# Book recommendations please - specifically Vietnam/Korean War **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 4, 2008, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-recommendations-please-specifically-vietnam-korean-war/475678 "2008-12-04T14:59:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![diku](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4af34b/32.png) [@diku](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/diku)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2008, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-recommendations-please-specifically-vietnam-korean-war/475678/1 "2008-12-04T14:59:37Z")
I’m within a day or two of finishing up Shelby Foote’s **The Civil War - A Narrative** , and I’m looking to start educating myself a bit more about the Vietnam War and the Korean War. I’ve read **The Best and the Brightest** , about the political leaders behind Vietnam, and I’ve read basically nothing about Korea. I’m looking for something like Foote’s book, something that gives the narrative of the war and also the times around it. For example, I loved **Delivered From Evil** , Robert Leckie’s book about WW II. I also enjoyed his saga of the revolutionary war. Suggestions? ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2008, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-recommendations-please-specifically-vietnam-korean-war/475678/2 "2008-12-04T18:05:44Z")
[We Were Soldiers Once…and Young](http://www.amazon.com/Were-Soldiers-Once-Young-Drang/dp/0060975768) [Vietnam: A History](http://www.amazon.com/Vietnam-History-Stanley-Karnow/dp/0140265473/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1228413844&sr=1-3) Both are excellent places to start. ---
**Author:** ![Labdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/439d5e/32.png) [@Labdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labdad)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2008, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-recommendations-please-specifically-vietnam-korean-war/475678/3 "2008-12-04T19:52:47Z")
Try Neil Sheehan’s [“A Bright Shining Lie”](http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE0DF113AF936A1575AC0A96E948260). ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2008, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-recommendations-please-specifically-vietnam-korean-war/475678/4 "2008-12-04T20:02:29Z")
Kidder: My Detachment Swain: River of Time For the effects on the people who lived there: Chong: The Girl in the Picture Nguyen: The Unwanted Pham: Catfish and Mandala ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2008, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-recommendations-please-specifically-vietnam-korean-war/475678/5 "2008-12-04T21:46:39Z")
[Here’s my Vietnam shelf, all handily rated for you](http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/321764?shelf=vietnam). Best nonfiction, IMO is _Dispatches_, by Michael Herr _365 Days_, by Ronald J. Glasser _Nam_, by Mark Baker _A Rumor of War_, by Philip Caputo and for a nurses perspective, you can’t beat \* Home Before Morning\*, by Lynda Van Devanter. Best fiction _Going After Cacciato_ and _The Things They Carried_, by Tim O’Brien _The Names of the Dead_, by Stewart O’Nan _Meditations in Green_, by Stephen Wright Was this more than you wanted to know? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![UncleRojelio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unclerojelio/32/3160_2.png) [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2008, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-recommendations-please-specifically-vietnam-korean-war/475678/6 "2008-12-04T21:51:11Z")
[Chickenhawk](http://www.amazon.com/Chickenhawk-Robert-Mason/dp/0143035711/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1228427377&sr=8-1) [A Lonely kind of War](http://www.amazon.com/Lonely-Kind-War-Forward-Controller/dp/0891416382/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1228427448&sr=1-1) ---
**Author:** ![diku](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4af34b/32.png) [@diku](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/diku)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2008, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-recommendations-please-specifically-vietnam-korean-war/475678/7 "2008-12-05T16:06:33Z")
Thanks everyone! Looks like I’ve got some reading to do. ---
**Author:** ![Icerigger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icerigger/32/432_2.png) [@Icerigger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icerigger)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2008, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-recommendations-please-specifically-vietnam-korean-war/475678/8 "2008-12-05T16:14:58Z")
Well for fiction about Korea you have: M_A_S\*H The Bridges of To-Ko-Ri ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2008, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-recommendations-please-specifically-vietnam-korean-war/475678/9 "2008-12-05T16:31:34Z")
Can we have some more Korea reccommendations, please, particularly non-fiction? (Audio is even better!) That’s my dad’s war, and there just isn’t much about it. ---
**Author:** ![detop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bcef8e/32.png) [@detop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/detop)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2008, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-recommendations-please-specifically-vietnam-korean-war/475678/10 "2008-12-05T16:41:28Z")
T.R. Fehrenbach’s _This Kind of War_, probably the best single volume history of the Korena War. Bernard Fall’s _Street Without Joy_, for the French part of the Vietnam conflict and his _Hell in a Small Place_, specifically about Dien Bien Phu ---
**Author:** ![WreckingCrew](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wreckingcrew/32/4080_2.png) [@WreckingCrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WreckingCrew)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2008, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/book-recommendations-please-specifically-vietnam-korean-war/475678/11 "2008-12-05T18:19:21Z")
A few other non-fiction books for the Korean War: Clay Blair - The Forgoten War: America in Korea, 1950-1953. My favorite when I did my undergrad thesis on the war. Gives a great set up to the post WW II shrinking of the US Army, and how they paid the price for that in the first few months of the Korean War. Max Hastings - The Korean War. As Hastings is British, it is skewed quite a bit on the Commenwealth forces, but interesting to see the view from across the pond.