Fifty Books about the Vietnam War

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.

1. Adams, Sam, introduction by Col. David Hackworth. War of Numbers: An Intelligence Memoir. South Royalton, VT: Steerforth Press, 1994. 
2. Anderegg, Michael, ed. Inventing Vietnam: The War in Film and Television. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1991.
3. Arnett, Peter. Live from the Battlefield: From Vietnam to Baghdad, 35 Years in the World's War Zones. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994.
4. Bilton, Michael and Kevin Sim. Four Hours in My Lai. New York: Viking, 1992. 
5. Brennan, Matthew. Brennan's War: Vietnam 1965-1969. Novato, CA: Presidio, 1985. 
6. Broughton, Col. Jack. Thud Ridge. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1969; New York: Bantam, 1985. 
7. Browne, Malcolm. The New Face of War. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1965.
8. 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.
9. Caputo, Philip. A Rumor of War. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1977; Ballantine, 1978. 
10. Chomsky, Noam. Rethinking Camelot: JFK, the Vietnam War, and U.S. Political Culture. Boston: South End Press, 1993.
11. Del Vecchio, John. The 13th Valley. New York: Bantam, 1982.
12. Downs, Frederick Jr. The Killing Zone. New York: Norton, 1978; Berkley, 1983.
13. 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.
14. Fall, Bernard. Hell in a Very Small Place: The Siege of Dien Bien Phu. Philadelphia: J.J. Lippincott Company, 1967.
15. Fall, Bernard. Street Without Joy. 4th ed. rev. Harrisburg, PA: Stackpole, 1964.
16. 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.
17. Gelb, Leslie H. with Richard K. Betts. The Irony of Vietnam: The System Worked. Washington: The Brookings Institution, 1979.
18. 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.
19. Grant, Zalin. Facing the Phoenix: The CIA and the Political Defeat of the United States in Vietnam. New York: Norton, 1991.
20. Hallin, Daniel C. The "Uncensored War": The Media and Vietnam. New York: Oxford University Press, 1986. 
21. Herr, Michael. Dispatches. New York: Knopf, 1977; Vintage International, 1991.
22. Herrington, Stuart. Silence was a Weapon: The Vietnam War in the Villages. Novato, CA: Presidio, 1982.
23. Hickey, Gerald C. Free in the Forest: Ethnohistory of the Vietnamese Central Highlands, 1954-1976. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1982.
24. Hickey, Gerald C. Shattered World: Adaptation and Survival among Vietnam's Highland Peoples During the Vietnam War. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993.
25. Hickey, Gerald C. Sons of the Mountains: Ethnohistory of the Vietnamese Central Highlands to 1954. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1982.
26. Isaacs, Arnold. Without Honor: Defeat in Vietnam and Cambodia. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1983.
27. Karnow, Stanley. Vietnam: A History. New York: Viking, 1983. 
28. Krepinevich, Andrew F., Jr. The Army in Vietnam. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986.
29. MacPherson, Myra. Long Time Passing: Vietnam and the Haunted Generation. Garden City, NY: Doubleday and Company, 1984.
30. Martin, Andrew. Receptions of War: Vietnam in American Culture. Oklahoma project for discourse and theory, v. 10. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1993.
31. Mason, Robert. Chickenhawk. New York: Viking, 1983. McMahon, Robert J. ed., Major Problems in the History of the Vietnam War, 2nd ed. (D.C. Heath, 1995).
32. Moore, Lt. Gen. Harold G. and Joseph L. Galloway. We Were Soldiers Once . . . and Young. New York: Random House, 1992. 
33. Oberdorfer, Don. Tet. New York: Doubleday, 1971; DaCapo: 1984. Palmer, Laura. Shrapnel in the Heart: Letters and Remembrances From the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. New York: Randon House, 1987. Pentagon Papers: 
34. 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.
35. The Pentagon Papers: The Defense Department History of United States Decision making on Vietnam. Boston: Beacon Press, 1971, 1972. 5 vols.
36. 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. 
37. Puller, Lewis B. Jr. Fortunate Son: The Autobiography of Lewis B. Puller, Jr. New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1991; Bantam, 1993.
38. Race, Jeffrey. War Comes to Long An. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1972.
39. Sansom, Robert L. The Economics of Insurgency in the Mekong Delta. MIT Press, 1970.
40. Shafer, D. Michael, ed. The Legacy: The Vietnam War in the American Imagination. Boston: Beacon Press, 1990. 
41. Shawcross, William. Sideshow: Kissinger, Nixon, and the Destruction of Cambodia. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1979.
42. Shay, Jonathan. Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character. New York: Atheneum, 1994.
43. Sheehan, Neil. A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam. New York: Randon House, 1988. 
44. Sheppard, Don. Riverine: A Brown-Water Sailor in the Delta, 1967. Novato, CA: Presidio, 1992.
45. Snepp, Frank. Decent Interval. New York: Random House, 1977. 
46. Thayer, Carlyle A. War by Other Means: National Liberation and Revolution in Vietnam, 1954-60. Cambridge, MA: Unwin Hyman, 1989.
47. Tollefson, James W. The Strength Not to Fight: An Oral History of Conscientious Objectors of the Vietnam War. Boston: Little, Brown, 1993.
48. Turley, Col. Gerald H. The Easter Offensive. Novato, CA: Presidio, 1985.
49. Turley, William S. The Second Indochina War: A Short Political and Military History,1954-1975. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1986.
50. Westmoreland, General William. A Soldier Reports. New York: Doubleday, 1976.

Note: 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.