Vietnam War Collection: books plus

[CR6]

Still looking for a brief (Less than 300 pages?) general overview for the person who is more familiar with the NFL draft rules....

The Summons of the Trumpet by Dave R. Palmer comes in at 277 pages. Sub-titled "US-Vietnam in Perspective", the book provides a good overview of US involvement in SE Asia, but with the limitations inherent in covering a long and tumultuous period in a concise manner.

[matty groves]

Many novels provide excellent accounts of this war. You can't beat Webb's Fields of Fire or Roth's Sand in the Wind. The 13th Valley has already been mentioned. For the Montangards, try Jonathan Raban's The Barking Deer.

David Elliot's massive (and expensive) 2 volume treatment of the war in the Mekong is definitive. Ward Just's To What End is often overlooked. I think it is every bit as good as Dispatches. The air war is not often dealt with. I like Thud Ridge, but I'm not really familiar with the literature on this aspect of the war, so others may have better suggestions.

Finally, there were two sides in this war. The material on the US side is enormous; on the NVA side, virtually non existent. Of course, there are many reasons for this--lack of access to archives, regime control of everything,etc. but there is a huge gap to any attempt to understand this conflict.

[davidbfpo]

I have just merged nine threads on the history of Vietnam's wars, that specifically cover books, not aspects or incidents in the conflicts. Plus a new title.

[davidbfpo]

A short review of a 2012 book, Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America's Vietnam by Fredrik Logevall, that:

...traces the history of America's involvement in Vietnam. The book provides a sweeping narrative that starts with World War I and French colonialism and ends with direct U.S. intervention starting in the late 1950s.

Link:http://www.pri.org/stories/arts-ente...war-11194.html

Amazon has dozens of v.good reviews, order via SWJ link! See:http://smallwarsjournal.com/content/support

Reviews:http://www.amazon.com/Embers-War-Emp.../dp/0375504427

[davidbfpo]

Forty years ago this month the Vietnam War ended and the History News Network has a short article by a Vietnamese author (based in the USA) and in particular commends one book Huy Duc's The Winning Side (which does not appear to be in English):http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/159046

So he argues the South won and refers to:

prominent Vietnamese from diverse backgrounds now feel that it was a costly mistake.

[davidbfpo]

Hat tip to WoTR for this pointer by Mark Stout (JHU):

Forty years ago yesterday, the North Vietnamese Army captured Saigon and the Vietnam War was over. This week we look at the memoirs of a key North Vietnamese participant in those events, Lieutenant General Trần Văn Tr, the aggressive deputy commander of the forces that launched that final offensive. These memoirs, originally published in 1982, were translated from Vietnamese by the Foreign Broadcast Information Service and are available to us now in four parts thanks to the remarkable Vietnam Center and Archive at Texas Tech University.

(Nice passage at the end) ... in 1982 with the publication of his memoirs. General Tr spent three years under house arrest. His sin? Describing the Tet Offensive as a defeat that weakened the communist cause and set it back a matter of years. In short, the general forgot the primacy of politics in war.

Link:http://warontherocks.com/2015/05/war...ing-of-defeat/

[AdamG]

Many novels provide excellent accounts of this war. You can't beat Webb's Fields of Fire or Roth's Sand in the Wind. The 13th Valley has already been mentioned. For the Montangards, try Jonathan Raban's The Barking Deer.

David Elliot's massive (and expensive) 2 volume treatment of the war in the Mekong is definitive. Ward Just's To What End is often overlooked. I think it is every bit as good as Dispatches. The air war is not often dealt with. I like Thud Ridge, but I'm not really familiar with the literature on this aspect of the war, so others may have better suggestions.

Finally, there were two sides in this war. The material on the US side is enormous; on the NVA side, virtually non existent. Of course, there are many reasons for this--lack of access to archives, regime control of everything,etc. but there is a huge gap to any attempt to understand this conflict.

The Captain, a Communist sympathizer who's risen through the ranks of the South Vietnamese Army, has a confession:

I am a spy, a sleeper, a spook, a man of two faces. Perhaps not surprisingly, I am also a man of two minds. I am not some misunderstood mutant from a comic book or a horror movie, although some have treated me as such. I am simply able to see any issue from both sides.

So begins Viet Thanh Nguyen's new novel, The Sympathizer.

http://www.npr.org/2015/04/11/398728...he-vietnam-war

Tangentially, see also http://www.theatlantic.com/internati...saigon/391769/

[AdamG]

In Vietnam almost two decades after Saigon's fall, the author, in a private talk with a former enemy general officer, came to understand an aspect of the war he never before had. In that talk, they shared personal insights about the war-discovering a common bond. It unlocked a door through which the author passed to start his own healing process. It began a journey where he would meet hundreds of North Vietnamese and Viet Cong veterans-listening to their personal stories of loss, sacrifice and hardship. It opened the author's eyes to how a technically inferior enemy, beaten down by superior US firepower, was able to get back up-driven by an "iron will" to emerge triumphant. "Bare Feet, Iron Will" takes the reader on a fascinating journey, providing stories-many never before told-as to how enemy ingenuity played a major role in the conflict, causing us not to see things that were there or to see things there that were not! It shares unique insights into the sacrifice and commitment that took place on the other side of Vietnam's battlefields.

Bare Feet, Iron Will ~ Stories from the Other Side of Vietnam's Battlefields James Zumwalt
http://www.amazon.com/Bare-Stories-O.../dp/B0044XV95Y

Lieutenant Colonel James Zumwalt is a retired Marine infantry officer who served in the Vietnam war, the 1989 intervention into Panama and Desert Storm. An author, speaker and business executive, he also currently heads a security consulting firm named after his father--Admiral Zumwalt & Consultants, Inc.

He writes extensively on foreign policy and defense issues, having written hundreds of articles for various newspapers, magazines and professional journals, including:

USA Today The Washington Post The New York Times The Washington Times The LA Times The Chicago Tribune The San Diego Union Parade magazine & others

His articles have covered issues of major importance, oftentimes providing readers with unique perspectives that have never appeared elsewhere. This has resulted, on several occasions, in his work being cited by members of Congress and entered into the US Congressional Record.

His thoughtful perspectives earned him an invitation to join the prestigious Committee on the Present Danger (CPD), of which the honorary co-chairmen are Senator Joe Lieberman, Senator Jon Kyl, former Secretary of State George P. Schultz and former CIA Director R. James Woolsey. The CPD is a non-partisan organization with one goal--to stiffen American resolve to confront the challenge presented by terrorism and the ideologies that drive it.

Colonel Zumwalt is featured as one of 56 US military professionals in LEADING THE WAY, a book by best-selling author Al Santoli, which documents the most critical moments of the interviewees' combat experiences from Vietnam to Somalia.

He has also been cited in numerous other books and publications for unique insights based on his research on the Vietnam war, North Korea (a country he has visited ten times and about which he is able to share some very telling observations) and Desert Storm.

Colonel Zumwalt received a presidential appointment to be the Senior Advisor to the Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs, in which capacity he served from 1991-1992.

Because of his expertise, he also was asked to participate in a very unique educational project conducted at a high school in Raleigh, North Carolina, where he voluntarily contributes time and resources to educating students on issues of international importance.

[AdamG]

Soviet veterans' website
http://www.nhat-nam.ru/vietnamwar/oldfoto.html