I have just watched the musical Miss Saigon and it has sparked an interest in learning more about the war in which it is set. I am from the U.K. and didn’t do History past age 13, so I haven’t learnt anything about it. It doesn’t matter how basic the book is as I am starting with basically zero knowledge.
Thanks!
by b0neappleteeth
3 Comments
I’ve read a couple of memoirs, which I found more personal than just the history and politics part. A Rumor of War by Philip Caputo for example. I would recommend reading both, memoirs and history or political history books about it, like The Vietnam War by Geoffrey Ward and Kenneth Burns for example.
The Vietnam War by Max Hastings is a good modern overview.
Neil Sheehan’s A Bright Shining Lie and David Halberstam’s The Best and the Brightest are two great accounts by journalists in the ground.
Dispatches by Michael Herr (another journalist on the front lines) is a must.
Street Without Joy and Hell in a Very Small Place by Bernard Fall covers the French side of the conflict prior to major America. Involvement.
As already mentioned, Caputo’s A Rumor of War. I also liked Brian VanDeMark’s Road to Disaster.
The Vietnam War also has quite a bit of fiction that is essential:
Denis Johnson’s Tree of Smoke is one of my favorite novels, hands down.
Tim O’Brien has written multiple classics, including The Things They Carried and Going After Cacciato.
Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes is great.
The Sorrow of War by Bao Ninh is the rare book (in the West, anyway, that focuses on the North Vietnam viewpoint.
And of course, Graham Greene’s The Quiet American is just incredible. I read it about every other year.
A Bright Shining Lie is a microcosm of the U.S. side of the war.