 | America's Longest War : The United States and Vietnam, 1950-1975 with Poster by George C Herring
Buy new: £20.34 / Used from: £20.00 THE best general/introductory work on the subject. Easily readable and accessible... but Herring (and everyone else) REALLY hates Nixon. I mean REALLY.
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 | Vietnam: A History by Stanley Karnow
Buy used from: £3.15 Truly immense book and fills your bookshelf in one volume. Dense, but definitively blow-by-blow.
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 | Fire in the Lake: The Vietnamese and the Americans in Vietnam by Frances Fitzgerald
Buy new: £8.89 / Used from: £2.95 Poignant and informative book on the fact that the war is the VIETNAM war, not the U.S. in said country.
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 | The Pentagon Papers by George C Herring
Buy used from: £11.50 Mind-blowing documentation of monumental corruption, stupidity and complicity by the U.S. government. No men in hoods here - they wear suits!
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 | Ho Chi Minh: A Life by William J. Duiker
Buy new: £9.79 / Used from: £7.17 What IS it with American authors and books that are stupendously thick. Needs editing but masterful narrative of the life of the man, the myth and the legend.
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 | A Soldier Reports by William C. Westmoreland
Buy used from: £10.95 If even half of what Westmoreland wrote in here was true, I'd be surprised. Really underpins how myopic the U.S. military strategists were. Insightful, but for all the wrong reasons.
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 | A Vietcong Memoir by Troung Nhu Tang
Buy new: £8.68 / Used from: £3.57 Riveting book written by senior member in the NLF who was eventually betrayed by the DRV (the North) after reunification in 1975.
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| Viet Cong by Douglas Pike
Buy used from: £19.95 You can tell this book is written by a military man from the off. Contains information unavailable elsewhere but be warned, this book is not great and more one-sided than a Mobius strip.
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 | We Were Soldiers Once...and Young: The Battle That Changed the War in Vietnam by Harold G. Moore
Buy new: £6.96 / Used from: £0.01 Despite being made into an awful, awful film, this book is actually penetrative in its understanding is surprisingly well written. And it only cost me £1! Worth a few more, definitely.
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 | Guerrilla Diplomacy: The NLF's Foreign Relations and the Viet Nam War by Robert K. Brigham
Buy used from: £11.70 Brigham is one of the best scholars on Vietnam, and can actually speak Vietnamese! Anything he writes is usually pretty damned good. This is no exception. Check out his book on the ARVN.
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| War by Other Means: National Liberation and Revolution in Vietnam, 1954-60 by Carlyle A. Thayer
Buy used from: £6.15 Dense, but unparalleled account of the foundations of the NLF. Superb for understanding the politics of the Vietnamese Communist Party. Immense.
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 | Victory in Vietnam: The Official History of the People's Army of Vietnam, 1954-1975 (Modern War Studies) by Military History Institute of Vietnam
Buy new: £42.70 / Used from: £32.00 Don't worry, it is as lifeless, dull and probably inaccurate as the official US versions. Useful for getting access to unattainable sources but incredibly boring. Worth reading unfortunately.
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 | Victory at Any Cost: The Genius of Vietnam's General Vo Nguyen Giap (Warriors) by Cecil Currey
Buy new: £6.75 / Used from: £5.94 This is the best of the biographies on Giap but still contains errors. More important fighting between 1930-54 than against the U.S. but a fascinating character. Also painfully long in size 8 font!
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| Intervention by George McTurnan Kahin
Buy used from: £4.55 Cracking book assessing the escalation of U.S. involvement and incitement to violence by the North. Great read, but once again, unnecessarily long.
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 | The Dynamics of Defeat: Vietnam War in Hau Nghia Province by Eric M. Bergerud
Buy new: £22.94 / Used from: £4.52 This, and his book about the 25th division are incredibly interesting and fascinating. Adds a local-dimension to the war and goes beyond grand narratives. Enjoyed reading the excessive length on them.
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 | Last Reflections on a War: Bernard B.Fall's Last Comments on Vietnam by Bernard B. Fall
Buy used from: £15.50 Fall is an unusually astute and intelligent commentator on Vietnam. This and his other works are worth seeking out.
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 | Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife: Counterinsurgency Lessons from Malaya and Vietnam by John A. Nagl
Buy new: £9.15 / Used from: £6.51 Good length AND analysis with this excellent work detailing flaws in strategy, rather than policy with the U.S. I don't entirely agree but it is worth reading.
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 | Anatomy of a War: Vietnam, the United States, and the Modern Historical Experience by Gabriel Kolko
Buy used from: £8.08 Kolko is fairly left-leaning and devotes a significant portion of the book to the war in the countryside which other authors don't do. I think you already know my criticism though... 672... really?
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 | After Tet #: The Bloodiest Year in Vietnam by Ronald H. Spector
Buy used from: £4.55 Dipels many myths and gets to grips with the nature of the war in ways many other authors can't cope. Quite specific so read a few others first, but a cracking read.
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 | Choosing War: The Lost Chance for Peace and the Escalation of War in Vietnam by F Logevall
Buy new: £15.15 / Used from: £16.39 Your standard length high-political decision-making book by a U.S. scholar, but this is by far the best - worth every excessive page!
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 | Why the North Won the Vietnam War
Buy new: £22.50 / Used from: £11.45 Good collection of essays from a variety of authors and political perspectives. Brigham's is the best, but all are worth reading.
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 | The Uncensored War: The Media and Vietnam by Hallin
Buy new: £12.95 / Used from: £10.23 Another of the reasons the war is infamous - being broadcast into every home across the world. One of the better works on media involvement.
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 | If I Die in a Combat Zone (Harper Perennial Modern Classics) by Tim O'Brien
Buy new: £4.97 / Used from: £0.01 One of many first-hand accounts of participation. Definitely one of the best and most famous. Read this and Herring if nothing else!
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 | Vietnam the Necessary War: A Reinterpretation of America's Most Disastrous Military Conflict by Michael Lind
Buy new: £7.53 / Used from: £4.80 Revisionism with frills and more. I wholeheartedly disagree with his work but it is well-written and engaging compared to most apologist right-wing work. Borrow a copy preferably.
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 | The Working-class War: American Combat Soldiers and Vietnam by Christian G. Appy
Buy new: £20.85 / Used from: £10.44 One of my favourite books on the war. Appy's analysis is truly cutting if at times lacking in the quality of scholarship of Bergerud. A fantastic book on the horrors of the U.S. forces.
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