ANNALS OF VIETNAM

Amazon has come up with a compact and admirable e-book reader called the Kindle, with a keyboard and wireless access. (It uses the Verizon network.) I'm impressed enough to start converting my books to the Kindle format, among them the Vietnam novel Incident at Muc Wa, which was the basis for that splendid Burt Lancaster movie, Go Tell the Spartans. The price is $5.99. Check out the Kindle! (Well, get on the waiting list, because it's currently sold out.)

Google, which is busily changing the world, is also digitizing books, and you can read selected chapters of Incident at Muc Wa online. The same is true of my Vietnam journal, The Only War We've Got. .

Blue skies! -- Dan Ford

The homework FAQ:

• "I need to know everything about Vietnam by Thursday!"

Early days in South Vietnam:

• The Only War We've Got (a reporter's journal, 1964)
• Incident at Muc Wa (the novel, 1967)
• Burt Lancaster takes charge (filming, 1978)
• Go Tell the Spartans (the movie, 1978)
• The critics look at Go Tell the Spartans
• "They just fall apart in mid-air" (planes over Vietnam, 1964)
• How was the American soldier trained? (notes from Fort Dix)
• Was America losing in Vietnam under JFK?
• A Vietnam slide show
• A Special Forces team under threat of attack (academic paper)
• The Tonkin Gulf incidents, summer 1964
• Philippe Drouin--aka Cowboy--interpreter and warlord
• "Aggression from the North" (the State Dept. White Paper)
• Did Japanese soldiers fight for the Vietminh?

Remembering the quagmire:

• Spad Two goes missing in Laos
• Sharkface Huey gunship in Vietnam
• "The Collapse of the Armed Forces" (Col Robert Heinl)
• Remembering the Phoenix Program (Larrry O'Daniel)
• The Media and Vietnam (Erin McLaughlin)
• The Quiet American filming in Hanoi
• Goodbye to the Huey!
• The longest war remembered: Vietnam stamp
• The myth of the girl in the photo (Ronald Timberlake)
• Professor Ellis: the Vietnam vet wannabe
• "My Heart's Content" (Pat Conroy remembers the war he avoided)
• With the Green Berets in Afghanistan
• Question? Join the email list or ask on the discussion boards

The presidential papers:

• George W. Bush: military pilot
• Convair F-102 Delta Dagger
• On flying the F-102A (Walt BJ)

Books & stuff

• Nam-a-Rama: a wonderfully funny novel
• Stolen Valor: Vietnam, lies, and the media (Burkett)
• Clark Welch and the battle of Ông Thanh
• The Village (West)
• The Vietnam War on video
• A Vietnam reading list (John Tegtmeier)
• When Thunder Rolled: F-105 over Vietnam (Rasimus)
• Green Berets in the Vanguard, 1953-1963 (Archer)
• Only War We've Got: Early Days in South Vietnam (Ford)
• Incident at Muc Wa (Ford)
• War Story (Morris)

Some worthwhile links:

• Center for Military History: Vietnam bookshelf
• Vietnam: Echoes From the Wall (high school resource)
• Vietnam Veterans' Home Page (from the vets' viewpoint)
• No-Quarter.org: the casualty search page
• Vietnam Veterans' Memorial data base

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