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Books to read if you're planning a vacation in "vietnam", sorted by average review score:
First Recon-Second to None: A Marine Reconnaissance Battalion 1967-1968
Published in Mass Market Paperback by Ivy Books (November, 1992)
Author: Paul Young
Average review score:

great read, riveting
Even though I was not in the Vietnam War, I could not put this book down. Talking to others that were in the War, I found that this story was true for those who fought. Thanks to Paul Young I learned what it was like to be a marine fighting in the jungle.

rayjoy@ipa.net
Outstanding Book. I thought that Paul did a very good job of telling it like it was.I lost quite a bit of sleep while reading this book. Could not put it down.

been there, done that
I served with 1st force in vietnam in 67-68. Reading this book brought back alot of memories. Some good and some bad. The facts and stories were real and very much to the point. Great book.

Gum's Story: A Novel
Published in Hardcover by Harbor House (30 October, 2001)
Author: Rick Turnbull
Average review score:

An impressive debut novel.
I found this excellent reading. Phillip Turner is haunted by the cold blooded murder of his young friend, and is driven to avenge him.

Mr. Turnbull's development of characters, with an eye to detail, kept me enthralled from beginning to end.

I can't help but wonder if the reviewer from Publisher's Weekly was reading the same novel I was?

engaging Vietnam-themed suspense story
The past rages back to a Vietnam veteran when he discovers a recent newspaper photograph of an old nemesis, a south Vietnamese general who orchestrated a drug-smuggling operation.
More important to Air Force Sgt. Phillip Turner is the remembrance that the general--now living high off his ill-gotten gains in the United States--murdered a South Vietnamese boy much loved by the sergeant.
Turner underwent extensive therapy to move beyond the incident, which has had a sometimes negative impact on his relationship with his own son.
All the anger that has been simmering in the depths of Turner's psyche erupts full force, with vivid flashbacks to 1973, when he served onc rew in a supply plane running between bases in California and near Saigon. That aircraft--unbeknownst to the sergeant at the time--also was transporting illegal drugs. The child was gunned down on an airstrip when his presence was about to lead to discovery of the cache.
Much to the despair of his wife, Turner embarks on a one-man crusade to track down the general, seeking assistance from a retired Air Force general as well as a U.S. congressman.
Turnbull, a resident of Burnettown in South Carolina, won a Georgia Writers' Association Award for a short story in 2001. He has produced here a well-paced first novel that engages the reader most fully in its war-zone settings.
A Vietnamese veteran, the author captures some impressive scdnes of Saigon and its environs. Moreover, he effectively establishes the relationship between the sergeant and the boy so that the reader can understand how deeply the protagonist feels about avening the death.
The intrigue portions of the plot--the hunt for the general--relies a bit too heavily on coincidence. Nevertheless, the narrative will hold the reader's attention from beginning to end.
The story should appeal especially to young men in high school and college who might have difficulty finding a ovel to their liking, either for pleasure reading or for making an academic report.

A GREAT READ!
Gum's Story is a book you won't want to miss. Former Air Force Sergeant Phillip Turner's story is different from the typical Vietnam tale. It centers around a small Vietnamese boy, Gum, who wins Phillip's heart. But Gum is murdered, and 25 years later Phillip has an opportunity to avenge his young friend's death. Gum's Story is filled with heartwarming emotions, bitter anger, and intrigue which coalesce into a surprising, but satisfying, ending. This book is a page-turner!

It Took Heroes: One Chaplain's Story and Tribute to Combat Veterans and Those Who Waited for Them
Published in Paperback by Claude D. Newby (December, 1998)
Authors: Claude D. Newby and Lucille Johnson
Average review score:

Max59
Well reasearched, well written, a must read for anyone who really wants to know what it was like to be an infantryman in Vietnam. It is a straight-forward story - not sugar-coated. Chaplian Newby is to be commended for the time and effort that he has put into his books to insure he has the story as accurate as possible.

Well done, Padre!
Nice job. Brings back a lot of memories ... names, faces and places. You forgot noone when you were with us (A/2/8 Cav). You reached out to everyone. Both books tell the real story of how we survived.

It took Heroes
This book will be studied a hundred years from now as the only one of its kind: A day by day vivid accounting of an Army Chaplain's life with infantry soldiers in almost constant combat in Viet Nam. Newby is only the 2d Chaplain in history to be awarded the Combat Infantryman's Badge. All soldiers, especially those who served in the First Cavalry Division in Vietnam, must read this stunning work.

A Life in a Year : The American Infantryman in Vietnam, 1965-1972
Published in Hardcover by Presidio Pr (December, 1993)
Author: James R. Ebert
Average review score:

Great Reference for Infantryman's Experience
When I first started researching the Vietman war, I happened to come across this book at the library--exactly what I was looking for since I wanted to understand the individual experience of the infantryman. I had been warned by veterans that a lot of inaccurate books were out there, and since the writer's credentials were simply that he was a high school teacher, I first read it with a somewhat skeptical eye. As I continued to read memoirs and histories and speak with veterans, though, I also kept coming back to this book. Finally I just broke down and bought it. Though I've only spot read various passages throughout the book, it is even-handed, always rings true, is consistent with other information I've gotten, and offers factual information to set things in context (I wish there were a little more of that). Ebert has done a great job getting vets to talk--not always easy--now maybe he should create an updated edition to flesh out the coming home aspects. I hope this author still teaches high school.

For Real
Those who have read history about the Vietnam War are kidding themselves if they don't include "A Life in a Year--." This is the war as seen through the eyes of the lowest common denominator--the "grunt." Having served in the infantry in Vietnam and trusting Ebert's editing of what was individual braggadocio by some interviewees, I think this is an accurate portrayal of what Vietnam was like for thousands of soldiers and marines. Nothing fancy, nothing cute, nothing outlandish--just like really being there day in and day out. Straight shooting from basic to the freedom bird. If this was required reading before Vietnam I am not so sure the volunteer rate would have been as high as it was--but then we had to live Vietnam so such a book could be written.

Best down to earth, reality oriented Vietnam book I've ever
I've read many books on Vietnam and this is the best yet if you are interested in the real life of the grunts. A very down to earth and human look at the Vietnam experience. From prior to induction to return home. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in the real nitty gritty of the average guy in Vietnam. As I said, best I've ever read!!!

My Year of Living Heterosexually: And Other Adventures in Hell
Published in Paperback by ToExcel (27 June, 2000)
Author: Ronald L. Donaghe
Average review score:

He bares his soul, shares his life.
For Ron's fans from his fiction books, this book is a must read. Actually, reading this before you read his fiction would let you see from where many of his characters and settings had been derived. You'll see the father from "Uncle Sean" in Ron's father, Joel's mother and father in Ron's mother and father, Tom's caring for the garden in Ron's life, and many others. It makes his fiction even more enjoyable.
Many of us have been through some of the experiences Ron has, and sharing them with him as you read through the book will bring back many memories, some regrets, and a few laughs. His "'bad' years" in the laboratory, the friendships he formed, the search for living his life under the structure of the military, all of these will enrich your understanding of man striving to be himself.
I'm glad Ron had the courage to share his story. Also check out his "Letters in Search of Love". That book elaborates more on his life and thoughts.

Back in the Days When No One Asked, But Soldiers Could Tell!
What's a lesbian doing reading a gay memoir?
Enjoying the honesty and humor of a well-written life story.

Ronald L. Donaghe may be better known for his fiction (The Blind Season, Common Sons, Uncle Sean), but his own life story certainly lacks for no excitement. As an Airman First Class during the early 1970's, Donaghe writes about a slice of time in his life when he was nowhere near as comfortable with his sexual orientation as he must be now, given the fact that he has become a bestselling gay fiction writer since then.

The narrative is well-written and peppered with pithy observations. With honesty, he explains what it was like to be young, gay, and closeted from his family and friends--and even from himself. In denial, he married young and fathered a child before coming to grips with that folly. One would think that joining the military would have been yet another misstep, but instead, the military atmosphere actually assisted him with coming to grips with and accepting his sexual orientation as well as extricating himself from a bad marriage.

I found some of the boot camp description rather droll, and it was amusing to learn that so many soldiers during the Vietnam era were too high on drugs to care about Donaghe's sexual orientation. Nowadays, being "out" in the military often brings attacks and court martial. For Donaghe, it seems that the U.S. Military served as a safe place where he could come to terms with his sexuality.

Like Ricardo Brown's recent memoir, THE EVENING CROWD AT KIRMSER'S, about gay life in 1940's St. Paul, Ronald Donaghe tells another piece of the gay experience, this time from a soldier's point-of-view. I highly recommend his honest and forthright memoir and think it deserves a place in the canon.

-[....]

Thank you Ron!
Thank you Ron for sharing your story with all of us. It is presented in a way that brings us all into your story. I hope there will one day be a sequal!

Keep writing my friend!!

Incident at Muc Wa
Published in Paperback by iUniverse Publishing Services (01 May, 2000)
Author: Daniel Ford
Average review score:

Bittersweet; Prophetic
Daniel Ford's novel served as the basis for the excellent Vietnam war film, "Go Tell the Spartans". The movie was generally faithful to the novel, with just a bit of Hollywood added. The story follows draftee Stephen Courcey through special forces training and finally into the jungle of the Central Highlands of the Republic of South Vietnam. There, the experience of his military advisory team seems to be an allegory to the American involvement in Vietnam. One of the characters, a number crunching junior officer, allows that it will take 50,000 American combat deaths to "stabilize" the situation in Southeast Asia. This statement in this work of fiction written in 1967 is pretty amazing when you consider that the final American death count in Vietnam was 58,000 and change.

The novel moves quickly and flows nicely. The characters are strong. You find yourself somehow inside Corporal Courcey's head and laughing at Captain Olivetti's obsession with his CIB, his combat infantry badge. The role of Major Barker in the book is much less central than it is in the movie. But then, Burt Lancaster played the ... out of Major Barker in the film, so they may have made certain adjustments for the star.

There is a sadness and fatalism about the book that may bother some. However, the topic is not exactly uplifting. On the whole, a worthwhile and enjoyable read.

Extremely Satisfying Early Account
Ok, even though this happens to be a fictional account, and the names and places are completely fake, the description of events is extremely eerie and just plain dead-on for what became Vietnam. The book came out at a time when the war was still believed to be winnable, but Ford gives us an honest look at the unwinnable situation of Muc Wa, and what it did to its ever-loving and overwhelmed young commander. I think we've all heard too many storied of this same sort that happened in Vietnam, and here it is again, but its simply one of the best books if you want to get a feeling of what it might have been like to be a young man with what was basically a nearly impossible mission, one he felt a patriotic and militant duty to fulfill, but, like so many other times the powers that be wouldnt allow it. Another strong point is its brevity, it gets the job done without having to do it over a 300 or 400 page novel, the book and the language within it will flow easily for most any high school student. An excellent read on the subject, and highly recommended.

How the Vietnam war began
This is a classic, a story written by a journeyman reporter who was in Vietnam before the war escalated out of control. The story is a metaphor for the conflict: a handful of Americans and a platoon of Vietnamese mercenaries are told to garrison a "town" called Muc Wa. There is no town--just the remains of some French emplacements and a graveyard. (The graveyard becomes a major theme in Go Tell the Spartans, the Burt Lancaster movie made from Ford's novel.) They set up a garrison, the Viet Cong attack, the garrison is reinforced, and onward and upward in a spiral of violence that ends only when the Americans are ordered to "exfiltrate." For a novel that was published in 1967, that was a darned good prophecy. Read it, and wonder how the United States was so pigheaded as to believe it could ever win a war being fought on those terms.

Lyndon Johnson and Europe : In the Shadow of Vietnam
Published in Hardcover by Harvard Univ Pr (April, 2003)
Author: Thomas Alan Schwartz
Average review score:

"Lyndon Johnson and Europe": An Important Reappraisal
"Lyndon Johnson and Europe" provides a fresh reassessment of Johnson's foreign policy. Thoroughly researched and clearly written, "Lyndon Johnson and Europe" uses solid historical analysis to tear down the notional, knee-jerk response that Johnson's presidency put the U.S. in a foreign policy funk. Schwartz also avoids overstating his point. Johnson was not perfect, but, like every President, he worked within the international context in which he found himself. In Johnson's case, Schwartz provides enough evidence to show that given the circumstances, Johnson actually enjoyed a good measure of success. On one level, Schwartz's work is an academic revisionist history of Johnson's foreign policy with Europe, attractive in and of itself. But more broadly it reads as a diplomatic/political history of America, its friends, and its foes, during the turbulent 1960s. Easily forgotten cross-Atlantic spats (the Multilateral Force, France's break with NATO, the Kennedy Round, Prague Spring, et al.) all spring back to the relevancy that they held during Johnson's presidency through Schwartz's skilled hand. Schwartz's ability to capture the big picture while proving his point make this book not only an important reappraisal of Johnson's foreign policy, but also of great use to every student of American history, politics, and diplomacy.

Impressive
I found "Lyndon Johnson and Europe: In the Shadow of Vietnam" to be insightful and relevant to U.S. policy toward Europe. In light of this last conflict over war in Iraq, I believe Mr. Schwartz provided a thought-provoking narrative of a previously unknown and volitile time in U.S. politics. Lyndon Johnson was brought to life skillfully and with obvious attention to detail. I would highly recommend this book, not only for students and history buffs, but for everyone who should understand more about Lyndon Johnson and his administration.

A reexamination of Johnson's European foreign policy....
A reexamination of Johnson's European foreign policy, that puts him successfully at the helm'

In contrast to the traditional view, Prof. Schwartz presents a convincing and extremely well written case that President Johnson successfully guided American foreign policy towards Europe. The book tells a story of a talented power politician whose astute understanding of his allies and foes domestic political environments, enabled him to hold NATO and the Atlantic Alliance together, while maintaining a viable global economic system and effectively moving towards détente with the Soviet Union.

The book weaves together the complexities of Johnson's personality and the dynamics of his inherited administration into a compelling and clear historical narrative shedding new light on the usual uninspiring vision of the president.

The book attempts to break away from the Vietnam bias of historical accounts of Johnson's foreign policy. However even for someone interested in Vietnam, this book provides many missing pieces of the puzzle and clarity of insight into the functioning of the Johnson Administration's foreign policy that are invaluable in understanding the era.

Well worth the read!

Mia Rescue: Lrrps in Cambodia
Published in Mass Market Paperback by Ivy Books (June, 1996)
Authors: Kregg P. J. Jorgenson and Kregg P. Joergenson
Average review score:

Kregg, I want my slides back!
I would have given this book 5 stars, but Kregg makes me out to be more heroic than I really was. Fact is, I would have gone looking for the team if I had been told to, but I was happier than hell that I wasn't! There was a huge storm in the area that night and I had a really bad feeling about flying around in it trying to make radio contact with the team. Using my simple logic, if they were okay, they would still be okay in the morning when the storm passed. And if they weren't okay, increasing the body count by 5 wan't going to help either. Kregg, if you read this, please contact me.

rayjoy@ipa.net
As in all his books Kregg has done a super job on this book. I have read all the books that Kregg has written, and this one was right up there with the rest.

GREAT!
I learned alot from this book, Im sure you will to....thanks

No More Vietnams
Published in Paperback by Avon (November, 1994)
Authors: Richard, M. Nixon and Richard Milhous Nixon
Average review score:

Vietnam & Current Afghanistan: Similarities
During the height of the Vietnam war, I was a junior high/senior high school student and never really understood what was the purpose of the war. I have read many books since and have a fairly good understanding of the how's and why's of the war. However, reading Nixon's book was a real eye opener. He lucidates very well how the US got involved in Vietnam; the major mistakes the Kennedy and Johnson administrations made in running the war; the smear campaigns by the media against the Presidents and their policies; why Nixon bombed Vietnam in 1972 and mined Haiphong harbor; how the peace protestors played into Uncle Ho's hands. I was stunned to learn this information. Nixon was, by far, an exceptional and gifted statesman and writer. He even stated that the next threat to world peace and to the US will come from terrorism (this was written in 1985!). Nixon states that the "civilized world must develop a unified policy for dealing with terrorism" and that terrorists "may be deterred once they realize that by using terror they will spark the wrath of all nations that do not want to exist in a world riven by a tiny minority who have resorted to violence...." If you want to understand the current problems in Afghanistan with Al-Qaeda and O. bin Laden, Nixon's book has fascinating parallels from the Vietnam War to learn from. A book certainly worth reading!

Eye opening
I'm a student and this book was a required reading. Easily the best required reading I've ever had to do. I had never fully understood Vietnam. Why we were there, what we did while there and why we left. This book was an excellent asset in understanding Vietnam and I recommend it especially to students since it can be easily read in 2 to 3 days. :)

As I remember it
President Nixon's political problems notwithstanding, his was a serious intellect which was capable of getting to the heart of a subject. Starting with an enumeration of 22 conceptions about the war in Viet Nam, all of which,in print, seemed,not only plausible but were accepted by all too many people as true. As you read them you find yourself saying "no that's not right...sounds familiar but it's not right." Your vindication is at hand when the trap is sprung and the author declares all of the above is false. The book is a review of how events in the war played out politically and strategically, and how it was reported to the American people. Instead of being a self-serving recount of why I did the things I did, it is a well developed cronicle of events which elicits for those who lived through the period, tried to understand the period and most poignantly participated in the period, a feeling that... hey that's the way I remember it happening. It is a debunking of the self-serving myths propagated by the media. Contrary to the popular opinion forced upon us by the media, we had the war won in 1973, and with peace at hand Congress withdrew virtually all support, most importantly the threat of resumed air support for the Vietnamese ground troups should North Viet Nam not honor the peace treaty they signed. Regardless of your feelings about US participation in the Viet Nam War, Mr. Nixon's elucidation of the events will give many food for thought and revisit the question of where the responsibility for the tragedy belongs. Coincidentally, very shortly before writing this I watched an interview of General Schwartzkoff wherein he propounded the same view of our "loss" in Viet Nam as I remembered and as is described in NO MORE VIETNAMS. This should be on the mandatory reading list at our colleges.

None So Blind: A Personal Account of the Intelligence Failure in Vietnam
Published in Hardcover by Ivan R Dee, Inc. (October, 2001)
Author: George W. Allen
Average review score:

Amazing book on US involvement in Vietnam
I have read a number of books on the US involvement in Vietnam, some of them quite good. This is the best, the ONE book you should read if you're limited to one book. Other recommended books are _To Bear Any Burden: The Vietnam War and Its Aftermath in the Words of Forty-Seven Americans and Southeast Asians_ by Al Santoli, and _Our Vietnam/Nuoc Viet Ta: A History of the War 1954-1975_ by A. J. Langguth.
With first-hand knowledge -- not just reading from second-hand sources or going through one general's papers -- George Allen describes what happened in Vietnam from before Dien Bien Phu through the fall of Saigon. He has detailed information on the US side, and informed accounts of what the North Vietnamese strategy was. He introduces us to the personalities and events so important to the way Vietnam happened, all in a very engaging and readable style.
One of the most fascinating parts of the book is the listing of the many times the US took action without a full examination of the complete situation. Allen writes, "In foreign affairs and national security matters, there is no substitute for thorough, conscientious, and objective analysis of all the factors bearing on a decision, of alternative courses of action, and of a weighing of the consequences -- domestic as well as foreign -- of all the options available." This was rarely done in Vietnam. Among the hasty decisions the US made were to consider the northern Vietnamese as part of a monolithic Communist threat, to aid the French in maintaining their empire, to take over the French role in Vietnam, to give the green light to the Diem coup, to not realize the problems the lack of post-Diem leadership would create, to not encourage South Vietnam to develop an effective political message and a stable appealing government, to appear to favor Thieu as a candidate (by proclaiming neutrality), by failing to build an effective intelligence system in south Vietnam, by US in-country personnel repeatedly lying to their superiors by exaggerating US success and minimizing enemy strength (thus depriving themselves of the needed resources to meet the real threat), by the false "light at the end of the tunnel" PR campaign (setting the government up for an even bigger fall when Tet '68 came), by giving South Vietnam false assurances of our post-withdrawal support, etc. etc.
These just touch the surface. Allen explains how even minor decisions like insisting ARVN units included artillery support, and not replacing ONE incompetent colonel, possibly had very significant bad effects. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in Vietnam, recent American history, or politics. It should be required reading for US policy-makers.
Hopefully someday we'll have someone the caliber of George Allen tell the true story of 9/11, Afghanistan and Iraq.

Balanced Deep Trustworthy View of Policy-Intelligence Gaps


This book is destined to be a classic. There is no other person who spent over 17 years focused on intelligence about Viet-Nam, and very rare is the person who can say they have spent over 50 years in continuous intelligence appointments, 20 of them after retirement. It is a personal story that I consider to be balanced, deep, and trustworthy. While it has gaps, these are easily addressed by reading, at least on the intelligence side, such books at Bruce Jones' "War Without Windows", Orrin DeForest's "SLOW BURN", Douglas Valentine's "The Phoenix Program", Jim Witz's "The Tet Offensive: Intelligence Failure in War", Tom Mangold & John Penycate's "The Tunnels of Chu Chi", and the Viet-Nam portions of Jim Bamford's "Body of Secrets."

I mention these books in part to emphasize that George Allen has produced a book that will stand the test of time and should be regarded as an exceptional historical, policy, intelligence, and public administration case study. It is truly humbling and sobering to read such a calm, complete, and broad treatment of the history of both American intelligence in relation to Viet-Nam, and the consistent manner in which policy-makers refused to listen to accurate intelligence estimates, while their Generals and Ambassadors steadfastly "cooked the books." The manipulation of truth from the Saigon end, and the refusal to listen to truth on the Washington end, resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people, Vietnamese, Loatian, Cambodian, and American, as well as allied nationalities.

This book is gripping. I could not put it down. It is one of the most serious personal accounts I have ever read where the vivid realities of intelligence, ignorance, and policy come together. The author excells at painting the details in context, and his many specific portraits of key individuals and situations are superior.

This book is relevant to today's war on terrorism. Many of the same issues prevail--rather than enumerate them, I will give this book my very highest mark, and simply say that you cannot understand intelligence, or the intelligence-policy relationship, without having absorbed all this author has to say.

He's hit it out of the park. Every voter who wonders what it will take to hold politicians accountable for "due diligence" in decision-making, needs to read this book.

Excellent perspective on the Vietnam war
I initially expected this book to be interesting, but fairly dry in parts. I was pleasantly surprised when I found myself unable to put the book down.

Mr. Allen, a top official with the CIA during the Vietnam war, shares his experiences, insights and perspectives as to "the intelligence failure" in the war. Based on Mr. Allen's account, the real intelligence failure was on the part of the military and political leaders of the time; they simply refused to lend any credence at all to any intelligence that didn't tell them what they had already determined they wanted to hear.

This book will make you angry at times as you read of the author's continued frustration at people either ignoring his message or "killing the messenger". This is a very well-written book. I would consider it essential reading for anyone interested in the history of Vietnam, the war, or the politics of that era.

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