What is an intelligent book about the Vietnam war?

Question

I have never studied the Vietnam war (I'm in the UK) and so I don't truly understand why it started, what it was intended to do and so on. I now work closely with Vietnamese people and so I want to know the story from both sides. I don't want to read propaganda.

All recommendations greatfully received!

I worry that some of you are missing the point. I don't want to know where America screwed up or why the VCons were so cruel. I just want to understand why it started in the first place and what the war was trying to prove. As I said, being British I don't really understand the situation.

Answer 1

The first intelligent book on the war in Vietnam I would recommend is:

'Vietnam: Anatomy of War 1940-1945', by Gabriel Kolko
Unwin Paperbacks, 1985 - (558 pgs.)

Another intelligent book, from the American side is:

'In Retrospect; The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam', by Robert S. McNamara, Random House, 1995 - (335 pgs.)

Answer 2

I would suggest that you read Stanley Karnow's VIETNAM A TELEVISION HISTORY.

It will give you much of what you are looking for, but it certainly does not give all. For instance, he said that he did not mention the Navy because the Navy did nothing in Vietnam. Ooopsy daisey, I was in the Navy in Vietnam and went to all coastal cities and bases as well as 250 miles up the Mekong.

98% of all materials came VIA ship and the greater part of those were either Navy or United States Naval Service (USNS) ships. My ship was in logistic support, basically carrying building materials and bombs. We were US Navy assigned to Military Sea Transport Service, part of the USNS organization.

So the book has problems, no doubt, but it ain't all that bad in the long run. I don't know exactly when it came out, but I would think either late 80s or early 90s. There was a series on that book that ran on Public Television in the US>

Answer 3

Vietnam - A history. by Stanley Karnow published in 1983
A very detailed and comprehensive account of the war by a respected author giving all sides of the conflict from the death of the first G.I. to the surrender of the South Vietnamese in 1975.
0ver 700 pages.

Answer 4

I recommend the book by Robert McNamara too. You also might want to try a very interesting documentary called "Fog of War." McNamara gives his account on the Vietnam war and how it just got out of hand.

Answer 5

"We Were Soldiers Once, and Young" - Joseph Galloway.

Answer 6

never McNamara.......he's trying to apologies for a failed strategy that cost 50,000 pus American dead ..

Joseph Galloway.."We Were Soldiers Once....and Young"