Vietnam reading list

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A Vietnam reading list

[From the moderated--and sadly no longer active--Vietnam Newsgroup FAQ. If a book is in print, I link to it at Amazon. I haven't attempted to update the list, for example to include Max Hasting's annoying but valuable Vietnam: An Epic Tragedy, 1945-1975 -- Daniel Ford]

The recommended reading list for the Indochina wars developed by the moderators of soc.history.war.vietnam primarily on the basis of an extensive survey of noted academics/authors in the field, veterans and members of the era's anti-war movement and we continue to make ongoing inquiries regarding new works. We have also attempted to make this list as diversified as possible, both in the range of topics and the viewpoints represented.

The reading list itself has been divided into several sections for ease on use. The first section of the reading list is a short core reading list, works both of exceptional merit and focus. The core reading are designed to give both the casual reader and the serious student an overview of the varous aspects of the conflicts in Southeast Asia.

The remaining sections represent a more extensive selction of material in particular areas of interest, ranging from politics to combat to socio-cultural issues to fiction and literary criticism.

We strongly suggest that readers who are unfamiliar with Vietnamese culture and society read at least one of the core offerings in that area (such as Jamieson's Understanding Vietnam) to gain some prespective before tackling the history of the wars.... Enjoy -- John Tegtmeier, moderator, soc.history.war.vietnam

Section I. Historical and Social Science Analysis

A. General Works
B. The French War: World War II to the Geneva Accords
C. Geneva to the American Combat Involvement in Vietnam (1954 - 1965)
D. Period of US Ground Combat (1965 - 1972)
E. From the American Withdrawal to the Fall of the South (1972 - 1975)
F. Covert Operations and Intelligence
G. Laos and Cambodia.
H. Military Personal Narratives and Oral Histories
I. Specialized Topics: The Press
J. Specialized Topics: The Draft
K. Specialized Topics: War Crime Allegations
L. Culture and Politics in Vietnam
M. North Vietnam, the PAVN and the NLF
N. The Anti-War Movement in the US
P. Aftermath and Remembrance - POW/MIAs
R. Document Collections and Reference Works

Section II. Cultural Representations of the War: Critical Analysis, Fiction, Poetry, Film and Folklore

A. Analysis and Criticism: Cultural Representations of the Vietnam War
B. Novels: Representations of the Vietnam War
C. Poetry
D. Folklore

Cowboy: interpreter, warlord, one more casualty

Section I. Historical and Social Science Analysis

A. General Works

Baritz, Loren. Backfire : A History of How American Culture Led Us Into Vietnam and Made Us Fight the Way We Did. New York: Morrow, 1985.

Gelb, Leslie H. with Richard K. Betts. The Irony of Vietnam : The System Worked. Washington: The Brookings Institution, 1979.

Gibson, James. The Perfect War: Technowar in Vietnam. Boston: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1986; New York: Vintage, 1988.

Karnow, Stanley. Vietnam: A History. New York: Viking, 1983; revised edition, New York: Penguin USA, 1991.
*CORE* A massive history by a journalist written as a companion to the PBS series (Vietnam : A Television History). Much of the volume concentrates on the American involvement, although there is a useful discussion of earlier history and the First Indochina War. The work is generally unbiased, and reflects Karnow's access to many of the major figures involved. The original edition (1983) contains some errors which were corrected in the 1984 paperback edition.

Kolko, Gabriel. Anatomy of a War: Vietnam, the United States, and the Modern Historical Experience. New York: Pantheon, 1985; reprint, New Press, 1994.

Pratt, John Clark, comp. Vietnam Voices: Perspectives on the War Years, 1941-1982. New York: Penguin, 1984.
This is a highly recommended and somewhat usual work. Pratt has collected everything from official documents to oral history to fiction to wall graffiti in order to shed some light on the cultural impact of the American involvement in the Vietnam War.

Sheehan, Neil. A Shining Bright Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam. New York: Random House, 1988; Vintage, 1989.
*CORE* Major study of the US involvement in Vietnam, traced through the actions of a man who became both one of the most senior advisors and strategist and critics of the way the war was waged, John Paul Vann. Sheehan was an Army journalist prior to the war, and covered Vietnam first for UPI, then for the NY Times.

Westmoreland, General William. A Soldier Reports. New York: Doubleday, 1976; reprint, New York: Da Capo Press, 1989. Young, Marilyn B. The Vietnam Wars, 1945-1990. New York: Harper Collins, 1991.

B. The French War: World War II to the Geneva Accords.

Fall, Bernard. Hell in a Very Small Place: The Seige of Dien Bien Phu. Philadelphia: J.J. Lippincott Company, 1967; reprint, New York: Da Capo Press, 1988.
Compelling account of the climatic battle of the First Indochina War, the long and deadly seige of the French stronghold at Dien Bien Phu by the Viet Minh.

Fall, Bernard. Street Without Joy. With an Introduction by George C. Herring and a Foreword by Marshall Andrews. Harrisburg, PA: Stackpole, 1961; reprint, Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 1994.
*CORE* Reprint by the original publisher of the classic account of the First Indochina War against the French. This edition contains a new introduction by Geoge Herring. The title is derived from the nickname for Highway 1 which runs north-south the lenght of Vietnam along the coastal plain.

Marr, David G. Vietnam 1945 : The Quest For Power. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995.
*CORE* A key study by one of the top writers in English about the pivotal period at the end of the Second World War and the struggle for political ascendency.

Patti, Archimedes. Why Vietnam: Prelude to America's Albatross. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980.
*CORE* Patti served as the head of the Office of Stragetic Services French Indochina mission during WWII. His account deals with the US - Viet Minh cooperation during the war against the Japanese, the relationships with the KMT, and the aftermath of the change in US policies under Truman with regard to Vietnam.

Rotter, Andrew J. The Path to Vietnam: Origins of the American Commitment to Southeast Asia. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1987.

Spector, Ronald. Advice and Support: The Early Years, 1941-1960. The United States Army in Vietnam. Washington: Center of Military History, 1983.

C. Geneva to the American Combat Involvement in Vietnam (1954 - 1965)

Moise, Edwin E. Tonkin Gulf and the Escalation of the War. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1996.

Race, Jeffrey. War Comes to Long An: Revolutionary Conflict in a Vietnamese Province. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1972.
*CORE* The author served in the US Army as a district advisor, and later return as a private citizen to attempt to analyse the political and social processes that he believed were not explained by the conventional military analysis of the conflict. The resultant work is a deeply insightful analysis into the contested social realities of the war and the success of the VCP in Long An Province (just southwest of Saigon in the Mekong Delta). This is an extreme important study which focuses on the war as a social revolution as well as a military contest.

Thayer, Carlyle A. War by Other Means : National Liberation and Revolution in Viet-Nam, 1954-60. Boston: Allen & Unwin, 1989.
*CORE* Thayer presents a systematic and precise account of the formation and implementation of communist policy in Vietnam between the Geneva Accords and the establishment of the National Liberation Front (NLF) in 1960, the transtional period between the First and Second Indochina Wars.

D. Period of US Ground Combat (1965 - 1972)

Berger, Carl, ed. The United States Air Force in Southeast Asia, 1961-1973. Rev ed. Originally published 1973. Washington: Office of Air Force History and U.S. Government Printing Office, 1984.

Bergerud, Eric M. Red Thunder, Tropic Lightning: The World of a Combat Division in Vietnam. Boulder: Westview, 1993; New York: Penguin USA, 1994.
A study of the 25th Division with a significant portion of the book being oral history.

Clarke, Jeffrey J. Advice and Support : The Final Years, 1965- 1973. The United States Army in Vietnam. Washington: Center of Military History, 1988.

Cutler, Lt. Cdr. Thomas J. Brown Water, Black Berets: Coastal and Riverine Warfare in Vietnam. Annapolis, The Naval Institute Press, 1988; New York: Pocket Books, 1996.

Ford, Ronnie E. Tet 1968: Understanding the Surprise. Cass Series - Studies in Intelligence. London: Frank Cass & Co, 1995.

Herrington, Stuart. Silence was a Weapon: The Vietnam War in the Villages. Novato, CA: Presidio, 1982.

Krepinevich, Andrew F., Jr. The Army in Vietnam. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986.

Mangold, Tom and John Penycate. The Tunnels of Cu Chi: The Untold Story of Vietnam. New York: Random House, 1985; Berkley Pub Group: 1994.

Moore, Lt. Gen. Harold G. and Joseph L. Galloway. We Were Soldiers Once . . . and Young. New York: Random House, 1992; Harperperennial, 1993.

Nolan, Keith W. Battle For Hue, Tet 1968. Novato, CA: Presideo Press, 1983.

Oberdorfer, Don. Tet! Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1971; reprint, New York: Da Capo Press, 1984.

Prados, John and Ray W. Stubbe. Valley of Decision: The Siege of Khe Sanh. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1991; Dell, 1993.

Spector, Ronald. After Tet: The Bloodiest Year in Vietnam. New York: The Free Press, 1993; Vintage, 1994.

Stanton, Shelby L. The Rise and Fall of an American Army: U.S. Ground Forces in Vietnam, 1965-1973. Novato, CA: Presidio, 1985; reprint paper, Presideo, 1995.

Turley, Col. Gerald H. The Easter Offensive. Novato, CA: Presidio, 1985; Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1995.

E. From the American Withdrawal to the Fall of the South (1972 - 1975).

Dawson, Alan. 55 Days : The Fall of South Vietnam. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1977.

Isaacs, Arnold. Without Honor: Defeat in Vietnam and Cambodia. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1983.

Snepp, Frank. Decent Interval. New York: Random House, 1977.
Snepp was a senior CIA analyst in Saigon during the period from the American combat withdrawal to the fall of Saigon (1972-75). He relates the story of the CIA's and State Department's failure to understand that Saigon was going to fall, and a stunning indictment of the American abandonment those Vietnamese who had helped the CIA in the midst of the final US evacuation.

F. Covert Operations and Intelligence.

Adams, Sam. War of Numbers: An Intelligence Memoir. Introduction by Col. David Hackworth. South Royalton, VT: Steerforth Press, 1994.
*CORE* Posthumously published work by a CIA analyst concerning the underestimate of enemy forces in Vietnam. The book had been ready for much earlier publication when a great number of documents were declassified for the Westmoreland - CBS suit on the order of battle controversy. Adams felt he had to incorporate the newly available material; however, at the time of his death in 1988, much was still left out. Despite this incompleteness, the work shreds much light on the question of intelligence throughout the war.

McGehee, Ralph. Deadly Deceits: My 25 Years in the CIA. New York: Sheridan Square Publications, 1983.

Tourison, Sedgwick D. Secret Army, Secret War: Washington's Tragic Spy Operation in North Vietnam. Naval Institute Special Warfare Series. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1995.
Tourison's account of SOG's covert operations into North Vietnam, Oplan 34A, prior to the Tonkin Gulf incident and the formal U.S. entry into combat. Using documents from both sides as well as oral history interviews from the participants, this is the story of failed ops in the early 1960's, and ultimately the betrayal of those Vietnamese operatives by the U.S.

Tourison, Sedgwick D. Talking with Victor Charlie : An Interrogator's Story. New York: Ivy Books (Ballantine), 1991. Valentine, Douglas. The Phoenix Program. New York: William Morrow and Company, 1990; Avon Books, 1992.

G. Laos and Cambodia.

Chandler, David P. The Tragedy of Cambodian History : Politics, War and Revolution since 1945. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1992.

Dommen, Arthur J. Laos : Keystone of Indochina. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1985.

Fall, Bernard. Anatomy of a Crisis: The Story of the Laotian Crisis of 1960-1961. Garden City, NY: Doubleday and Company, 1969.
A good account of the aftermath of the Viet Minh invasion of Laos during the First Indochina War, and a stinging inditement of the policies of Eisenhower/Dulles leading to the Laotian Crisis.

Parker, James E., Jr. Codename Mule, Fighting the Secret War in Laos for the CIA. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1995.

Shawcross, William. Sideshow : Kissinger, Nixon, and the Destruction of Cambodia. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1979.

Warner, Roger. Back Fire : The CIA's Secret War in Laos and Its Link to the War in Vietnam. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995.

H. Military Personal Narratives and Oral Histories.

Brennan, Matthew. Brennan's War : Vietnam 1965-1969. Novato, CA: Presidio, 1985; Pocket Books, 1989.

Broughton, Col. Jack. Thud Ridge. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1969; New York: Bantam, 1985.

Caputo, Philip. A Rumor of War. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1977; Ballantine, 1978.
*CORE* Award winning memoir by a Lieutenant in the Marine 9th Expeditionary Brigade in 1965 - 1966. The work is a powerful and compelling account of the early part of US ground combat involvement, including Caputo's court-marshall for the killing of a Vietnamese civilian which raises questions about both the nature of US tactics and the nature on guerilla warfare. The book also contains a short section on Caputo's experiences in 1975 as a journalist during the fall of the South.

Downs, Frederick Jr. The Killing Zone. New York: Norton, 1978.

Mason, Robert. Chickenhawk. New York: Viking, 1983.

Maurer, Harry. Strange Ground : Americans in Vietnam, 1945-1975: An Oral History. New York: Henry Holt, 1989.
A strong collection of pieces of oral history from folks in a miriad of different positions, spanning all eras in the American involvement.

Metzner, Edward. More Than a Soldier's War : Pacification in Vietnam. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1995.
*CORE* Memoir of a multi-tour US veteran who served as an advisor on the provincial level. The work provide significant insights into an aspect of the American involvement that is often overlooked.

Santoli, Al. Everything We Had : An Oral History of the Vietnam War by Thirty-three American Soldiers Who Fought It. New York: Random House, 1981; Ballantine, 1982.

Sheppard, Don. Riverine : A Brown-Water Sailor in the Delta, 1967. Novato, CA: Presidio, 1992; reprint, New York: Pocket Books, 1994.

Terry, Wallace. Bloods : An Oral History of the Vietnam War By Black Veterans. New York: Random House, 1984; reissue paper, Ballantine Books, 1989.

Walker, Keith. A Piece of My Heart : The Stories of Twenty Six American Women who Served in Vietnam. Novato, CA: Presidio Press, 1985; New York: Ballantine, 1987.

I. Specialized Topics: The Press

Arnett, Peter. Live from the Battlefield : From Vietnam to Baghdad, 35 Years in the World's War Zones. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994; Touchstone, 1995.

Braestrup, Peter. Big Story : How the American Press and Television Reported and Interpreted the Crisis of Tet 1968 in Vietnam and Washington. Abridged edition. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1983; reprint, Novato, CA: Presideo Press, 1994.

Hallin, Daniel C. "The Uncensored War" : The Media and Vietnam. New York: Oxford University Press, 1986; Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989.
*CORE* A major and systematic scholarly analysis of coverage of the war by major news organizations, in particular the New York Times (1961-65) and the television networks (1965-73), and its impact on the social construction of the war.

Herr, Michael. Dispatches. New York: Knopf, 1977; Vintage International, 1991.

Prochnau, William W. Once Upon a Distant War. New York: Times Books, 1995.
A detailed look at the press in the early days of the war - Sheehan, Halberstam, Browne, Arnett, etc.

Small, Melvin. Covering Dissent : The Media and the Anti-Vietnam War Movement. Perspectives in the Sixties. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1994.

J. Specialized Topics: The Draft

Appy, Christian G. Working Class War : American Combat Soldiers and Vietnam. Chapel Hill: University North Carolina Press, 1993.

Baskir, Lawrence M. and William A. Strauss. Chance and Circumstance : The Draft, the War, and the Vietnam Generation. With a Foreword by Theodore M. Hesburgh. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978.
Still the most complete study of the draft available, as well as dishonorable and general discharges from the military. Baskir was the General Counsel and Chief Executive Officier of President Ford's Clemency Board; Strauss was its Director of Planning and Management as well as the director of the staff that issued the final report. Contains extemely important information and statistics about various aspects and inequalities of the selective service system. The work was originally sponsored by the University of Notre Dame.

K. Specialized Topics: War Crime Allegations

Bilton, Michael and Kevin Sim. Four Hours in My Lai. New York: Viking, 1992; Penguin USA, 1993.
*CORE* A fine detailed and relatively unbiased account of the massacre at My Lai 4, the subsequent cover-up and the investigations that followed. Bilton and Sim are British journalist who don't bring to this work as much baggage as American authors do, and there was some historical distance between the events and their writing.

Vietnam Veterans Against the War. The Winter Soldier Investigation : An Inquiry into American War Crimes. Boston: Beacon Press, 1972.

L. Culture and Politics in Vietnam.

Hess, Martha. Then the Americans Came : Voices from Vietnam. New York: Four Walls Eight Windows, 1993; New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1994.

Hickey, Gerald C. Shattered World : Adaptation and Survival among Vietnam's Highland Peoples During the Vietnam War. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993.
*CORE* This work, by a pre-eminent anthropologist who is extensively published in this area, 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.

Huynh Kim Khanh. Vietnamese Communism : 1925-1945. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1982.
*CORE* The definitive study of the implanting and evolution of a European anti-capitalist ideology on a Vietnamese socio-political conflict of anti-colonial nationalism and anti-feudal peasant movements within the context of the debate about modernization. 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 WWII and Ho Chi Minh's role in this process. Also discussed are the Trotskyite and Stalinist elements during the thirties.

Jamieson, Neil L. Understanding Vietnam. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993.
*CORE* An important study which tries to place the Indochina Wars within the context of the century long internal debate in Vietnamese society concerning the means and direction of modernization in the wake of the French conquest. Using a variety of Vietnamese cultural and political sourses, Jamieson seeks to place these events in the framework of the struggle to define Vietnamese tradition and society within the context of the need to evolve the culture in reponse to the modern world, a topic which still lies at the heart of much of today's Vietnamese politics.

Marr, David G. Vietnamese Tradition on Trial, 1920-1945. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981.

M. North Vietnam, the PAVN and the NLF.

Bui Tin. Following Ho Chi Minh : The Memoirs of a North Vietnamese Colonel. Translated and adapted by Judy Stowe and Do Van; introduction by Carlyle Thayer. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1995.

Burchett, Wilfred. Vietnam : Inside Story of the Guerrilla War. New York: International Publishers, 1965.

Fall, Bernard, ed. Ho Chi Minh on Revolution : Selected Writings, 1920-66. New York: Praeger, 1967.

Lockhart, Greg. Nation in Arms : The Origins of the People's Army of Vietnam. Cambridge, MA: Unwin Hyman, 1989.

Truong Chinh. Primer for Revolt. New York: Praeger, 1963. Contains two shorter works - "The August Revolution" (1946) and "The Resistance Will Win" (1947).

Vo Nguyen Giap. People's War, People's Army. Forward by Roger Hilsman. New York: Praeger, 1962.

N. The Anti-War Movement in the US.

Ehrhart, W.D. Passing Time : Memoir of a Vietnam Veteran Against the War. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 1989; 2nd ed, Amherst: University of Masschusetts Press, 1995.

Gioglio, Gerald R. Days of Decision : An Oral History of Conscientious Objectors in the Military During the Vietnam War. Trenton: Broken Rifle Press, 1989.
This work contains the oral history of 24 in-service conscientious objectors, including some who served in Vietnam as medics. All services are represented. The histories include the decision making processes of the individuals, the procedures in the military for the application for CO status, and the court marshalls of some of those relating their narratives. Valuable study of the GI anti-war movement on a personal scale.

Heineman, Kenneth. Campus Wars : The Peace Movement at American State Universities in the Vietnam Era. New York: New York University Press, 1994.

Moser, Richard. The New Winter Soldiers : GI and Veteran Dissent During the Vietnam Era. Perspectives in the Sixties. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1996.
*CORE* Moser, using interviews and oral history, presents a stunning view of the GI Movement - the anti-war protest that grew within the military itself in the later stages of the war, as well as veteran groups (such as the VVAW) who actively opposed the war.

Small, Melvin and William D. Hoover, eds. Give Peace a Chance : Exploring the Vietnam Antiwar Movement. Essays from the Charles Debenedetti Memorial Conference. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1992.

Wells, Tom. The War Within : America's Battle over Vietnam. With a Foreword by Todd Gitlin. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994; reprint paper, Henry Holt, 1996.
*CORE* Wells is a sociologist, and presents in this volume the social impact of the anti-war movement and its effects on government policies. Based on both written sources and interviews from both sides, Wells argues the increasing difficulties in communication and alienation between the two sides, and the media's role as both propagandist and mediator of their discourse. O. Aftermath and Remembrance - Veterans Issues. Kanter, Leona. The Social Construction of Vietnam Veteran's Identity. Ph. D. diss., University of Pittsburgh, 1988. Available through UMI Dissertation Information Service.

MacPherson, Myra. Long Time Passing : Vietnam and the Haunted Generation. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1984; Achor Books, 1993.

Puller, Lewis B. Jr. Fortunate Son : The Autobiography of Lewis B. Puller, Jr. New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1991; Bantam, 1993.
*CORE* Award winning autobiography of a Marine Lieutenant who was the son of the legendary general "Chesty" Puller. Puller lost both legs to a booby trap explosive shorty after starting his tour in Vietnam. Much of the book deals with the challenges Puller faced in adjusting to both his injuries and the social environment in the US concerning the war.

Rohde, Richard R. Identity, Self, and Disorder Among Vietnam Veterans : PTSD and the Emergence of an Electronic Community. Ph. D. diss., University of Hawaii, 1995.
Available through UMI Dissertation Information Service. This is a very interesting study of both the academic discourse involving the social science critique of the bio-medical model of PTSD, and of veterans reaction to it - namely the formation of community. Rohde examines, in particular, the interplay of veterans on an internet mailing list, including their own views on such issues as forgiveness and the interactions of veterans with Dr. Jonathan Shay who presents the bio-medical model in "Achilles in Vietnam".

Scott, Wilbur J. The Politics of Readjustment : Vietnam Veterans Since the War. New York: Aldine deGruyter, 1993.

Shay, Jonathan. Achilles in Vietnam : Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character. New York: Atheneum 1994; Touchstone, 1995.
The author is a psychiatrist for the Department of Veterans Affairs in Boston where he has had extensive dealings with veterans suffering from PTSD. The book tries to illuminate the causes and universality of this illness with passages from the classical Greek epic The Iliad and the witness of Vietnam veterans. An interesting exploration of the bio-medical model. Readers should note the Shay sometimes generalizes from the population of severe chronic PTSD suffers to the wider Vietnam combat veteran population, a weakness in the book. See also Richard Rohde (above) for a critque of parts of this model.

Wilcox, Fred A. Waiting for an Army to Die : The Tragedy of Agent Orange. New York: Vintage, 1983; reprint, Seven Locks Press, 1989.

P. Aftermath and Remembrance - POW/MIAs

Cawthorne, Nigel. The Bamboo Cage: The Full Story of the American Servicemen Still Held Hostage in South-East Asia. London: Leo Cooper, 1991.

Denton, Jeremiah A., with Ed Brandt. When Hell was in Session. Clover,SC: Commission Press, 1976.

Franklin, H. Bruce. M.I.A. or Mythmaking In America. Brooklyn, NY: Lawrence Hill Books, 1992; expanded edition, New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1993.

Schemmer, Benjamin F. The Raid: The Full Story of the Extraordinary Top-Secret Mission to Rescue 61 American POWs in a Prison Compound 23 Miles from Hanoi. New York: Harper, 1976

Smith, Chief Warrant Officer Garry L. The Search For MIAs. Columbia, SC: Honoribus Press, 1992.

Stern, Lewis M. Imprisoned or Missing in Vietnam : Policies of the Vietnamese Government Toward Captured and Unaccounted for United States Soldiers 1969-1994. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 1995.

Stockdale, Jim and Sybil. In Love and War. New York: Harper and Row, 1984.

United States. Congress. Senate. Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs (John F. Kerry, Chair). POW/MIAs, Report of the Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs, January 13, 1993. 103rd Congress, 1st Session, U. S. Senate Report 103-1. Washington: GPO, 1993.

R. Document Collections and Reference Works.

Gettleman, Marvin E., Jane Franklin, Marilyn Young, and H. Bruce Franklin, ed. Vietnam and America : A Documented History. New York: Grove Press, 1985; 2nd rev ed, Grove Atlantic, 1995.

The Pentagon Papers : The Defense Department History of United States Decisionmaking on Vietnam. Boston: Beacon Press, 1971, 1972. 5 vols.
There are three versions of the Pentagon Papers, the others being:
1. 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. and
2. The Pentagon Papers. New York: Bantam Books, 1971.
All are recommended. The Bantam version primarily contains summaries of the documents by the staff of the New York Times rather than the documents themselves....
[None of the above are presently in print. There is an abridged version from McGraw Hill. -- DF]

Olson, James S. ed. The Vietnam War : Handbook of the Literature and Research. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1993.

Stanton, Shelby L. Vietnam Order of Battle. Foreword by Gen. William C. Westmoreland. New York: Galahad Books, 1986.

Summers, Col. Harry G., Jr. The Vietnam War Almanac. New York: Facts on File, 1985.

Section II. Cultural Representations of the War: Critical Analysis, Fiction, Poetry, Film and Folklore

A. Analysis and Criticism: Cultural Representations of the Vietnam War.

Anderegg, Michael A., ed. Inventing Vietnam : The War in Film and Television. Culture and the Moving Image. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1991.
*CORE* Excellent collection of 14 articles from varying perspectives on the contested meaning of Vietnam presented in the cultural representations of the war in film and on television. Fine introduction to the subject.

Beidler, Philip. Re-writing America : Vietnam Authors in their Generation. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1991.

Dittmar, Linda and Gene Michard, eds. From Hanoi to Hollywood : The Vietnam War in American Film. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1990.

Gotera, Vince. Radical Visions : Poetry by Vietnam Veterans. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1994.

Gruner, Elliott. Prisoners of Culture : Representing the Vietnam P.O.W. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1993.

Hellmann, John. American Myth and the Legacy of Vietnam. New York: Columbia University Press, 1986.

Jeffords, Susan. The Remasculinization of America: Gender and the Vietnam War. Bloomington, IN: University of Indoiana Press, 1989.

Lomperis, Timothy J. Reading the Wind : The Literature of the Vietnam War. With bibliographic commentary by John Clark Pratt. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1987.

Louvre, Alf and J. Walsh, eds. Tell me Lies About Vietnam : Cultural Battles for the Meaning of the War. Philadelphia: Open University Press, 1988.

Martin, Andrew. Receptions of War : Vietnam in American Culture. Oklahoma project for discourse and theory, v. 10. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1993.

Searle, William J. ed. Search and Clear : Critical Responses to Selected Literature and Films of the Vietnam War. Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1988.

Shafer, D. Michael, ed. The Legacy : The Vietnam War in the American Imagination. Boston: Beacon Press, 1990.
An excellent collection of 14 articles bearing on various aspects of the cultural respresentations and differing socially created realities in the US cocerning the Vietnam War and its aftermath. Topics include the recreation of the war in the arts, the impact of the draft and the treatment of veterans and their narratives, and the contested nature of the discourse over the meaning and definition of the war.

B. Novels: Representations of the Vietnam War.

Baber, Asa. The Land of a Million Elephants. 2nd ed. reprint. Vietnam Generation Series. Burning Cities Press, 1992.

Bao Ninh. The Sorrow of War. London: Martin Secker and Warburg, 1993; New York: Pantheon; reprint paper, Riverhead Books, 1996.

Browne, Corinne. Body Shop. New York: Stein and Day, 1973.

Bunting, Josiah. The Lionheads. New York: George Braziller, 1972; Popular Library, 1972.

Burdick, Eugene and William Lederer. The Ugly American. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1958; reprint paper, Fawcett, 1987.

Butler, Robert Olen. The Alleys of Eden : A Novel. New York: Horizon, 1981; Ballantine, 1983; reissue paper, Owlet, 1994.

Cassidy, John. A Station in the Delta. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1979; Ballantine, 1989.

Coonts, Stephen. Flight of the Intruder. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1986; New York: Pocket Books, 1991.

Crumley, James. One To Count Cadence. New York: Random House, 1969; Vintage, 1987.

Del Vecchio, John. The 13th Valley. New York: Bantam, 1982.

Duong Thu Huong. Paradise of the Blind. New York: William Morrow & Co, 1993; Penguin USA, 1994.

Ford, Daniel. Incident at Muc Wa. New York: Doubleday, 1967.

Greene, Graham. The Quiet American. New York: Viking, 1955; reprint, Modern Library, 1992; reissue paper, Penguin USA, 1991.

Hasford, Gustav. The Short Timers. New York: Harper & Row, 1980.

Heinemann, Larry. Close Quarters. New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1977.

Heinemann, Larry. Paco's Story. New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 1986; reprint paper, Viking, 1989.

Huggett, William Turner. Body Count. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1973.

Karlin, Wayne, Le Minh Khue, and Truong Vu, editors. The Other Side of Heaven: Postwar Fiction by Vietnamese and American Writers. Willimantic, CT: Curbstone Press, 1995.
Compilation of works from the US, Vietnam and the overseas Vietnamese communities.

Mason, Bobbie Ann. In Country : A Novel. New York: Harper Row, 1985; reissue paper, Harperperennial, 1993.

Merkin, Robert. Zombie Jamboree. New York: Harper & Row, 1986.

O'Brien, Tim. Going After Cacciato. New York: Delacorte Press, 1980; Dell, 1980; reissue paper, Delacorte Press, 1989.

O'Brien, Tim. The Things They Carried. New York: Penquin, 1990; reprint paper, Penguin USA, 1991.

Rubin, Jonathan. The Barking Deer. New York: George Braziller, 1974.
A surrealistic fable, set in the Central Highlands during the advisory years. The work may not be for everyone, but it deals with the universal anti-war issue of what happens to all the people who are sucked along in the grand "visions" of opposing forces going to war.

Stone, Robert. Dog Soldiers. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1974; reprint paper, New York: Penguin USA, 1989.

Webb, James. Fields of Fire. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1978; reprint paper, New York: Pocket Books, 1993.

Wright, Stephen. Meditations in Green. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1983; reissue paperback, Delta, 1996.

C. Poetry

Anderson, Doug. The Moon Reflected Fire. Cambridge, MA: Alice James Books, 1994.

Baladan, John. After Our War. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1974.

Berry, D. C. Saigon Cemetery. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1972.

Ehrhart, W. D. To Those Who Have Come Home Tired. New York: Thunder Mountain, 1984.

Ehrhart, W. D. ed. Carrying the Darkness : The Poetry of the Vietnam War. Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press, 1989.

McDonald, Walter. Caliban in Blue. Lubbock, TX: Texas Tech University Press, 1976.

Miller, Stephen P. An Act of God (Memories of Vietnam). Eureka, CA: Northcoast View Press, 1987 Available from publisher at: Post Office Box 1374, Eureka, CA 95502.

Rottman, Larry, Jan Berry, and Basil T. Paquet, eds. Winning Hearts and Minds. Perkasie, PA: East River Anthology, 1972.

Shea, Dick. Vietnam Simply. Coronada, CA: Pro Tem, 1967.

Van Devanter, Lynda and Joan A. Furey, eds. Visions of War, Dreams of Peace : Writings of Women in the Vietnam War. New York: Warner Books, 1991.

D. Folklore.

Written:

Clark, Gregory R. Words of the Vietnam War. The Slang, Jargon, Abbreviations, Acronyms, Nomenclature, Nicknames, Pseudonyms, Slogans, Specs, Euphemisms, Double-talk, Chants, and Names and Places of the Era of United States Involvement in Vietnam. Jeferson NC: McFarland and Co., 1990.

Dane, Barbara and Silber, Irwin. The Vietnam Songbook. New York: Guardian, 1969. Songs from the anti-war movement

Tuso, Joseph F. Singing the Vietnam Blues : Songs of the U.S. Air Force in Vietnam. Texas A & M University military history series, v 19. College Station: Texas A and M Press, 1990.

Recorded:

In Country. Saul Broudy, Chip Dockery, Bull Durham, Bill Ellis, Toby Hughes, Dick Jonas, Chuck Rosenberg. Flying Fish Records, 1991.

Copyright (c) 1995,1996 John R. Tegtmeier. Non-commercial distribution for educational purposes permitted if document is unaltered. Any commercial use, or storage in any commercial BBS is strictly prohibited without written consent.