API tools faq
paste
jonstond2

Vietnam War (Military History)

jonstond2
Mar 25th, 2017
715
0
Never
Add comment
Not a member of Pastebin yet? Sign Up, it unlocks many cool features!
text 83.91 KB | None | 0 0
raw download clone embed print report
  1. Introduction
  2.  
  3. The Vietnam War was one of the most divisive conflicts in the history of the United States—one that almost tore the country apart. The causes of the war, its conduct, and its aftermath remain hotly contested issues to this day. Scholars, journalists, and participants continue to debate how the war came about, why it was fought the way it was, why it turned out the way it did, and “lessons” that may be drawn from the experience. They continue to wrestle with the basic questions of not only who actually won the war but whether the war was ever winnable in the first place. The pursuit of answers to these very contentious questions has led to a broad array of perspectives and interpretations as the debate continues. The sheer volume of books on the war grows daily and addresses a broad spectrum that ranges from narrative overviews to more narrowly drawn works that focus on particular topics to first-person accounts of those who fought the war. The purpose of this bibliography is to provide a guide to some of the more meaningful and useful works that address the many topical categories and debates within the historiography of the war.
  4.  
  5. General Overviews
  6.  
  7. Generally speaking, histories of the Vietnam War fall into one of two camps. The “orthodox” camp asserts that the war was misguided and doomed to failure from the very beginning. The “revisionist” camp holds that the war was necessary, winnable, and, in fact, almost won. These two interpretations dominate the narrative of the war and most books can be solidly placed in one camp or the other. The most fulsome delineation of these perspectives, particularly the “orthodox” view, manifests themselves in the general overviews of the war. The earliest of these overviews, Fitzgerald 1972 and Karnow 1983, set the tone for the debate maintaining that the war was a mistake and America’s effort in Vietnam was doomed to failure from the beginning. Prados 2009 provides the most recent addition to this interpretation. Lawrence 2008 and Bradley 2009 provide good overviews, but both place the conflict in a more international setting. Herring 2002 and Tucker 1999 are both readable and concise, making them very useful as college texts. The Pentagon Papers (US Department of Defense 1971) provide a documentary overview of the decisions that led to an ever-increasing US commitment in Southeast Asia.
  8.  
  9. Bradley, Mark Phillip. Vietnam at War. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.
  10. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  11. Draws heavily on recently opened Vietnamese archives and other sources to place the Vietnamese at the center of the history of the war, unlike other books that render them almost invisible.
  12. Find this resource:
  13. Fitzgerald, Frances. Fire in the Lake: The Vietnamese and the Americans in Vietnam. New York: Random House, 1972.
  14. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  15. Pulitzer Prize–winning book that depicts the clash of values that led to what the author sees as the inevitable failure of the United States in Southeast Asia brought about by an attempt to resist the wave of Vietnamese nationalism.
  16. Find this resource:
  17. Herring, George C. America’s Longest War: The United States and Vietnam, 1950–1975. 4th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2002.
  18. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  19. A very balanced general history of the war, recognized as a major contribution to the study of American involvement in Vietnam; analyzes the ultimate failure in the war and its impact on US foreign policy, placing the war in the historical context of the Cold War and US containment policy.
  20. Find this resource:
  21. Karnow, Stanley. Vietnam: A History. New York: Viking, 1983.
  22. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  23. A comprehensive study of the war that looks at the conflict from both sides. Very well documented, it contains material from extensive interviews with those on both sides of the conflict.
  24. Find this resource:
  25. Lawrence, Mark Atwood. The Vietnam War: A Concise International History. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008.
  26. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  27. Using the latest archival research in China, Russia, and Vietnam, this book places the Vietnam War in a broader international context by providing the various perspectives of the war as seen by the major international actors.
  28. Find this resource:
  29. Prados, John. Vietnam: The History of an Unwinnable War, 1945–1975. Modern War Studies. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2009.
  30. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  31. A wide-ranging synthesis, which asserts that decision making clouded by Cold War politics and fundamentally flawed perceptions about the nature of the war made the war unwinnable.
  32. Find this resource:
  33. Tucker, Spencer C. Vietnam. London: UCL Press, 1999.
  34. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  35. A concise, well-documented analytical survey of Vietnamese military history that concentrates on the French and American 20th century wars and includes a brief account of the earliest recorded days of the Vietnamese people.
  36. Find this resource:
  37. US Department of Defense. The Pentagon Papers: The Defense Department History of United States Decisionmaking on Vietnam. 5 vols. Boston: Beacon, 1971.
  38. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  39. A history of US political-military involvement and decision making in Vietnam from 1945 to 1967; the report was originally classified, but was released by the New York Times in 1971.
  40. Find this resource:
  41. Reference Works, Historiography, and Data Sources
  42.  
  43. There are a number of key reference works that are very helpful in understanding the complexity of the war in Vietnam. Anderson 2002 provides an extremely good one-volume guide to the war, but the most comprehensive encyclopedia of the war is Tucker 2011, a four-volume work that covers virtually every aspect of the conflict. Summers 1995 provides an invaluable set of battle maps and associated short narratives that are particularly useful. Stanton 1981 provides detailed data on US forces and allies. Moïse’s online Vietnam War Bibliography, updated constantly, is the most complete listing of scholarship on the war. Texas Tech’s Vietnam Center and Virtual Archive is a readily accessible online archive of documents, images, and oral histories. Hess 2009 provides a very readable and comprehensive review of the Vietnam-era historiography.
  44.  
  45. Anderson, David L. The Columbia Guide to the Vietnam War. New York: Columbia University Press, 2002.
  46. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  47. An extremely comprehensive guide to the study of the Vietnam War that includes a historical narrative of the war from French occupation through North Vietnam’s victory in 1975; a miniencyclopedia of the war to include key people, places, and events; and an extensive list of resources and documents, and a detailed chronology.
  48. Find this resource:
  49. Hess, Gary. Vietnam: Explaining America’s Lost War. Oxford: Blackwell, 2009.
  50. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  51. One of the most recent works that seeks to assess the full panoply of the historiography of the Vietnam War, describing the various interpretations and debates about the war, its causes, conduct, and outcomes.
  52. Find this resource:
  53. Stanton, Shelby. Vietnam Order of Battle. Washington, DC: US News, 1981.
  54. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  55. An excellent reference volume that addresses US and allied order of battle information for all units that participated in the war; includes unit heraldry, dates of service, geographical areas of operation, and in many cases listings of commanders plus an extensive set of maps and photographs.
  56. Find this resource:
  57. Summers, Harry G., Jr. Historical Atlas of the Vietnam War. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1995.
  58. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  59. Excellent collection of more than 120 maps and selected charts accompanied by brief, but well-written historical explanations. Includes maps and narratives on the major battles and campaigns of the war.
  60. Find this resource:
  61. Tucker, Spencer, ed. Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War: A Political, Social, and Military History. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011.
  62. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  63. Second edition of a four-volume set that is one of the most comprehensive reference works on the Vietnam War. Covers early Vietnamese history, the Indochina War, how the United States became involved, the American experience in the war, impact on the homefront, and the aftermath of the war.
  64. Find this resource:
  65. The Vietnam Center and Virtual Archive.
  66. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  67. Online archive with a broad spectrum of holdings and excellent search engine. Includes an extensive oral history project with both audio and text files of interviews from a wide range of participants in the Vietnam War.
  68. Find this resource:
  69. Vietnam War Bibliography.
  70. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  71. Prepared and maintained by nationally recognized Vietnam scholar Ed Moise, this is an invaluable website that provides an extensive, annotated bibliography arranged topically, plus links to other Vietnam sites.
  72. Find this resource:
  73. Document Collections
  74.  
  75. Documents and other primary source materials are key to understanding the war. Gettleman, et al. 1995 and Katsiaficas 1992 provide excellent collections of documents, speeches, messages, and other primary sources. Barrett 1997 focuses on documents and other material from the Johnson administration. McMahon and Patterson 2007 combines documents and primary source material with a useful narrative that works very well as a textbook on the war in Vietnam.
  76.  
  77. Barrett, David M., ed. Lyndon B. Johnson’s Vietnam Papers: A Documentary Collection. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1997.
  78. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  79. A collection of documents focused on Johnson’s Vietnam policy that provides an excellent insight into what President Johnson’s advisers told him about Vietnam from 22 November 1963 to 20 January 1969.
  80. Find this resource:
  81. Gettleman, Marvin E., Jane Franklin, Marilyn B. Young, and H. Bruce Franklin, eds. Vietnam and America: A Documented History. Rev. ed. New York: Grove, 1995.
  82. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  83. A history of the war told in essays by leading experts on the war accompanied by original source material; includes documents such as speeches, messages, and official records from both sides of the conflict.
  84. Find this resource:
  85. Katsiaficas, George, ed. Vietnam Documents: American and Vietnamese Views of the War. New York: M. E. Sharpe, 1992.
  86. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  87. Contains fifty-two documents that present a complete picture of the war from 1954 to 1975 and includes seven entries on the Tet Offensive.
  88. Find this resource:
  89. McMahon, Robert, and Thomas Patterson. Major Problems in the History of the Vietnam War: Documents and Essays. 4th ed. New York: Wadsworth, 2007.
  90. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  91. A useful textbook that provides a comprehensive set of primary sources and analytical essays on the important topics of the Vietnam War.
  92. Find this resource:
  93. Biographies, Autobiographies, and Memoirs
  94.  
  95. The history of the Vietnam War includes a wide range of biographies and autobiographies about and by those who were major players in the war on both sides. These accounts provide much insight into how and why the war unfolded as it did. One of the most revealing is that of Westmoreland 1976, who commanded all US troops in Vietnam 1964–1968. One of the more controversial works in this category is McNamara 1995, which is essentially a mea culpa from one of the war’s chief architects. Sheehan 1988 addresses the controversial figure of John Paul Vann, one of the senior US officials in the later years of the war. Sorley 1992 examines the life of General Creighton Abrams, who assumed overall command of US forces in Vietnam in 1968. As for the other side, Currey 1999 and Duiker 2000 address, respectively, the lives of Vo Nguyen Giap and Ho Chi Minh, the two most seminal figures in Hanoi’s prosecution of the war.
  96.  
  97. Currey, Cecil B. Victory at Any Cost: The Genius of Viet Nam’s Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap. Dulles, VA: Brassey’s, 1999.
  98. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  99. A readable and comprehensive portrait of the Vietnamese military leader and a readable history of the Vietnam War.
  100. Find this resource:
  101. Duiker, William J. Ho Chi Minh. New York: Hyperion, 2000.
  102. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  103. The definitive biography of the charismatic North Vietnamese leader. Depicts Ho as a nationalist first but also as a devoted Marxist who believed socialism would help his country modernize and correct long-standing social inequities.
  104. Find this resource:
  105. McNamara, Robert. In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam. New York: Random House, 1995.
  106. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  107. Memoir of the secretary of defense under both Kennedy and Johnson. Despite his role in the escalation of the war, the author argues that the United States should have withdrawn from Vietnam either in late 1963, after President Diem’s assassination, or in late 1964 or early 1965.
  108. Find this resource:
  109. Sheehan, Neil. A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam. New York: Random House, 1988.
  110. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  111. A history of the war in Vietnam using as a vehicle the life of John Paul Vann, the legendary American military advisor who became one of the senior US civilian officials in the latter part of the war who was killed in a helicopter crash during the 1972 North Vietnamese Easter Offensive.
  112. Find this resource:
  113. Sorley, Lewis. Thunderbolt: General Creighton Abrams and the Army of His Times. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1992.
  114. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  115. A biography of the commander of American military forces in the later years of US commitment in Vietnam after General Westmoreland left in 1968 to assume the duties of chief of staff of the US Army.
  116. Find this resource:
  117. Westmoreland, William Childs. A Soldier Reports. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1976.
  118. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  119. Memoir of the commander of all American military forces in Vietnam 1964–1968. Argues that the war was winnable but that it was lost because the civilian leadership did not provide sufficient resources to win it.
  120. Find this resource:
  121. First Indochina War
  122.  
  123. US involvement in Vietnam dates back to the first Indochina War between France and the Viet Minh. The historiography of the French in Vietnam is wide and varied. One cannot understand the Vietnam War without first looking at the First Indochina War. For more information on the French war against the Viet Minh and the US role in Vietnam 1950–1954, see Wiest 2012.
  124.  
  125. Wiest, Andrew. “Indochina Wars, 1946–1975.” In Oxford Bibliographies: Military History. Edited by Dennis Showalter. 2012.
  126. DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199791279-0006Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  127. A very extensive bibliography with an especially useful section on the First Indochina War.
  128. Find this resource:
  129. Early US Involvement/Diem Years
  130.  
  131. US involvement in Vietnam began in 1950 during the First Indochina War. The US commitment grew after the defeat of the French at Dien Bien Phu and their subsequent withdrawal from Vietnam in 1956. This part of the historiography addresses the increasing US commitment during the Ngo Dinh Diem regime in the context of containment and the Cold War. Arnold 1991 provides the best account of Eisenhower’s decision making in the wake of French withdrawal from Southeast Asia. Kahin 1986 and Carter 2008 look at early US attempts at nation building. Catton 2002 and Jacobs 2004 address Ngo Dinh Diem, providing different perspectives on the man on whom the United States pinned its hopes for halting the spread of Communism in Vietnam. Moyar 2006 provides the best statement of the “revisionist” view that the United States made a fatal mistake when it withdrew its support from Diem in 1963. Toczek 2001 examines an important early battle between the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) and the Viet Cong.
  132.  
  133. Arnold, James. The First Domino: Eisenhower, the Military, and America’s Intervention in Vietnam. New York: Morrow, 1991.
  134. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  135. Examines the growing US commitment in Vietnam from Truman through Eisenhower. Asserts that Eisenhower’s decisions in the wake of Dien Bien Phu and subsequent French withdrawal set the stage for later decisions by the Kennedy and Johnson administrations.
  136. Find this resource:
  137. Carter, James. Inventing Vietnam: The United States and State Building, 1954–1968. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
  138. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511809255Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  139. Asserts that flawed nation-building efforts in Vietnam doomed Vietnamese independence.
  140. Find this resource:
  141. Catton, Philip. Diem’s Final Failure: Prelude to America’s War in Vietnam. Modern War Studies. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2002.
  142. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  143. A thorough study of Ngo Dinh Diem’s career that concludes he was neither the inept reactionary portrayed in the traditional accounts of his regime, nor the resilient visionary described in revisionist accounts.
  144. Find this resource:
  145. Jacobs, Seth. America’s Miracle Man in Vietnam: Ngo Dinh Diem, Religion, Race, and US Intervention in Southeast Asia, 1950–1957. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2004.
  146. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  147. Diplomatic and cultural history arguing that the US alliance with Diem cannot be understood apart from America’s mid-century religious revival and policymakers’ perceptions of Asians.
  148. Find this resource:
  149. Kahin, George M. Intervention: How America Became Involved in Vietnam. New York: Knopf, 1986.
  150. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  151. A criticism of American nation-building efforts in Vietnam arguing that the American objective of an independent, non-Communist government in Saigon was incompatible with the balance of political forces in South Vietnam.
  152. Find this resource:
  153. Moyar, Mark. Triumph Forsaken: The Vietnam War, 1954–1965. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
  154. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511511646Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  155. Best argument for the “revisionist” interpretation of the war asserting that the war was winnable and, in fact, was being won under Ngo Dinh Diem before the fatally flawed decision was made to withdraw US support from his regime.
  156. Find this resource:
  157. Toczek, David M. The Battle of Ap Bac Vietnam: They Did Everything but Learn from It. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2001.
  158. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  159. A discussion of a battle between the ARVN and the Viet Cong that the author maintains provided a missed opportunity for US officials to learn from their mistakes in the effort to train South Vietnamese forces.
  160. Find this resource:
  161. John F. Kennedy and the Vietnam War
  162.  
  163. When John F. Kennedy assumed office in 1961, he was initially faced with crisis in Laos, but it soon became evident that the real confrontation with the Communists would come in Vietnam. Under the Kennedy administration, the US commitment grew from several hundred advisors to nearly 17,000 US personnel, representing a steep increase in the commitment in less than three years. Halberstam 1972 and Halberstam 1988 provide readable accounts of the Kennedy administration and the decisions that led to increasing US presence in Vietnam. Kaiser 2000 examines how the legacy of Kennedy in Vietnam was passed on to Lyndon Johnson, leading to escalation that was doomed to fail. Goldstein 2008 discusses presidential advisor McGeorge Bundy and his role in formulating Vietnam policy during the Kennedy and then the Johnson administrations. Newman 1992 asserts that Kennedy would have avoided the growing quagmire of Vietnam had he not been assassinated.
  164.  
  165. Goldstein, Gordon M. Lessons in Disaster: McGeorge Bundy and the Path to War in Vietnam. New York: Times, 2008.
  166. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  167. A discussion of decision making in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations through the eyes of Bundy, one of the most strident advocates of military action in Vietnam. Maintains that the presidents, not their advisers, were primarily responsible for the outcome of the war and eventually concluded that the war should not have been fought.
  168. Find this resource:
  169. Halberstam, David. The Best and Brightest. New York: Random House, 1972.
  170. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  171. A classic work on the personalities and inner workings of the Kennedy and Johnson administrations that led the United States to war in Vietnam.
  172. Find this resource:
  173. Halberstam, David. The Making of a Quagmire: America and Vietnam During the Kennedy Era. Rev. ed. New York: Knopf, 1988.
  174. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  175. Classic narrative by Pulitzer Prize–winning author that addresses the mistakes and miscalculations by American political and military leaders that led to increasing US commitment in Southeast Asia; major actors were trapped by earlier decisions that deepened the commitment.
  176. Find this resource:
  177. Kaiser, David. American Tragedy: Kennedy, Johnson, and the Origins of the Vietnam War. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2000.
  178. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  179. Asserts that the war was unwinnable by demonstrating how Eisenhower’s flawed Cold War–influenced perceptions of the problems in Southeast Asia were almost overcome by Kennedy: but when Kennedy was assassinated, Johnson eventually returned to these flawed beliefs. These ideas and perceptions led to the escalation of military intervention by Johnson that ultimately failed.
  180. Find this resource:
  181. Newman, John. JFK and Vietnam: Deception, Intrigue, and the Struggle for Power. New York: Warner, 1992.
  182. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  183. Argues that when Kennedy went to Dallas in November 1963, he had already intended to withdraw US advisers from Vietnam but held off to ensure his reelection in 1964. An interesting entry into the “What would Kennedy have done?” argument that clearly asserts that Kennedy would not have led the United States deeper into the war.
  184. Find this resource:
  185. Lyndon Johnson and the Vietnam War
  186.  
  187. Upon the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the war in Vietnam became “Johnson’s War.” Under Lyndon Baines Johnson, the US commitment in Vietnam increased from just under 17,000 to almost a half million troops, while the nature of the commitment changed from an advisory role to major ground combat operations against the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army. There are a plethora of books that address Johnson and his administration’s handling of the war. Berman 1989 and Barrett 1994 describe how Johnson’s flawed decision making resulted in an unwinnable stalemate. Gardner 1995 and Vandiver 1997 put Johnson’s handling of the war in a global context. Logevall 1999 asserts that Johnson missed an opportunity to avoid escalating the war. McMaster 1997 describes the flawed relationship between Johnson and the senior US military leaders that led to the lack of a cogent strategy in Vietnam. Lind 1999 asserts that the war was necessary in the Cold War context but also that it was conducted in a fatally flawed manner. Schandler 1977 relates how Johnson’s failures in conducting the war combined with the impact of the 1968 Tet Offensive resulted in Johnson’s decision not to run for reelection.
  188.  
  189. Barrett, David M. Uncertain Warriors: Lyndon Johnson and His Vietnam Advisors. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1994.
  190. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  191. Author examines president’s relationship with his advisors and how this relationship resulted in a failed strategy in Vietnam.
  192. Find this resource:
  193. Berman, Larry. Lyndon Johnson’s War: The Road to Stalemate in Vietnam. New York: Norton, 1989.
  194. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  195. Examines what the author describes as the flawed decision making that resulted in a bloody stalemate in Vietnam; faults Johnson who went to war out of fear that “losing” Vietnam in 1965 would wreck his plans for the Great Society programs.
  196. Find this resource:
  197. Gardner, Lloyd C. Pay Any Price: Lyndon Johnson and the Wars for Vietnam. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 1995.
  198. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  199. An examination of Johnson’s juggling of military strategy, international diplomacy, and domestic politics during the Vietnam War. Asserts that Vietnam was not solely Lyndon Johnson’s war, but rather one in a series of inevitable conflicts rooted in New Deal liberalism and Cold War diplomacy.
  200. Find this resource:
  201. Lind, Michael. Vietnam: The Necessary War: A Reinterpretation of America’s Most Disastrous Military Conflict. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1999.
  202. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  203. Seeks to debunk conventional wisdom on the left and the right, maintaining that the Vietnam War, although poorly prosecuted, was a necessary war that was a test of US resolve within the context of the Cold War.
  204. Find this resource:
  205. Logevall, Fredrik. Choosing War: The Lost Chance for Peace and the Escalation of War in Vietnam. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999.
  206. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  207. Argues that Kennedy and Johnson both had several opportunities to step away from the conflict in Vietnam. Concludes that had Kennedy lived, he would have asked the fundamental questions that could have led to US disengagement.
  208. Find this resource:
  209. McMaster, H. R. Dereliction of Duty: Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Lies that Led to Vietnam. New York: HarperCollins, 1997.
  210. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  211. A seminal study of the relationship between Johnson, McNamara, and the joint chiefs of staff that was beset by intrigue, misunderstanding, competing agendas, and what the author called “outright lies” that led to American’s escalation of the war. The book faults all concerned for failing to define the nature of the war they embarked on in 1965.
  212. Find this resource:
  213. Schandler, Herbert Y. Lyndon Johnson and Vietnam: The Unmaking of a President. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1977.
  214. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  215. Examines the events that led up to the day when Lyndon Johnson made the dramatic announcement that he would not be a candidate for reelection. Focuses on the impact of the 1968 Tet Offensive on the White House and the political ramifications that followed in its wake.
  216. Find this resource:
  217. Vandiver, Frank E. Shadows of Vietnam: Lyndon Johnson’s Wars. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1997.
  218. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  219. An empathetic portrait of a besieged commander-in-chief who had to deal with Vietnam, the Great Society, the Six-Day War, the Dominican Republic and other crises; a revisionist look at Johnson that lays some of the blame for the president’s difficulties on the legacy of John F. Kennedy, fears of Communism and nuclear confrontation, the impact of the media, and the motives and methods of Johnson’s advisors.
  220. Find this resource:
  221. Military Operations, 1965–1967
  222.  
  223. This period was marked by the initial insertion of US ground troops in 1965 and the subsequent escalation of the US commitment to the war. During this period, US strategy was characterized by “search and destroy” operations that increased in size and scope as US and allied forces pursued enemy body count as a metric for measuring success. The US Army in Vietnam (Clarke and Stewart 1986–2010) is a multivolume official history of the US Army in the war, while Stanton 1985 provides a less detailed, but infinitely readable one-volume historical overview. Daddis 2011 provides a very useful assessment of US combat performance during this period. Moore and Galloway 1992 provides a riveting account of one of the first encounters between US ground forces and the Communists in late 1965. Wilkins 2011 discusses North Vietnamese strategy during the early days of the confrontation between US ground troops and North Vietnamese main force units. Bergerud 1993 gives a fulsome overview of a US infantry division in combat against Communist forces in South Vietnam. Maranis 2003 sets up an interesting counterpoint between US soldiers in a major battle in 1967 and student demonstrators at the University of Wisconsin during the same time period.
  224.  
  225. Bergerud, Eric M. Red Thunder, Tropic Lightning: The World of a Combat Division in Vietnam. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1993.
  226. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  227. A very well-written account of the operations of a US infantry division. A good representation of life in a combat unit that addresses organization, tactics, and the conduct of operations.
  228. Find this resource:
  229. Clarke, Jeffrey J., and Richard W. Stewart, eds. The US Army in Vietnam. 11 vols. Washington, DC: Center of Military History, 1986–2010.
  230. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  231. The official history of the army that provides detailed information on combat operations. Remains unfinished at this time.
  232. Find this resource:
  233. Daddis, Gregory A. No Sure Victory: Measuring US Army Effectiveness and Progress in the Vietnam War. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011.
  234. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  235. A study of how the US Army measured its performance during the Vietnam War. Argues that the army concentrated more on data collection than data analysis, which led to a fundamental misunderstanding of the war and ultimately defeat.
  236. Find this resource:
  237. Maraniss, David. They Marched into Sunlight: War and Peace, Vietnam and America, October 1967. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2003.
  238. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  239. An engaging narrative that examines and compares events that happened simultaneously in Vietnam and on the home front in the fall of 1967. Study focuses on a group of soldiers from the 1st Infantry Division locked in desperate battle at Ong Thanh, while other Americans took to the streets at the University of Wisconsin in Madison to protest the war.
  240. Find this resource:
  241. Moore, Harold, and Joseph Galloway. We Were Soldiers Once . . . and Young: Ia Drang, the Battle That Changed the War in Vietnam. New York: Random House, 1992.
  242. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  243. A firsthand account of the first confrontation between US ground forces and North Vietnamese regulars in the Central Highlands in 1965, a battle that set the pattern for the way the war would be fought in the ensuing years.
  244. Find this resource:
  245. Stanton, Shelby. The Rise and Fall of an American Army: US Ground Forces in Vietnam, 1965–1973. Novato, CA: Presidio, 1985.
  246. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  247. A history of the US Army at war in Vietnam that asserts that the army failed primarily because of flawed political direction.
  248. Find this resource:
  249. Wilkins, Warren. Grab Their Belts to Fight Them: The Viet Cong’s Big Unit War Against The U.S., 1965–1966. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2011.
  250. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  251. A recent book that seeks to understand the early North Vietnamese strategy that was designed by Hanoi to win a quick and decisive victory over South Vietnam but ultimately failed, leading to the 1968 Tet Offensive.
  252. Find this resource:
  253. Navy and Marines
  254.  
  255. The US Navy and US Marines fought their own wars in Vietnam. US Marine Corps History and Museums Division 1977–1997, a nine-volume work, provides the most complete history of Marine Corps operations in Vietnam. Murphy 1997 provides a much more concise but less detailed historical overview of Marine Corps operations 1965–1967, while Hennessy 1997 expressly examines Marine Corps strategy in the northernmost provinces of South Vietnam. Peterson 1989 addresses the Marine Corps’ approach to counterinsurgency. Coan 2004 looks at the battle of Con Thien, one of the major battles that preceded the 1968 Tet Offensive. Schreadley 1992 provides a general history of naval operations in Vietnam, while Cutler 1988 examines the US Navy’s effort to interdict Communist traffic on the rivers, streams, and inland waterways of South Vietnam. Reardon 2005 provides an in-depth look at a naval attack squadron that played a key role in the application of airpower that turned back the 1972 North Vietnamese Easter Offensive.
  256.  
  257. Coan, James P. Con Thien: Hill of Angels. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2004.
  258. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  259. An excellent account of the 1967 North Vietnamese Army siege of Con Thien, a hill just south of the Demilitarized Zone in the I Corps area, which was part of the North Vietnamese strategy to draw US forces away from the populated areas that would be the target of the 1968 Tet Offensive.
  260. Find this resource:
  261. Cutler, Thomas. Brown Water, Black Berets: Coastal and Riverine Warfare in Vietnam. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1988.
  262. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  263. A very readable account of the Brown Water Navy, which played a vital but often overlooked role in interdicting Communist water traffic on the rivers, streams, and inland waterways of South Vietnam.
  264. Find this resource:
  265. Hennessy, Michael A. Strategy in Vietnam: The Marines and Revolutionary Warfare in I Corps, 1965–1972. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1997.
  266. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  267. An excellent account of Marine Corps strategy and tactics in the northernmost region of South Vietnam.
  268. Find this resource:
  269. Murphy, Edward. Semper Fi-Vietnam: From Da Nang to the DMZ, Marine Corps Campaigns, 1965–1975. Novato, CA: Presidio, 1997.
  270. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  271. A campaign history of Marine Corps operations in Vietnam that may have thrown its net too wide for a book of this length. However, this book does address the hill fights of 1967, the siege of Khe Sanh, and the battle for Hue.
  272. Find this resource:
  273. Peterson, Michael E. The Combined Action Platoons: The US Marines’ Other War in Vietnam. New York: Praeger, 1989.
  274. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  275. An account of the Marine approach to pacification and counterinsurgency in I Corps area, the northernmost provinces of South Vietnam. Discusses the successes and failures of the program.
  276. Find this resource:
  277. Reardon, Carol. Launch the Intruders: A Naval Attack Squadron in the Vietnam War, 1972. Modern War Studies. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2005.
  278. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  279. An infinitely readable account of the experiences of one naval attack squadron during operations in response to the 1972 North Vietnamese Easter Offensive.
  280. Find this resource:
  281. Schreadley, Richard L. From the Rivers to the Sea: The US Navy in Vietnam. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1992.
  282. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  283. An operational history of the navy in the Vietnam War.
  284. Find this resource:
  285. US Marine Corps History and Museums Division. US Marines in Vietnam. 9 vols. Washington, DC: History and Museums Division, US Marine Corps, 1977–1997.
  286. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  287. A multi-volume official Marine Corps history of the Vietnam War that is particularly useful for its detailed narrative.
  288. Find this resource:
  289. The Air War
  290.  
  291. The air war played a seminal role in the war against North Vietnam and the Viet Cong; this effort including the bombing of North Vietnam, close air support in South Vietnam, and the interdiction campaign against the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Initially, it was hoped that air power would be the key to getting Hanoi to accede to US desires, but as Clodfelter 1989 and Tilford 2009 point out, there were significant limitations to what airpower could accomplish. Frankum 2005 examines the longest bombing campaign of the war, which proved to be largely ineffective. Michel 2002 looks at the 1972 Christmas bombing that preceded the signing of the Paris Peace Accords. Thompson 2000 provides a history of the US Air Force in the bombing campaign over North Vietnam, while Nichols and Tillman 1987 provides a history of the US Navy’s contribution to that campaign.
  292.  
  293. Clodfelter, Mark. The Limits of Air Power: The American Bombing of North Vietnam. New York: Free Press, 1989.
  294. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  295. An examination of the use of airpower in Vietnam that concludes that air campaigns against North Vietnam as the primary focus of US military efforts could not have led to victory because North Vietnam, with its lack of industry and undeveloped infrastructure, was not vulnerable to strategic bombing.
  296. Find this resource:
  297. Frankum, Ronald Bruce. Like Rolling Thunder: The Air War in Vietnam, 1964–1975. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2005.
  298. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  299. An excellent overview of the air war in Vietnam that examines the air campaigns in North Vietnam, South Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia and how each impacted the conduct of the war in the south and its ultimate outcome.
  300. Find this resource:
  301. Michel, Marshall L. III. The Eleven Days of Christmas: America’s Last Vietnam Battle. New York: Encounter, 2002.
  302. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  303. An insider’s account of the controversial Christmas bombing of 1972 that provides details about the way the campaign was initially mismanaged, but ultimately brought the North Vietnamese back to the negotiating table.
  304. Find this resource:
  305. Nichols, John B., and Barrett Tillman. On Yankee Station: The Naval Air War over Vietnam. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1987.
  306. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  307. An excellent overview of the navy’s contribution of the air war over Vietnam.
  308. Find this resource:
  309. Thompson, Wayne. To Hanoi and Back: The US Air Force and North Vietnam, 1966–1973. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 2000.
  310. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  311. A comprehensive history of the Air Force’s role in the air war against North Vietnam.
  312. Find this resource:
  313. Tilford, Earl H., Jr. Crosswinds: The Air Force’s Setup in Vietnam. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2009.
  314. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  315. A controversial book that asserts that the bombing of North Vietnam and the air interdiction campaign against the Ho Chi Minh Trail were in no way decisive. The book faults US Air Force leadership for not realizing that North Vietnam, as a primarily agrarian society, was not susceptible to strategic bombing.
  316. Find this resource:
  317. The Tet Offensive, 1968
  318.  
  319. The Tet Offensive of 1968 was the turning point in the war for the United States. Although US forces prevailed in the bitter fighting in 1968, the Communists won a psychological victory. The sheer scope and ferocity of the offensive stunned both the US president and the American people. In the aftermath of the offensive, Richard Nixon won the 1968 presidential election and began the long and bloody US withdrawal from Vietnam. Oberdorfer 2001 gives the most comprehensive account of the offensive, while Gilbert and Head 1996 provides a compendium of perspectives on this watershed event. Willbanks 2006 deals with the history of Tet and also discusses several of the enduring questions and interpretations of the offensive. Schmitz 2005 looks at the offensive and its impact on politics and public opinion. Hammel 1991, Nolan 1996, and Prados and Stubbe 1991 address the key battles of Hue, Saigon, and Khe Sanh respectively.
  320.  
  321. Gilbert, Marc Jason, and William Head, eds. The Tet Offensive. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1996.
  322. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  323. An excellent collection of essays and commentary that provides the unique and valuable perspectives of noted Vietnam scholars on the various aspects of the Tet Offensive and its aftermath.
  324. Find this resource:
  325. Hammel, Eric. Fire in the Streets: The Battle for Hue, Tet 1968. Chicago: Contemporary, 1991.
  326. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  327. Definitive combat narrative of the bloody battle for Hue in 1968, providing a vivid and up-close account of the house-by-house, block-by-block fighting.
  328. Find this resource:
  329. Nolan, Keith W. The Battle for Saigon: Tet 1968. New York: Pocket, 1996.
  330. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  331. A detailed history of the battles in Saigon during the Tet Offensive. Chronicles such events as the assault on the American Embassy, the intense fighting in the Cho Lon district of the city, and the ground attacks on US installations to include Tan Son Nhut air base.
  332. Find this resource:
  333. Oberdorfer, Don. Tet! Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001.
  334. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  335. The most comprehensive account of the Tet Offensive, covering the decisions and events that led up to the offensive, the bitter fighting during the offensive, and its dramatic aftermath.
  336. Find this resource:
  337. Prados, John, and Ray W. Stubbe. Valley of Decision: The Siege of Khe Sanh. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1991.
  338. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  339. A comprehensive history of the battle for Khe Sanh in 1968, which is based on interviews, documentary research, and the personal experiences of one of the authors. Also addresses the larger political context that led to the decision to stand and fight there.
  340. Find this resource:
  341. Schmitz, David F. The Tet Offensive: Politics, War, and Public Opinion. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2005.
  342. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  343. Reexamines the Tet Offensive in the context of American foreign policy, the state of the war up to 1968, and the impact of the media on public opinion. Concludes with a very useful bibliographic essay on the offensive and its aftermath.
  344. Find this resource:
  345. Willbanks, James H. The Tet Offensive: A Concise History. New York: Columbia University Press, 2006.
  346. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  347. A guide to the Tet Offensive that provides an overview of the events leading up to the offensive, the attack itself, the critical battles, and the aftermath; includes a critical assessment of the main themes and issues surrounding the offensive with excerpts from documents, maps, chronology, annotated bibliography, and a short encyclopedia of key people, places, and events.
  348. Find this resource:
  349. Richard Nixon and the Vietnam War
  350.  
  351. In the wake of the 1968 Tet Offensive, Richard Nixon won the presidential election and began to seek a way out of Vietnam. However, those efforts prolonged the war for five more years and involved the invasion of two more countries, leading to a firestorm of protest against the war. While continuing to fight the war, Nixon gave orders to transfer the responsibility for the fighting to the South Vietnamese while Henry Kissinger conducted secret negotiations in Paris. Ultimately, after bombing North Vietnam in December 1972, the Paris Peace Accords were signed. Dallek 2007 addresses Nixon and Kissinger’s handling of the war in Vietnam. Berman 2001, Kimball 1998, and Asselin 2002 examine the Nixon administration’s attempts to negotiate an end to the war. Randolph 2007 addresses Nixon’s handling of the 1972 North Vietnamese Easter Offensive. Kissinger 2003 seeks to explain his and the president’s actions in ending the war.
  352.  
  353. Asselin, Pierre. A Bitter Peace: Washington, Hanoi, and the Making of the Paris Agreement. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002.
  354. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  355. The most detailed history of the peace negotiations in Paris and the Peace Accords that were signed in 1973. Is also critical of Nixon’s diplomacy that led to the settlement.
  356. Find this resource:
  357. Berman, Larry. No Peace, No Honor: Nixon, Kissinger, and Betrayal in Vietnam. New York: Free Press, 2001.
  358. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  359. An examination of the efforts of Nixon and Kissinger to negotiate an end to the war in Vietnam. Asserts that they knew the agreement reached was a death warrant for South Vietnam but did not care, seeking only a “decent interval” before the eventual fall of Saigon.
  360. Find this resource:
  361. Dallek, Robert. Nixon and Kissinger: Partners in Power. New York: HarperCollins, 2007.
  362. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  363. A provocative portrait of the relationship between the president and his national security advisor. Addresses their handling of the Vietnam War, as well as the unprecedented opening of relations with China, détente with the Soviet Union, and other aspects of Nixon’s foreign policy while also detailing the impact of the growing scandal of Watergate on those policies.
  364. Find this resource:
  365. Kimball, Jeffrey. Nixon’s Vietnam War. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1998.
  366. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  367. A highly critical but extensively documented and convincing assessment of Nixon’s handling of the war.
  368. Find this resource:
  369. Kissinger, Henry. Ending the Vietnam War: A History of America’s Involvement in and Extrication from the Vietnam War. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2003.
  370. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  371. Taken from Kissinger’s best-selling memoirs with new and updated material, this is an insider’s account of the Nixon and Ford administrations’ handling of the Vietnam War, Cambodia, and relations with the Soviet Union and China.
  372. Find this resource:
  373. Randolph, Stephen P. Powerful and Brutal Weapons: Nixon, Kissinger, and the Easter Offensive. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007.
  374. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  375. A detailed study of Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger’s foreign policy and use of military power in repelling the 1972 North Vietnamese Easter Offensive. Draws on White House tapes and never before used North Vietnamese sources.
  376. Find this resource:
  377. Military Operations, 1969–1973
  378.  
  379. The nature of the war changed in the wake of the 1968 Tet Offensive. The newly elected US president, Richard Nixon, replaced the senior commander in Vietnam and changed the US mission from winning the war to preparing the South Vietnamese forces to assume responsibility for their own defense. The focus slowly shifted to the advisory effort, but the war continued to rage. Spector 1993 addresses the bitter fighting that followed in the year after Tet. Sorley 1999 chronicles the efforts of General Creighton Abrams, who took over from Westmoreland in 1968; he asserts that the war was won during this period. Willbanks 2008 addresses Nixon’s Vietnamization program and its consequences from 1969–1975. Shaw 2005 discusses the allied incursion into Cambodia in 1970 and Nolan 1986 the South Vietnamese thrust into Laos in 1971. Shkurti 2011 examines the performance of US combat forces late in the war as the number of Americans in Vietnam was steadily drawn down. Andrade 2001 provides a comprehensive account of the North Vietnamese general offensive of 1972 while Willbanks 2005 looks at one of the major battles fought during the offensive.
  380.  
  381. Andrade, Dale. America’s Last Vietnam Battle: Halting Hanoi’s 1972 Easter Offensive. Modern War Studies. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2001.
  382. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  383. A detailed and infinitely readable account of the massive 1972 North Vietnamese offensive that saw more than 130,000 NVA troops attack Quang Tri, Kontum, and An Loc.
  384. Find this resource:
  385. Nolan, Keith William. Into Laos: The Story of Dewey Canyon II/Lam Son 719, Vietnam 1971. Novato, CA: Presidio, 1986.
  386. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  387. Very well-written story of the 1971 South Vietnamese attack into Laos in the first real test of Richard Nixon’s Vietnamization policy.
  388. Find this resource:
  389. Shaw, John M. The Cambodian Campaign: The 1970 Offensive and America’s Vietnam War. Modern War Studies. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2005.
  390. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  391. An excellent account of the 1970 Cambodian Incursion, the last major US ground operation of the Vietnam War.
  392. Find this resource:
  393. Shkurti, William J. Soldiering on in a Dying War: The True Story of the Firebase Pace Incidents and the Vietnam Drawndown. Modern War Studies. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2011.
  394. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  395. A case study of the American drawdown in Vietnam during the Nixon years. Covers an area that has not been adequately addressed in the historiography of the war.
  396. Find this resource:
  397. Sorley, Lewis. A Better War: The Unexamined Victories and Final Tragedy of America’s Last Years in Vietnam. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1999.
  398. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  399. A somewhat uncritical examination of the events that transpired in Vietnam after Creighton Abrams assumed command of Military Assistance Command Vietnam (MACV) from William Westmoreland. One of the key books in the revisionist argument that asserts that the war was being won when US political resolve wavered.
  400. Find this resource:
  401. Spector, Ronald H. After Tet: The Bloodiest Year in Vietnam. New York: Free Press, 1993.
  402. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  403. An excellent look at the year after Tet. The author maintains that the 1968 offensive was only the beginning of what he describes as the bloodiest period of the war for American forces.
  404. Find this resource:
  405. Willbanks, James H. The Battle of An Loc. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2005.
  406. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  407. A firsthand account by a military historian who participated as an advisor with South Vietnamese forces during battle for An Loc during the 1972 North Vietnamese Easter Offensive.
  408. Find this resource:
  409. Willbanks, James H. Abandoning Vietnam: How America Left and South Vietnam Lost Its War. Modern War Studies. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2008.
  410. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  411. A comprehensive examination of Nixon’s Vietnamization policy, conduct of the war in the later years, US withdrawal, the peace negotiations, the aftermath of US departure, and the fall of South Vietnam.
  412. Find this resource:
  413. Pacification and Counterinsurgency
  414.  
  415. The main focus of US efforts under General Westmoreland was the “big unit” war in which US ground combat forces conducted an attrition campaign against the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army. The pacification campaign that went on largely in the background was focused on countering the Communist insurgency and winning the hearts and minds of the Vietnamese people in the countryside. Many historians and analysts maintain that the neglect of the pacification/counterinsurgency effort was one of the main reasons for US failure in Vietnam. Hunt 1995 provides the seminal work on pacification. Bergerud 1991 and Race 2010 examine the nature of the insurgency by focusing on two separate provinces. Herrington 2004 provides a firsthand account of the effort to root out the insurgency in Hau Nghia province. West 2003 addresses the Marine Corps’ approach to counterinsurgency at the hamlet level in the northern part of South Vietnam. Moyar 2007 discusses the Phoenix program and the effort to eradicate the Viet Cong shadow government.
  416.  
  417. Bergerud, Eric M. The Dynamics of Defeat, the Vietnam War in Hau Nghia Province. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1991.
  418. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  419. An analysis of the entire course of the war by focusing on a single key province, Hau Nghia, northwest of Saigon. Focuses on the operational level, where political policy was translated into military action.
  420. Find this resource:
  421. Herrington, Stuart A. Stalking the Vietcong: Inside Operation Phoenix, a Personal Account. Novato, CA: Presidio, 2004.
  422. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  423. Originally published as Silence Was a Weapon, a very readable firsthand account of counterinsurgency efforts in Hau Nghia province.
  424. Find this resource:
  425. Hunt, Richard. Pacification: The American Struggle for Vietnam’s Hearts and Minds. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1995.
  426. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  427. Addresses the “other war,” providing one of the most comprehensive accounts of the pacification program. Concludes that pacification failed to solve South Vietnam’s political and social problems.
  428. Find this resource:
  429. Moyar, Mark. Phoenix and the Birds of Prey. Lincoln, NE: Bison, 2007.
  430. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  431. A new edition of the seminal 1997 study of the controversial Phoenix program in Vietnam. Balanced and objective analysis of the program and its impact on the Viet Cong’s shadow government.
  432. Find this resource:
  433. Race, Jeffrey. War Comes to Long An: A Revolutionary Conflict in a Vietnam Province. 2d ed. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010.
  434. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  435. An updated version of the landmark work on revolutionary and counter-revolutionary movements in rural Long An province in the Mekong Delta.
  436. Find this resource:
  437. West, Bing. The Village. New York: Pocket, 2003.
  438. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  439. A newer edition of the 1972 classic that tells the story of a Marine Combined Action Platoon in a small Vietnamese village. Well-written account of the US Marine approach to counterinsurgency by a former US Marine officer who served in Vietnam.
  440. Find this resource:
  441. Special Operations
  442.  
  443. While the majority of US ground forces were engaged in a war of attrition against the Communists, US special forces were conducting their own war in the shadows. Stanton 1990 provides an overview of special forces operations in Vietnam. Conboy and Andrade 2000 discusses covert cross-border operations, and Plaster 1997 gives an insider account of those operations. Hoe 2011 tells the story of a legendary special forces operator. Gargas 2007 provides an insider account of the special forces mission to rescue American prisoners of war being held in North Vietnam.
  444.  
  445. Conboy, Kenneth, and Dale Andrade. Spies and Commandos: How America Lost the Secret War in North Vietnam. Modern War Studies. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2000.
  446. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  447. A very readable account of the covert cross-border operations conducted by the army’s super-secret Studies and Observation Group (SOG). Asserts that the effort was doomed from the start.
  448. Find this resource:
  449. Gargas, John. The Son Tay Raid: American POWs in Vietnam Were not Forgotten. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2007.
  450. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  451. An insider’s account of the attempt to rescue American POWs in North Vietnam in 1970 by the lead navigator for the strike force.
  452. Find this resource:
  453. Hoe, Allen. The Quiet Professional: Major Richard J. Meadows of the U.S. Army Special Forces. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2011.
  454. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  455. New biography of one of the legendary figures in the development of the Green Berets, who was a highly decorated veteran of Korea and Vietnam and, after the war, went undercover in the clandestine operations to rescue American hostages in Iran in 1980.
  456. Find this resource:
  457. Plaster, John. SOG: The Secret Wars of America’s Commandos in Vietnam. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1997.
  458. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  459. Inside account of SOG by three-tour veteran of the organization, using declassified material to provide a detailed story of behind-the-lines operations.
  460. Find this resource:
  461. Stanton, Shelby L. The Green Berets at War: U.S. Special Forces in Asia, 1956–1975. Novato, CA: Presidio, 1990.
  462. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  463. An overview of Army Special Forces operations in Southeast Asia.
  464. Find this resource:
  465. Antiwar Movement
  466.  
  467. The Vietnam War was one of the most contentious events in American history. As the war grew in intensity, so did the antiwar movement, as more and more people took to the streets to protest US policies and actions in Southeast Asia. Gitlin 1993 and Anderson 1995 examine the antiwar movement within the larger context of the upheaval of the Sixties, while Wells 1994 looks expressly at the antiwar movement. Nicosia 2001 focuses on the Vietnam Veterans Against the War movements. Hall 2011 provides a recent reappraisal of the antiwar movement.
  468.  
  469. Anderson, Terry. The Movement and the Sixties. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.
  470. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  471. Addresses the antiwar movement in the context of a larger movement by activists who took to the streets in protest over a wide range of issues that also included the civil rights movement and women’s liberation, among others.
  472. Find this resource:
  473. Gitlin, Todd. The Sixties: Years of Hope, Days of Rage. New York: Bantam, 1993.
  474. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  475. An insider’s account of the protest movement of the Sixties that is part history, part memoir, and part celebration.
  476. Find this resource:
  477. Hall, Simon. Rethinking the American Anti-War Movement. New York: Routledge, 2011.
  478. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  479. A short, accessible, balanced reexamination of protests against the Vietnam War, highlighting key events and key figures, the movement’s strengths and weaknesses, and how it intersected with other social and political movements of the time.
  480. Find this resource:
  481. Nicosia, Gerald. Home to War: A History of the Vietnam Veterans’ Movement. New York: Carroll and Graf, 2001.
  482. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  483. A reasonably complete discussion of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War movement, but borders on advocacy.
  484. Find this resource:
  485. Wells, Tom. The War Within: America’s Battle over Vietnam. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994.
  486. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  487. A good overview of the history and growth of the antiwar movement. However, the book lacks fidelity in assessing the overall impact of the movement on the conduct of the war.
  488. Find this resource:
  489. Television and the Press
  490.  
  491. Vietnam has been called the “television war,” and there is little doubt that television and other press coverage of the war had a major impact on the war’s outcome. Arlen 1969 looks specifically at television coverage of the war. Hallin 1986 analyzes the overall media coverage of the war from 1961 to 1973. Wyatt 1993 provides an assessment of the press and its coverage of the war. Hammond 1998 examines the contentious relationship between the media and the military. Braestrup 1983 provides an exhaustive study of how the 1968 Tet Offensive was reported in the media. Laurence 2002 provides personal insight into how war correspondents covered the war.
  492.  
  493. Arlen, Michael. Living Room War. New York: Viking, 1969.
  494. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  495. Argues that television coverage, contrary to its critics, did not have a significant impact on the American public’s perception of the war: this is because the nightly coverage was a stylized and distanced overview of a disjointed conflict that had less impact on public opinion that some have asserted.
  496. Find this resource:
  497. Braestrup, Peter. Big Story: How the American Press and Television Reported and Interpreted the Crisis of Tet in Vietnam and Washington. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1983.
  498. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  499. An abridged edition of a two-volume study with voluminous documentation that is very critical of the performance of the press during the Tet Offensive. Concludes that media reporting helped transform a tactical disaster in a strategic psychological victory for the Communists.
  500. Find this resource:
  501. Hallin, Daniel. The “Uncensored War”: The Media and Vietnam. New York: Oxford University Press, 1986.
  502. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  503. A balanced analysis of the New York Times and network coverage of the war from 1961 to 1973. Concludes that the media generally accepted official explanations of the war up until the Tet Offensive, but then began to reflect rather than drive growing public disaffection with the war.
  504. Find this resource:
  505. Hammond, William H. Reporting Vietnam: Media and Military at War. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1998.
  506. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  507. An abridgement of an earlier two-volume official US Army history that traces the military’s controversial relations with the news media during the Vietnam War from Kennedy through Johnson and Richard Nixon. Reveals that animosity between the military and the press had not always been the rule, but as the war dragged on the reporters began to challenge the consistently upbeat reports from the military.
  508. Find this resource:
  509. Laurence, John. The Cat from Hue: A Vietnam War Story. New York: Public Affairs, 2002.
  510. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  511. Autobiography of a reporter who covered the Vietnam War for CBS. Provides an extremely useful account of how the American war correspondents covered the war.
  512. Find this resource:
  513. Wyatt, Clarence R. Paper Soldiers: The American Press and the Vietnam War. New York: Norton, 1993.
  514. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  515. Seeks to counter the widespread belief that the American press was a major factor in the US failure in Vietnam. Reveals that the record shows instead a fluctuating mix of cooperation and confrontation between journalists and the government/military.
  516. Find this resource:
  517. The Soldiers
  518.  
  519. This aspect of the historiography of the war seeks to understand those who fought the war on the ground in Vietnam. Ebert 1993 and Longley 2008 address the soldier experience of those who saw combat. Steinman 1999 and Prados 2011 seek to do the same thing but by using the soldiers’ own words. Edelman 1985 uses extracts from letters home from Vietnam. Milam 2009 looks at the experience of those junior officers who had to lead their men in combat against the enemy.
  520.  
  521. Ebert, James R. A Life in a Year: The American Infantryman in Vietnam, 1965–1972. Novato, CA: Presidio, 1993.
  522. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  523. Examination of the infantry soldier’s experience from induction to the jungles of Vietnam and their return to “The World.” Topically organized and very comprehensive.
  524. Find this resource:
  525. Edelman, Bernard, ed. Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam. New York: Norton, 1985.
  526. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  527. Tells the moving story of those who fought the war. Uses extracts from their letters home.
  528. Find this resource:
  529. Longley, Kyle. Grunts: The American Combat Soldier in Vietnam. New York: M. E. Sharpe, 2008.
  530. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  531. Draws on memoirs, oral histories, and personal interviews to provide an account of those who bore the brunt of the fighting. Addresses their induction, training, wartime experience, their homecoming, and their mature reflections on the experience of war.
  532. Find this resource:
  533. Milam, Ron. Not a Gentleman’s War: An Inside View of Junior Officers in the Vietnam War. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2009.
  534. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  535. Provides the perspective of the lieutenants and captains who led the soldiers in combat; also provides a balanced assessment of junior officer performance in the war.
  536. Find this resource:
  537. Prados, John, ed. In Country: Remembering the Vietnam War. New York: Ivan R. Dee, 2011.
  538. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  539. A compendium of first-person accounts of American soldiers, civilian participants, and North and South Vietnamese veterans that “puts a face” on the Vietnam experience.
  540. Find this resource:
  541. Steinman, Ron. The Soldier’s Story: Vietnam in Their Own Words. New York: TV Books, 1999.
  542. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  543. Oral history that contains the vivid recollections of seventy-seven veterans who recall their wartime experiences.
  544. Find this resource:
  545. South Vietnam
  546.  
  547. The historiography of the war has focused largely on Americans and their Communist opponents; the South Vietnamese have been largely missing from the narrative. That is slowly changing. Bui Diem 1999 provides the perspective of a senior official in the Saigon regime. Lam Quang Thi 2001 is a memoir by a former South Vietnamese general, while Nguyen Cao Ky 2002 provides the perspective of a former prime minister of South Vietnam. Sorley 2010 provides edited versions of the Indochina monograph series by former South Vietnamese generals commissioned by the US Army in the years after the fall of Saigon. Brigham 2006 examines the history of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN). Wiest 2008 also looks at the ARVN through the lives and careers of two young South Vietnamese officers who took divergent paths during the war.
  548.  
  549. Brigham, Robert K. Life and Death in the South Vietnamese Army. Modern War Studies. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2006.
  550. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  551. One of the few books in the historiography of the war that focuses on the history of the South Vietnamese Army, 1955–1975. Concludes that Nixon’s Vietnamization program, which was seen as a “sell out” in the South Vietnamese ranks, failed to transform the ARVN into an effective fighting force.
  552. Find this resource:
  553. Bui, Diem. In the Jaws of History. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999.
  554. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  555. A perspective by a former high official in the Saigon government who also served as South Vietnamese ambassador to the United States. Critical of how American forces took over the war, exhibiting a blatant disregard for South Vietnamese interests.
  556. Find this resource:
  557. Lam, Quang Thi. The Twenty-Five Year Century: A South Vietnamese General Remembers the Indochina War to the Fall of Saigon. Denton: University of North Texas Press, 2001.
  558. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  559. Description of his life and participation in the Vietnam War by a former general in the South Vietnamese Army.
  560. Find this resource:
  561. Nguyen, Cao Ky. Buddha’s Child: My Fight to Save Vietnam. New York: St. Martin’s, 2002.
  562. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  563. Account by former prime minister of South Vietnam about his rise and fall from power and the errors that led to his nation’s defeat. Offers valuable insight into the history of the war as seen from the South Vietnamese side.
  564. Find this resource:
  565. Sorley, Lewis. The Vietnam War: An Assessment by South Vietnam’s Generals. Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press, 2010.
  566. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  567. An edited collection of a series of senior South Vietnamese officer monographs commissioned by the US Army Center of Military History after the war. Provides the South Vietnamese military perspective on strategy, tactics, leadership, and specific campaigns.
  568. Find this resource:
  569. Wiest, Andrew. Vietnam’s Forgotten Army: Heroism and Betrayal in the ARVN. New York: New York University Press, 2008.
  570. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  571. A fascinating account of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam told through the lives of two officers, one who was captured in Laos in 1971 and the other who surrendered his regiment to the North Vietnamese in 1972. Puts a personal face on the usually faceless South Vietnamese Army, which is given pretty short shrift in the war’s historiography.
  572. Find this resource:
  573. North Vietnam and the Vietcong
  574.  
  575. Essential to understanding the war and its outcome are books that provide the perspective of the other side. Nguyen 2012 is the most comprehensive examination of the key figures who led the war from Hanoi. Military History Institute of Vietnam 2002 is particularly useful as the official history of the People’s Army of Vietnam. Pike 1986 also looks at the history and operations of the North Vietnamese Army. Lanning and Cragg 1992 provides an in-depth look at the fighting forces of the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army. Bui 1995 provides a firsthand account of a senior officer in the army of North Vietnam while Tang 1985 gives the perspective of one who fought with the Viet Cong.
  576.  
  577. Bui, Tin. Following Ho Chi Minh. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 1995.
  578. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  579. A former colonel in the North Vietnamese Army, Bui Tin describes his role in the war against the Americans. Provides unique insight into the innermost workings of the Communist decision-making apparatus during the war.
  580. Find this resource:
  581. Lanning, Michael Lee, and Dan Cragg. Inside the VC and NVA. New York: Ballantine, 1992.
  582. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  583. An excellent overview by two Vietnam veterans of the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army. Addresses recruitment, training, political indoctrination, logistics, leadership, and conduct of operations.
  584. Find this resource:
  585. Military History Institute of Vietnam. Victory in Vietnam: The Official History of the People’s Army of Vietnam, 1954–1975. Translated by Merle L. Pribbenow. Modern War Studies. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2002.
  586. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  587. An English translation of the 1994 official history of the North Vietnamese Army, which answers many lingering questions about the war.
  588. Find this resource:
  589. Nguyen, Lien-Hang T. Hanoi’s War: An International History of the War for Peace in Vietnam. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2012.
  590. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  591. A new groundbreaking examination of how the other side prosecuted the Vietnam War. Draws on an extensive array of heretofore closed Vietnamese archives to explore the politics of war making and peacemaking not only from Hanoi’s perspective but also from that of South Vietnam, the Soviet Union, China, and the United States.
  592. Find this resource:
  593. Pike, Douglas. PAVN: People’s Army of Vietnam. Novato, CA: Presidio, 1986.
  594. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  595. Description of the creation of the People’s Army of Vietnam and how it grew to be one of the largest and most effective armies in contemporary times. Details the militaristic nature of Vietnamese society, describes the organization and functioning of the military forces and places them in a political context.
  596. Find this resource:
  597. Tang, Truong Nhu. A Vietcong Memoir. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1985.
  598. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  599. Memoir written by a founding member of the Viet Cong. Provides a unique perspective on the war from the other side, which is generally free of the strident socialist dogma that accompanies many Vietnamese Communist accounts.
  600. Find this resource:
  601. Oral Histories
  602.  
  603. Oral histories provide a rich source of personal experiences and firsthand accounts of various aspects of the war. Verrone and Calkins 2005 is a compendium of eyewitness accounts from a rich source of oral histories. Willenson 1987, Maurer 1989, Denenberg 1995, and Appy 2004 each draw on oral histories from a wide range of participants in the war on both sides. Englemann 1997 focuses his collection of oral histories on perspectives of the fall of South Vietnam.
  604.  
  605. Appy, Christian G. Patriots: The Vietnam War Remembered from All Sides. Rev. ed. New York: Penguin, 2004.
  606. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  607. An oral history drawn from 135 men and women who participated in the Vietnam War. These testimonies come from a wide variety of perspectives that provides a vivid human history of the war from start to finish.
  608. Find this resource:
  609. Denenberg, Barry. Voices from Vietnam. New York: Scholastic, 1995.
  610. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  611. An account of the Vietnam War told in the voices of the participants. Arranged chronologically, the author includes a variety of sources, to include government officials, political leaders, diplomats, soldiers, war protestors, reporters, and Vietnamese citizens and soldiers on both sides.
  612. Find this resource:
  613. Englemann, Larry. Tears Before the Rain: An Oral History of the Fall of South Vietnam. New York: Da Capo, 1997.
  614. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  615. A collection of oral histories that addresses the period after the departure of US troops through the fall of Saigon in 1975.
  616. Find this resource:
  617. Maurer, Henry. Strange Ground: Americans in Vietnam, 1945–1975. New York: Henry Holt, 1989.
  618. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  619. An oral history that, in the voices of the participants, traces the evolution of American involvement from the last days of World War II to the fall of Saigon three decades later.
  620. Find this resource:
  621. Verrone, Richard Burks, and Laura M. Calkins. Voices from Vietnam: Eye-Witness Accounts of the War, 1954–1975. Newton Abbot, UK: David and Charles, 2005.
  622. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  623. First-person accounts of the Vietnam War drawn from the Oral History Project at the Vietnam Archive, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas.
  624. Find this resource:
  625. Willenson, Kim. The Bad War: An Oral History of the Vietnam War. New York: New American Library, 1987.
  626. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  627. A collection of oral histories of those with many different views and perspectives on the war.
  628. Find this resource:
  629. Race
  630.  
  631. The Vietnam War coincided with a period in US history that was marked by extreme racial tension. There have been more than a few books that chronicle the experience of varied racial and ethnic groupings. Terry 1984 is an oral history exploring the experience of African American soldiers in the war. Trujillo 1990 takes the same tack with Hispanic soldiers, and Whelchel 1999 looks at the experiences of Japanese American veterans. Westheider 1997 explores race relations and discrimination in the army. Westheider 2007 looks at the intersection of the wartime experiences of African American soldiers in the war with the civil rights movement at home.
  632.  
  633. Terry, Wallace. Bloods: An Oral History of the Vietnam War by Black Veterans. New York: Random House, 1984.
  634. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  635. A classic work that was among the first to document the experiences of African American Vietnam veterans.
  636. Find this resource:
  637. Trujillo, Charley. Soldados: Chicanos in Vietnam. San Jose, CA: Chusma House, 1990.
  638. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  639. One of the only oral histories of Hispanic Americans who fought in the war.
  640. Find this resource:
  641. Westheider, James E. Fighting on Two Fronts: African Americans and the Vietnam War. New York: New York University Press, 1997.
  642. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  643. Explores race relations in Vietnam and discrimination in the US military.
  644. Find this resource:
  645. Westheider, James E. The African American Experience in Vietnam: Brothers in Arms. New York: Rowman and Littlefield, 2007.
  646. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  647. A detail-rich analysis of the experiences of African American soldiers who served in Vietnam and the intersection of those experiences with the civil rights and antiwar movements.
  648. Find this resource:
  649. Whelchel, Toshio. From Pearl Harbor to Saigon: Japanese American Soldiers and the Vietnam War. London: Verso, 1999.
  650. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  651. An oral history that provides the experience of Japanese American soldiers who fought in Vietnam.
  652. Find this resource:
  653. Gender
  654.  
  655. For many years, the story of women who fought in Vietnam was distinctive for its absence in the narrative about the war. Walker 1986 is a collection of interviews from women veterans, which was one of the first to address the perspectives of women who were in the war. Marshall 1987 is an oral history that seeks to address the broad ranges of women’s experiences in Vietnam. Vuic 2010 provides a history of the US Army Nurse Corps in Vietnam. Stur 2011 discusses how the Vietnam War influenced gender roles in America. Taylor 1999 and Turner 1999 address the role of women who fought for the other side.
  656.  
  657. Marshall, Kathryn. In the Combat Zone: An Oral History of American Women in Vietnam, 1966–1975. Boston: Little, Brown, 1987.
  658. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  659. A detailed oral history that includes interviews with American military nurses, Women’s Army Corps personnel, and American civilian women who served in Vietnam.
  660. Find this resource:
  661. Stur, Heather Marie. Beyond Combat: Women and Gender in the Vietnam War Era. New York and Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2011.
  662. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511980534Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  663. Investigates how the Vietnam War both reinforced and challenged the gender roles that were the key components of American Cold War ideology. Discusses how some American men and women returned home after the war to challenge home-front gender norms.
  664. Find this resource:
  665. Taylor, Sandra. Vietnamese Women at War: Fighting for Ho Chi Minh and the Revolution. Modern War Studies. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1999.
  666. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  667. A unique and perceptive analysis of the experiences of women who fought for the National Liberation Front in South Vietnam.
  668. Find this resource:
  669. Turner, Karen. Even the Women Must Fight: Memories of War from North Vietnam. Chichester, UK: Wiley, 1999.
  670. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  671. Based largely on interviews conducted by the author, this book seeks to tell the story of the Vietnam War from the perspective of North Vietnamese women.
  672. Find this resource:
  673. Vuic, Kara Dixon. Officer, Nurse, Woman: The Army Nurse Corps in the Vietnam War. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University, 2010.
  674. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  675. A compelling account of the experiences of army nurses in Vietnam that is based on extensive interviews and other personal accounts.
  676. Find this resource:
  677. Walker, Keith. A Piece of My Heart: The Stories of Twenty-Six American Women Who Served in Vietnam. New York: Ballantine, 1986.
  678. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  679. A collection of interviews with women who served in Vietnam, one of the first to add women’s experiences to the Vietnam War narrative.
  680. Find this resource:
  681. The Fall of South Vietnam
  682.  
  683. Following the withdrawal of the last US troops from South Vietnam in March 1973, the war continued to rage. For the rest of the year and into the first six months of 1974, South Vietnamese forces did reasonably well on the battlefield. Then, however, things began to unravel as the United States reduced military aid and Richard Nixon resigned in disgrace. Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) forces performed poorly in the Battle of Phuoc Long in December 1974; and when the North Vietnamese launched a new campaign in late February 1975, South Vietnam fell in just fifty-five days. Isaacs 1983 and Le Gro 2006 examine the fighting that culminated in the fall of Saigon. Dawson 1977 addresses specifically the final fifty-five days of the new North Vietnamese offensive. Herrington 1983 provides a first-person account by an American officer who witnessed the final days of South Vietnam. Veith 2012 provides an in depth study of the fall of South Vietnam.
  684.  
  685. Dawson, Alan. 55 Days: The Fall of South Vietnam. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1977.
  686. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  687. A journalistic account of the final days of the Republic of South Vietnam that chronicles the many mistakes made by Saigon and South Vietnamese forces that led to the triumph of North Vietnamese.
  688. Find this resource:
  689. Herrington, Stuart A. Peace with Honor. Novato, CA: Presidio, 1983.
  690. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  691. A first-person account of the last days of South Vietnam by an officer who served in the US Defense Attache’s Office in Saigon and flew out on one of the last helicopters before the North Vietnamese troops overran the city.
  692. Find this resource:
  693. Isaacs, Arnold R. Without Honor: Defeat in Vietnam and Cambodia. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1983.
  694. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  695. An excellent examination of the period following final US withdrawal in March 1973 through the fall of Saigon in 1975; very critical of both US policy and performance of South Vietnamese forces.
  696. Find this resource:
  697. Le Gro, William E. Vietnam from Cease-Fire to Capitulation. Honolulu, Hawaii: University Press of the Pacific, 2006.
  698. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  699. One in the official US Army histories of the Vietnam War addressing in detail the period between the beginning of the cease fire in early 1973 to the fall of Saigon in April 1975. Authored by an officer who was present during the last days of the Republic of Vietnam. Originally published in 1981.
  700. Find this resource:
  701. Veith, George J. Black April: The Fall of South Vietnam, 1973–75. New York: Encounter, 2012.
  702. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  703. Seeks to describe the end game in Vietnam and examines the dynamics that resulted in South Vietnamese forces collapsing in fifty-five days when the North Vietnamese launched their final offensive. provides a revisionist approach to explaining the demise of South Vietnam.
  704. Find this resource:
  705. Lessons and Postmortems
  706.  
  707. The Vietnam War was the first war that the United States had ever lost. The outcome caused a contentious debate about why the war turned out the way it did and what it meant for the country, the people, and the veterans who fought the war. Isaacs 1997 and Schulzinger 2008 seek to understand the aftermath of the war and its lasting legacies. Matthews and Brown 1987 provides a collection of essays that addresses strategy and the nature of the war. Krepinevich 1986 asserts that the war was lost because the army failed to appreciate the type of war that the other side was fighting and thus wasted its efforts. Summers 2002 takes a different tack, asserting that the United States should have attacked North Vietnam directly. Shay 1994 looks at the impact of the war on those who fought it.
  708.  
  709. Isaacs, Arnold. Vietnam Shadows: The War, Its Ghosts, and Its Legacy. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997.
  710. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  711. An engaging study of the aftermath of Vietnam that covers a wide range of issues to include the war’s impact on American foreign policy, treatment of Vietnam veterans, the “prisoner of war/missing in action” question, teaching the war, and the Vietnamese immigrant population.
  712. Find this resource:
  713. Krepinevich, Andrew, Jr. The Army and Vietnam. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986.
  714. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  715. A critical analysis of US military strategy in Vietnam from 1954 to 1973. Asserts that the US Army mistakenly applied the doctrine of a conventional war in Europe to the unique situation in Vietnam; this approach ignored the real enemy, strengthened the Communists’ position in the rural countryside, and weakened the authority of the South Vietnamese government.
  716. Find this resource:
  717. Matthews, Lloyd J., and Dale E. Brown, eds. Assessing the Vietnam War. Washington, DC: Pergamon-Brassey’s, 1987.
  718. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  719. Another postmortem on US involvement in Vietnam that contains several essays on strategy and the nature of the war.
  720. Find this resource:
  721. Schulzinger, Robert D. A Time for Peace: The Legacy of the Vietnam War. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.
  722. DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195365924.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  723. A discussion of how the deep and traumatic memories of the Vietnam War have altered America’s political, social, and cultural landscape, particularly with regard to the impact of the Vietnam metaphor on US foreign policy.
  724. Find this resource:
  725. Shay, Jonathan. Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character. New York: Atheneum, 1994.
  726. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  727. A study of posttraumatic stress disorder that compares the story of Achilles’s reaction to combat with that of Vietnam veterans.
  728. Find this resource:
  729. Summers, Harry. On Strategy: The Vietnam War in Context. Honolulu, Hawaii: University Press of the Pacific, 2002.
  730. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  731. Argues that the Vietnam War was winnable, but that a misunderstanding of military theory and its connection to policy led to a fatally flawed strategy and subsequent defeat in Vietnam. Originally published in 1982.
Add Comment
Please, Sign In to add comment
Public Pastes
We use cookies for various purposes including analytics. By continuing to use Pastebin, you agree to our use of cookies as described in the Cookies Policy.  OK, I Understand
Not a member of Pastebin yet?
Sign Up, it unlocks many cool features!