John Balaban

Alvarez, Everett Jr. and Anthony S. Pitch. Chained Eagle: The Heroic Story of the First American Shot Down over North Vietnam (Potomac Books, 2005).
On August 5, 1964, while Lt. (jg) Everett Alvarez was flying a retaliatory air strike against naval targets in North Vietnam, antiaircraft fire crippled his A-4 fighter-bomber, forcing him to eject over water at low altitude. Alvarez relates the engrossing tale of his capture by fishermen, brutal treatment by the North Vietnamese, physical and mental endurance, and triumphant repatriation in 1973.

Appy, Christian. Patriots: The Vietnam War Remembered from All Sides (Penguin, reprint, 2004).
Christian G. Appy’s monumental oral history of the Vietnam War is the first work to probe the war’s path through both the United States and Vietnam. These vivid testimonies of 135 men and women span the entire history of the Vietnam conflict, from its murky origins in the 1940s to the chaotic fall of Saigon in 1975. Sometimes detached and reflective, often raw and emotional, they allow us to see and feel what this war meant to people literally on all sides—Americans and Vietnamese, generals and grunts, policymakers and protesters, guerrillas and CIA operatives, pilots and doctors, artists and journalists, and a variety of ordinary citizens whose lives were swept up in a cataclysm that killed 3 million people. By turns harrowing, inspiring, and revelatory, Patriots is not a chronicle of facts and figures but a vivid human history of the war.

Appy, Christian. Working Class War (The University of North Carolina Press, 1993).
Working Class War explores the experiences and attitudes of the 2.5 million American enlisted men who served in Vietnam, painting a compelling portrait of the war as it was lived by the troops who fought it. While race and region were prominent factors, class was the most important element in determining who fought and died in Vietnam, as 80 percent of the enlisted men came from the poor or working class.

Arnold, James R. Tet Offensive 1968: Turning Point in Vietnam (Osprey Publishing (UK),1990)
The 1968 Tet Offensive was the decisive battle for Vietnam. Masterminded by the brilliant North Vietnamese General, Vo Nguyen Giap, it was intended to trigger a general uprising in South Vietnam. However, the bloody fighting for Saigon, Hue, and other cities actually resulted in a catastrophic defeat for the North. In this excellent assessment of the key battle of the Vietnam conflict, James Arnold details the plans and forces involved and explains how, despite the outcome of the battle, the American people and their leaders came to perceive the war for Vietnam as lost.

Atkinson, Rick. Long Gray Line (Houghton Mifflin Company, 1992).
Brilliantly conceived, eloquently written, The Lone Gray Line tells a deeply affecting story that spans 25 turbulent years, following the West Point class of 1966 through their high spirited cadet years into the fires of Vietnam and the bitterly divisive post-war years.

Baker, Mark. Nam: The Vietnam War in the Words of the Men and Women Who Fought There (Berkley, 1983).

This pioneering oral history of the war, the first of its kind, is forged exclusively from the voices of unnamed men and women who served in Vietnam.

Balaban, John. Remembering Heaven’s Face (Touchstone Books, 1992).
Balaban tells his remarkable Vietnam story in an exceptionally well-written and moving book, Remembering Heaven's Face--a memoir that easily stands with the best eyewitness accounts of the nation's longest and most controversial war. Few other writers have evoked the physical world of South Vietnam as well as Balaban does in this book." (USA Today)

Bass, Thomas A. Vietnamerica: The War Comes Home (Soho Press, 1997).
The Vietnamese called the Amerasian children of U.S. servicemen bui doi, "the dust of life." Half-American and half-Asian, they had been abandoned by their fathers to a xenophobic society that ostracized them. Nor was the U.S. government anxious to acknowledge their paternity and accept responsibility - until the Homecoming Act opened the door to their immigration. This poignant account renders the lives of these divided souls, resulting in an unflinching look at two countries, two cultures, and the legacy of a war that tore them both apart.

Benavidez, Roy P. Medal of Honor: One Man's Journey from Poverty and Prejudice (Potomac Books, 1999).
Medal of Honor is a powerful story of one man's fight against bigotry, paralysis, and his war enemy that led to the Medal of Honor. From migrant farmworker and middle school dropout to recipient of his country's highest award for bravery, Roy Benavidez demonstrated the courage and fortitude of an American hero. The half-Yaqui Indian, half-Mexican orphan fought his way out of the bigotry of South Texas to serve with the Army's elite - the Special Forces. On February, 1981, President Regan awarded him the Medal of Honor.

Bergerud, Eric M. Red Thunder, Tropic Lightning: The World of a Combat Division in Vietnam (Penguin Books, reprint, 1994).
Bergerud's name is a familiar one to students of the Vietnam War. His Dynamics of Defeat was a well-received study of the war in the Hau Nghia province of what was South Vietnam. His latest work studies American participation by examining the war through the eyes of the officers and men of the 25th Infantry Division, nicknamed "Tropic Lightning." The 25th soldiered on in Vietnam from 1966 to 1971 and was the unit in which the director Oliver Stone served. Some 5,000 of the names on the Wall, the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C., are from the 25th. An outstanding example of the use of personal experiences to describe the nature of the fighting and of the world the soldiers knew, this memoir is a necessary addition to any library collection.  (John R. Vallely, Siena College Library, Loudonville, N.Y. for Library Journal)

Bergerud, Eric M. The Dynamics of Defeat: The Vietnam War in Hau Nghia Province (Westview Press, reprint, 1993).
Some of the most active debate about the Vietnam War today is prompted by those who believe that the United States could have won the war either through an improved military strategy or through analyzing the entire course of the war in a single key province, The Dynamics of Defeat shows that the Vietnam War was a tragedy in the true sense of the word: American policy could not have been much different than it was and could only have led to failure.

Berman, Larry. Lyndon Johnson’s War (W.W. Norton and Company, 1991).
Utilizing previously classified top-secret documents, Larry Berman shows how Lyndon Johnson and his principal advisers came face to face with the failure of their Vietnam policy, in a sequel to the acclaimed Planning a Tragedy.

Berman, Larry. Planning a Tragedy (W.W. Norton and Company, 1983).
Events in summer of 1965 by America's best and brightest led to decision to increase troop commitment in Vietnam.

Bilton, Michael and Kevin Sim. Four Hours in My Lai (Penguin, 1993).
Written as a companion to the Yorkshire TV documentary (1989) by its producers, this unsettling account of the methodical massacre by a unit of the U.S. Army of over 500 Vietnamese villagers near Quang Ngai in 1968 gathers together evidence from GI eyewitnesses, survivors, and the extensive record of military investigators to tell us what happened, along with interviews and backgrounds of some of the participants to try to understand why. It then assembles a remarkably insightful assessment of the public's and the Nixon administration's response to both the war and this gruesome permutation of it. The book follows the legal repercussions that ended when only one of the many guilty parties, Lieutenant William Calley, was convicted. Any Vietnam War collection that does not carry this work is not complete; the massacre was both symptomatic of the military's prosecution of its mission and a watershed event in the evolution of the war itself. This investigation is a superlative dissection of those appalling crimes. (Written by Mel D. Lane for Library Journal)

Borton, Lady. After Sorrow (Kodansha Globe, 1996).
Lady Borton lived among the Vietnamese people during and after the war; this is her account of three villages and the peasants—mostly who lived in them through years of brutal warfare.

Brinkley, Douglas. Tour of Duty: John Kerry and the Vietnam War (William Morrow, 2004).
Historian Brinkley presents an in-depth account of John Kerry's experiences in the Navy during the war in Vietnam, and shows how these experiences shaped his character. Kerry, a Yale graduate who had enlisted, rose to the rank of lieutenant, saw action, and received the Purple Heart three times. After the war, Kerry was active in the organization Vietnam Veterans Against the War. Brinkley has uncovered documents relating to a campaign by Nixon aides to discredit Kerry, who later became a United States Senator from Massachusetts.

Burdick, Eugene and William Lederer. The Ugly American (Norton, 1958).
The multi-million-copy bestseller that coined the phrase for tragic American blunders abroad. First published in 1958, The Ugly American became a runaway national bestseller for its slashing expos of American arrogance, incompetence, and corruption in Southeast Asia. Based on fact, the book's eye-opening stories and sketches drew a devastating picture of how the United States was losing the struggle with communism in Asia. Combining gripping storytelling with an urgent call to action, the book prompted President Eisenhower to launch a study of our military aid program that led the way to much-needed reform.

Burkett, B.G. and Glenna Whitley. Stolen Valor: How the Vietnam Generation Was Robbed of Its Heroes and Its History (Verity Press Publishing, 1998).
Burkett and Whitley expose phony heroes who have become the object of recent television documentaries--liars and fabricators who have become bestselling authors basing their careers on non-existent Vietnam service.

Caputo, Philip. A Rumor of War (Ballantine Books, 1987).
Philip Caputo's book, A Rumor of War, is great for those who have already educated themselves on the Vietnam conflict and for those who are just beginning to learn about this important part of our history. Caputo tells the story from his viewpoint, as the book is based on his time in Vietnam, and discusses the transition from a civilian to green lieutenant to a member of the anti-war movement. It is a very moving story of how normal people can do extraordinary and sometimes terrible things.

Carroll, James. An American Requiem: God, My Father, and the War That Came Between Us (Houghton Mifflin Company, 1996).
James Carroll's memoir of his father, an Air Force general who helped plan the bombings in Vietnam. Carroll, a young priest at the time, preached against the war in the presence of his father and other Pentagon officials. His father never forgave him. This memoir is Carroll's attempt to come to terms with the conflicts that disrupted many families at that time, and with his own personal battles with his father.

Chang, Denise. The Girl in the Picture: The Story of Kim Phuc, the Photograph, and the Vietnam War (Penguin, 2001).
When Nick Ut photographed 9-year-old Kim Phuc running down a road, her body aflame with napalm, he turned a terrified girl into a living symbol of the Vietnam War's horror. Even after the war, the North Vietnamese government made the severely scarred Kim a reluctant poster girl for American atrocities. Although her parents, once relatively prosperous South Vietnamese peasants, were reduced to dire poverty when the state took over her mother's noodle shop, Kim was allowed to receive further medical treatment in Germany, to visit the Soviet Union, and to attend the University of Havana. These privileges did not assuage her spiritual turmoil: Why had she been singled out for fame when so many others suffered and died? Searching for answers, Kim converted to Christianity and in 1992 defected with her husband to Canada, where they now live with their two sons. Canadian author Denise Chong's sensitive biography, which doubles as a fascinating social history of Vietnam during and after the war, captures Kim as a complex woman of powerful religious faith: "It was the fire of bombs that burned my body. It was the skill of doctors that mended my skin. But it took the power of God's love to heal my heart." (Wendy Smith for Amazon.com)

Chomsky, Noam. At War with Asia (Vintage Books, 1970).
Drawing in part on his visits to Asia and in part on his extensive reading in the field, Noam Chomsky discusses the historical, political and economic reasons behind our involvement in a Southeast Asian land war. Chomsky examines the impact of our involvement on United States military strategy and what its eventual effect will be in America and abroad. At War With Asia is an indispensable guide to understanding both the past and current logic of imperial force.

Coffee, Gerald. Beyond Survival (Putnam Publishing Group, 1990).
In the blink of an eye, the impossible happens to naval officer Gerald Coffee—his plane is shot down and he becomes a POW. Here he narrates his own shocking story of what really happened in the prisons of North Vietnam.

Constance, Harry and Randall Fuerst.  Good to Go (Avon Books, 1998).
Harry Constance served three tours of duty in Vietnam as a member of the Navy's fabled stealth warriors, the SEALs. By 1970, he was a veteran of 300 combat missions and had received 32 military citations. This electrifying real-life adventure is a stunning, firsthand account of the SEALs in action--a breathtaking and authentic memoir of harrowing missions and covert special-ops in the jungles of Vietnam and beyond; true stories of the courage and skill of America's SEALs by one who fought in their ranks.

Coward, Russell H. A Voice from the Vietnam War (Greenwood Press, 2004).
Russell Coward describes the year he spent in Vietnam during the war teaching South Vietnamese officers English. Coward eloquently recounts his experience as an Air Force enlisted man in a war-torn country and the lasting effects of the war on him personally. Vietnamese history is provided throughout the narrative in an accessible manner to help students place the personal narrative in a historical context. Original and historical photographs help readers better understand the experience.

Criddle, Joan D. and Teeda Butt Mam. To Destroy You Is No Loss: The Odyssey of a Cambodian Family (Anchor Doubleday, 1989).
In a compelling first-person narrative, Joan Criddle presents the true story of Teeda Butt Mam’s harrowing escape from Khmer Rouge-controlled Cambodia during the 1970s. The book focuses on Mam’s family and their experiences during Pol Pot’s reign of terror, describing their escape to Thailand and eventual settlement in the U.S. With precious few books that address the refugee experience of Southeast Asian families, this book fills an important niche, particularly in Philadelphia where many refugee families have been settled. The narrative is gripping and will give students a vivid account of the family’s courageous struggle to survive. There is a brief historical account covering Cambodia’s history and the context of the Vietnam War in Southeast Asia, including the role of the U.S. in destroying the livelihood of the people in the region.

Cross, Mary and Frances FitzGerald.  Vietnam: Spirits of the Earth (Bulfinch, 2001).
Vietnam is the fruit of an unusual collaboration between noted author Frances FitzGerald (Fire in the Lake, 1972) and photojournalist Mary Cross. FitzGerald and Cross, both intimately acquainted with Vietnam, traveled there together in order to create this vivid and insightful look at Vietnam today. This is a Vietnam healed from the war, a Vietnam in which, as FitzGerald eloquently describes, traditional culture is once again alive in the villages that form its heart. The portfolio of 100 color images by Cross documents the richness of the Vietnamese landscape and customs. FitzGerald and Cross explore both the accessible and the hidden facets of this complex country-from village festivals to imperial tombs, from the cities of Hanoi and Saigon to the eternal landscape of the rice paddies.

Culbertson, John J.  A Sniper in the Arizona: 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines, in the Arizona Territory, 1967 (Ivy Books, 1999).
Sequel to the author's Operation Tuscaloosa. This is a rare first-person look at the training and use of a sniper in Vietnam.

Cutler, Thomas J. Brown Water, Black Berets (Naval Institute Press, 1988).
The men of the unorthodox navy that patrolled Vietnam's jungle-lined canals, rivers, and coastal areas were poorly equipped and virtually untrained in guerrilla warfare, yet they often faced the enemy in close combat. A naval historian who served with the black berets tells their story, combining on-the-scene action with the calm analysis possible only with the passing of time.

Davidson, Philip. Vietnam at War (Oxford University Press, 1991).
Phillip Davidson weaves together the histories of three distinct conflicts and follows the entire course of the Vietnam War--from the intial skirmishes in 1946 to the dramatic fall of Siagon nearly 30 years later.

del Vecchio, John M. For the Sake of All Living Things (Bantam Books, 1990).
Told though the lives of a Cambodian family ripped apart by 10 years of bloody struggle and the American advisor whose fate becomes intertwined with theirs, For the Sake of All Living Things is a gritty, uncompromising portrayal of one of the most brutal conflicts of modern times.

Denton, Jeremiah and Ed Brandt.  When Hell Was in Session (Robert E Hooper and Associates, 1982).
On July 18, 1965, Admiral Jeremiah Denton of the U.S. Navy was shot down during a combat mission over North Vietnam. A prisoner of war for seven and a half years, Denton provided the first direct evidence of torture by the North Vietnamese.

Dng, Thu Hng. Memories of a Pure Spring (Penguin, 2001).
Memories of a Pure Spring is a mesmerizing portrait of modern Vietnam and its people who struggle to survive under the complexities of a post-war regime. During the Vietnam War, Hung, a well-known composer, becomes enchanted by the voice and beauty of a young peasant girl named Suong. He invites her to join his troupe; she becomes his wife and his star performer. But after the war, Hung loses his job, setting off a series of events that drive him and Suong into a destructive spiral. One of Vietnam's most popular writers, Duong Thu Huong draws on her own experiences to describe life at the battlefront, the conditions of a re-education camp, and the texture and rhythm, scents and sounds, of a provincial Vietnamese city. Most of all, she tells a haunting, universal story of failed love.

Dooley, Thomas. Deliver Us From Evil, The Edge of Tomorrow and The Night They Burned the Mountain (Farrar Straus & Giroux, reissue, 2000).
Thomas Dooley was a physician to the people of Southeast Asia. As a medical officer in the U.S. Naval Reserve, Dooley volunteered for service on a ship moving refugees from North to South Vietnam, where he established refugee camps. After resigning from the navy he organized a private medical mission in northern Laos. In 1957 he founded Medico (Medical International Corporation) and set up hospitals in Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. Dooley wrote Deliver Us From Evil (1956), The Edge of Tomorrow (1958), and The Night They Burned the Mountain (1960) about his experiences, contributing the royalties to his medical work. He was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his humanitarian work after his death from cancer at age 34.

Donovan, David. Once A Warrior King: Memories Of An Officer In Vietnam (McGraw Hill, 1985).
Once a Warrior King vividly portrays the Vietnam experience of an officer and a gentleman. It is the story of a man with a sense of honor and responsibility that extended beyond his immediate command and encompassed the people.

Drury, Richard S. My Secret War (St. Martin’s Press, 1986).
This first-hand account of pilot Richard Drury captures the eerie beauty of Asia and the ugliness of war as aerial missions of raw courage were carried out in a war that officially did not exist. A classic true-life account of combat-action and adventure in the air over Laos.

Duiker, William J. Ho Chi Minh (Hyperion, 2000).
This biography of Marxist revolutionary and political leader Ho Chi Minh chronicles his peasant background, his education—which included formative years in Paris—and his role as leader of the liberation movement to unify his people as a nation. In 1954, Ho became President of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. The rest of his life, until 1969, was spent in a protracted war against South Vietnam and its ally, the United States of America. Duiker's research gave him access to revealing documents about Ho's relations with China and Russia and about the war with the United States.

Dunnigan, James F. and Albert Norfi.  Dirty Little Secrets of the Vietnam War: Military Information You're Not Supposed to Know (Griffin, 2000).
This revealing reference contains more than 200 items that blow apart many of the common myths regarding the Vietnam conflict. The revelations include details of the secret war for the Ho Chi Minh Trail, the use of mind control by the North Vietnamese, and the presence of former Imperial Japanese and Nazi troops in the ranks of the Viet Minh.

Ebert, James R. A Life in a Year: The American Infantryman in Vietnam, 1965-1972 (Presidio Press, 1993).
A book that focuses completely on the life of the "grunt" (infantry soldier) in Vietnam. The voices of more than 60 army and marine infantrymen speak with restrained elegance of their experiences from induction to the jungles and rice paddies of "Indian country" to their return to "The World."

Edelman, Bernard. Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam (W.W. Norton and Company, 1985).
More than 25 years after the official end of the Vietnam War, Dear America allows readers to witness the war firsthand through the eyes of the men and women who served there.

Ehrhart, W.D. Ordinary Lives: Platoon 1005 and the Vietnam War (Temple University Press, 1999).
In the summer of 1966, in the middle of the Vietnam War, 80 young volunteers arrived at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot on Parris Island, South Carolina from all over the eastern United States. For the next eight weeks, as Platoon 1005, they endured one of the most intense basic training programs ever devised. Parris Island was not a place for idle conversation or social gatherings, and these men remained from start to finish almost complete strangers. W.D. Ehrhart did get to know one Marine, his bunkmate John Harris, who quietly shared his sweetheart's letters. He was a friend who, Ehrhart learned almost 30 years later, died in Vietnam in 1967.

In 1993 Ehrhart began what became a five-year search for the men of his platoon. Who were these men alongside whom he trained? Why had they joined the Marines at a time when being sent to war was almost a certainty? What do they think of the war and of the country that sent them to fight it? What does the Corps mean to them? What Ehrhart learned offers an extraordinary window into the complexities of the Vietnam Generation and the United States of America then and now.

Ehrhart, W.D. Vietnam-Perkasie: A Combat Marine Memoir (University of Massachusetts Press, 2nd edition, 1995).
Ehrhart, as an 18-year-old Marine Corps volunteer, spent 13 months in-country in 1966-67, taking part in the siege of Con Thien and the battle for Hue during the Tet offensive, and earning numerous decorations. "Brutal, honest, funny and tragic...Ehrhart's sense of timing, his imagery, his poetic sensitivity, and his passion make his book as enjoyable as to read as it is troubling to endure." (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Elliott, Duong Van Mai. The Sacred Willow: Four Generations in the Life of a Vietnamese Family. (Oxford University Press, 2000).

Duong Van Mai Elliott's The Sacred Willow, an extraordinary narrative woven from the lives of four generations of her own family, illuminates fascinating--and until now unexplored--strands of Vietnamese history. Beginning with her great-grandfather and continuing to the present, Mai Elliott traces her family's journey through a long era of tumultuous change. She tells of childhood hours in her grandmother's silk shop--and of hiding while French troops torched her village. She reveals the agonizing choices that split Vietnamese families: her eldest sister left their staunchly anti-communist home to join the Viet Minh and then spent months sleeping with her infant son in jungle camps, fearing air raids by day and tigers by night. And she follows several family members through the last, desperate hours of the fall of Saigon--including one nephew who tried to escape by grabbing the skid of a departing American helicopter.

Based on family papers, interviews, and much other research, this is not simply an unforgettable family saga--it's a record of how the Vietnamese have experienced their times. Often haunting, often heartbreaking, and always mesmerizing, this book will forever change how we view the history of Vietnam and our own role in it.

Ellsberg, Daniel. Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers (Penguin, reissue, 2003).
In 1971 former Cold War hard-liner Daniel Ellsberg made history by releasing the Pentagon Papers-a 7,000-page top-secret study of U.S. decision-making in Vietnam-to The New York Times and The Washington Post. The document set in motion a chain of events that ended not only the Nixon Presidency but the Vietnam War. In this remarkable memoir, Ellsberg describes in dramatic detail the two years he spent in Vietnam as a U.S. State Department observer, and how he came to risk his career and freedom to expose the deceptions and delusions that shaped three decades of American foreign policy. The story of one man's exploration of conscience, Secrets is also a portrait of America at a perilous crossroad. Daniel Ellsberg is a former U.S. Marine commander and Rand analyst, and was one of the "whiz kids" recruited by Robert McNamara as a Pentagon war analyst in the Johnson administration.

Ellsberg, Daniel. Papers on the War (Simon and Schuster, 1972).
This book uncovers and reveals in vivid, factual detail the American involvement in the Vietnam War, details often secret.

Emerson, Gloria. Winners and Losers: Battles, Retreats, Gains, Losses, and Ruins from a Long War (Random House, 1977).
"In torrents, the voices come at us-confused, hurt, indifferent, proud, embittered, uncertain, regretful, bored angry-voices from small towns and big cities, from Americans and Vietnamese, from fathers, mothers, wives, veterans, friends, townspeople, resisters, former POWs, disabled, deserters and draft evaders.” A brilliant woman correspondent brings us a view of war we have seldom seen. Emerson covered the war in Indochina for The New York Times.

Englemann, Larry. Tears Before the Rain: an Oral History of the Fall of South Vietnam (Oxford University Press, 1990).
This book gathers the testimony of seventy eyewitnesses, including students, TV media figures, Vietnamese generals, pilots, and numerous others to provide a harrowing, first-hand account of a major event in modern history: the fall of Saigon.

Erwitt, Jennifer and Rick Smolan (Editors). Passage to Vietnam: Through the Eyes of Seventy Photographers (Against All Odds Productions & Melcher Media, 1994).
A fascinating look at an ancient nation in the midst of dramatic change. Spectacular photographs and a detailed text present an intimate and comprehensive look at Vietnam. To create this unusual portrait, 70 photographers from 14countries were given unprecedented access to a country that is just now emerging from decades of war and isolationism.

Magnum photographer Bruno Barbey rides along with thousands of pilgrims down the Swallow River to the Perfume Pagoda. Pulitzer Prize-winner Jay Dickman travels to the northern highlands, where he photographs the ancient Hmong tribe. And former Life photographer Kick Swanson goes back to Vietnam for the first time since the war, photographing its lingering effects on the people of the Quang Tri Province.

The photographs are complemented by captions written by Fortune magazine editor Colin Leinster. In addition, noted travel writer Pico Iyer shares his impressions of a country just awakening from twenty years of isolation. Pulitzer Prize-winner Stanley Karnow explores the long struggle the Vietnamese have waged to preserve their homeland. And Vietnam Investment Review correspondent Peter Saidel gives an insider's look at Vietnam as socialism and commerce meet face to face. (Amazon.com)

Fall, Bernard. Hell in a Very Small Place: The Siege of Dien Bien Phu (J.B. Lippincott, 1966).
"The definitive account" ( Saturday Review ) of the battle that paved the way for American involvement in Vietnam. The 1954 battle of Dien Bien Phu ranks with Stalingrad and Tet for what it ended (imperial ambitions), what it foretold (American involvement), and what it symbolized: A guerrilla force of Viet Minh destroyed a technologically superior French army, convincing the Viet Minh that similar tactics might prevail in battle with the U.S.

Faas, Horst and Tim Page (Editors). Requiem (Random House, 1997).
A collection of war photographs by photographers who lost their lives in the Vietnam War.

FitzGerald, Frances. Fire in the Lake: The Vietnamese and the Americans in Vietnam (Back Bay Books, 2002).
This landmark work, based on Frances FitzGerald's own research and travels, takes us inside Vietnam-into the traditional, ancestor-worshiping villages and the corrupt crowded cities, into the conflicts between Communists and anti-Communists, Catholics and Buddhists, generals and monks -and reveals the country as seen through Vietnamese eyes. With a clarity and authority unrivaled by any book before it or since, Fire in the Lake shows how America utterly and tragically misinterpreted the realities of Vietnam.

Freeman, Gregory A. Sailors to the End: The Deadly Fire on the USS Forrestal and the Heroes Who Fought It (William Morrow & Company, 2002).
This investigative report into one of the worst military disasters of the Vietnam War tells of the 1967 fire on the deck of the aircraft carrier the USS Forrestal. Freeman looks into the ship, its aircraft, the men--some of whom were inexperienced—and the accidents that caused fuel, bombs, and planes to ignite into an inferno that killed or wounded about 300 sailors.

French, Albert. Patches of Fire (Anchor Books, 1997).
The story of an African American man's military service during the Vietnam War and his encounters with racism back in the U.S. while he is building his career as a writer.

Gargan, Edward. The River's Tale: A Year on the Mekong (Knopf, 2002).
"The Mekong scours some of the saddest history of recent years," writes Edward A. Gargan in this richly described and melancholic tale of his journey through Tibet, China, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. Thirty years after landing in jail for refusing to register for the draft, the war-protester-turned-foreign-correspondent decided to see for himself how these countries have brought themselves back from the brink, and how their myriad cultures are struggling to preserve themselves. Beginning at the source of the Mekong River, near a camp of nomads high on the Tibetan plateau, he followed the 3,000 mile-long waterway through the heart of some of Asia's most complex and wounded societies. While the first half of Gargan's story, which focuses on China's demolition of Tibetan and other minority cultures, is interesting, it becomes gripping in the claustrophobic paranoia of Laos and post-Pol Pot Cambodia. Ultimately it becomes clear that while America lost the war in Vietnam, it has never left the region—lingering in the scars of war and inversely the creeping acceptance, if not embrace, of all things American. (Lesley Reed for Amazon.com)

Gelb, Leslie with Richard Betts. The Irony of Vietnam (The Brookings Institution, 1979).
Few analysts of U. S. involvement in Vietnam would agree with the provocative conclusion of this book. The thesis of most postmortems is that the United States lost the war because of the failure of its foreign policy decision making system. According to Gelb and Betts, however, the foreign policy failed but the decision making system worked.

Gettleman, Marvin E., Jane Franklin, Marilyn Young, and H. Bruce Franklin (Editors). Vietnam and America: A Documented History (Grove Press, 1985; 2nd rev ed, Grove Atlantic, 1995).
This complete history of the Vietnam War, as documented in essays by leading experts and in original source material, presents selections from the documented record, dispels distortions, and illuminates in depth both sides of the history of America's encounter with Vietnam.

Gilbert, Marc Jason (Editor). Why The North Won The Vietnam War (Palgrave, Macmillan, 2002).
In this new collection of essays on the Vietnam War, eminent scholars of the Second Indochina conflict consider several key factors that led to the defeat of the United States and its allies. The book adopts a candid and critical look at the U.S.’s stance and policies in Vietnam, and refuses to condemn, excuse, or apologize for America’s actions in the conflict. Rather, the contributors think widely and creatively about the varied reasons that may have accounted for the U.S.’s failure to defeat the North Vietnamese Army, such as role played by economics in America’s defeat. Other fresh perspectives on the topic include American intelligence failure in Vietnam, the international dimensions of America’s defeat in Vietnam, and the foreign policy of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.

Glasser, Ronald Joel. 365 Days (Bantam Books, 1972).
In this gripping account of the human cost of the Vietnam War, Ron Glasser offers an unparalleled description of the horror endured daily by those on the front lines. Assigned to Zama, an Army hospital in Japan in September 1968, Glasser arrived as a pediatrician in the U.S. Army Medical Corps to care for the children of officers and high-ranking government officials. The hospital's main mission, however, was to support the war and care for the wounded. At Zama, an average of 6,000-8,000 patients were attended to each month, and the death and suffering were staggering. The soldiers counted their days by the length of their tour--one year, or 365 day—and they knew, down to the day, how much time they had left.

Goldman, Peter and Tony Fuller. Charlie Company (William Morrow and Company, 1983).
About 65 men in a combat infantry unit called Charlie Company came back from Vietnam to fight a second war waged at home and in the mind. They felt ignored and forgotten until 1981, when Newsweek correspondents came to talk to them for a major cover story—and came away with enough material to fill this book. "More truth . . . than most of us care to take on". (The New York Times)

Greene, Bob. Homecoming: When the Soldiers Returned From Vietnam (G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1989).
“Were you ever spat upon when you returned home to the United States? '' asked syndicated columnist Greene of the Vietnam veterans among his readership. He received more than 1000 letters in reply, many recounting specific details of just such a painfully remembered incident. Evidently this recollection of ``hippies'' (as they are often called in the letters) spitting on combat veterans has become one of the war's most unpleasant, enduring images. Conversely, other letters describe acts of generosity toward servicemen, from the typical free beers at the bar to a free show. But the more than 200 letters excerpted here do more than confirm popular notions. They bring back the incidents of 20 years ago vividly, but not always with bitterness. And they reveal healing solidarity among veterans in response to what for many was not a happy homecoming.

Griffiths, Philip Jones. Agent Orange: Collateral Damage in Vietnam (Trolley, 2003).
Philip Jones Griffiths, for a record five years the President of Magnum Photos, created in Vietnam, Inc. a record of the war there of almost Biblical proportions. No one who has seen it will forget its haunting images. In Agent Orange he has added a postscript that is equally memorable.

In 1960 the United States war machine concluded that an efficient deterrent to the enemy troops and civilians would be the. Initial descriptions of the scheme included "Food Denial Program", later adapted to "depriving cover for enemy troops". They gave the idea the name "Operation Hades", but were advised that "Operation Ranch Hand" was a more suitable cognomen for PR purposes.

The US had developed herbicides to destroy the crops and forests that afforded enemy civilians and soldier cover for their operations. The most infamous of these agents came to be known as Agent Orange after the colored stripe on the canisters used to distribute it. The planes that carried the canisters had 'only we can prevent forests!' as a logo on their fuselages. They were right. It was very effective. Unfortunately the herbicide also contained dioxin, probably the world's deadliest poison. In Agent Orange Philip Jones Griffiths has photographed the children and grandchildren of the farmers whose faces were lifted to the gentle rain of the poison cloud.

Hackworth, David H. Colonel and Eijhys England. Steel My Soldiers' Hearts: The Hopeless to Hardcore Transformation of U.S. Army, 4th Battalion, 39th Infantry, Vietnam (Touchstone Books, 2002).
Drawing on interviews with Vietnam War soldiers from the Hardcore Battalion conducted over the past decade, this national bestseller takes readers along on their sniper missions, ambush actions, helicopter strikes, and inside the quagmire of command politics.

Hackworth, David H. Colonel, Julie Sherman and Ward S. Just. About Face: A Warrior's Journey (Simon Schuster, 1989).
Hackworth joined the army at 15 and became a highly decorated soldier. A man of extraordinary bravery and exemplary patriotism, he spent many years in self-imposed exile from the country he served so well. An extraordinary, blood-and-guts autobiography.

Halberstam, David. The Making of a Quagmire. (Random House,1965).
The first book of reporting by the New York Times journalist who won the Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of Vietnam in 1964, as well as several other journalism awards. An early, critical, controversial piece of reporting on the war. The Making of a Quagmire captures the story of the Diem/Kennedy era, and the fundamental misconceptions that governed American policy and the South Vietnamese perspective.

Hallin, Daniel C. Uncensored War: the Media and Vietnam (Oxford University Press, 1986).
Provides a deeply detailed account of what Americans read and watched about Vietnam.

Hanh, Thich Nhat. Fragrant Palm Leaves: Journals, 1962-1966 (Riverhead Trade, 1999).
Best known for his Buddhist teachings, Thich Nhat Hanh has lived in exile from his native Vietnam since 1966. These remarkable early journals reveal not only an exquisite portrait of the Zen master as a young man, but the emergence of a great poet and literary voice of Vietnam. From his years as a student and teaching assistant at Princeton and Columbia, to his efforts to negotiate peace and a better life for the Vietnamese, Fragrant Palm Leaves offers an elegant and profound glimpse into the heart and mind of one of the world's most beloved spiritual teachers.

Henderson, Charles W. Goodnight Saigon (Berkeley Publishing Group, 2005).
Marine Corps veteran and author Charles Henderson chronicles the final days of America's involvement in Vietnam through the voices of those who were there—and those who would never be heard again.

Henderson, Charles W.  Silent Warrior: the Marine Sniper's Vietnam Story Continues (Berkeley Publishing Group 2001).
Continuing the story first begun in Marine Sniper: 93 Confirmed Kills, Henderson reveals even more of the true-life missions of United States Marine Corps sniper Carlos Hathcock with harrowing never-before-published accounts of courage and perseverance.

Henderson, Charles W. Marine Sniper: 93 Confirmed Kills (Berkeley Publishing Group, 2001).
He's silent, invisible. He lies in one position for days, barely twitching a muscle, able to control his heartbeat and breathing. His record has never been matched: 93 confirmed kills. This is the story of Sergeant Carlos Hathcock, Marine sniper, legend of military lore.

Hendrickson, Paul.  The Living and the Dead: Robert McNamara and Five Lives of a Lost War (Papermac, London, 1997).
The author explores the early life and career of Robert McNamara, through his tenure as Secretary of Defense under Lyndon Johnson. He also tells the stories of five people whose lives were deeply affected by McNamara's role in overseeing the Vietnam War: an artist who tries to assassinate McNamara, a Marine scarred by battle in Vietnam, a Quaker who immolates himself in protest of the war, a nurse who endured a traumatic tour of duty in Vietnam, and a Vietnamese man who was enlisted to fight by the U.S. and then left behind when the U.S. pulled out of Vietnam.

Herr, Michael. Dispatches (Knopf, 1977).
Herr, reporting for Rolling Stone and Esquire from Vietnam, was—along with such now-legendary figures as Tim Page, Sean Flynn and Dana Stone—among the first of the young writers to bring the sensibilities of the 1960s and the conventions of the New Journalism to the "first rock-and-roll war," and it was a perfect match: nobody had told the tales Herr was finding in Vietnam and sending back in a riveting series of dispatches, legendary at the time. "Hell Sucks," "Illumination Rounds," "Khe Sanh," and his other pieces told the stories of the war in voices so authentic--the uncensored words of the participants themselves—that their impact was shattering. The official picture of an orderly progression to the war—Body Counts, Vietnamization, Winning Hearts and Minds—bore no relation to the absolute madness and sheer hell that Herr found when he barely scratched the surface and got a glimpse of how the war looked from a grunts'-eye view. His writings helped define the "credibility gap" that made Vietnam so different from earlier wars. These are the individual "dispatches"-- short, separate, individual pieces sent back from Vietnam at different times and from different places.

Herring, George C.  The Pentagon Papers [Abridged] (McGraw-Hill, 1993).
This book provides a brief and manageable collection of the most important documents on U.S. policymaking in the Vietnam War between 1950 and 1968. Edited by the foremost Vietnam historian, this supplementary text can be used in conjunction with any history of the Vietnam War.

Herring, George C. America's Longest War: The United States & Vietnam, 1950-1975 (John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1979).

Comprehensive yet concise, America’s Longest War provides a complete and balanced history of the Vietnam War. It is mainly not a military history, but seeks to integrate military, diplomatic, and political factors in order to clarify America’s involvement and ultimate failure in Vietnam. While it focuses on the American side of the equation, it provides sufficient consideration of the Vietnamese side to make the events comprehensible.

Herrod, Randy. Blue’s Bastards (Dell Publishing, 1992).
As a 17-year-old soldier in Vietnam, Herrod fought in an honor platoon known as "Blue's Bastards", named after famed combat leader Marine Lieutenant Oliver North. After Herrod rescued North during a fierce battle, Herrod was sentenced to death. North later returned to Vietnam, launched his own investigation, and proved Herrod innocent of the charges brought against him.

Hess, Martha.  The Americans Came (Four Walls Eight Windows, 1993; Rutgers University Press, 1994).
As told by Vietnamese people in their own words, this is the first book about how the general population in Vietnam endured and what they felt about the war. Hess interviewed more than 100 people to amass this collection of accounts of wartime experiences.

Hickey, Gerald C. Shattered World: Adaptation and Survival Among Vietnam's Highland Peoples During the Vietnam War (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993).
This work by a pre-eminent anthropologist deals with the profound effects of the Indochina wars on the highland ethnic groups (also known as Montagnards) in terms of displacement, survival, and the effects on their culture. It provides a unique insight into an area usually ignored or lightly covered in other sources.

Him, Chanrithy. When Broken Glass Floats: Growing Up Under the Khmer Rouge (W.W. Norton and Company, 2001).
In this mesmerizing story, Chanrithy Him vividly recounts her trek through the hell of the "killing fields." She gives us a child's-eye view of a Cambodia where rudimentary labor camps for both adults and children are the norm and modern technology no longer exists. Death becomes a companion in the camps, along with illness. Yet through the terror, the members of Chanrithy's family remain loyal to one another, and she and her siblings who survive will find redeemed lives in America.

Hirsch, James S.  Two Souls Indivisible: The Friendship That Saved Two POWs in Vietnam (Houghton Mifflin, 2004).
Hirsch recounts a remarkable friendship forged between two U.S. soldiers in one of the most harrowing settings the 20th century has ever produced--the North Vietnamese POW camp known as the Zoo.

Huynh, Kim Khanh. Vietnamese Communism: 1925-1945 (Cornell University Press, 1982).
The work traces the formation of the ICP, the ultra-nationalist, non social reform era of the 20s, the anti-nationalist international era in the 30s, to a balance emerging at the end of Wthe Second World War and Ho Chi Minh's role in this process. Also discussed are the Trotskyite and Stalinist elements during the thirties.

James, Allston. Attic Light (Capra Press, 1979).
One of the personal accounts of the war that straddles the line between autobiography and autobiographical fiction. The author served in Vietnam in 1969 and this, ostensibly, is an account of his time there and its effects on him afterwards.

Jamieson, Neil L. Understanding Vietnam (University of California Press, 1995).
Neil L. Jamieson, after many years of living and working in Vietnam, has written the book that provides this understanding. Jamieson paints a portrait of 20th-century Vietnam. Against the background of traditional Vietnamese culture, he takes us through the saga of modern Vietnamese history and Western involvement in the country, from the coming of the French in 1858 through the Vietnam War and its aftermath. Throughout his analysis, he allows the Vietnamese—both our friends and foes, and those who wished to be neither—to speak for themselves through poetry, fiction, essays, newspaper editorials, interviews, and personal experiences. By putting our old and partial perceptions into this new and broader context, Jamieson provides positive insights that may perhaps ease the lingering pain and doubt resulting from our involvement in Vietnam. As the United States and Vietnam appear poised to embark on a new phase in their relationship, Jamieson's book is particularly timely.

Jensen-Stevenson, Monika.  Spite House: the Last Secret of the War in Vietnam (Avon Books, 1998).
An account of a man held prisoner by the Viet Cong for 14 years, until 1979, and who was labeled a traitor and convicted of collaborating with the enemy on his return to the U.S.

Jensen-Stevenson, Monika and William Stevenson. Kiss the Boys Goodbye: How the United States Betrayed Its Own POWs in Vietnam (Plume Books, 1991).

The bestselling expose of a major political scandal--in the tradition of All the President's Men and Spycatcher. The story of a five-year investigation by two award-winning journalists, Kiss the Boys Goodbye reveals heartbreaking evidence of POWs abandoned in Vietnam, of official obstruction and missing files, censored testimony and thinly veiled threats from government sources.

Jorgenson, Kregg. Acceptable Loss (Ivy Books, 1991).
After watching most of his buddies die in a firefight when his LRRP team was overrun by the NVA, Jorgenson volunteered to serve on a Blue Team in the Air Cavalry--under intense enemy fire--racing to aid fliers downed and down for the count. Jorgenson survived 54 missions as point man in just 10 months in Vietnam.

Jules, Roy. The Battle of Dienbienphu (Pyramid Press, 1965).
Forty years ago, France's war with the anti-colonial Communist-led Viet Minh insurgency climaxed in the bloody battle for the valley of Dien Bien Phu. The Viet Minh's victory put the 17 million people of North Vietnam under Communist rule and would, in two years, induce America's attempt to save South Vietnam -- without heeding the French army's catastrophic defeat. That defeat, former French soldier Jules Roy explains, occurred not because of a shortage of arms or troops, but more important, less tangible reasons. Hungry for a textbook victory, the French military command occupied the valley in a plan to lure the Viet Minh down from the hills to destroy them with supposedly superior artillery. Roy vividly shows how French political infighting in Paris and rivalry in the high command left a few romantic professional officers and soldiers of the French Expeditionary Corps and the Foreign Legion to be surrounded and then overwhelmed by totally dedicated and resourceful enemy forces. Roy also profiles Viet Minh soldiers and commanders and how they ended more than 80 years of French colonial rule in North Vietnam.

Just, Ward. To What End (Public Affairs Press, 2000).
As a young man, Ward Just spent 18 months in Vietnam as a correspondent for The Washington Post. The experience would earn him both a citation from the Overseas Press Club and a Combat Infantryman's Badge awarded by the commander of the First Brigade of the 101st Airborne Division, and would serve as subject matter for decades of writing and many acclaimed, bestselling novels.

The experience also inspired his very first book: a vivid, personal evocation of the atmosphere, the politics, and the moral dilemmas of Vietnam at the height of American involvement. Neither a polemic nor an apologia, To What End was the very first book published to ask the question: What are we doing here? It offers a morally ambiguous view of the war that was radical in its day and still bears the sting of truth.

Publishers Weekly called it "stunning in both scope and content." American Library Association's Booklist commented: "The structure of this unique anthology is tremendously effective: stories by American writers alternate with those by Vietnamese writers, and they relate to each other in ways both expected and quite startling. And the roster of writers is extraordinary."

Karnow, Stanley. Vietnam: A History (Penguin, 1997).
This monumental narrative clarifies, analyzes, and demystifies the tragic ordeal of the Vietnam War. Free of ideological bias, profound in its understanding, and compassionate in its human portrayals, it is filled with fresh revelations drawn from secret documents and from exclusive interviews with the participants—French, American, Vietnamese, Chinese: diplomats, military commanders, high government officials, journalists, nurses, workers, and soldiers. Vietnam: A History puts events and decisions into such sharp focus that we come to understand - and make peace with - a convulsive epoch of our recent history.

Ketwig, John. And a Hard Rain Fell: A GI's True Story of the War in Vietnam (Sourcebooks, reissue, 2002).
”I set out to write a book. It was 1982, Fourteen years after I had last set foot in Vietnam, and thirteen years after I returned to The World. I had a family and a career. I'd never written more than an occasional letter to the editor in my life. My twisted insides had spawned ulcers. The nightmares were more frequent. I needed to get Vietnam out into the open, but I couldn't talk about it. Not after all those years.” Thus begins John Ketwig's powerful memoir of the Vietnam War. Now, over 15 years after its initial publication, And a Hard Rain Fell has been reissued with a new introduction by the author and eight pages of never-before-published photographs. From the country roads of upstate New York to the jungles of Vietnam, and finally to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., ...And A Hard Rain Fell is a gripping and visceral account of one young man's struggle to make sense of his place in a world gone mad.

Kimball, Jeffrey.  Nixon’s Vietnam War (University Press of Kansas, 1998).
In this "enormously impressive work that lays bare the real Nixon and, along the way, reduces Nixon's version of the war to a legend of his own making" (Stanley Kutler, author of Abuse of Power and The Wars of Watergate), Kimball goes behind the scenes in Washington and into the minds of America's leaders to provide the most complete and balanced analysis of Nixon's and Kissinger's complex and tortuous strategy and diplomacy.

Kinney, Katherine. Friendly Fire (Oxford University Press, 2000).
Hundreds of memoirs, novels, plays, and movies have been devoted to the American war in Vietnam. In spite of the great variety of media, political perspectives, and the degrees of seriousness with which the war has been treated, Katherine Kinney argues that the vast majority of these works share a single story: that of Americans killing Americans in Vietnam. Friendly Fire, in this instance, refers not merely to a tragic error of war, it also refers to America's war with itself during the Vietnam years. Starting from this point, this book considers the concept of "friendly fire" from multiple vantage points, and portrays the Vietnam age as a crucible where America's cohesive image of itself is shattered -- pitting soldiers against superiors, doves against hawks, feminism against patriarchy, racial fear against racial tolerance.

Kissinger, Henry A. Crisis: The Anatomy of Two Major Foreign Policy Crises (Simon and Schuster, 2004).
In this unique historical record, Henry Kissinger reveals what goes on behind the scenes at the highest levels in a diplomatic crisis, by drawing upon previously unpublished transcripts of his telephone conversations during the Yom Kippur War (1973) and the last days of the Vietnam War (1975).

The army assumed that it could transplant to Indochina the operational methods that had been successful in the European battle theaters of World War II, an approach that proved ill-suited to the way the Vietnamese Communist forces fought. Theirs was a war of insurgency, and counterinsurgency, Krepinevich contends, requires light infantry formations, firepower restraint, and the resolution of political and social problems within the nation. To the very end, top military commanders refused to recognize this.

Krepinevich documents the deep division not only between the American military and civilian leaders over the very nature of the war, but also within the U.S. Army itself. Through extensive research in declassified material and interviews with officers and men with battlefield experience, he shows that those engaged in the combat understood early on that they were involved in a different kind of conflict. Their reports and urgings were discounted by the generals, who pressed on with a conventional war that brought devastation but little success.

A thorough analysis of the U.S. Army's role in the Vietnam War, this book demonstrates with chilling persuasiveness the ways in which the army was unprepared to fight -- lessons applicable to today's wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The Cat from Hué has earned passionate acclaim from many of the most renowned journalists and writers about the war, as well as from military officers and war veterans, book reviewers, and readers. Now available in trade paperback with a new epilogue, this book will stand with Michael Herr's Dispatches, Philip Caputo's A Rumor of War, and Neil Sheehan's A Bright, Shining Lie as one of the best books ever written about Vietnam-and about war generally.

Moore, Harold G. We Were Soldiers Once... and Young: Ia Drang--The Battle That Changed the War in Vietnam. (Perennial; Harper edition, 1993).

In November 1965, some 450 men of the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, under the command of Lt. Col. Hal Moore, were dropped by helicopter into a small clearing in the Ia Drang Valley. They were immediately surrounded by 2,000 North Vietnamese soldiers. Three days later, only two and a half miles away, a sister battalion was chopped to pieces. Together, these actions at the landing zones X-Ray and Albany constituted one of the most savage and significant battles of the Vietnam War.  <!-- @page { margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } -->

How these men persevered--sacrificed themselves for their comrades and never gave up--makes a vivid portrait of war at its most inspiring and devastating. General Moore and Joseph Galloway, the only journalist on the ground throughout the fighting, have interviewed hundreds of men who fought there, including the North Vietnamese commanders. This devastating account rises above the specific ordeal it chronicles to present a picture of men facing the ultimate challenge, dealing with it in ways they would have found unimaginable only a few hours earlier. It reveals to us, as rarely before, man's most heroic and horrendous endeavor. 

Each year, the Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps selects one book that he believes is both relevant and timeless for reading by all Marines. The Commandant's choice for 1993 is We Were Soldiers Once . . . and Young.

Nguyen, Kien. The Unwanted: A Memoir of Childhood. (Back Bay Books, 1st Back Bay edition, 2002).

Kien Nguyen grew up an outsider in his native land. His once prosperous family, thrust into poverty at the dawn of a new political regime, lived among neighbors who treated them as an unwelcome remnant of the colonialist past. Kien himself, a child of mixed race (his father was American), was among the most unwanted.

Told with a stark, poetic brilliance, Kien's account of his early years-from the fall of Saigon, when at age eight he watched the last U.S. Army helicopter leave without him and his family, to his eventual escape-is a work of profound emotional resonance, at once harrowing and inspiring. The Unwanted unforgettably records a universal human experience played out in extreme circumstances: the forging of an identity, a life.

O’Neill, Susan Kramer. Don't Mean Nothin : Short Stories of Vietnam. (Ballantine Books; 1st educational edition, 2001).

In this debut story collection–the first by a woman who served in Vietnam– Susan O’Neill offers a remarkable, unprecedented glimpse into the war from a female perspective. All the nurses who served there shared a common bond: to attend to the wounded. While men were sent to protect America’s interests at any cost, nurses were trained to save the lives of anyone–soldier or citizen, ally or enemy–who was brought through the hospital doors. It was an important distinction in a place where killing was sometimes the only objective. And since they were so vastly outnumbered, women were both revered and sexually craved. For these women and the men among whom they worked and lived a common defense against the awful onslaught of dead and dying, wounded and maimed, was a feigned indifference, the irony of the helpless. “Don’t mean nothing” became their mantra, a small bunker in the real war–the war against total mental breakdown.

Powerful, provocative, and often wonderfully funny, each of these tales offers new and profound insight into how the war in Vietnam forever changed the lives of everyone who served there. “Broken Stone” is an astute look at the relinquishing of faith and the sacredness of sex. The tremendously touching “Butch” is a story of love, loss, and the native casualties of war. And the darkly hilarious “Monkey on Our Backs” follows the escapades of a much-maligned and detested pet primate who causes one Lieutenant so much grief that she asks a Marine to kill it. But like the cat that came back, the monkey remains–a reminder that taming a jungle is an exercise in futility. A moving contribution by a woman to the literature of Vietnam, Don’t Mean Nothing is eye-opening and unforgettable. Here is a book that enlarges our understanding of the American experience in Vietnam.

Pham, Andrew X. Catfish and Mandala: A Two-Wheeled Voyage through the Landscape and Memory of Vietnam. (Picador, 2000).

Catfish and Mandala is the story of an American odyssey—a solo bicycle voyage around the Pacific Rim to Vietnam—made by a young Vietnamese-American man in pursuit of both his adopted homeland and his forsaken fatherland.

Andrew X. Pham was born in Vietnam and raised in California. His father had been a POW of the Vietcong; his family came to America as "boat people." Following the suicide of his sister, Pham quit his job, sold all of his possessions, and embarked on a year-long bicycle journey that took him through the Mexican desert, around a thousand-mile loop from Narita to Kyoto in Japan; and, after five months and 2,357 miles, to Saigon, where he finds "nothing familiar in the bombed-out darkness." In Vietnam, he's taken for Japanese or Korean by his countrymen, except, of course, by his relatives, who doubt that as a Vietnamese he has the stamina to complete his journey ("Only Westerners can do it"); and in the United States he's considered anything but American. A vibrant, picaresque memoir written with narrative flair and an eye-opening sense of adventure, Catfish and Mandala is an unforgettable search for cultural identity. Winner of the Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize, A New York Times Notable Book of the Year, Winner of the Whiting Writers' Award, and A Seattle Post-Intelligencer Best Book of the Year.

Phan, Aimee. We Should Never Meet. (St. Martin's Press, 2004).

Compelling, moving, and beautifully written, the interlinked stories that make up We Should Never Meet alternate between Saigon before the city's fall in 1975 and present-day "Little Saigon" in Southern California---exploring the reverberations of the Vietnam War in a completely new light.
Intersecting the lives of eight characters across three decades and two continents, these stories dramatize the events of Operation Babylift, the U.S.-led evacuation of thousands of Vietnamese orphans to America just weeks before the fall of Saigon. Unwitting reminders of the war, these children were considered bui doi, the dust of life, and faced an uncertain, dangerous existence if left behind in Vietnam.

Four of the stories follow the saga of one orphan's journey from the points-of-view of a teenage mother, a duck farmer and a Catholic nun from the Mekong Delta, a social worker in Saigon, and a volunteer doctor from America. The other four take place twenty years later and chronicle the lives of four Vietnamese orphans now living in America: Kim, an embittered Amerasian searching for her unknown mother; Vinh, her gang member ex-boyfriend who preys on Vietnamese families; Mai, an ambitious orphan who faces her emancipation from the American foster-care system; and Huan, an Amerasian adopted by a white family, who returns to Vietnam with his adoptive mother. We Should Never Meet is one of those rare books that truly takes an original look at the human condition---and marks the exciting debut of a major new writer for our time.

Powell, Mary Reynolds. A World of Hurt: Between Innocence & Arrogance in Vietnam. (Greenleaf Book Group; 1st educational edition, 2000).

In 1970, twenty-three year-old Army nurse, Mary Reynolds boarded a plane bound for Vietnam. Uncertain and alone, Mary had no idea what lay ahead. Almost thirty years later, Mary tells of that year in her life: a year of discomfort, fear and anger, as well as courage, hope and love. She includes the stories of seven of her friends, among them a dust-off helicopter pilot, an infantry captain, a Vietnamese aide, a drug counselor, and an emergency room nurse, who were with her in Vietnam.

A World of Hurt: Between Innocence and Arrogance in Vietnam describes a war "winding down," while thousands still died. The survivors discovered that their perspectives about war, their country and themselves were forever changed.

Sheehan, Neil. A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam. (Vintage; Vintage edition, 1989).
This passionate, epic account of the Vietnam War centers on Lt. Col. John Paul Vann, whose story illuminates America's failures and disillusionment in Southeast Asia. Vann was a field adviser to the army when American involvement was just beginning. He quickly became appalled at the corruption of the South Vietnamese regime, their incompetence in fighting the Communists, and their brutal alienation of their own people. Finding his superiors too blinded by political lies to understand that the war was being thrown away, he secretly briefed reporters on what was really happening. One of those reporters was Neil Sheehan. This definitive expose on why America lost the war won the Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction in 1989. (Amazon Review)

Truong, Monique. The Book of Salt. (Mariner Books, 2004).
The Book of Salt serves up a wholly original take on Paris in the 1930s through the eyes of Binh, the Vietnamese cook employed by Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas. Viewing his famous mesdames and their entourage from the kitchen of their rue de Fleurus home, Binh observes their domestic entanglements while seeking his own place in the world. In a mesmerizing tale of yearning and betrayal, Monique Truong explores Paris from the salons of its artists to the dark nightlife of its outsiders and exiles. She takes us back to Binh's youthful servitude in Saigon under colonial rule, to his life as a galley hand at sea, to his brief, fateful encounters in Paris with Paul Robeson and the young Ho Chi Minh.

Van Devanter, Lynda. Home Before Morning: The Story of an Army Nurse in Vietnam. (University of Massachusetts Press; reprint edition, 2001).
"This incredible story, which plunges us immediately into the bloodiest aspects of the war, is also a suspenseful autobiography that will keep you chewing your fingernails to see if Van Devanter survives any of it at all. She proves herself a natural storyteller. . . . The most extraordinary part in this book is Van Devanter's plight after the war-her attempt to retrieve the love of her family, only to realize they don't want to see her slides, hear her stories; her assignment to menial duties at Walter Reed Army Hospital. . . . How Van Devanter survives all of this to become, incredibly, a stronger person for it is what makes her book so riveting." (San Francisco Chronicle)

Walker, Keith. A Piece of My Heart: The Stories of 26 American Women Who Served in Vietnam. (Presidio Press; reprint edition, 1997).

Records the memories of a war in the words of those women courageous enough to walk into hell. U.S. women were active participants in the war, [and] although they did not bear arms, they served under horrendous conditions with bravery…The women share stories filled with terror and pathos, and some of their remembrances, especially from the nurses, are hard to take.