Vietnam War Collection: books plus

[CR6]

in no particular order and without reference to previous posters. * indicates my recommendation of what will appeal most to the average Sergeant. YMMV:

*Street Without Joy Bernard Fall (Narrative of French involvement in Indochina)

Dereliction of Duty H.R. McMaster (Analysis of the role of the JCS at strategic level)

The Best and the Brightest David Halberstram (journalist’s account of American efforts in SVN)

A Bright Shining Lie Cornelius Mahoney Neil Sheehan (similar to TB&TB, but with through the lens of the career of John Paul Vann. Good stuff on the battle of Ap Bac)

*Dispatches Michael Herr (compilation of articles by a war correspondent)

Honorable Warrior Lewis Sorely (bio of CSA during Vietnam by an historian of the revisionist school)

*War comes to Long An Jeffery Rice (a micro view of insurgency and COIN in one SVN province)

*We Were Soldiers Once and Young Hal Moore and Joseph Galloway (no explanation needed, right?)

The Nightingale’s Song Robert Timberg (a neat discussion of the impact of Vietnam on American society up to and including Iran Contra told through the lives of 5 USNA grads who were active in security affairs and politics)

The Long Gray Line: The American Journey of West Point's Class of 1966 Rick Atkinson (follows West Points Class of ’66 through USMA to combat in Vietnam and beyond. Similar to TNS, but broader scope. Atkinson and Timberg are both journalists, but Timberg was also a Marine combat veteran of Vietnam. This informed his writing, which I preferred)

*Fields of Fire James Webb (fiction) (Follows a Marine rifle platoon leader through his tour. Written by Senator Jim Webb while attending Georgetown Law School, as a way of dealing with PTSD after a rough year in combat and separation from the USMC. Webb’s story is told in Timberg’s book)

*The Thirteenth Valley John Del Vecchio (fiction) (Written by a 101st veteran combat correspondent who also holds a degree from Lafayette College. This cat can write. Covers an infantry company operating in the A Shau Valley in latter part of the war. Excellent back story on characters and how their backgrounds both mesh and conflict under the strains of combat in the jungle.)

[outletclock]

First, Ken, thanks for your post of the other day.

Second, CR6 et al:

Sheehan's narrative of the Battle of Ap Bac was excellent. Yet I do think that one ought to, if possible, counterpoise it against the description of the battle in Mark Moyar, Triumph Forsaken. While not developed as in depth, Moyar is actually more convincing in the testimony that he deploys, IIRC.

While perhaps not meriting inclusion in the Canon being compiled, I nevertheless just think that if Sorley and Fall are mentioned, then A Better War and Hell in a Very Small Place ought to be mentioned as well.

Further, I agree that The Long Gray Line (Atkinson) and The Nightingale's Song are both great books.

Regards
OC

[Ken White]

Agree with you on the Moyar - Sheehan comparison but acknowledge I'm prejudiced, I believe Sheehan's book was penned as an apologia for the sloppy way they reported the war (not to say the debacle was their fault, just that most of them did not do their job very well). Sheehan's detour into Vann's childhood is bizarre at best. In any event, my take on his book was one of skepticism on several levels...

I restricted myself to the ten requested by Sasquatch but your suggestions were on my initial long list and all are great.

[Mike in Hilo]

Afterthought: As a former CORDS guy, I think I ought to mention the one book that is thoroughly dedicated to providing a balanced account of CORDS, Pacification, by Richard A. Hunt. Reads like a decent after action report, is detailed, and IMO objective.

By contrast, Sheehan's biography about Vann strangely doesn't devote much time to CORDS at all (I concur in Ken's assessment), and CORDS boss Bill Colby's two autobiographies present a sadly rose colored view of "pacification." (I mean, for one example, how can you be seized--as was Colby-- with the idea that PSDF, village militia composed of males too old or too young to be drafted, organized by top-down gov't decree, in which membership was compulsory, rpt. compulsory, would evolve into a grass-roots, mass political movement--[think "The Awakening"]?)

Cheers,
Mike

[Sasquatch]

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

(Sorry, but I'm not qualified to teach High School history, my first name is not "Coach")

Remember reading Bernard Fall way back in the day; probably should include one of his books on the final list, the idea is, the really interested soldier will seek out his other books on their own.

[Sasquatch]

Interesting direction of the thread, because I have a query related to the NCO issue, and don't know where to start a thread.

On Fragging, 80 odd casualties and 1400 attempts?

It shows how shallow institutional memory is; even in the 1980's, young soliders had not heard (learned?) that the first step was to roll the grenade into the LT's hooch without pulling the pin, in hopes he would modify his behavior.

Or something like that, but you can figure it out.

[davidbfpo]

Sasquatch,

You asked:

don't know where to start a thread.

If you and others think "fragging" is worthy of a discussion a new thread can be started, perhaps best in the history arena. I can copy or move the posts here to that.

[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.