My Favorite Books on Vietnam
60Understanding centuries of conflict
Vietnam is one of those countries that produces more history than it can consume locally. Unfortunately, America's "loss" in Vietnam has spawned a huge amount of claptrap about liberal media, Jane Fonda, and other scapegoats. How does one define "winning" and "losing" when the entire enterprise is based on a lie?
I've been to Vietnam twice, for two weeks in 2000 and for a month in 2007. My takeaway, seeing the rapid growth of the economy there, is that we're getting much farther with trade and normal relations than we ever did with bombs and bullets.
I've listed some of the best books I've found on the subject. I've thrown in some videos, too. These are ones I've personally read and watched. I'm missing some classics, but I'll add them as I've read them.
 | Stanley Karnow's definitive history, if ever there can be such a thing, of Vietnam at war, from its first conquest by the Chinese in 208 BC through the fall of Saigon in 1975. Amazon Price: $21.48 List Price: $22.50 |
 | Lewis Puller Jr. was the son of the Marine Corps' most highly decorated soldier, "Chesty" Puller. As a young 2nd Lt. in Vietnam, Lew Jr., was maimed by a booby trap fashioned from an unexploded American artillery shell. He battled pain, depression, alcoholism, and the War itself. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Autobiography in 1992. Three years later, he committed suicide. Amazon Price: $8.93 List Price: $15.95 |
 | Street Without Joy and Hell In A very Small Place should be taken together. As a French teenager, Bernard B. Fall lost his parents to the Nazis. He fought with the Resistance, then joined a Moroccan regiment for the march into Paris. He immigrated to the US, and studied the French war in Indochina at firsthand for his doctoral dissertation. His experiences in the French Resistance and Army afforded him unparallelled access to the officers, men and battlefields. Fall became a Professor of International Relations at Howard University and a CBS correspondent. He was killed on the Street Without Joy in 1967. Amazon Price: $12.89 List Price: $21.95 |
 | Puts the lie to the myth of French wimpiness in battle. If the French miscalculated in thinking they had the advantage of terrain at Dien Bien Phu, they had support from the Americans in this error. Both parties severely underestimated the determination of the Viet Minh. The garrison became indefensible by the third day of battle, yet they held out for another 53 days. Amazon Price: $12.49 List Price: $22.00 |
 | Moore and Galloway's account of the battle at Ia Drang, the first large-scale encounter between American and NVA forces, told with honesty, compassion and humor. Moore read Fall's Street Without Joy before deploying to Vietnam. Amazon Price: $8.99 List Price: $30.00 |
 | The movie is a real guy tear-jerker. It's a fairly faithful adaptation of the book. I do object to Mel's speech, where he tells his soldiers (in reference to the racial segregation of the time), "We're not leaving home. We're going to what home should have been." If you have problems at home, your patriotic duty is to stay at home and fix them, not to scapegoat some foreigners for your domestic problems and kill a couple of million of them. Amazon Price: $3.37 List Price: $8.99 |
 | H.R. McMaster is an Army Colonel and Professor of Military History at West Point. His research includes original source documents, such as White House papers, of a type that have since been made off-limits by Presidents Clinton, Bush, and Obama. The book was pulled from publication while McMaster was deployed to Iraq, where he was one of the few commanders getting it right from the start, likely because of uncanny parallels between then and now. I'm glad to see it back in print. Amazon Price: $8.20 List Price: $16.99 |
 | Graham Greene's fictional (and semi-autobiographical) account of love, war and betrayal, written while he was a journalist covering the French war in Indochina. American meddling was an open secret in 1953. Amazon Price: $4.95 List Price: $16.00 |
 | A fairly faithful adaptation of Greene's book. Michael Caine and Brendan Fraser turn in superb performances. It may be a bit easier to digest than the book, since some of Greene's references were to people and places commonly known at the time but which have since faded into history since. Still, I favor the book for the deeper character and historical development. Amazon Price: $6.32 List Price: $14.99 |
 | Not really a favorite since it's too much of a chick flick, with Vincent Perez pouting and stamping about like a spoiled adolescent instead of a French naval officer. Still, a couple of hours with Deneuve is never a total waste, the cinematography, particularly the scenes at Ha Long Bay, is fabulous, and it does capture the essence of the French colonial period from the years preceding the Japanese invasion in World War II to the Geneva peace conference of 1954. In one scene, plantation owner Deneuve whips a coolie who tried to run away. Many of the bandits of the Binh Xuyen were runaways from that very kind of brutal serfdom (many more were just plain cutthroats). Amazon Price: $6.03 List Price: $14.99 |
