Tell me about the first book on your list, a rumor of war 1977. The lack of a truly comprehensive encyclopedia on the vietnam war has long been a problem for reference staff in academic, public, and school libraries. A rumor of war, philip caputo to call it the best book about vietnam is to trivialise it. Score a book s total score is based on multiple factors, including the number of people who have voted for it and how highly those voters ranked the book. Thriftbooks sells millions of used books at the lowest everyday prices. The ultimate 2020 list of best vietnam books to read. The vietnam war stands as one of the pivotal moments in recent u. If you want gripping, true action of ww2, read last battle station, if you can find it, about one of the greatest, rarely told battles of ww2, the battle of java sea, the story of the uss hous. It tells the story of the war from every conceivable angle, including that of the young vietnamese fighters. Heartwrenching, fragmented, raw, former north vietnamese solder bao ninhs the sorrow of war provides a strikingly honest look at how the vietnam war forever changed his life, his country, and the people who live there. Instead, author nguyen duong uniformly praises the arvn on just about every.
Organized chaos, seemed like a contradiction in terms, but after a few weeks in vietnam, it seemed plausible. The 696page book covers 2,000 years of vietnamese government, culture and life, from the qin empire in 221 b. This childrens picture book is about a father and his young sons visit to the vietnam veterans memorial. Charlie haughey was a us army photographer in vietnam in 1967, shooting nearly 2,000 photos. Every book on vietnam in the section claimed to be the best ever written on the subject. The vietnam war was among a host of factors that opened deep fault lines in the landscape of u. Literary, translation, and film rights are handled by nat sobel at sobel weber associates. The best vietnam war books, as recommended by vietnam war vet karl marlantes, author of the briliant novel matterhorn, set in the vietnam war. Readers weighed in on the best books about the vietnam war. Dog soldiers won the 1975 national book award for fiction, the first vietnam war novel to do so. Us soldiers, communist leaders, saigon loyalists, vietnamese peasants and even nixon himself.
The best vietnam war books five books expert recommendations. Perhaps more targeted at the scholarly minded, this book collects official documents and private letters from a sea of sources. Discover delightful childrens books with prime book box, a subscription that. One of my favourites from this list is the beauty of humanity movement, it might be an oldie but it is a great book that tells an interesting story about key characters and their lives in old vietnam. But meaning can be found in the individual stories. A slew of war memoirs stand with the best writing of that genre.
There is catch22, and slaughterhouse five, and these are classics to be sure. Perhaps the only decent thing to emerge from the vietnam war is a body of literature unsurpassed by the writing thats come out of any other war. The companion volume to burns vietnam war documentary series on pbs, the book stands alone as a powerful summary of the whole conflict. For more suggested resources on the vietnam war, check out the other. Why was the vietnam war of such global significance and how has it affected people on both sides of the conflict. If you are doing research on the vietnam war this book is a musthave. The war of vietnam legal definition of the war of vietnam. The best histories of the vietnam war council on foreign relations. What is a good recommendation for a nonfiction book on. The story follows an anonymous north vietnamese narrator whos acting as a mole in the south vietnamese army and is sent to an exile. Taylor is the author of the new book, a history of the vietnamese cambridge concise histories. While overseas, richard served as an or tech in the operating room of vietnams largest military hospital during the final year of the war. In the short history of vietnam war literature, publishers would hardly touch a book on the war until the late 1970s and early 1980sa part of the selfinduced. Why was the vietnam war so contentious, and how did one of the worlds superpowers fail to defeat a much less wealthy and populous opponent.
The book includes some great observations and agonizing human truths about the nonstop combat of the war. Vietnam war, 19611975 engineering and construction base development in south vietnam, 19651970 1991, by carroll h. This book was written by a vietnam combat veteran with d1st502nd infantry, 101st aibrone division, mike m60 kelley, who is also an accomplished artist, producing exquisite images of the vietnam war. I have read literally 100s of books on these topics. But his experience in the vietnam war made a reasonable choice. Vietnam war american soldiers exit a helicopter during operation oregon in the vietnam war.
The the negatives have recently been rediscovered and digitized for a. Pages in category vietnam war books the following 42 pages are in this category, out of 42 total. Among the most positive is an abundance of topnotch books, many written by veterans of the conflict. For those looking for vietnam war books to better understand why the united states entered the vietnam war in the first place, there may be no better book than halberstams. The new series on the vietnam war, and the mysteries of.
Complete organized chaos for the new guys would begin as we landed in vietnam. Booktopia buy vietnam war books online from australias leading online bookstore. The best histories of the vietnam war council on foreign. The daring and controversial novel that took the world by storma story of politics, selfhood, survival, and war. Beyond that, on the fiction front, we quickly traipse into forgettable territory. From his encounters with exvietnamese soldiers to interviews with victims of his own violence, broyles memoir is a reminder of how the brotherhood of man can. The necessary war, michael lind if you only read one book on the vietnam war, this is it.
Its extraordinarily wellreported and written, and filled with memorable photographs and illustrationsa reminder that the war was, perhaps for. This weekend, at last, the vietnam war will land on our rooftops, ready to transport us back a half century and more to a conflict begun in good faith, by decent people, out of fateful misunderstandings that led to a decade of agonythe most divisive period since the civil war. The definitive collection of fiction and nonfiction on the war 1998 by stewart onan. This book happens to be one of the best novels about vietnam and will give you some great insight into what it was like to be in this war. As before, ward has written a weighty companion book to the series. Ready to read the most celebrated and best vietnam war books.
Drawing from more than 120 newspapers, published between 1968 and 1970, this study explores the emergence of an antimilitarist subculture within the u. The top 30 vietnam war books to read this winter historynet. Joy about the french experience in indochina, was killed in 1967 by a mine planted on the very street he used as a book title. This first indo china war lasted until the french defeat at dien bien phu and the signing of the geneva convention in 1954. Mark atwood lawrence and fredrik logevalls book the first vietnam war is a synthesis of events in various countries that led up to and followed the first vietnam war. During the four years following passage of the tonkin gulf resolution aug. Here are the key events leading up to the vietnam war, the deadly guerrilla warfare of the viet cong, the domestic antiwar movement and the fall of saigon. If you were to read only one book on the vietnam war, the vietnam reader. Hunts a vietnam war reader is a very different text to onans. In the vietnam war, mark atwood lawrence draws upon the latest research in archives around the world. The wall picture book about a visit to vietnam war memorial.
The greatest battle of the vietnam air war the air combat trilogy book 2 jeffrey ethell. Department of defense the vietnam war was a 20year conflict in southeast asia 19551975 between the government of south vietnam and the communist government of north vietnam. These include winners of national book awards and pulitzer prizes, both fiction and nonfiction. The author spent more than 20 years as an officer in the army of the republic of vietnam arvn, but few pages of his book deal with his personal experiences. Philip caputo was a marine who later became a very wellknown journalist.
An impressive piece of work that gives a good overview of the vietnam war and the wider issues that surrounded the conflict. In the fiction section, you will find the best books on vietnam war, other vietnam bestseller novels as well as novels set in vietnam. Underground gi newspapers during the vietnam war by james lewes book description. The vietnam war this is a wikipedia book, a collection of wikipedia articles that can be easily saved, imported by an external electronic rendering service, and ordered as.
Before he penned the screenplays for jarhead and castaway, a young william broyles enlisted to serve in the vietnam war. The sorrow of war is a 1990 novel by the vietnamese writer b. The great vietnam war novel was not written by an american. Kien, a lone survivor from the glorious 27th youth. The vietnam war remains a topic of extraordinary interest, not least because of striking parallels between that conflict and more recent fighting in the middle east. In my mind its one of the first really wellwritten books that describe the moral ambiguities and difficulties faced by a young marine officer in this particular war. Although the tragedy of the vietnam war is promoted as a memoir, it is mostly a political history of the war. We would be organized militarily, but we would have to break the bad habit, of trying to fight a conventional war in a guerrilla warfare environment. Fitzgerald won the pulitzer prize and the national book award by.
An intimate history tells once again the painful tale of americas protracted, divisive and most would. The best books about vietnam as a country, not just the vietnam war. He left on the last day of american military involvement in vietnam in march 1973. Richard pena served in vietnam and is now a practicing attorney in austin, texas. New book explores history of the vietnamese cornell. Ten vietnam war novels to read council on foreign relations. Three are novels, two of which were written by vietnam war veterans. History in an hour is essential reading for anyone interested in postwar history.
List of books and articles about vietnam antiwar movement. We personally assess every books quality and offer rare, outofprint treasures. Follow us your content may be featured on, member station websites, and on social media. Real people, real combat, espionage, and conflict in the mekong delta 1969. Excellent study of the vietnam war looking at a far wider range of topics than in most books on this war, and with contributions from american, north vietnamese and south vietnamese authors and participants in the war. Fields of fire is a brilliant book about the vietnam war. A north vietnamese perspective on the war bui tin on. Author eve bunting has a gift for writing about serious subjects in a way that makes them accessible to young children, and she has done just that in her picture book the wall.
This book seeks to relate the overall events and chronology of the war and shows its impact on everyday lives. All our physical stores and our online store are temporarily closed. The new series on the vietnam war, and the mysteries of historical resonance in roughly the center of this view of the pee dee river in south carolina is the snows island national historic landmark. Wellwritten and deeply researched, this history covers virtually every aspect of the french and american wars in vietnam from 1945 to 1975, focusing mainly on military, diplomatic, and political. More than a decade later, he returned to his former battlegrounds and recorded his journey in goodbye vietnam.
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