I just finished reading “Hearts in Atlantis” by Stephen King, which in large part deals with the events surrounding the Vietnam War. It has made me hungry to learn more about this War, the whys and wherefores of how it came to be, people’s experiences there, etc. I am looking for either a historically accurate novel or some sort of autobiography, as a straight historical text would put me to sleep.
Anyone have any good recommendations?
Yeah, I own one called “The Vietnam Reader”. It’s a collection of excerpts from novels, song lyrics, poetry, texts, and articles written during or about the Vietnam war. It has them in chronological order, and does a good job of showing how public opinion about the war changed so drastically and the events that caused it. Good stuff.
I’m anxious to help you out, but I may not be much help because I can’t remember the author’s name.
But I read (and re-read) this fascinating book simply titled Nam.
I’ll describe how it is set up so if you find it, you’ll know it’s the one I was talking about.
It’s a compilation work featuring snippets of interviews with Viet Nam vets. The chapters are broken up chronologically, starting with “Boot Camp” all the way through “Coming Home”.
It is fascinating because it is not romanticized. These are quotes taken from interviews the author conducted over several years. These snippets range from a single sentence to several pages. Reading such varied experiences and opinions on the same situation gives you a better feeling for what actually happened.
You will not get much in the way of the why’s and wherefores of the war, but reading this book will definitely give you a better idea of what it was like to be there. At least that is the impression I got.
I will search desperately to find the author’s name. Unfortunately my copy of that book was a victim of the Great Yard Sale of 1999.
God bless Amazon.com.
The author of the book I was talking about is Mark Baker. The full title is as follows:
Nam
The Viet Nam War in the Words of the Men and Women Who Fought
Unfortunately it is currently out of print, but Amazon has some E-shops and auctions where you can get it prety cheaply.
I might be the first person to recommend Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, but I bet I won’t be the last.
Ron Kovac’s Born on the Fourth of July. Excellent
book about Vietnam and how it affected the soldiers who fought there. Ignore the Tom Cruise movie.
Also, the musical Miss Saigon has some lovely lyrics.
Try Michael Herr’s Dispatches. Kaleidoscopic, helter-skelter account of grunts and rear echelon troops. Factual and informative but definitely not “a straight historical text”.
A novel I like a lot is Going After Cacciato, by Tim O’Brian, about a private who deserts in Nam with the intent of walking the 8000 miles to Paris to join the peace talks and the squad that is sent after him. Not much data here but plenty of fantastic reflections as the squad tracks a trail of chocolate M&M’s.
Try “We Were Soldiers Once…and Young : Ia Drang : The Battle That Changed the War in Vietnam,” by Harold G. Moore and Joseph Galloway.
This book begins with an insider’s description of the early use of helicopters as calvary units, and continues with the 34 days of the Battle of Ia Drang in 1965. Ia Drang was meant to be the first proving ground of air-mobile combat, and the lessons that were learned, and not learned, here largely determined the tactics used over the next nine years in Vietnam.
My description makes this book sound somewhat dry, but it is anything but. Joe Galloway and Harold more were there, on the ground as 450 American soldiers found themselves surrounded by over 2,000 Viet Cong. This book paints a harrowing, detailed picture, while keeping sight of the larger issues. The strategies are examined, the bullets are real, and the names have not been changed to protect the innocent.
This book reads like fiction, and there is a point where you suddenly realize that the characters are real, and this really happened. It’s an overwhelming experience.
Another good one is A Rumor of War, Philip Caputo’s memoir.
And for some deeper background an excellent book is Street Without Joy by Bernard Fall. It focuses on the French Vietnam War in the '40s and '50s.
For the POW side of Vietnam,you might try Five years to Freedom by James Rowe.
I would also like to second A Rumor of War.
When I was in high school, Vietnam was too new to be in our text books and to old to be current news. It was still a bruise on our nation’s ego.
I found a book in my school library, ( keep in mind that I was 13,and this was 20 years ago) that I eventually stole out of our library because I just loved it. Somewhere along the road of life, I have lost this book and have not seen it anywhere.
Sunshine Soldiers. By Peter(?) Tauber
About a reservist view point of during bootcamp during the war. IIRC, very flippant and sarcastic. Then again, I was 13 and easily amused.
I also read Rumor of War and found it excellent.
I would like to commend you on your quest for knowledge. I no dick about Vietnam from schooling. I learned about most of it on my own and (of all places) Doonesbury comics.
Two books, off the top of my (drunk) head…
“Letters from [Viet]Nam” - exactly as it sounds.
“The Firedream” - one of the few books that has ever made me cry. Is about a fine, upstanding young man who joined the military to defend the American way of life and, while he got “educated”, did not become bitter.
“Gardens of Stone” - the book, not the movie.
Is it. If I remember when I’m sober I’ll track down authors, etc.
I sceond The Things They Carried, of course, and also Good Scent From A Strange Mountain by Robert Olen Butler. It won the Pulitzer Prize in 1993, and for good reason. It’s a fantastic book.
You’ve given me a great selection here … I’ll be off to the library as fast as my mini-van can carry me!
Thanks!