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soc.history.war.vietnam FAQ: Recommended Reading List


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Archive-Name: vietnam/reading-list
Last-modified: 2001/04/29 Reformatted 7/2001
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Frequently Asked Questions: soc.history.war.vietnam

This FAQ was prepared by John Tegtmeier


         Recommended Reading List on the Viet Nam War

The recommended reading list for the Indochina wars
developed by the moderators of soc.history.war.vietnam primarily on the
basis of an extensive survey of noted academics/authors in the
field, veterans and members of the era's anti-war movement and we
continue to make ongoing inquiries regarding new works.  We
have also attempted to make this list as diversified as possible,
both in the range of topics and the viewpoints represented.

The reading list itself has been divided into several
sections for ease on use.  The first section of the reading list is a
short core reading list, works both of exceptional merit and
focus.  The core reading are designed to give both the
casual reader and the serious student an overview of the various
aspects of the conflicts in Southeast Asia.

The remaining sections represent a more extensive selection
of material in particular areas of interest, ranging from
politics to combat to socio-cultural issues to fiction and literary
criticism.

We strongly suggest that readers who are unfamiliar with
Vietnamese culture and society read at least one of the core
offerings in that area (such as Jamieson's Understanding
Vietnam) to gain some perspective before tackling the history of the
wars.

Selected specialized bibliographies, by topic, are posted
from time to time on the newsgroup. Links to Professor Edwin
Moise's extensive bibliography, the logs of the newsgroup and the
most recent copies of all FAQS and specialized bibliographies are
available on the web at the following site:
     http://www.lbjlib.utexas.edu/shwv/shwvhome.html

Please send any comments, suggestions or corrections to the
newsgroup request address, vietnam-request@home.net.

Enjoy.

John Tegtmeier, moderator - soc.history.war.vietnam


Section I.  Historical and Social Science Analysis

A. General Works

Baritz, Loren. Backfire : A History of How American Culture
Led Us Into Vietnam and Made Us Fight the Way We Did. New York:
Morrow, 1985.

Gelb, Leslie H. with Richard K. Betts.  The Irony of Vietnam
: The System Worked.  Washington: The Brookings Institution, 1979.

Gibson, James.  The Perfect War : Technowar in Vietnam.
Boston: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1986; New York: Vintage, 1988.

Karnow, Stanley.  Vietnam : A History. New York: Viking,
1983;  revised edition, New York: Penguin USA, 1991.
*CORE* A massive history by a journalist written
as a companion to the PBS series (Vietnam : A Television History).
Much of the volume concentrates on the American involvement,
although there is a useful discussion of earlier history and the First
Indochina War.  The work is generally unbiased, and reflects Karnow's
access to many of the major figures involved.  The original edition
(1983) contains some errors which were corrected in the 1984 paperback
edition.

Kolko, Gabriel.  Anatomy of a War : Vietnam, the United
States, and the Modern Historical Experience. New York: Pantheon, 1985;
reprint, New Press, 1994.

Pratt, John Clark, comp.   Vietnam Voices : Perspectives on
the War Years, 1941-1982. New York: Penguin, 1984.
This is a highly recommended and somewhat usual
work.  Pratt has collected everything from official documents to oral
history to fiction to wall graffiti in order to shed some light on
the cultural impact of the American involvement in the Vietnam War.

Sheehan, Neil.  A Shining Bright Lie : John Paul Vann and
America in Vietnam. New York: Random House, 1988; Vintage, 1989.
*CORE*  Major study of the US involvement in
Vietnam, traced through the actions of a man who became both one of the
most senior advisors and strategist and critics of the way the war
was waged, John Paul Vann.  Sheehan was an Army journalist prior to the
war, and covered Vietnam first for UPI, then for the NY Times.

Westmoreland, General William.  A Soldier Reports.  New
York: Doubleday, 1976; reprint, New York: Da Capo Press, 1989.
Young, Marilyn B.  The Vietnam Wars, 1945-1990. New York:
Harper Collins,      1991.


B. The French War: World War II to the Geneva Accords.

Fall, Bernard.  Hell in a Very Small Place : The Seige of
Dien Bien Phu.  Philadelphia: J.J. Lippincott Company, 1967; reprint,
New York: Da Capo Press, 1988.
Compelling account of the climatic battle of the
First Indochina War, the long and deadly seige of the French stronghold
at Dien Bien Phu by the Viet Minh.

Fall, Bernard.  Street Without Joy.  With an Introduction by
George C. Herring and a Foreword by Marshall Andrews.
Harrisburg, PA: Stackpole, 1961; reprint, Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole
Books, 1994.
*CORE* Reprint by the original publisher of the
classic account of the First Indochina War against the French.  This
edition contains a new introduction by Geoge Herring.  The title is
derived from the nickname for Highway 1 which runs north-south the
lenght of Vietnam along the coastal plain.

Gardner, Lloyd.  Approaching Vietnam: From WWII to
Dienbienphu.  New York: W.W. Norton & Co, 1988.
Diplomatic history covering the period from 1941
to 1954.

Marr, David G.  Vietnam 1945 : The Quest For Power.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995.
*CORE* A key study by one of the top writers in
English about the pivotal period at the end of the Second World War
and the struggle for political ascendancy.

Patti, Archimedes.  Why Vietnam : Prelude to America's
Albatross. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980.
*CORE* Patti served as the head of the Office of
Stragetic Services French Indochina mission during WWII. His
account deals with the US - Viet Minh cooperation during the war against
the Japanese, the relationships with the KMT, and the aftermath of
the change in US policies under Truman with regard to Vietnam.

Rotter, Andrew J.  The Path to Vietnam: Origins of the
American Commitment to Southeast Asia.  Ithaca: Cornell University Press,
1987.

Spector, Ronald.  Advice and Support : The Early Years,
1941-1960. The United States Army in Vietnam. Washington: Center of
Military History, 1983.


C. Geneva to the American Combat Involvement in Vietnam
(1954 - 1965)

Moise, Edwin E. Tonkin Gulf and the Escalation of the War.
Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1996.

Race, Jeffrey.  War Comes to Long An : Revolutionary
Conflict in a Vietnamese Province.  Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1972.
*CORE* The author served in the US Army as a
district advisor, and later return as a private citizen to attempt to
analyse the political and social processes that he believed were
not explained by the conventional military analysis of the conflict.
The resultant work is a deeply insightful analysis into the contested
social realities of the war and the success of the VCP in Long
An Province (just southwest of Saigon in the Mekong Delta).  This
is an extreme important study which focuses on the war as a social
revolution as well as a military contest.

Thayer, Carlyle A.  War by Other Means : National Liberation
and Revolution in Viet-Nam, 1954-60.  Boston: Allen & Unwin, 1989.
*CORE*  Thayer presents a systematic and precise
account of the formation and implementation of communist policy in
Vietnam between the Geneva Accords and the establishment of the
National Liberation Front (NLF) in 1960, the transtional period between the
First and Second Indochina Wars.


D. Period of US Ground Combat (1965 - 1972)

Berger, Carl, ed.  The United States Air Force in Southeast
Asia, 1961-1973.  Rev ed.  Originally published 1973.
Washington: Office of Air Force History and U.S. Government Printing  Office,
1984.

Bergerud, Eric M.  Red Thunder, Tropic Lightning : The World
of a Combat Division in Vietnam.  Boulder: Westview, 1993; New
York: Penguin USA, 1994.
A study of the 25th Division with a significant
portion of the book being oral history.

Clarke, Jeffrey J.  Advice and Support : The Final Years,
1965- 1973.  The United States Army in Vietnam.  Washington: Center of
Military History, 1988.

Cutler, Lt. Cdr. Thomas J. Brown Water, Black Berets :
Coastal and Riverine Warfare in Vietnam.  Annapolis, The Naval Institute
Press, 1988; New York: Pocket Books, 1996.

Ford, Ronnie E.  Tet 1968 : Understanding the Surprise.
Cass Series - Studies in Intelligence.  London: Frank Cass & Co,
1995.

Herrington, Stuart.  Silence was a Weapon : The Vietnam War
in the Villages.  Novato, CA: Presidio, 1982.

Krepinevich, Andrew F., Jr.  The Army in Vietnam. Baltimore:
Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986.

Mangold, Tom and John Penycate.  The Tunnels of Cu Chi : The
Untold Story of Vietnam.  New York: Random House, 1985; Berkley Pub
Group: 1994.

Moore, Lt. Gen. Harold G. and Joseph L. Galloway.  We Were
Soldiers Once . . . and Young.  New York: Random House, 1992;
Harperperennial, 1993.

Nolan, Keith W. Battle For Hue, Tet 1968.  Novato, CA:
Presideo Press, 1983.
Oberdorfer, Don.  Tet! Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1971;
reprint, New York: Da Capo Press, 1984.
 
Prados, John and Ray W. Stubbe.  Valley of Decision : The
Siege of Khe Sanh.  New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1991; Dell, 1993.

Spector, Ronald.  After Tet : The Bloodiest Year in Vietnam.
New York: The Free Press, 1993; Vintage, 1994.

Stanton, Shelby L.  The Rise and Fall of an American Army :
U.S. Ground Forces in Vietnam, 1965-1973.  Novato, CA: Presidio,
1985; reprint paper, Presideo, 1995.

Turley, Col. Gerald H.  The Easter Offensive.  Novato, CA:
Presidio, 1985; Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1995.


E. From the American Withdrawal to the Fall of the South
(1972 - 1975).

Butler, David.  The Fall of Saigon: Scenes from the Sudden
End to a Long War. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1985.

Dawson, Alan. 55 Days : The Fall of South Vietnam.
Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1977.

Isaacs, Arnold.  Without Honor : Defeat in Vietnam and
Cambodia.  altimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1983.

Snepp, Frank.  Decent Interval.  New York: Random House,
1977. 
Snepp was a senior CIA analyst in Saigon during
the period from the American combat withdrawal to the fall of Saigon
(1972-75). He relates the story of the CIA's and State Department's
failure to understand that Saigon was going to fall, and a
stunning indictment of the American abandonment those Vietnamese who had
helped the CIA in the midst of the final US evacuation.


F. Covert Operations and Intelligence.

Adams, Sam.  War of Numbers : An Intelligence Memoir.
Introduction by Col. David Hackworth.  South Royalton, VT: Steerforth Press,
1994.
*CORE*  Posthumously published work by a CIA
analyst concerning the underestimate of enemy forces in Vietnam.  The book
had been ready for much earlier publication when a great number of
documents were declassified for the Westmoreland - CBS suit on the
order of battle controversy.  Adams felt he had to incorporate the
newly available material; however, at the time of his death in 1988,
much was still left out.  Despite this incompleteness, the work shreds
much light on the question of intelligence throughout the war.

McGehee, Ralph.  Deadly Deceits : My 25 Years in the CIA.
New York: Sheridan Square Publications, 1983.

Tourison, Sedgwick D.  Secret Army, Secret War :
Washington's Tragic Spy Operation in North Vietnam.  Naval Institute 
Special Warfare Series.  Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1995.
Tourison's account of SOG's covert operations into North Vietnam,
Oplan 34A, prior to the Tonkin Gulf incident and the
formal U.S. entry into combat.  Using documents from both sides as well
as oral history interviews from the participants, this is the story of
failed ops in the early 1960's, and ultimately the betrayal of those
Vietnamese operatives by the U.S.

Tourison, Sedgwick D.  Talking with Victor Charlie : An
Interrogator's Story.  New York: Ivy Books (Ballantine), 1991.
Valentine, Douglas. The Phoenix Program. New York: William
Morrow and Company, 1990; Avon Books, 1992.


G. Laos and Cambodia.

Chandler, David P.  The Tragedy of Cambodian History :
Politics, War and Revolution since 1945.  New Haven and London: Yale
University Press, 1992.

Dommen, Arthur J.  Laos : Keystone of Indochina.  Boulder,
CO: Westview, 1985.

Fall, Bernard. Anatomy of a Crisis: The Story of the Laotian
Crisis of 1960-1961. Garden City, NY: Doubleday and Company,
1969.
A good account of the aftermath of the Viet Minh
invasion of Laos during the First Indochina War, and a stinging
indictment of the policies of Eisenhower/Dulles leading to the Laotian
Crisis.

Parker, James E., Jr.  Codename Mule, Fighting the Secret
War in Laos for the CIA.  Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1995.

Shawcross, William.  Sideshow : Kissinger, Nixon, and the
Destruction of  Cambodia.  New York: Simon & Schuster, 1979.
Warner, Roger. Back Fire : The CIA's Secret War in Laos and
Its Link to the War in Vietnam. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995.


H. Military Personal Narratives and Oral Histories.

Brennan, Matthew.  Brennan's War : Vietnam 1965-1969.
Novato, CA: Presidio, 1985; Pocket Books, 1989.

Broughton, Col. Jack.  Thud Ridge.  Philadelphia:
Lippincott, 1969; New York: Bantam, 1985.
Caputo, Philip.  A Rumor of War.  New York: Holt, Rinehart,
and Winston, 1977; Ballantine, 1978.
*CORE*  Award winning memoir by a Lieutenant in
the Marine 9th Expeditionary Brigade in 1965 - 1966.  The work is a
powerful and compelling account of the early part of US ground
combat involvement, including Caputo's court-marshall for the killing of a
Vietnamese civilian which raises questions about both the nature
of US tactics and the nature on guerilla warfare.  The book also
contains a short section on Caputo's experiences in 1975 as a journalist
during the  fall of the South.

Downs, Frederick Jr.  The Killing Zone.  New York: Norton,
1978.

Mason, Robert.  Chickenhawk.  New York: Viking, 1983.

Maurer, Harry.  Strange Ground : Americans in Vietnam,
1945-1975: An Oral History. New York: Henry Holt, 1989.
A strong collection of pieces of oral history from
folks in a myriad of different positions, spanning all eras in the
American involvement.

Metzner, Edward. More Than a Soldier's War : Pacification in
Vietnam. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1995.
*CORE* Memoir of a multi-tour US veteran who
served as an advisor on the provincial level.  The work provide significant
insights into an aspect of the American involvement that is often
overlooked.

Santoli, Al.  Everything We Had : An Oral History of the
Vietnam War by Thirty-three American Soldiers Who Fought It.  New
York: Random House, 1981; Ballantine, 1982.

Sheppard, Don.  Riverine : A Brown-Water Sailor in the
Delta, 1967. Novato, CA: Presidio, 1992; reprint, New York: Pocket
Books, 1994.

Terry, Wallace. Bloods : An Oral History of the Vietnam War
By Black Veterans. New York: Random House, 1984; reissue paper,
Ballantine Books, 1989.

Walker, Keith.  A Piece of My Heart : The Stories of Twenty
Six American Women who Served in Vietnam.  Novato, CA: Presidio
Press, 1985; New York: Ballantine, 1987.


I. Specialized Topics: The Press

Arnett, Peter.  Live from the Battlefield : From Vietnam to
Baghdad, 35 Years in the World's War Zones.  New York: Simon &
Schuster, 1994; Touchstone, 1995.

Braestrup, Peter.  Big Story : How the American Press and
Television Reported and Interpreted the Crisis of Tet 1968 in
Vietnam and Washington. Abridged edition. New Haven: Yale
University Press, 1983; reprint,  Novato, CA: Presideo Press, 1994.

Hallin, Daniel C.  "The Uncensored War" : The Media and
Vietnam.  New York: Oxford University Press, 1986; Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1989.
*CORE*  A major and systematic scholarly analysis
of coverage of the war by major news organizations, in particular the
New York Times (1961-65) and the television networks (1965-73), and
its impact on the social construction of the war.

Herr, Michael.  Dispatches.  New York: Knopf, 1977; Vintage
International, 1991.

Prochnau, William W.  Once Upon a Distant War. New York:
Times Books, 1995.
A detailed look at the press in the early days of
the war - Sheehan, Halberstam, Browne, Arnett, etc.

Small, Melvin.  Covering Dissent : The Media and the
Anti-Vietnam War Movement.  Perspectives in the Sixties.  New Brunswick,
NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1994.


J. Specialized Topics: The Draft

Appy, Christian G.  Working Class War : American Combat
Soldiers and Vietnam.  Chapel Hill: University North Carolina Press,
1993.

Baskir, Lawrence M. and William A. Strauss.  Chance and
Circumstance : The Draft, the War, and the Vietnam Generation. With a
Foreword by Theodore M. Hesburgh. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978.
Still the most complete study of the draft
available, as well as dishonorable and general discharges from the military.
Baskir was the General Counsel and Chief Executive Officier of
President Ford's Clemency Board; Strauss was its Director of Planning
and Management as well as the director of the staff that issued the final
report. Contains extemely important information and statistics
about various aspects and inequalities of the selective service
system.  The work was originally sponsored by the University of Notre
Dame.


K. Specialized Topics: War Crime Allegations

Bilton, Michael and Kevin Sim.  Four Hours in My Lai.  New
York: Viking, 1992; Penguin USA, 1993.
*CORE* A fine detailed and relatively unbiased
account of the massacre at My Lai 4, the subsequent cover-up and the
investigations that followed.  Bilton and Sim are British journalist
who don't bring to this work as much baggage as American authors do,
and there was some historical distance between the events and their
writing. 

Vietnam Veterans Against the War.  The Winter Soldier
Investigation : An Inquiry into American War Crimes.  Boston: Beacon
Press, 1972.


L. Culture and Politics in Vietnam.

Hess, Martha. Then the Americans Came : Voices from Vietnam.
New York: Four Walls Eight Windows, 1993; New Brunswick, NJ:
Rutgers University Press, 1994.

Hickey, Gerald C.  Shattered World : Adaptation and Survival
among Vietnam's Highland Peoples During the Vietnam War.
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993.
*CORE*  This work, by a pre-eminent anthropologist
who is extensively published in this area, deals with the
profound effects of the Indochina wars on the highland ethnic groups (also
known as Montagnards) in terms of displacement, survival and the
effects on their culture.  It provides a unique insight into an
area usually ignored or lightly covered in other sources.

Huynh Kim Khanh.  Vietnamese Communism : 1925-1945.  Ithaca:
Cornell University Press, 1982. 
*CORE*  The definitive study of the implanting and
evolution of a European anti-capitalist ideology on a Vietnamese
socio-political conflict of anti-colonial nationalism and anti-feudal
peasant movements within the context of the debate about
modernization.  The work traces the formation of the ICP, the
ultra-nationalist, non social reform era of the 20s, the anti-nationalist
international era in the 30s, to a balance emerging at the end of WWII
and Ho Chi Minh's role in this process.  Also discussed are the
Trotskyite and Stalinist elements during the thirties.

Jamieson, Neil L.  Understanding Vietnam. Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1993.
*CORE*  An important study which tries to place
the Indochina Wars within the context of the century long internal
debate in Vietnamese society concerning the means and direction
of modernization in the wake of the French conquest.  Using a variety of
Vietnamese cultural and political sourses, Jamieson seeks to place
these events in the framework of the struggle to define Vietnamese
tradition and society within the context of the need to evolve the
culture in reponse to the modern world, a topic which still lies
at the heart of much of today's Vietnamese politics.

Marr, David G.  Vietnamese Tradition on Trial, 1920-1945.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981.


M. North Vietnam, the PAVN and the NLF.

Bui Tin.  Following Ho Chi Minh : The Memoirs of a North
Vietnamese Colonel. Translated and adapted by Judy Stowe and Do
Van; introduction by Carlyle Thayer. Honolulu: University of Hawaii
Press, 1995.

Burchett, Wilfred.  Vietnam : Inside Story of the Guerrilla
War. New York: International Publishers, 1965.

Fall, Bernard, ed.  Ho Chi Minh on Revolution : Selected
Writings, 1920-66. New York: Praeger, 1967.

Lockhart, Greg. Nation in Arms : The Origins of the People's
Army of Vietnam. Cambridge, MA: Unwin Hyman, 1989.

Truong Chinh.  Primer for Revolt.  New York: Praeger, 1963.
Contains two shorter works - "The August Revolution" (1946) and
"The Resistance Will Win" (1947).

Vo Nguyen Giap.  People's War, People's Army.  Forward by
Roger Hilsman.  New York: Praeger, 1962.


N. The Anti-War Movement in the US.

Ehrhart, W.D. Passing Time : Memoir of a Vietnam Veteran
Against the War. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 1989; 2nd ed, Amherst:
University of Masschusetts Press, 1995.

Gioglio, Gerald R.  Days of Decision : An Oral History of
Conscientious Objectors in the Military During the Vietnam War.
Trenton: Broken Rifle Press, 1989.
This work contains the oral history of 24
in-service conscientious objectors, including some who served in
Vietnam as medics. All services are represented.  The histories
include thedecision making processes of the individuals, the
procedures in the military for the application for CO status, and the
court marshalls of some of those relating their narratives.  Valuable
study of the GI anti-war movement on a personal scale.  

Heineman, Kenneth.  Campus Wars : The Peace Movement at
American State Universities in the Vietnam Era.  New York: New York
University Press, 1994.

Moser, Richard.  The New Winter Soldiers : GI and Veteran
Dissent During the Vietnam Era. Perspectives in the Sixties. New
Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1996.
*CORE*  Moser, using interviews and oral history,
presents a stunning view of the GI Movement -  the anti-war
protest that grew within the military itself in the later stages of the
war, as well as veteran groups (such as the VVAW) who actively opposed
the war.

Small, Melvin and William D. Hoover, eds.  Give Peace a
Chance : Exploring the Vietnam Antiwar Movement.  Essays from the Charles
Debenedetti Memorial Conference.  Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University
Press, 1992.

Wells, Tom.  The War Within : America's Battle over Vietnam.
With a Foreword by Todd Gitlin.  Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1994; reprint paper, Henry Holt, 1996.
*CORE*  Wells is a sociologist, and presents in
this volume the social impact of the anti-war movement and its effects
on government policies.  Based on both written sources and interviews
from both sides, Wells argues the increasing difficulties in
communication and alienation between the two sides, and the media's role
as both propagandist and mediator of their discourse.


O. Aftermath and Remembrance - Veterans Issues.

Kanter, Leona.  The Social Construction of Vietnam Veteran's
Identity.  Ph.D. diss., University of Pittsburgh, 1988.
Available through UMI Dissertation Information
Service.

MacPherson, Myra.  Long Time Passing : Vietnam and the
Haunted Generation. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1984; Achor Books, 1993.

Puller, Lewis B. Jr.  Fortunate Son : The Autobiography of
Lewis B. Puller, Jr.  New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1991; Bantam, 1993.
*CORE*  Award winning autobiography of a Marine
Lieutenant who was the son of the legendary general "Chesty" Puller.
Puller lost both legs to a booby trap explosive shorty after
starting his tour in Vietnam.  Much of the book deals with the challenges
Puller faced in adjusting to both his injuries and the social
environment in the US concerning the war.

Rohde, Richard R.  Identity, Self, and Disorder Among
Vietnam Veterans : PTSD and the Emergence of an Electronic Community.  Ph.
D. diss., University of Hawaii, 1995. 
Available through UMI Dissertation Information
Service.  This is a very interesting study of both the academic discourse
involving the social science critique of the bio-medical model of
PTSD, and of veterans reaction to it - namely the formation of
community.  Rohde examines, in particular, the interplay of veterans on
an internet mailing list, including their own views on such issues
as forgiveness and the interactions of veterans with Dr. Jonathan Shay
who presents the bio-medical model in "Achilles in Vietnam".
Scott, Wilbur J.  The Politics of Readjustment : Vietnam
Veterans Since the War.  New York: Aldine deGruyter, 1993.
Shay, Jonathan. Achilles in Vietnam : Combat Trauma and the
Undoing of Character. New York: Atheneum 1994; Touchstone, 1995.
The author is a psychiatrist for the Department of
Veterans Affairs in Boston where he has had extensive dealings
with veterans suffering from PTSD.  The book tries to illuminate the
causes and universality of this illness with passages from the
classical Greek epic The Iliad and the witness of Vietnam veterans.  An
interesting exploration of the bio-medical model.  Readers should
note the Shay sometimes generalizes from the population of severe
chronic PTSD suffers to the wider Vietnam combat veteran population,
a weakness in the book.  See also Richard Rohde (above) for a critque
of parts of this model.

Wilcox, Fred A.  Waiting for an Army to Die : The Tragedy of
Agent Orange. New York: Vintage, 1983; reprint, Seven Locks Press,
1989.


P. Aftermath and Remembrance - POW/MIAs

Cawthorne, Nigel. The Bamboo Cage: The Full Story of the
American Servicemen Still Held Hostage in South-East Asia.
London: Leo Cooper, 1991.

Denton, Jeremiah A., with Ed Brandt.  When Hell was in
Session.  Clover,SC: Commission Press, 1976.

Franklin, H. Bruce.  M.I.A. or Mythmaking In America.
Brooklyn, NY: Lawrence Hill Books, 1992; expanded edition, New
Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1993.

Schemmer, Benjamin F. The Raid: The Full Story of the
Extraordinary Top-Secret Mission to Rescue 61 American POWs in a
Prison Compound 23 Miles from Hanoi.  New York: Harper, 1976

Smith, Chief Warrant Officer Garry L.  The Search For MIAs.
Columbia, SC: Honoribus Press, 1992.

Stern, Lewis M.  Imprisoned or Missing in Vietnam : Policies
of the Vietnamese Government Toward Captured and Unaccounted
for United States Soldiers 1969-1994.  Jefferson, NC: McFarland,
1995.

Stockdale, Jim and Sybil.  In Love and War.  New York:
Harper and Row, 1984. 

United States. Congress. Senate. Select Committee on POW/MIA 
Affairs (John F. Kerry, Chair). POW/MIAs, Report of the Select
Committee on POW/MIA Affairs, January 13, 1993. 103rd Congress, 1st Session,
U. S. Senate Report 103-1. Washington: GPO, 1993.


R. Document Collections and Reference Works.

Gettleman, Marvin E., Jane Franklin, Marilyn Young, and H.
Bruce Franklin, ed.  Vietnam and America : A Documented History. New
York: Grove Press, 1985; 2nd rev ed, Grove Atlantic, 1995.

The Pentagon Papers : The Defense Department History of
United States Decisionmaking on Vietnam.  Boston: Beacon Press, 1971,
1972. 5 vols.

There are three versions of the Pentagon Papers,
the others being: 
     1. U.S. Congress, House Committee on Armed Services.
United States-Vietnam Relations, 1945-1967 : A Study Prepared
by The Department of Defense.  Washington, DC: U.S. Government
Printing Office, 1971. 12 volumes. and 
     2. The Pentagon Papers.  New York: Bantam Books, 1971.
All are recommended. The Bantam version primarily contains
summaries of the documents by the staff of the New York Times rather
than the documents themselves.  For a more detailed explanation of the
differences, see Professor Moise's bibliography in the newsgroup
archives.

Olson, James S. ed. The Vietnam War : Handbook of the
Literature and Research. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1993.
Stanton, Shelby L.  Vietnam Order of Battle. Foreword by
Gen. William C. Westmoreland.  New York: Galahad Books, 1986.

Summers, Col. Harry G., Jr.  The Vietnam War Almanac.  New
York: Facts on  File, 1985.



Section II. Cultural Representations of the War: Critical
Analysis, Fiction, Poetry, Film and Folklore


A. Analysis and Criticism: Cultural Representations of the
Vietnam War.

Anderegg, Michael A., ed.  Inventing Vietnam : The War in
Film and Television.  Culture and the Moving Image.
Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1991.
*CORE*  Excellent collection of 14 articles from
varying perspectives on the contested meaning of Vietnam
presented in the cultural representations of the war in film and on
television.  Fine introduction to the subject.

Beidler, Philip.  Re-writing America : Vietnam Authors in
their Generation. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1991.

Dittmar, Linda and Gene Michard, eds. From Hanoi to
Hollywood : The Vietnam War in American Film. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers
University Press, 1990.

Gotera, Vince.  Radical Visions : Poetry by Vietnam
Veterans. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1994.

Gruner, Elliott.  Prisoners of Culture : Representing the
Vietnam P.O.W.  New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1993.

Hellmann, John.  American Myth and the Legacy of Vietnam.
New York: Columbia University Press, 1986.

Jeffords, Susan.  The Remasculinization of America: Gender
and the Vietnam War.  Bloomington, IN: University of Indoiana Press,
1989.

Lomperis, Timothy J.  Reading the Wind : The Literature of
the Vietnam War.  With bibliographic commentary by John Clark Pratt.
Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1987.

Louvre, Alf and J. Walsh, eds.  Tell me Lies About Vietnam :
Cultural Battles for the Meaning of the War.  Philadelphia: Open
University Press, 1988.

Martin, Andrew.  Receptions of War : Vietnam in American
Culture. Oklahoma project for discourse and theory, v. 10.  Norman, OK:
University of Oklahoma Press, 1993.

Searle, William J. ed.  Search and Clear : Critical
Responses to Selected Literature and Films of the Vietnam War.  Bowling
Green, OH: Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1988.

Shafer, D. Michael, ed.  The Legacy : The Vietnam War in the
American Imagination. Boston: Beacon Press, 1990.
An excellent collection of 14 articles bearing on
various aspects of the cultural respresentations and differing socially
created realities in the US cocerning the Vietnam War and its
aftermath.  Topics include the recreation of the war in the arts,
the impact of the draft and the treatment of veterans and their
narratives, and the contested nature of the discourse over the meaning and
definition of the war.


CB. Novels: Representations of the Vietnam War.

Baber, Asa.  The Land of a Million Elephants.  2nd ed.
reprint. Vietnam Generation Series. Burning Cities Press, 1992.

Bao Ninh.  The Sorrow of War.  London: Martin Secker and
Warburg, 1993; New York: Pantheon; reprint paper, Riverhead Books, 1996.

Browne, Corinne.  Body Shop.  New York: Stein and Day, 1973.

Bunting, Josiah.  The Lionheads.  New York: George
Braziller, 1972; Popular Library, 1972.

Burdick, Eugene and William Lederer.   The Ugly American.
New York: McGraw-Hill, 1958; reprint paper, Fawcett, 1987.

Butler, Robert Olen.  The Alleys of Eden : A Novel.  New
York: Horizon, 1981; Ballantine, 1983; reissue paper, Owlet, 1994.

Cassidy, John.  A Station in the Delta.  New York: Charles
Scribner's Sons, 1979; Ballantine, 1989.

Coonts, Stephen.  Flight of the Inruder.  Annapolis: Naval
Institute Press, 1986; New York: Pocket Books, 1991.

Crumley, James. One To Count Cadence.  New York: Random
House, 1969; Vintage, 1987.

Del Vecchio, John.  The 13th Valley.  New York: Bantam,
1982. 

Duong Thu Huong.  Paradise of the Blind.  New York: William
Morrow & Co, 1993; Penguin USA, 1994.

Ford, Daniel.  Incident At Muc Wa. Garden City, NY:
Doubleday & Co, 1967. 
Information on the most recent printing of this book is available from the
author at http://danford.net/mucwa.htm.

Greene, Graham.  The Quiet American.  New York: Viking,
1955; reprint, Modern Library, 1992; reissue paper, Penguin USA, 1991.

Hasford, Gustav.  The Short Timers.  New York: Harper & Row,
1980.

Heinemann, Larry.  Close Quarters.  New York: Farrar,
Straus, Giroux, 1977.

Heinemann, Larry.  Paco's Story.  New York: Farrar, Strauss
and Giroux,  1986; reprint paper, Viking, 1989.

Huggett, William Turner.  Body Count.  New York: G.P.
Putnam's Sons, 1973.

Karlin, Wayne, Le Minh Khue, and Truong Vu, editors. The
Other Side of Heaven: Postwar Fiction by Vietnamese and American
Writers. Willimantic, CT: Curbstone Press, 1995.
Compilation of works from the US, Vietnam and the
overseas Vietnamese communities.

Mason, Bobbie Ann.  In Country: A Novel.  New York: Harper
Row, 1985; reissue paper, Harperperennial, 1993.

Merkin, Robert.  Zombie Jamboree.  New York: Harper & Row,
1986.

O'Brien, Tim.  Going After Cacciato.  New York: Delacorte
Press, 1980;

     Dell, 1980; reissue paper, Delacorte Press, 1989.
O'Brien, Tim.  The Things They Carried.  New York: Penquin,
1990; reprint paper, Penguin USA, 1991.

Rubin, Jonathan.  The Barking Deer.  New York: George
Braziller, 1974.
A surrealistic fable, set in the Central Highlands
during the advisory years.  The work may not be for everyone, but
it deals with the universal anti-war issue of what happens to all the
people who are sucked along in the grand "visions" of opposing forces
going to war.

Stone, Robert.  Dog Soldiers.  Boston: Houghton Mifflin,
1974; reprint paper, New York: Penguin USA, 1989.

Webb, James.  Fields of Fire.  Englewood Cliffs, NJ:
Prentice-Hall, 1978; reprint paper, New York: Pocket Books, 1993.

Wright, Stephen.  Meditations in Green.  New York: Charles
Scribner's Sons, 1983; reissue paperback, Delta, 1996.


C.  Poetry

Anderson, Doug.  The Moon Reflected Fire.  Cambridge, MA:
Alice James Books, 1994.

Baladan, John.  After Our War.  Pittsburgh: University of
Pittsburgh Press, 1974.

Berry, D. C.  Saigon Cemetery.  Athens, GA: University of
Georgia Press, 1972.

Ehrhart, W. D. To Those Who Have Come Home Tired.  New York:
Thunder Mountain, 1984.

Ehrhart, W. D. ed.  Carrying the Darkness : The Poetry of
the Vietnam War. Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press, 1989.
McDonald, Walter.  Caliban in Blue.  Lubbock, TX: Texas Tech
University Press, 1976.

Miller, Stephen P. An Act of God (Memories of Vietnam).
Eureka, CA: Northcoast View Press, 1987 
Available from publisher at: Post Office Box 1374,
Eureka, CA 95502.

Rottman, Larry, Jan Berry, and Basil T. Paquet, eds.
Winning Hearts and Minds.  Perkasie, PA: East River Anthology, 1972.

Shea, Dick.  Vietnam Simply.  Coronada, CA: Pro Tem, 1967.

Van Devanter, Lynda  and Joan A. Furey, eds.  Visions of
War, Dreams of Peace : Writings of Women in the Vietnam War.  New
York: Warner Books, 1991.


D. Folklore.

Written:

Clark, Gregory R.  Words of the Vietnam War.  The Slang,
Jargon, Abbreviations, Acronyms, Nomenclature, Nicknames,
Pseudonyms, Slogans, Specs, Euphemisms, Double-talk, Chants, and Names and
Places of the Era of United States Involvement in Vietnam.  Jeferson
NC: McFarland and Co., 1990.

Dane, Barbara and Silber, Irwin.  The Vietnam Songbook.  New
York: Guardian, 1969. 
Songs from the anti-war movement

Tuso, Joseph F.  Singing the Vietnam Blues : Songs of the
U.S. Air Force in Vietnam.  Texas A & M Univesity military history
series, v 19. College Station: Texas A and M Press, 1990.

Recorded:

In Country.  Saul Broudy, Chip Dockery, Bull Durham, Bill
Ellis, Toby Hughes, Dick Jonas, Chuck Rosenberg.  Flying Fish
Records, 1991.

=================================================================
Copyright (c) 1995,1996 John R. Tegtmeier.  Non-commercial
distribution for educational purposes permitted if document
is unaltered.  Any commercial use, or storage in any commercial
BBS is strictly prohibited without written consent.


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