Looking for a Good Book on Vietnam Conflict

[LiveGoat]

Have been watching The Ten Thousand Day War and would love to read a good book on the subject. Something huge and exhaustive like the documentary would be nice. Preferrably something not written by journalists or by the soldiers themselves. Something akin to Keegan's WWII book. Basically I want something with all the details and phases before I start reading personal accounts.

Any recommendations?

Thanks

[SteamWake]

Good luck a large amount of history from that era has been swept under the rug.

I'm sure someone will come up with something for you.

[STEED]

I would recommend this one...

American Strategy in Vietnam, A Critical Analysis
By Colonel Harry G. Summers, Jr.

Required reading at The National, Naval and Air War Colleges as well as other high level military institutions throughout the United States.

The Vietnam War 1956–1975 Osprey Series Essential Histories No.38
By Andrew Wiest

Osprey Series Essential Histories are good general overview point, sort of a starting point.

When you're done with the statistical side of the Vietnam war I recommend this book by Bao Ninh to give a view from the Vietnamese perspective. Although fictional it is based heavily on Ninh's experiences in the war. Grim stuff.

[nikimcbee]

You could try "Summons of the Trumpet." Good overall book. Read it for a military history class.
http://www.amazon.com/Summons-Trumpe.../dp/0891415505

[Sailor Steve]

Okay, OTH, now I officially hate you.

I looked at the book, said "That looks interesting", followed the link to Amazon, saw the price (very cheap) and ordered it. If you keep spending all my money for you I'll have to give up all my other hobbies, like eating.

Anyway, thanks for the link. I had not heard of that one, and I'm looking forward to it.

Vietnam: A History by Stanley Karnow is a good one and for something completely different if you can get hold of of Bernard B. Falls' Street Without Joy or Hell in a Very Small Place they are a great introduction into where it all begin as seen from the French perspective.

The book The 10,000 Day War is not too bad either.

[GoldenRivet]

a good personal account i enjoyed reading (when you get to that point)

"The element of surprise. Navy SEALs in Vietnam" By Darryl young

http://www.amazon.com/Element-Surpri.../dp/0804105812

[Oberon]

Snake Pilot by Randy R.Zahn
http://www.amazon.com/Snake-Pilot-Fl.../dp/1574885650

Quite a good book on the operations of the AH-1 during the conflict.

[jumpy]

Have a look for 'Dispatches' by Michael Herr (ISBN 0 330 255738).

There was a map of Vietnam on the wall of my apartment in Saigon and some nights, coming back late to the city, I'd lie out on my bed and look at it, too tired to do anything more than just get my boots off. That map was a marvel, especially now that it wasn't real any more. For one thing, it was very old. It had been left there years before by another tenant, probably a Frenchman, since the map had been made in Paris. The paper had buckled in its frame after years in the wet Saigon heat, laying like a kind of veil over the countries it depicted. Vietnam was divided into its older territories of Tonkin, Annam and Cochin China, and to the west past Laos and Cambodge sat Siam, a kingdom. That's old, I'd tell visitors, that's a really old map.

If dead ground could come back to haunt you the way dead people do, they'd have been able to mark my map CURRENT and burn the ones they'd been using since '64, but count on it, nothing like that was going to happen. It was late '67 now, even the most detailed maps didn't reveal much any more; reading them was like trying to read the faces of the Vietnamese, and that was like trying to read the wind. We knew that the uses of most information were flexible, different pieces of ground told different stories to different people. We also knew that for years now there had been no country here but the war.

Is a good read, Herr's memoirs as a correspondent for Esquire Magazine.

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

Okay, OTH, now I officially hate you.

I looked at the book, said "That looks interesting", followed the link to Amazon, saw the price (very cheap) and ordered it. If you keep spending all my money for you I'll have to give up all my other hobbies, like eating.

Anyway, thanks for the link. I had not heard of that one, and I'm looking forward to it.

Oh you ordered it. Well, I was going to mention another book by another Vietnamese author, Novel Without a Name (could only find a spanish edition) written by Duong Thu Huong.

It's very similar to Bao Ninh's Sorrow of War, maybe Sorrow of War is a bit more grim though. Although they both tell a pretty similar story so you might just save the effort and just read one of them.

[Sailor Steve]

I saw that one at Amazon as well, and wondered about it.

Maybe later. I was there, and I love to hear stories from the 'other side'. It's why Letters From Iwo Jima is one of my favorite movies.

[kiwi_2005]

Two Vietnam books i recommend: non fiction

Nam by Mark Baker
ChickenHawke by Robert Mason

Ive read a few more not worth mentioning the two above i found a good read Nam is shockingly real one of the best imo

[August]

The conflict lasted so long, there were so many parties involved and it was fought over such a varied terrain that I think it'd be tough to sufficiently cover it all in any single book.

[NeonSamurai]

A little late but I renamed the thread topic to better match the contents.