Vietnamese guerilla fighters were willing to go on for 1,000 years if necessary.

Some images and background:
http://web.mst.edu/~rogersda/umrcourses/ge342/Cu%20Chi%20Tunnels-revised.pdf

[leftofthedial]

36. A Bright Shining Lie

[VOX]

41. "Bloods: Black Veterans of the Vietnam War: An Oral History," edited by Wallace Terry...

It's as raw as an exposed nerve. An oral history that tells the stories of 20 black men (in their own words, of course) -- how they were sent to Vietnam in disproportionate numbers, and asked to tolerate the intolerable. Each voice is clear, distinct and harrowing.

"Bloods" is an outstanding source that helps to put the hell that was Vietnam into some sharper historical, cultural and political perspectives.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough. :thumbsup: