Good books about the Vietnam war?

JoNightshade · Oct 12, 2009

My history classes never took me to any time period more recent than WWII. As the daughter of a Seabee who was in Vietnam before anyone was officially "there," I am ashamed of my complete lack of knowledge of this conflict.

I know you guys are very well informed and well read, so I am hoping I can get some recommendations of books that would get me up to speed. Two caveats:

- I'm not a dates-and-numbers person. I'm interested in personalities, idealogical conflicts, and events. So anything too dry and history-bookish is going to lose me.

- Given that my dad is a vet, even though I know very little about Vietnam the things I do know are extremely charged, emotionally. So anything that's not respectful to vets or is overly sympathetic to the people who spat on him and called him a baby killer (among other things) is going to get put down. Immediately.

Thanks in advance for the recommendations!

Williebee · Oct 12, 2009

Tim O'Brien, The Things They Carried

rugcat · Oct 12, 2009

The classic about Vietnam is David Halberstam's The Best and the Brightest

Not so much a book about the war as is is a book about how the US got involved in Vietnam and how so many bright and well meaning people got everything so wrong.

Written in 1972, when it was all still fresh. It has a liberal perspective, but also a glowing forward by John McCain, FWIW.

ColoradoGuy · Oct 12, 2009

Fire in the Lake: Vietnamese and Americans in Vietnam. Also, although controversial is some ways, a classic is A Bright Shining Lie. Both of them won Pulitzers and National Book Awards.

augusto · Oct 12, 2009

Tim O'Brien, Going After Cacciato

~*Kate*~ · Oct 12, 2009

Williebee said:
Tim O'Brien, The Things They Carried

Seconded x a billion and two

I took an excellent Politics course on the Vietnam War during my senior year of college and couldn't stand to sell the books back after the trimester. This is what we read-- I'm sure the blurbs on Amazon, etc, will be more helpful:

Shadows and Wind: A View of Modern Vietnam by Robert Templer
Catfish and Mandala: A Two-Wheeled Voyage Through the Landscape and Memory of Vietnam by Andrew X. Pham (won the Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize in '99)
After Sorrow: An American Among the Vietnamese: Lady Borton (didn't love this one)
Vietnam Shadows: The War, Its Ghosts and Its Legacy by Arnold R. Isaacs
Vietnam: The Necessary War by Michael Lind (much dryer and more academic)
The Vietnam Wars: 1945-1990 by Marilyn B. Young (opposite viewpoint of Lind with blurb from Howard Zinn on front, for reference; may have been updated since the version I read in '02 b/c some of her evidence was outdated then; that said, it's a fairly approachable overview)

StephanieFox · Oct 12, 2009

The Pentagon Papers

Bird of Prey · Oct 12, 2009

Dispatches by Michael Herr

blacbird · Oct 12, 2009

All the recommended above, plus

Nam, by Mark Baker
Dispatches, by Michael Herr
Street Without Joy, by Bernard Fall (a reporter's account of the first Vietnam War, with the French being defeated by the Viet Minh and Dien Bien Phu; shortly after writing it, Fall was killed by a land mine. It's a wonderful book).

Oh, yeah, and then there's my novel. Unpublished and by all evidence unpublishable. I'll send an electronic copy to anyone who wants it.

caw

Good books about the Vietnam war?

JoNightshade

has finally arrived

Williebee

Capeless, wingless, & yet I fly.

rugcat

Lost in the Fog

ColoradoGuy

I've seen worse.

augusto

~Kate~

brings the random.

StephanieFox

Maybull the Bulldog

Bird of Prey

Benefactor Member

blacbird