Vietnam War

I am new to all of this. I have a large collection on the war in Vietnam, but I am always looking for new things. Any recommendations on 'must have' nonfiction books about this war?

Dispatches by Michael Herr

Platoon Leader by James R. Mcdonough.

Dispatches was one of the first books I read on Vietnam. I was an eye opening book. My dad was not to pleased with the harsh language. Thanks for the suggestion.

Thanks for the suggestion. I have read Platoon Leader and found it to be a good book.

Bright, Shining Lie by Neil Sheehan. Pulitzer prize winner and one of my all time favorites.

I thought both When Thunder Rolled and Palace Cobra by Ed Rasimus were great.

I also found The Village by Bing West very interesting.

You may not want to limit yourself to non-fiction. Two works by James Webb (now U.S. Senator from Virginia) are stand-outs: Fields of Fire and A Country Such As This.

Lewis Sorely has written a very good biography of Creighton Abrams called Thunderbolt. Sorely's A Better War is a superb account of the post-Tet Offensive period.

And in the realm of fiction, Joe Haldeman's Vietnam and Other Alien Worlds.

Hi, yeah, you should check out Robert Buzzanco. He writes on Vietnam and comes from a radical/left perspective.

>1 LamSon:
With over 1700 books tagged "Vietnam War" you weren't kidding about the large collection. I rather think you should be the one making recommendations.

But since I'm ever one to make lists I went through my bibliography and pulled out some books you don't seem to have. I have not read these. However, I have read academic book reviews of most of them.

We have eaten the forest: The story of a Montagnard village in the central highlands of Vietnam by Georges Condominas
A world transformed : the politics of culture in revolutionary Vietnam, 1945-1965 by Kim Ngoc Bao Ninh
Anatomy of a war : Vietnam, the United States, and the modern historical experience by Gabriel Kolko
Vietnamese anticolonialism, 1885-1925 by David G. Marr
The winter soldier investigation
Vietnam war; a report through Asian eyes by Katsuichi Honda
The village of Ben Suc by Jonathan Schell
Reporting Vietnam; American Journalism, 1959-1969
Reporting Vietnam; American Journalism, 1969-1975
Home from the war : learning from Vietnam veterans by Robert Jay Lifton
Agent Orange : "collateral damage" in Viet Nam by Philip Jones Griffiths
Vietnam : anatomy of a peace by Gabriel Kolko
America's miracle man in Vietnam : Ngo Dinh Diem, religion, race, and U.S. intervention in Southeast Asia, 1950-1957 by Seth Jacobs
¡Raza Sí!, ¡Guerra No! : Chicano protest and patriotism during the Viet Nam war era by Lorena Oropeza
Between a river & a mountain : the AFL-CIO and the Vietnam War by Edmund F. Wehrle
The colonial Bastille : a history of imprisonment in Vietnam, 1862-1940 by Peter Zinoman
Vietnamese communism, 1925-1945 by Kim Khánh Huỳnh
Soldiers in revolt : GI resistance during the Vietnam War by David Cortright

eromsted,
Thanks for the list. Some I do have and the rest I will put on my want (ie need) list.
I thought Reporting Vietnam was very good. It was interesting to see how perspectives changed over time.
You may want to check out my list again; I just got back from book srounging vacation and have added about 70 books to Vietnam War.

Fire in the Lake by Frances Fitzgerald.

The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien

Shrapnel in the Heart: Letters and Remembrances from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial by Laura Palmer

They Marched into Sunlight by David Maraniss an absolutely spellbinding book.

Backfire by Loren Baritz.
http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/biblio?inkey=65-9780801859533-1

Ohh, I forgot about The Things they Carried thats a good one.

I'd add Once A Warrior King by David Donovan. Excellent book.

Edwin Moise from Clemson University has put together a bibliography about the war that is without parallel. It can be found at this website --
http://www.clemson.edu/caah/history/facultypages/EdMoise/bibliography.html

This is not non-fiction--but it borders .....The Things They Carried by Tim O'brien is a very detailed reminisence of his experiences in Viet Nam in fiction form. I'm a historian and I can easily pick out the historical line. One of the best books on the war that I've read.

Any of Keith William Nolan's books, particularly "Operation Buffalo" and "Into Laos".

I'm currently reading Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam which I think was very well done.

A relatively new book, which I hesitate to mention because it's written by a friend of mine and self-published, is Land of Frozen Laughter: A Community Development Volunteer in the Vietnam War - 1967-1969 by John Lewallen. John did a reading at my used bookstore last month, and the book is really quite good. He wrote the memoir immediately upon returning home in 1969 but only recently published it. Given my personal connection (as a friend only, I have no financial connection), as I said, I hesitate to mention this book, and I wouldn't if I didn't truly think it was worthwhile. I will delete this part of my post, though, if people think I should. (There's no LT listing for the book so far; I haven't even loaded my own copy yet.)