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From 1945 to 1975 Vietnam endured thirty years of war against the British, French, Japanese and the Americans. What most of the public knows about this war is fragmentary and void of much context. This is true even for many of us who fought there. For over fifty years I have studied the war including the stories of veterans who have written down their experiences and more academic studies by scholars, some of whom are also veterans. Following is a list of books from my personal library which may be of interest to any who are looking for more than a knee jerk opinion to understand what happened and why in Vietnam over those thirty years. That there are a number of books featuring US Marine units should be of no surprise as my 19 months in Vietnam were spent in the Third Marine Division, primarily with 12th Marines and 9th Marines. The list is very incomplete as there now are volumes written on the war and more studies to come. Bibliographical references in some of the items here will lead the reader to far more material than I can ever list on this page. Yet, this page is not complete and from time to time I will be adding more material as I have time. The list is in no particular reading order though I reccomend the first three books as a starting point for anyone who wishes to dig into the subject. The Struggle For Indochina, 1940-1955 An old but still important book by Ellen J. Hammer published in 1955. Embers of War by Fredrik Logevall is an account of the struggle for Vietnam between 1940 and 1959, published in 2012 it is a more recent than the Hammer book with the benefit of information not available to researchers of earlier works. The Vietnam Wars, 1945-1990 A well documented study focussing on American involvement in Vietnam by Marilyn B. Young. Published in 1991. Vietnam, A New History A history of Vietnam from early times to the present focussing in detail on the French period and later. A bit of a slog but worth the read. By Christopher Goscha. Published in 2016. Vietnam 1946, How The War Began by Stein Tonnesson, published in 2010, it explores what the author considers the crucial year in determining the direction of Vietnam after WWII. The Vietnam War Alpha History's online collection of articles and documents on Vietnam and the Vietnam War. Indochina: An Ambiguous Colonisation by Pierre Brocheux and Daniel Hemery. " Combining new approaches with a groundbreaking historical synthesis, this accessible work is the most thorough and up-to-date general history of French Indochina available in English." Published 2011 Assuming The Burden: Europe and the American Commitment to War in Vietnam by Mark Lawrence. "This beautifully crafted and solidly researched book explains why and how the United States made its first commitment to Vietnam in the late 1940s." Published 2007 Why Vietnam? Prelude to America's Albatross by Archimedes L. A. Patti who was head of OSS operations in Kunming, China and Hanoi, Vietnam at the end of WWII. Published 1980. Fire In The Lake by Frances Fitzgerald. "This was the first major book by an American on Vietnam, its history, and the United States activities there. FitzGerald said it was a "first draft of history." She explored thousands of years of the history and culture of Vietnam, showing how these affected the relations of its peoples with the relatively brief encounter with the United States. She says that the US understood little about the country and its leaders, reacting to the threat of communism rather than recognizing the nation's long struggle to gain and keep its independence from foreign invaders." Published 1972 Vietnam, A History by Stanley Karnow. Published 1983. The Vietnam Experience A 21 volume set of large books with many photographs focused on the American War in Vietnam but with background on early Vietnam history through the period of French colonization. By The Boston Publishing Company, 1981-1988 A Time For War: The United States and Vietnam, 1941-1975 by Robert D. Shulzinger. Published 1997. Semper Fi Vietnam by Edward F. Murphy. A brief history of the Marines in Vietnam from 1965 to 1975. Published 1997. The Hill Fights, The First Battle of Khe Sanh by Edward F. Murphy. A History of the brutal hill fights by the Third Marine Division around Khe Sanh in 1967. Published 2003. U.S. Marine Corps History of the Vietnam War U.S. Marines In Vietnam: The Advisory And Combat Assistance Era, 1954-1964 by Robert H. Whitlow. Published 1977 U.S. Marines In Vietnam: The Landing And The Buildup, 1965 by Jack Shulimson and Charles M. Johnson. Published 1978 U.S. Marines In Vietnam: An Expanding War, 1966 by Jack Shulimson. Published 1982 Fighting the North Vietnamese, 1967 by Gary I. Telfer, Lane Rogers and V. Keith Fleming Jr. Published 1984 U.S. Marines In Vietnam: The Defining Year, 1968 by Jack Shulimson, Leonard A. Blasiol, Charles R. Smith and David A. Dawson. Published 1997 U.S. Marines In Vietnam: High Mobility And Standdown, 1969 by Charles R. Smith. Published 1988 U.S. Marines In Vietnam: Vietnamization And Redeployment, 1970-1971 by Graham A. Cosmas and Terrance P. Murray. Published 1986 U.S. Marines In Vietnam: The War That Would Not End, 1971-1973 by Charles D. Melson and Lieutenant Colonel Curtis G. Arnold. Published 1991 U.S. Marines In Vietnam: The Bitter End, 1973-1975 by Maj. George Ross Dunham and David A. Quinlan. Published 1990 Not Going Home Alone, A Marine's Story The personal account of Lt. James Kirschke who joined the 5th Marines at Camp Pendleton in 1965 when they were forming up for Vietnam. The regiment sailed to Vietnam in the Spring of 1966. Kirschke served as a platoon commander and company commander in Third Batallion and Second Batallion including Operation Deckhand in the south, Operation Prairie on the DMZ, and around Ah Hoa where he was seriously wounded in early 1967. Published 2001. Lullabies For Lieutenants, Memoir of a Marine Forward Observer in Vietnam, 1965-1967 The personal account of Lt. Franklin Cox who went to Vietnam in 1965 with Echo Battery, Second Batallion, 12th Marines, landing in Danang in July of 1965. Cox served as Artillery Liason Officer attached to Second Batallion, Ninth Marines, and as an Artillery Forward Observer attached to companies of Second Batallion, Ninth Marines. Published 2010. Down South, One Tour In Vietnam The personal account of Lt. William H. Hardwick who served as an Artillery Forward Observer with Lima Battery, 3d Batallion, 11th Marines attached to 3d Batallion, 7th Marines from 1968 to 1969. Published 2004. Fire Mission, The World of Nam - A Marine's Story The personal account of Lt. Earl J. Gorman who went to Vietnam in the summer of 1965 with the First Marine Division. Lt. Gorman served as an Artillery Forward Observer and later a battery officer with Alpha Battery, 1st Batallion, 11th Marines. He was in the battery the night of April 18, 1966 and participated in the battle for Alpha North when the VietCong overran the battery. Gorman also recounts his return to Vietnam in 2007 to visit the places where he served there during the war. Published 2008. Dereliction of Duty An importan study on the American involvement in the war by Lt. General H.R. McMaster's written in the 1990s with access to classified information not previously available. The book details workings of the US administrations in making decisions about the war and points out that they choose to fight the war even though they knew that they could not win, because it would look better to fight and lose than just walk away. Published 1997. Vietnam Diary by Richard Tregaskis, published in 1963, is an account of a visit by the author to Vietnam in late 1962 and early 1963, and details his travels with the military around Vietnam in the early American phase of the war. The Killing Zone by Lt. Frederick Downs is his account of his time as a platoon commander in Delta Company, First Batallion, Fourteenth Infantry Regiment in 1967 and 1968. Published 2007. Vietnam-Perkasie, A Combat Marine's Memoir by W.D. Ehrhart is his account of his time in Vietnam with the S-2 (Intelligence) Section of the First Marine Regiment in 1967 and 1968. Published 1983. Redwood Delta by Ron Flesch is his account of his time with Delta Company, First Batallion, Ninth Marines between June 1965 to February 1966. Based on actual events the names were changed by the author to protect the identity of the Marines. Published 1988. Marine Sniper by Charles Henderson tells the story of Carlos Hathcock, legendary Marine sniper who served two tours in Vietnam and had 93 verified kills. Published 1988. The Betrayal by Lt. Col. William Corson discussing the Marine Corps Civic Action Program (CAP) which he commanded. Published 1968. Brown Water, Black Berets by LCDR Thomas J. Cutler is an account of the US Navy and Coast Guard riverine force in Vietnam. Published 1988. Soldiers in Revolt by David Cortright is a history of the GI anti-war movement during the Vietnam Era. Published 1975. Charlie Company: What Vietnam Did To Us by Peter Goldman and Tony Fuller: "Starting in the summer of 1981, a team of Newsweek reporters sought out members of a single combat-infantry company to ask about their experiences in the Vietnam war and in the often difficult journey home. The men spoke openly, vividly and passionately, because, as one of them put it, nobody had asked them before." Published 1984. Operation Buffalo: USMC Fight For The DMZ by Keith William Nolan, an account of the bloody battle in the DMZ outside of Con Thien in July of 1967. Published 1991. The Elephant & The Tiger: The Full Story of the Vietnam War by Wilbur H. Morrison, yet another accounting of the American years from 1954 to 1975, yet hardly the full story. Published 1990. Ambush Valley by Eric Hammel, the story of Third Battalion, 26th Marines in the battles around Con Thien in the summer of 1967 after Operation Buffalo. Published 1990. No Shining Armor: The Marines at War in Vietnam by Otto J. Lehrack, an oral history of Third Battalion, Third Marines in Vietnam. Published 1992. About Face by Col. David H. Hackworth. "From age fifteen to forty David Hackworth devoted himself to the US Army and fast became a living legend. In 1971, however, he appeared on television to decry the doomed war effort in Vietnam. With About Face, he has written what many Vietnam veterans have called the most important book of their generation." Published 1989. A Bright Shining Lie by Neil Sheehan is the account of John Paul Van in Vietnam. "Through the personality of John Paul Vann, a man of great courage and also of great cunning, Neil Sheehan orchestrates a great fugue evoking all the elements of the war: the conflict of wills and the self-deceiving illusions of the American military and civilian bureaucracy, the historical forces that brought the two sides into conflict; the terrible battles in which they sacrificed so many of their best; and the men who gave the struggle its meaning." Published 1989. Secrets of the Vietnam War by Lt. Gen. Phillip B. Davidson. Davidson was the Army Intelligence Chief in Vietnam during the 1967-69 period. This book is interesting to read if only to see an example of the type of shallow thinking that helped to justify a losing war. Parts of it could certainly be called delusions of the Vietnam War. Published 1990. Brothers, Black Soldiers in the Nam by Stan Goff and Robert Sanders with Clark Smith. An account of two Army soldiers' experience in Vietnam. Published 1982. Inside Hanoi's Secret Archives by Malcolm McConnel details research in Vietnam into the fate of Americans MIA from the Vietnam war. Published 1995. Fortunate Son is the autobiography of Lewis B. Puller, Jr., son of General Chesty Puller, who was severely wounded in Vietnam. Published 2000. Unknown Warriors, Canadians in the Vietnam War by Fred Gaffen is a collection of oral histories of Canadians who enlisted in the US military and served in Vietnam. Published 1990. Infantry in Vietnam by LTC Albert N. Garland. An analysis of US infantry combat operations in Vietnam 1965-66. Published 1967. The Wound Within: America in the Vietnam Years, 1945 - 1974 by Alexander Kendrick. Published 1974. The End of The Line by Robert Pisor. A journalists account of the Battle of Khe Sanh. Published 1982. Khe Sahn: Siege in the Clouds by Eric Hammel. An oral history of the battle of Khe Sahn. Published 1989. On Strategy by Col. Harry G. Summers. Written from the perspective of the "we could have won" faction about how the war was lost. Published 1982. After Tet: The Bloodiest Year In Vietnam by Ronald H. Spector. Published 1993. The Short Timer's Journal by The Winter Soldier Archive. The archive preserves first hand accounts of the Vietnam War and of veterans after the war. Published 1980. Soldier by Lt. Col. Anthony B. Herbert. Herbert was a veteran of Korea and Vietnam who claimed to have witnessed war crimes in Vietnam. Published 1983. Those Gallant Men: On Trial In Vietnam by John S. Berry. "the military trial attorney for a key defendant in the Green Beret case, this is one of the few books available on the strategy and dynamics of that litigation and the political machinations between the US Army, the CIA, and the Green Berets during the Vietnam War." Published 1984. A Code To Keep by Ernest C. Brace. The account of the longest held American civilian prisoner of war in Vietnam. Published 1988. Honor The Warrior by William L. Myers. An collection of accounts of seventeen Marines in Vietnam. Published 2000. Patriots: The Vietnam War Remembered From All Sides by Christian G. Appy. Oral histories of the war from people on all sides of the conflict. Published 2003. GI Join Us: Beheiren and the GI Protest Movement In Japan by Jerry West. Honors Thesis in History at UC Berkeley, 1975. The Walking Dead by Craig Roberts and Charles W. Sasser. A gung ho story about Craig Roberts' tour in Vietnam in 1965 and 1966 with Third Battalion, Ninth Marines. One wonders how much embellishment the author's have added to Roberts account. Members of the First Battalion, Ninth Marines (1/9) might be a bit touchy about the fact that the authors appropriated the name "The Walking Dead" for the whole regiment when that title belongs to the First Battalion. 1989. Arc Light by G.V. Short. An account of Short's experience in Vietnam with the First Marine Division and First Marine Air Wing from the 1968 Tet Offensive to October 1969. A well written book which ranges beyond the author's experiences into history and observations on events in which the author did not participate. One draw back is the lack of foot notes and documentation for claims made about events. 2002. BRUTE: The Life of Victor Krulak, U.S. Marine by Robert Coram. A biography General Krulak who served as the Commanding General, Fleet Marine Force Pacific from 1964 to 1968 and had influence on the conduct of the war in Vietnam. Things I'll Never Forget by James M. Dixon. Dixon's accout of his tour in 1966-67 with the USMC 1st MP Battalion and 5th Marine Regiment. Matterhorn Marlantes, Karl. Grove Press, New York, 2010. Karl Marlantes’s first novel, “Matterhorn,” is about a company of Marines who build, abandon and retake an outpost on a remote hilltop in Vietnam. – New York Times The Things They Carried O'Brien, Tim, Houghton Mifflin, Boston, PS3565.B75 T56 2005 Collection of stories based on O'brien's experiences in Vietnam Vietnam : an Epic Tragedy, 1945-1975 Hastings, Max, HarperCollins, New York, DS557.7 .H37 2018 This is a comprehensive, spell binding, surprisingly intimate, and altogether magnificent historical narrative. – Tim O'Brien 
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