Part 1: Online Resources

• "Vietnam War" history from Citiendium
• Jensen's "Web Sources for Military History online at http://www.americanhistoryprojects.com/downloads/mil-2012.html
• Powerpoint lecture by Richard Jensen (2007)
• Maps
  Maps from CNN
  West Point Atlas recommended
  large scale map zoom-in
• Battles
  Army Official History

  "The U.S. Army in Vietnam" by Vincent H. Demma short official history by US Army

  George L. MacGarrigle, Combat Operations: Taking the Offensive, October 1966 to October 1967 (1998) excellent official Army history
  these are excellent scholarly monographs

  Special Forces

  Cedar Falls 1967 battle

  Riverine Operations
  Marines 1967 from MSNBC
  Marine Corps Official Histories

  US Marine Corps Histories US Marines in Vietnam, 1954-1964: The Advisory and Combat Assistance Era By Captain Robert H. Whitlow, USMCR

  US Marines in Vietnam, 1965: The Landing and the Buildup By Jack Shulimson and Major Charles M. Johnson, USMC

  US Marines in Vietnam, 1968: The Defining Year (1997) By Jack Shulimson, Lieutenant Colonel Leonard A. Blasiol, and Charles R. Smith

  US Marines in Vietnam, 1970-1971: Vietnamization and Redeployment (1986) By Graham A. Cosmas and Lieutenant Colonel Terrence R Murray, USMC

  US Marines in Vietnam, 1973-1975: The Bitter End (1990) By Major George R. Dunham and Colonel David A. Quinlan

  "THE MARINE WAR: III MAF IN VIETNAM, 1965-1971" by Jack Shulimson, U.S. Marine Corps Historical Center
  Air Battle for Khe Sahn, 1968 by Garrett Moritz
  documents on Khe Sahn
  Tet, 1968
  documents on Hue
  US Army & Irregular Warfare e-book by Prof John Gates
  "People's War in Vietnam," by John M. Gates pp. 325-344 J Military History (July 1990) available in JSTOR
  war in Laos
• Documents
• Bibliography from Texas Tech U.
  Foreign Relations, 1969-1976 Foundations of Foreign Policy, 1969-1972 official documents; interpretive emphasis; recommended
  US Dept of State, Foreign Relations of the United States 1964-1968. Vietnam (5 vol 1992-2002) recommended The single richest collection of source materials, with complete text of major documents; online at

  • vol 1 1964-1968
  • vol 2 January-June 1965
  • vol 3 June-December 1965
  • vol 4 1966 vol 5 1967
  • vol 6: 1968
  • vol 7: 1968-January 1969
  • US State Department documentsForeign Relations of US series, 1958-68; complete text of 21 other volumes of the FRUS series of documents; very comprehensive (excludes many CIA sources)
  Pentagon Papers excerpts recommended

  impact of the Papers essay by reporter Anthony Lewis
  diplomatic documents and reports from Mt. Holyoke recommended
  "Intelligence and Vietnam" top secret 1969 State Department study [released in 2004]
  declassified documents esp 1970s
  Bibliography from Texas Tech U.
  NLF documents
• PBS 1983 Series , with transcripts
• Terms and Acronyms from PBS
• Timeline of Vietnamese history by Thomas D. Lairson
• Who's Who from PBS
• Wars for Vietnam by Robert Brigham
• LBJ Oral Histories 788 complete transcripts (from LBJ presidential Library)
• Intelligence bibliography by J. Ransom Clark recommended
• Historiography
  "Bringing in the "Other Side": New Scholarship on the Vietnam Wars" scholarly article by Fredrik Logevall" Journal of Cold War Studies 3.3 (2001) 77-93; available through Project Muse at many libraries
  comprehensive annotated bibliography by Ed Moise recommended
• Teaching, Syllabi
  lecture notes Harvard Prof Ernest May
  "The State of the Field: How Vietnam is Being Taught" by Joe P. Dunn 1995 essay
  Gilbert, Marc Jason, ed., The Vietnam War: Teaching Approaches and Resources (1991).
  "Vietnam: A Teacher's Guide" (1983) recommended
• Veterans
• Scholarly studies
  Michael Jay Friedman, "Congress, the President, and the Battle of Ideas: Vietnam Policy, 1965-1969" Essays in History (1999)
  scholarly papers from 1996
  additional links recommended
• Nurses
• Prisoners
  PBS report on POWs
  Code of Conduct bibliography
• Homefront
  Muncie, Indiana, reacts to Tet
• The Evolution of US Army Tactical Doctrine, 1946-76" by Robert A. Doughty; ch 7 on Vietnam; 1979 study
• "The Meaning of Tet" by Victor Davis Hanson, American Heritage (2001) A historian argues that in Vietnam America’s cause was just, its arms effective, and its efforts undermined by critics back home— and that this is how things must work in a free society

Part 2: Printed Resources

Overviews and Reference

• Anderson, David L. Columbia Guide to the Vietnam War (2002)
• Edmund F. Wehrle. "Review of Andreas W. Daum, Lloyd C. Gardner, and Wilfried Mausbach, eds, America, the Vietnam War, and the World: Comparative and International Perspectives," H-1960s, H-Net Reviews, June, 2004.
• Cable, Larry. Unholy Grail: The U.S. and the Wars in Vietnam (1991)
• Duiker, William J. The Communist Road to Power in Vietnam (1996) nline edition
• Hammond, William. Public Affairs: The Military and the Media, 1962-1968 (1987). This is really a full-scale history of the war; an official history by U.S. Army; much broader than title suggests. Recommended. May be located in Government Documents division of library.
• Mitchell K. Hall, The Vietnam War (2007) 168 pages; short survey
• Public Affairs: The Military and the Media, 1968-1973 (1995). Continuation; full-scale history of the war by U.S. Army; much broader than title suggests. Recommended May be located in Government Documents division of library.
• Herring, George C. America's Longest War: The United States and Vietnam, 1950-1975 (4th ed 2001), best short history. recommended
• Reporting Vietnam: Media and Military at War by William M. Hammond (2000) with excerpts
• Karnow, Stanley. Vietnam: A History (1983), popular history; strong on Saigon's plans. recommended
• Kelley, Michael P., Where We Were in Vietnam: A Comprehensive Guide to the Firebases, Military Installations and Naval Vessels of the Vietnam War, 1945-1975 (2002) useful geographical guide to 10,000 locations
• Kolko, Gabriel. Anatomy of a War (1985), major synthesis; best of the pro-Hanoi histories.
• Kutler, Stanley ed. Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War (1996) along with Tucker, the best scholarly guide reference to the war. recommended
• Lewy, Guenter. America in Vietnam (1978), defends US actions
• Lind, Michael. Vietnam: The Necessary War (1999)
• McMahon, Robert J. Major Problems in the History of the Vietnam War: Documents and Essays (1995) useful textbook
• "Limited War: Vietnam in Comparative Perspective" essay by scholar Edwin Moise
• Moise, Edwin E. , Historical Dictionary of the Vietnam War (2002)
• Morrison, Wilbur H. The Elephant and the Tiger: The Full Story of the Vietnam War (1990)
• Moss, George D. Vietnam (4th ed 2002) excellent textbook
• Moyar, Mark. Triumph Forsaken: The Vietnam War, 1954-1965, (Cambridge University Press; 412 pages; 2006). A revisionist history that challenges the notion that U.S. involvement in Vietnam was misguided; defends the validity of the domino theory and disputes the notion that Ho Chi Minh was, at heart, a nationalist who would eventually turn against his Communist Chinese allies.
• Neu, ed. After Vietnam: Legacies of a Lost War (2000) review of short collection of essays
• Palmer, Bruce. The Twenty-Five Year War (1984), basic military history
• Schlight, John ed. Second Indochina War Symposium (GPO 1986). penetrating essays
• Schulzinger, Robert D. A Time for War: The United States and Vietnam, 1941-1975 (1997). Good overview. recommended
• Spector, Ronald. After Tet: The Bloodiest Year in Vietnam (1992), very broad coverage of 1968
• Tucker, Spencer. ed. Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War (1998) Excellent 3 vol. reference set; also one-volume abridgement (2001); along with Kutler, the best scholarly reference book on the war. recommended
• Andrew Wiest, The Vietnam War, 1956-1975 (2003) short
• Young, Marilyn. The Vietnam Wars, 1945-1990 (1991), angry new left interpretation
• Videos and CD-ROMs
  "The War in Vietnam: A Multimedia Chronicle from CBS News and the New York Times" (1995). isbn = 1-57595-005-7. Excellent cd-rom (hard to find--try www.ebay.com ); includes 2,170 NY Times reports, 40 CBS film clips, excerpts from Pentagon Papers, and much more. full review
  Cronkite, Walter (narrator), Vietnam War - CBS Video (14 videotapes); abridged version (1981)
  Vietnam: A Television History (1983) 13 vol. by PBS Read transcripts
  Vietnam-Ten Thousand Day War
  Vlastos, Stephen. "Television Wars: Representations of the Vietnam War in Television Documentaries," Radical History Review 36 (1986): 115-132.

Air Power, Navy

• Burdick, Frank A. "The Christmas Bombing of North Vietnam: The Limitations of Force. Journal of Political & Military Sociology (1984) 12: 213-228. argues Linebacker II did not win the peace.
• Clodfelter, Mark. The Limits of Airpower: The American Bombing of North Vietnam (1989), the best analysis
• Clodfelter, Mark, "Of Demons, Storms and Thunder: A Preliminary Look at Vietnam's Impact on the Persian Gulf Air Campaign" Airpower Journal (1991) 5 :17-32
• Eschmann, Karl J. Linebacker: The Untold Story of the Air Raids over North Vietnam (1989)
• Frankum, Ronald Bruce. '' Like Rolling Thunder: The Air War in Vietnam, 1964-1975'' (2006)
• Gibson, James William. The Perfect War: Technowar in Vietnam (1986)
• Glasser, Jeffrey D. The Secret Vietnam War: The United States Air Force in Thailand, 1961-1975 (1996)
• "Learning from History: Linebacker II and U.S. Air Force Doctrine," by Raymond W. Leonard J Military History v 58 (Apr 1994) pp. 267-303; available in JSTOR
• Littauer, Raphael and Normal Uphoff, eds. The Air War in Indochina (1972), detailed semitechnical reports & statistics
• Meilinger, Phillip S. The Paths of Heaven: The Evolution of Airpower Theory. (Air University Press, 1997)
• Marolda, Edward J. By Sea, Air, and Land: An Illustrated History, of the U.S. Navy and the War in Southeast Asia (1992)
• Marolda, Edward J. and Oscar P. Fitzgerald. The United States Navy and the Vietnam Conflict. Vol. 2, From Military Assistance to Combat, 1959-1965 (1986.) official history
• Mersky, Peter B. and Norman Polmar. The Naval Air War in Vietnam (1981)
• Michel, Marshall. Clashes: Air Combat over North Vietnam 1965-1972 (1997);
  The Eleven Days of Christmas: America's Last Vietnam Battle (2001)
• Milne, David, "Our equivalent of guerrilla warfare: Walt Rostow and the Bombing of North Vietnam, 1961-1968," Journal of Military History, 71 (Jan. 2007), 169–203.
• Momyer, William W. Airpower in Three Wars (GPO, 1979)
• Mrozek, Donald J. Air Power and the Ground War in Vietnam: Ideas and Actions. (Air University Press, 1988).
• Office of U.S. Air Force History. The United States Air Force in Southeast Asia, 1961-1973 (GPO, 1986) excellent official history.
• Pape, Robert A. Jr. "Coercive Air Power in the Vietnam War." International Security (1990) 15: 103-46, good analysis; reprinted in his book, Bombing to Win: Air Power and Coercion in War (1996)
• Merle L. Pribbenow II, "The -Ology War: Technology and Ideology in the Vietnamese Defense of Hanoi, 1967" Journal of Military History 67.1 (2003) 175-200 in Project Muse
• Sbrega, John J, "Southeast Asia." in Benjamin Franklin Cooling ed. Case Studies in the Development of Close Air Support (GPO, 1990) 411-90.
• Schlight, John. The War in South Vietnam, The Years of the Offensive, 1965—1968. The United States Air Force in Southeast Asia. [1988) excellent Air Force official history
• Thompson, James Clay. Rolling Thunder (1980)
• Tilford, Earl H. Jr. Crosswinds: The Air Force's Setup in Vietnam (1993)
• Tucker, Spencer. ed. Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War (1998)
• Wendt, Diego M. "Using a Sledgehammer to Kill a Gnat--the Air Force's Failure to Comprehend Insurgent Doctrine During Operation Rolling Thunder," Airpower Journal (1990)4 :52-54
• Werrell, Kenneth P. "Did USAF Technology Fail in Vietnam?" Airpower Journal (1998) 12:87-99
• Werrell, Kenneth P. "Linebacker II--The Decisive Use of Air Power?" Air University Review 38 (Jan-Mar 1987): 55-58.
• Wiarda, Jonathan S. "The U.S. Coast Guard in Vietnam: Achieving Success in a Difficult War," 51 Naval War College Review (1998) 30-46.

Army & Marines

• US Army list of official histories
• Armor, Artillery, Helicopters
  Galvin, John R. Air Assault: The Development of Air Mobility (1970) on the Army's helicopter attacks
  Gunston, Bill and Mike Spick. Modern Fighting Helicopters (1986)
  Ott, David Ewing, Field Artillery, 1954-73 (1975) official Army history
  Scales, Robert H. Firepower in Limited War (1990), artillery & gunships
  Starry, General Donn A. , Mounted Combat in Vietnam (1978) on tanks
  1st Battalion 69th Armor
  memoir of a tanker
  Tolson, Lieutenant General John J., Airmobility: 1961-1971 (1989) helicopter operations
• Bergerud, Eric M. Red Thunder, Tropic Lightning: The World of a Combat Division in Vietnam (1993). Excellent descriptions and recollections; good teaching resource.
• Cable, Larry E. Conflict of Myths: The Development of American Counterinsurgency Doctrine and the Vietnam War (1986)
• Carland, John M., Stemming the Tide: Combat Operations May 1965 to October 1966 (2000) CMH Pub. 91-5-1. excellent official Army history
• Davidson, Phillip B. Vietnam at War: The History, 1946-1975 (1988), good military history; strong on Giap's strategy
• U.S. Army Special Forces, 1961-1971 by US Dept of Army
• Dunnigan, James F. and Albert A. Nofi, Dirty Little Secrets of the Vietnam War (1999)
• Head, William and Lawrence E. Grinter, eds. Looking Back on the Vietnam War: a 1990s Perspective on the Decisions, Combat, and Legacies (1993).
• Herring, George. "American Strategy in Vietnam: The Postwar Debate." Military Affairs (1982) 46 : 57-63.
• Hess, Gary R. "The Military Perspective on Strategy in Vietnam." Diplomatic History (Win 1986) 10: 91-106
• Krepinevich, Andrew W. Jr. The Army and Vietnam (1986), influential critical study
• George L. MacGarrigle, Combat Operations: Taking the Offensive, October 1966 to October 1967 (1998) excellent official Army history recommended
• Matthews, Lloyd J. and Dale E. Brown. eds. Assessing the Vietnam War (1987), good collection of military perspectives
• Moore, Harold G. and Joseph Galloway. We Were Soldiers Once...And Young: Ia Drang--The Battle That Changed the War in Vietnam (1993) narrative of first major American battle; basis of movie
• Palmer, Bruce. The 25-Year War: America's Military Role in Vietnam (1984), good critique by top general
• Jeffrey Record, "Vietnam in Retrospect: Could We Have Won?" Parameters, (1996), pp. 51-65.
• Savage, Paul L. and Richard A. Gabriel. "Cohesion and Disintegration in the American Army." Armed Forces and Society 2 (May 1976): 340-76, controversial article exaggerated the breakdown
• Sharp U. S. G. and W. C. Westmoreland. Report on the War in Vietnam (as of 30 June 1968) (1968) official report by top commanders.
• Sorley, Lewis. Thunderbolt: General Creighton Abrams and the Army of His Times (1992) very good biography
• Stanton, Shelby L. The Rise and Fall of an American Army: U.S. Ground Forces in Vietnam, 1965-1973 (1985), excellent military history, best on actual combat operations
• Summers, Harry G. On Strategy: A Critical Analysis of the Vietnam War (1982) war should have been won by strong attacks against main enemy (Hanoi), not defensive anti-guerrilla war in South; highly influential in military circles online edition
  Interview with Summers
  
  John M. Gates, The U.S. Army and Irregular Warfare ch 7 a strong scholarly critique
• Thayer, Thomas C. War Without Fronts (1985), useful compilation of Pentagon's own statistics and analysis
• Tucker, Spencer. ed. Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War (1998), good military coverage
• Marines
  Marines 1967 from MSNBC
  The Marine War by Jack Shulimson (1996) very good, brief history
  Hennessy, Michael A. Strategy in Vietnam: The Marines and Revolutionary Warfare in I Corps, 1965-1972 (1997).
  Krulak, Victor. First to Fight: An Inside View of the U.S. Marine Corps (1984), good memoir by senior general

China and USSR

• Cold War International History Projects recommended full texts of original Communist documents, plus scholarly analysis; search on "Vietnam"
• Gaiduk, Ilya V. The Soviet Union and The Vietnam War (1996)
  Ilya V. Gaiduk, "The Vietnam War and Soviet-American Relations, 1964-73: New Russian Evidence," full text of recommended sources
  Tom Nichols. "Review of Ilya V. Gaiduk, Confronting Vietnam: Soviet Policy toward the Indochina Conflict, 1954-1963," H-Diplo, H-Net Reviews, November, 2004.
• Hunt, Michael, and Niu Jun, eds. Towards a History of Chinese Communist Foreign Relations, 1920s-1960s: Personalities and Interpretive Approaches (1995)
• Garson, Robert. "Lyndon B. Johnson and the China Enigma," Journal of Contemporary History, {1997), 32: 63-79
• Jian, Chen. "China's Involvement in the Vietnam War, 1964-1969," China Quarterly (1995), 142: 357-387. Military support 1962-69 designed mostly to try to counter Moscow's influence.
• Lawson, Eugene K. The Sino-Vietnamese Conflict (1984)
• Zhai, Qiang China and the Vietnam Wars, 1950-1975 (2000)
  Zhai, Qiang, "Beijing and the American Conflict, 1964-1965: New Chinese Evidence." Cold War International History Project Bulletin (Winter 1995/96) #6-7, 233-50. full text ofrecommended sources
  "Transplanting the Chinese Model: Chinese Military Advisers and the First Vietnam War, 1950-1954," by Qiang Zhai ; in The Journal of Military History in JSTOR, Vol. 57, No. 4. (Oct., 1993), pp. 689-715.
  Zhai, Qiang. "Beijing's Position on the Vietnam Peace Talks, 1965-68: New Evidence from Chinese Sources" full text recommended
  Zhai, Qiang. "Transplanting the Chinese Model: Chinese Military Advisers and the First Vietnam War, 1950-1954." Journal of Military History (1993) 57: 689-715. Chinese strategists planned and often commanded in the war.
  Zhai, Qiang. "Opposing Negotiations: China and the Vietnam Peace Talks, 1965-1968," Pacific Historical Review, 68 (Feb 1999) 21+. Fearing the USSR and trying to maximize its influence over NVN, China opposed peace talks. Online at Infotrac.

Ethics, Legality

• Buzzanco, Robert. "The American Military's Rationale Against the Vietnam War." Political Science Quarterly 101 (1986): 559-76.
• Falk, Richard. The Vietnam War and International Law (4v, 1969-1976) by prominent dove
• Military law official Army history
• Menzel, Paul, ed. Moral Argument and the War in Vietnam (1971)
• Moore, John Norton, Law and the Indo-China War (1972) supports Washington
• My Lai Massacre
  My Lai massacre, 1968 BBC report
  Caley Court Martial
  Olson, James S. and Randy Roberts. My Lai: A Brief History with Documents (1999). Detailed Table of Contents
  Anderson, David L., ed. Facing My Lai: Moving Beyond the Massacre (1998).
  Parks, W. Hays. "Linebacker and the Laws of War," Air University Review 34 (Jan 1983): 2-30
  Parks, W. Hays. "Rolling Thunder and the Laws of War," Air University Review 33 (Jan 1982): 2-23
  Podhoretz, Norman. Why We Were in Vietnam (1982), stresses moral imperatives & empathy with people of South Vietnam
  Ramsey, Paul. The Just War: Force and Political Responsibility (1968), argues US involvement was proper
  Smith, Melden E. "The Strategic Bombing Debate: The Second World War and Vietnam," Journal of Contemporary History 12 (1977) 175-91; focus on ethics
  Military Law

  Major General George S. Prugh, Law at War: Vietnam 1964-1973 (1974)

  Solis, Gary D. Marines and Military Law in Vietnam: Trial by Fire (HQMC, 1989)

  Army MPs, 1962-75

  Leaders' Manual for Combat Stress Control with historical examples

Fiction, Poetry

• Chatterji, Subarno. Memories of a Lost War: American Poetic Responses to the Vietnam War (2001)
• Coonts, Stephen. Flight of the Intruder (1986) Navy pilot
• Del Vecchio, John. The Thirteenth Valley (1982), combat novel
• Dinh, Linh, ed. Night, Again: Contemporary Fiction from Vietnam (1996) translations of 13 short stories reviews
• Ehrhart, W. D. ed. Carrying the Darkness: American Indochina: The Poetry of the Vietnam War (1985), anthology of poems
• Greenberg, Martin, and Augustus Richard Norton eds. Touring Nam: The Vietnam War Reader (1985), short stories
• Hillstron, Kevin and Laurie Collier Hillstrom, The Vietnam Experience: A Concise Encyclopedia of American Literature, Songs and Film (1998); 44 scholarly essays
• Huong, Duong Thu. Novel Without a Name (1996), about disenchanted North Vietnamese soldier. reviews
• Lomperis, Timothy J. "Reading the Wind": The Literature of the Vietnam War (1987).
• Ringnalda, Donald. "Fighting and Writing: America's Vietnam War Literature." Journal of American Studies 22 (1988): 25-42
• Jim Neilson, Warring Fictions: American Literary Culture and the Vietnam War Narrative 1998
• Smith, Lorrie. "The Subject Makes a Difference: Poetry by Women Veterans of the Vietnam War." Journal of American Culture, 16 (Fall 1993) 71-80.
• Webb, James. Fields of Fire (1978), Marines in combat

Films, Music, Popular Culture, Memories

• annotated list of 15 films
• Adair, Gilbert. Hollywood's Vietnam: From the Green Berets to Full Metal Jacket (1989)
• Anderegg, Michael, ed. Inventing Vietnam: The War in Film and Television (1991)
• Anderson, Terry H. "Amerian Popular Music and the War in Vietnam," Peace and Change 11 (Sp 1986): 51-65; rock and folk were dovish, while country music was hawkish
• Julia Bleakney, Revisiting Vietnam: Memoirs, Memorials, Museums (2006) 220 pp
• Denisoff, R. Serge, and Richard A. Peterson, eds. The Sounds of Social Change (1972).
• Devine, Jeremy M. Vietnam at 24 Frames a Second: A Critical and Thematic Analysis of over 400 Films about the Vietnam War (1999)
• Dittmar, Linda, and Gene Michaud. From Hanoi to Hollywood: The Vietnam War in American Film (1990)
• Hellmann, John. American Myth and the Legacy of Vietnam (1986)
• Herzog, Tobey C. Vietnam War Stories: Innocence Lost (1992), reader's guide to genre of war novels
• Hillstron, Kevin and Laurie Collier Hillstrom, The Vietnam Experience: A Concise Encyclopedia of American Literature, Songs and Film (1998); 44 scholarly essays
• Jeffords, Susan. The Remasculinaztion of America: Gender and the Vietnam War (1989). Images of war reveal patriarchal values and the primacy of gender, rather than class or race.
• Johannessen, Larry R. Illumination Rounds: Teaching the Literature of the Vietnam War (1992)
• Just, Ward, ed. Reporting Vietnam: American Journalism 1959-1975 (2000). Library of America 2 vol anthology of reporting; recommended
• McAdams, Frank The American War Film : History and Hollywood (2002)
• Martin, Andrew. Receptions of War: Vietnam in American Culture (1993) re films, novels, TV.
• Myers, Thomas. Walking Point: American Narratives of Vietnam (1988)
• Reyes, Adelaida. Songs of the Caged, Songs of the Free: Music and the Vietnamese Refugee Experience (1999) Review & Table of Contents
• David Kieran. "Review of Mark Taylor, The Vietnam War in History, Literature, and Film," H-1960s, H-Net Reviews, June, 2004.
• Walsh, Jeffrey, and James Aulich, eds. Vietnam Images: War and Representation (1989)

Home Front, Public Opinion, Peace Movements

• Baritz, Loren. Backfire: A History of How American Culture Led Us Into Vietnam and Made Us Fight the Way We Did (1985). High tech approach led to misunderstanding of pre-tech peasants.
• James L. Baughman on newspaper coverage
• Braestrup, Peter. Big Story (1977). Media did fair job, but misinterpreted Tet as US defeat. related essay
• Buzzanco, Robert. Vietnam and the Transformation of American Life (1999); new left approach.
• Campagna, Anthony S. The Economic Consequences of the Vietnam War (1991).
• DeBenedetti, Charles. An American Ordeal: The Antiwar Movement of the Vietnam Era (1990) recommended
• Mark Atwood Lawrence. "Review of Michael S. Foley, Confronting the War Machine: Draft Resistance during the Vietnam War," H-Peace, H-Net Reviews, May, 2004.
• Garfinkle, Adam. Telltale Hearts: The Origins and Impacts of the Vietnam Antiwar Movement (1995), protesters prolonged the war and had lasting impact on American attitudes.
• Gartner, Scott S. ; Gary M. Segura; and Michael Wilkening, "All Politics Are Local: Local Losses and Individual Attitudes Towards the Vietnam War," Journal of Conflict Resolution, 41 (1997), 669-94. Statistical study of California public opinion toward war. Online at Infotrac.
• Gustainis, J. Justin. American Rhetoric and the Vietnam War (1993)
• Hallin, Daniel. "The Media, the War in Vietnam, and Political Support: A Critique of the Thesis of an Oppositional Media," Journal of Politics 46 (1984) 2-24.
• Heineman, Kenneth. "The Silent Majority Speaks: Antiwar Protest and Backlash, 1965-1972," Peace & Change 17 (1992): 402-433.
• Katz, Andrew Z. "Public Opinion and Foreign Policy: The Nixon Administration and the Pursuit of Peace with Honor in Vietnam.," Presidential Studies Quarterly, (1997) 27: 496-513. Online at Infotrac.
• Bruce Kent, "Protest and Survive" History Today, (May 1999) on peace movement of 1980s
• Levy, David W. The Debate Over Vietnam (1991).
• Mueller, John. War, Presidents, and Public Opinion (1973), good starting point.
• Page, Benjamin I., and Richard A. Brody. "Policy Voting and the Electoral Process: The Vietnam War Issue," American Political Science Review (1972) 66: 979-95.
• Tomes, Robert R. Apocalypse Then: American Intellectuals and the Vietnam War, 1954-1975 (1998)
• Verba, Sidney, Richard A. Brody, Edwin P. Parker, Norman H. Nie, Nelson W. Polsby, Paul Ekman, and Gordon S. Black. "Public Opinion and the War in Vietnam," American Political Science Review (1967) 61: 317-33.
• Rorabaugh, William J. Berkeley at War, the 1960s (1989)
• Anti-War Movement links, essays, class materials

North Vietnam, VietCong, Cambodia, Laos

• "Revisiting Vietnam" NPR 2000 report
• Ang, Cheng Guan. Vietnam War from the Other Side (2002)
• Brigham, Robert K. Guerrilla Diplomacy: The NFL's Foreign Relations and the Viet Nam War (1999)
• Chanoff, David and Doan, Van Toai. Vietnam: A Portrait of Its People at War (1996).
• Davidson, Phillip B. Vietnam at War: The History, 1946-1975 (1988), military history; strong on Giap's strategy
• Deac, Wilfred P. Road to the Killing Fields: The Cambodian War of 1970-1975 (1997)
• Duiker, William J. Sacred War: Nationalism and Revolution in a Divided Vietnam (1994) excellent overview
• Duiker, William J. The Communist Road to Power in Vietnam (1996)
• Duiker, William J. Ho Chi Minh (2000) best biography Read Chapter 1
• Dung, Van Tien. Our Great Spring Victory: An Account of the Liberation of South Vietnam (1977), Hanoi's version of 1975
• Bernard Fall, "The Theory and Practice of Insurgency and Counterinsurgency" Full text of 1965 essay; Fall was a highly influential analyst, and author of The Two Viet-Nams (1963), Viet-Nam Witness, 1953-1966 (1966), Hell in a Very Small Place (1967), and Last Reflections on a War (1967).
• Giap, Vo Nguyen
  Currey, Cecil B. Victory at Any Cost: The Genius of Viet Nam's Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap (2000)
  Macdonald, Peter. Giap: The Victor in Vietnam (1995)
  Giap, Vo Nguyen. How We Won the War (1976) memoir by key Communist strategist.
• Gilbert, Marc Jason (Editor), Why The North Won The Vietnam War (2002) scholarly essays
• Guan, Ang Cheng. "Decision-making Leading to the Tet Offensive (1968) - The Vietnamese Communist Perspective," 33 Journal of Contemporary History, (July 1998) 341-52. Examines factional disputes in Hanoi. Online at Infotrac.
• Guan, Ang Cheng. Ending the Vietnam War: The Vietnamese Communists' Perspective (2003)
• Ho Chi Minh
  Duiker, William J. Ho Chi Minh (2000) best biography
  Halberstam, David. Ho (1986) brief & outdated by Duiker. Read Chapter 1
  Biography from Hanoi
  Ho's writings
• Kolko, Gabriel. Anatomy of a War (1985), major history; pro-Ho
  Kolko, Gabriel. Vietnam: Anatomy of a Peace (1997), the Communists won the war but their incompetence means they have lost the peace.
• Lanning, Michael Lee and Cragg, Dan. Inside the VC and the NVA: The Real Story of North Vietnam's Armed Forces (1992), solid study based on RAND reports.
• McCoy, J. W. Secrets of the Viet Cong (1992), good semitechnical descriptions of PAVN and Viet Cong techniques and organization
• Merli, M. Giovanna. "Socioeconomic Background and War Mortality During Vietnam's Wars," Demography, (2000) 37: 1-22 For North Vietnamese, explores socioeconomic status and war mortality. Data obtained from retrospective information on kin survival and other socioeconomic characteristics given by respondents in the 1995 Vietnam Longitudinal Survey conducted in Vietnam. Findings are opposite to those often cited to describe the experience of young Americans who fought in the Vietnam war. In Vietnam, sons of better-educated fathers bore the burden of war disproportionately in relation to sons of fathers with less education, both in proportion serving in the military and in diminished survival chances in combat. The Vietnamese experience testifies to the ability of a nation to reorder society temporarily and to persuade higher-status groups to contribute fully to the war effort.
• Military History Institute of Vietnam, Victory in Vietnam: The Official History of the People's Army of Vietnam, 1954 1975 (2002), Hanoi's official history, translated by M L Pribbenow This detailed account describes the ebb and flow of the war as seen from Hanoi. It discloses particularly difficult times in the PAVN's struggle: 1955 59, when Diem almost destroyed the Communist movement in the South; 1961 62, when American helicopter assaults and M-113 armored personnel carriers inflicted serious losses on their forces; and 1966, when U.S. troop strength and air power increased dramatically. It also elaborates on the role of the Ho Chi Minh Trail in the Communist effort, confirming its crucial importance and telling how the United States came close to shutting the supply line down on several occasions. The book confirms the extent to which the North orchestrated events in the South and also reveals much about Communist infiltration--accompanied by statistics--from 1959 until the end of the war. While many Americans believed that North Vietnam only began sending regular units south after the U.S. commitment of ground forces in 1965, this account reveals that by the time Marines landed in Da Nang in April 1965 there were already at least four North Vietnamese regiments in the South.
• annotated bibliography by Edwin Moise
• Pike, Douglas. PAVN: People's Army of Vietnam (1986)
  "Hanoi/Viet Cong View of the Vietnam War" 1990 paper by Douglas Pike
  Pike, Douglas. Vietnam and the Soviet Union (1987)
  Pike, Douglas. Viet Cong (1966), still standard
• Prados, John. The Blood Road: The Ho Chi Minh Trail and the Vietnam War (1998) Read Chapter 1
• Quincy, Keith. Harvesting Pa Chay's Wheat: The Hmong and America's Secret War in Laos (2000)
  Quincy, Keith. Hmong, History of a People (1995).
• Shawcross, William. Sideshow: Kissinger, Nixon and the Destruction of Cambodia (1979), harsh, detailed attack
• Tai, Hue-Tam Ho. The Country of Memory: Remaking the Past in Late Socialist Vietnam (2001)
• Tang, Truong Nhu. A Vietcong Memoir (1986) by former NLF Minister of Justice reviews
• Tin, Bui. Following Ho Chi Minh: The Memoirs of a North Vietnamese Colonel (1999) Highly revealing memoir by a prominent Vietnamese journalist who left for France in 1990. He joined the revoution in 1945, became a Colonel in the People's Army.
• "People's War and Tran Van Tra" excerpts from memoirs of North Vietnamese general
• Van Dyke, Jon M. North Vietnam's Strategy for Survival (1972), coping with air raids
• Victory in Vietnam: The Official History of the People's Army of Vietnam, 1954--1975: The Military History Institute of Vietnam (2002); Hanoi's offical history

Origins

• Anderson, David. "Why Vietnam? Postrevisionist Answers and a Neorealist Suggestion." Diplomatic History 13 (1989): 419-29
• Bradley, Mark. "Imagining America: The United States in Radical Vietnamese Anticolonial Discourse," Journal of American-East Asian Relations 4 (1995) 299-329. From late 19th century to 1940s anti-French discourse often used referred to American Revolution.
• Bradley, Mark, Imagining Vietnam and America: The Making of Postcolonial Vietnam, 1919-1950 (2000) Vietnamese perspectives on America Read Chapter 1
• Clayton, Anthony. The Wars of French Decolonization (1994)
• Ellsberg, Daniel, Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers (2002) Read Chapter 1
• Gardner, Lloyd. Approaching Vietnam: From World War II Through Dienbienphu, 1941-1954 (1989)
• The First Vietnam War: Colonial Conflict and Cold War Crisis, ed by Mark Atwood Lawrence and Fredrik Logevall,
• Neese, Harvey, and John O'Donnell, eds. Prelude to Tragedy: Vietnam, 1960-1965 (2000), stresses success of counter-insurgency programs in Malaya and the Philippines.
• Martin Windrow , The Last Valley: Dien Bien Phu and the French Defeat in Vietnam - (2006) 734 pages
• Kahin, George McT. Intervention: How America Became Involved in Vietnam (1987), detailed coverage of Saigon and Washington to 1966
• Moïse, Edwin E. Tonkin Gulf and the Escalation of the Vietnam War (1996). Review
• Pre-Colonial Vietnam class materials
• The Advisory Experience, 1954-65 class materials
• Short, Anthony. Origins of the Vietnam War (1989), fair-handed treatment of many governments; focus on 1954
• Showalter, Dennis E. "Dien Bien Phu in Three Cultures," War & Society 16 (1998) 93-108.
• Smith, R. B. The International History of the Vietnam War (3 vol, 1983, 1985, 1991), stresses Soviet & Cinese role, to 1965
• Spector, Ronald H. Advice and Support: The Early Years of the U.S. Army in Vietnam, 1941-1960 (1983), thorough & balanced

Personal Accounts, Reporting

• Unit after-action and other official reports: Archives II Textual Reference Branch
  National Archives and Records Administration
  8601 Adelphi Road
  College Park, MD 20740-6001 (301)-713-7250
  
• Memories very short accounts, from ABC News
• Atkinson, Rick. The Long Gray Line (1989), West Pointers
• Brennan, Matthew. Brennan's War: Vietnam 1965-1969 (1985), lieutenant's memoirs
• Caputo, Philip. A Rumor of War (1977), Marines
• Downs, Frederick. The Killing Zone: My Life in the Vietnam War (1978), gung-ho
• Edelman, Bernard ed. Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam (1985), highly revealing; made into a powerful TV documentary in 1988 (HBO Home Video)
• Hallin, Daniel C. The 'Uncensored War': The Media and Vietnam (1989)
• Hammond, William M. Reporting Vietnam: Media and Military at War (1998)
• Collapse of morale, 1971 magazine story
• Herr, Michael. Dispatches (1978), graphic, terrifying
• Lewis, Lloyd B. The Tainted War: Culture and Identity in the Vietnam War Narratives (1985)
• Loeb, Jeff. "MIA: African American Autobiography of the Vietnam War," African American Review 31 (1997) 105-123.
• McCain, John. Faith of My Fathers: A Family Memoir (1999) the Senator was a POW
• Marshall, Kathryn. In the Combat Zone: An Oral History of American Women in Vietnam, 1966-1975 (1987)
• McDonough, James. Platoon Leader (1985), Army combat 1970
• Myers, Thomas. Walking Point: American Narratives of Vietnam (1988)
• Newman, Robert S. "Objectivity and Subjectivities: Oral Narratives from Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam," Oral History Review 21 (1993): 89-97. Focus on refugees.
• Prochnau, William. Once Upon a Distant War (1995) Read Chapter 1
• Prescott, Renate W. "The Vietnam War and the Teaching and Writing of Oral History: The Reliability of the Narrator," The Oral History Review (1999) 26#2p p47+ online at Infotrac
• Reporting Vietnam: American Journalism 1959-1969, 1969-1975 (2v 1998, Library of America edition) Table of Contents vol 1
• Santoli, Al. To Bear Any Burden (1985), right war fought wrong way, according to interviews with Americans and Vietnamese
• Tang, Truong Nhu. A Vietcong Memoir (1985), very revealing account by senior NLF official; shows NLF atrocities, use of US antiwar movement, collapse of NLF after Tet
• Terry, Wallace, ed. Bloods: An Oral History of the Vietnam War by Black Veterans (1984)
• Tomes, Robert R. Apocalypse Then: American Intellectuals and the Vietnam War, 1954-1975 (1998)
• Tripp, Nathaniel. Father, Soldier, Son: Memoir of a Platoon Leader in Vietnam (1997). Read Chapter 1 Read Chapter 1

Reference and Historiography

• Barrett, David M ed. Lyndon B. Johnson's Vietnam Papers: A Documentary Collection (1997)
• Bowman, John S. ed. The World Almanac of the Vietnam War (1985), detailed chronology; much on air, land, sea & guerrilla campaigns.
• Divine, Robert A. "Vietnam Reconsidered." Diplomatic History 12 (Win 1988): 79-93. Historiography.
• Duiker, William J. Historical Dictionary of Vietnam (1998 2nd ed)
• Hess, Gary R. "The Unending Debate: Historians and the Vietnam War." Diplomatic History 18 (Sp 1994): 239-64. very convenient overview of scholarship. Identifies Clausewitzians, who hold that civilians sent the military to fight the wrong war; the "hearts and minders," who conclude that pacification was underutilized; and "legitimacists," who believe the US had a moral duty to intervene. A neo-orthodox school focuses on the home front.
• Kutler, Stanley ed. Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War (1996) along with Tucker, best single reference on war.
• McMahon, Robert J. "The Cold War in Asia: Toward a New Synthesis?" Diplomatic History 12 (summer 1988): 307-27.
• Keylin, Arleen and Suri Boiangiu eds. , Front Page Vietnam (1979), replicas of 150 front pages of New York Times, 1950-79.
• Olson, James S. ed. Dictionary of the Vietnam War (1988), many short entries; bibliographies
• Olson, James S. ed. The Vietnam War: Handbook of Literature and Research (1993) comprehensive guide
• Page, Tim and John Pimlott eds. Nam: The Vietnam Experience 1965-75 (1988), lavishly illustrated, detailed guide to combat & noncombat roles of US forces, written by participants
• Pentagon Papers, several editions available, the best is The Pentagon Papers: The Defense Department History of United States Decisionmaking on Vietnam(Beacon Press, 1971) = the 4 vol Gravel edition (vol 5 = index). This was a major history, with many original documents, written by the Defense Department in 1968, and leaked to the New York Times in 1971. Note that Neil Sheehan, et al The Pentagon Papers (1971) includes only a few of the documents and replaces the Pentagon history with a new text written by NY Times reporters. see Moise's comments
  Excerpts from Pentagon Papers
• Summers, Harry. Vietnam War Almanac (1985)
• Summers, Harry. Historical Atlas of the Vietnam War (1996)
• Tucker, Spencer. ed. Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War (1998) Excellent 3 vol. reference set; also one-volume abridgement (2000); along with Kutler, the best scholarly reference book on the war. recommended
• US Dept of State, Foreign Relations of the United States 1964-1968. Vietnam (4 vol 1992-98) The single richest collection of source materials, with complete text of major documents; online at
  • vol 1 1964-1968
  • vol 2 January-June 1965
  • vol 3 June-December 1965
  • vol 4 1966

Soldiers, Medical, POWs & Veterans

• Medical Support of the U.S. Army in Vietnam 1991 official history
• Appy, Christian. Patriots: The Vietnam War Remembered from All Sides ( 2004) 608pp of primary sources
• Appy, Christian. Working-Class War: American Combat Soldiers and Vietnam (1993), exaggerates class dimension by ignoring officers.
• Baskir, Lawrence M. and WIlliam Strauss. Chance and Circumstance (1978), how draft worked
• Bergerud, Eric M. Red Thunder, Tropic Lightning: The World of a Combat Division in Vietnam (1994) detailed descriptions and recollections
• Bonior, David E. The Vietnam Veteran: A History of Neglect (1984), neglected by older veterans
• Camp, Norman M. et al. Stress, Strain, and Vietnam: An Annotated Bibliography of Two Decades of Psychiatric and Social Sciences Literature Reflecting the Effect of the War on the American Soldier (1988)
• Curry, G. David. Sunshine Patriots: Punishment and the Vietnam Offender (1985), disciplinary disasters
• Dean, Eric T., Jr. Shook Over Hell: Post-Traumatic Stress, Vietnam, and the Civil War (1997), downplays PTSD for Viet vets.
• Egendorf, Arthur, et al. Legacies of Vietnam: Comparative Adjustments of Veterans and their Peers (1981)
• Hardaway, Robert. Care of the Wounded in Vietnam (1988), technical essays
• Brent Watson. "Review of Peter S. Kindsvatter, American Soldiers: Ground Combat in the World Wars, Korea, and Vietnam," H-War, H-Net Reviews, February, 2004.
• McConnell, Malcolm. Into the Mouth of the Cat (1985), POWs
• Richard Moser, The New Winter Soldiers: GI and Veteran Dissent during the Vietnam Era (1996),
• Rochester, Stuart I., and Frederick T. Kiley. Honor Bound: American Prisoners of War in Southeast Asia, 1961-1973 (1999) , the major scholarly study
  interview with Kiley
• Shields, Patricia M. "The Burden of the Draft: The Vietnam Years" Journal of Political and Military Sociology 9 (1981): 215-28

South Vietnam, Pacification

• Andrade, Dale. Ashes to Ashes: The Phoenix Program and the Vietnam War (1990)
• Andrade, Dale. America's Last Vietnam Battle: Halting Hanoi's 1972 Easter Offensive (2001)
• Bergerud, Eric M. The Dynamics of Defeat: The Vietnam War in Hau Nghia Province (1991), details the collapse of the NLF also online edition
• Blaufarb, Douglas S. The Counterinsurgency Era: U.S. Doctrine and Performance (1977)
• Robert K. Brigham, ARVN: Life And Death in the South Vietnamese Army (2006) , the fullest history of the ARVN
• Buttinger, Joseph. Vietnam: A Political History (1968)
• "Back to the Street without Joy: Counterinsurgency Lessons from Vietnam and Other Small Wars," Robert M. Cassidy in Parameters, Summer 2004, pp. 73-83.
• Clarke, Jeffrey C. Advice and Support: The Final Years, 1965-1973 (GPO, 1988), best guide to ARVN
• Currey, Cecil B. Edward Lansdale: The Unquiet American (1988), major CIA figure who promoted US support of Diem
• Diem, Bui. In The Jaws of History (1987), Saigon perspective
• The Vietnamese War: Revolution and Social Change in the Mekong Delta, 1930-1975 reviews a major 2002 study by David W.P. Elliott recommended
• Gartner, Scott Sigmund. "Differing Evaluations of Vietnamization," The Journal of Interdisciplinary History 29 (Aut 1998) 243-62. Online at Infotrac. Quantitative study showing military success of policy.
• Herring, George C. "`Peoples Quite Apart': Americans, South Vietnamese, and the War in Vietnam." Diplomatic History 14 (1990): 1-24, on intercultural relations
• Hirschman, Charles, Samuel Preston, and Vu Manh Loi, "Vietnamese Casualties during the American War: A New Estimate," Population and Development Review, 21 (Dec 1995), pp. 783-812. Demographers estimate one million excess civilian and military deaths (plus or minus 175,000). Online at www.northernlight.com
• Hunt, Richard A. Pacification: The American Struggle for Vietnam's Hearts and Minds (1995); excellent research.
• Jamieson, Neil L. Understanding Vietnam (1993), broad cultural history
• Jespersen, Christopher T. "Kissinger, Ford, and Congress: The Very Bitter End in Vietnam" in Pacific Historical Review, Aug 2002, Vol. 71 #3, p439-74 online via EBSCO Host Argues that Ford's administration pursued a deliberate policy of denial to blame the loss of South Vietnam on the shoulders of the Congress. Estimates worth of military and economic assistance supplied to South Vietnam from 1972-1975; looks at SVN's dependency on the U.S. in spite of the Paris Peace Agreement; speculates on reasons behind the emphasis on military aid instead of humanitarian aid.
• Lomperis, Timothy J. From People's War to People's Rule: Insurgency, Intervention, and the Lessons of Vietnam (1996)
• Metzner, Edward P. More Than a Soldier's War: Pacification in Vietnam (1995)
• Moyar, Mark. Phoenix and the Birds of Prey: The CIA's Secret Campaign to Destroy the Viet Cong (1997). >
• "Villager Attitudes," by Mark Moyar
• Tet, Hue, 1968
  Tet overview
  Tet Links
  Intelligence recommended
  Interview with Stanley Karnow Real Audio, 8 minutes, from NPR
  Ford, Ronnie E. "Tet Revisited: The Strategy of the Communist Vietnamese," Intelligence And National Security 9 (1994): 242-286. Tries to explain why the expected popular uprising did not happen.
  Gilbert, Marc Jason and William Head, eds. The Tet Offensive (1996)
  Wirtz, James J. The Tet Offensive: Intelligence Failure in War (1991) excellent
  Navy at Tet
  Nolan, Keith William. The Battle for Hue: Tet 1968 (1996)
  Carnage and Culture: Landmark Battles in the Rise of Western Power by Victor Davis Hanson (2001) Compares the "Western" & "non-Western" styles of warfare at Salamis (480 BC); Gaugamela (331 BC); Cannae (216 BC); Poitiers (732); Tenochtitlan (1520-21); Lepanto (1571); Rourke's Drift (1879); Midway (1942) and Tet (1968).
  Warr, Nicholas. Phase Line Green: The Battle for Hue, 1968 (1997)
  documents on Hue
  links, essays, class materials
• Peterson, Michael E. The Combined Action Platoons: The U.S. Marines' Other War in Vietnam (1989).
• Race, Jeffrey. War Comes to Long An (1972), major local study.
• Sheehan, Neil. A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam (1988), fascinating biography of key advisor to ARVN reviews
• Sorley, Lewis. A Better War: The Unexamined Victories and the Final Tragedy of America's Last Years in Vietnam (1999) Read Chapter 1
• Lewis Sorley, "Courage and Blood: South Vietnam's Repulse of the 1972 Easter Invasion," Parameters, Summer 1999, pp. 38-56.
• Vien, Gen. Cao Van . The Final Collapse. Indochina Monographs. [1985)

US Allies

• Australia & New Zealand
  New Zealand
  Asian Alternatives Australia's Vietnam Decision and Lessons on Going to War by Garry Woodard
  Barclay, Glen St. John. A Very Small Insurance Policy: The Politics of Australian Involvment in Vietnam, 1954-1967 (1988)
  Edwards, Peter. A Nation at War: Australian Politics, Society and Diplomacy During the Vietnam War 1965-1975 (1998) excellent; comprehensive. Shows the reaction of Australia to their involvement; shows how the initial support eroded; traces the protest movement against the war and conscription; decisions of successive governments to diplomatic pressures from USA and Indonesia; looks at alleged "water torture" incident and episodes involving conscientious objectors.
  Murphy, John. Harvest of Fear: A History of Australia's Vietnam War (1994) online edition
  "Australia's Military Involvement in the Vietnam War" by Brian Ross
  "Australia's Involvement in the Vietnam War, The Political Dimension" by Brian Ross
• Blackburn, Robert M. Mercenaries and Lyndon Johnson's 'More Flags': The Hiring of Korean, Filipino and Thai Soldiers in the Vietnam War (1994)
• Glasser, Jeffrey D. The Secret Vietnam War: The United States Air Force in Thailand, 1961-1975 (1996)
• Grey, Jeffrey and Jeff Doyle, eds. Vietnam War: Myth and Memory (1992).
• Havens, Thomas R. H. Fire Across the Sea: The Vietnam War and Japan, 1965-1975 (1987)
• Logevall, Frederik. Choosing War: The Lost Chance for Peace and the Escalation of War in Vietnam (1999); LBJ ignored European pleas. Read Chapter 1, 1963-64
• Sarantakes, Nicholas. "In the Service of Pharaoh? The United States and the Deployment of Korean Troops in Vietnam, 1965-1968", Pacific Historical Review, 68 (Aug 1999) p425+; full text on Infotrac

Washington Perspective: Pentagon

• Brower, Charles F. "Strategic Reassessment in Vietnam: The Westmoreland `Alternative Strategy' of 1967-1968," Naval War College Review 44 (Spring 1991) 20-51. LBJ rejected plan to win
• Buzzanco, Robert. Masters of War: Military Dissent and Politics in the Vietnam Era (1996) new left viewpoint.
• Enthoven, Alain C. and K. Wayne Smith. How Much is Enough? Shaping the Defense Program 1961-1969 (1971) McNamara's Whiz Kids strut their statistics; little on Vietnam
• Richard Jensen, "Victory and Defeat in the Vietnam War". essay in Richard Jensen, Jon Davidann, and Yoneyuki Sugita, eds. Trans-Pacific Relations: America, Europe, and Asia in the Twentieth Century ( 2003)
• Kinnard, Douglas. The Certain Trumpet: Maxwell Taylor and the American Experience in Vietnam (1991).
• McMaster, H. R. Dereliction of Duty: Johnson, McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Lies That Led to Vietnam (1997). Read Chapter 1 about 1961-62 Interview with author
• Perry, Mark. Four Stars: The Inside Story of the Forty-Year Battle Between the Joint Chiefs of Staff and America's Civilian Leaders (1989).
• Shapely, Deborah. Promise and Power: The Life and Times of Robert McNamara (1993), excellent biography. Reviews.
• Sorley, Lewis. Honorable Warrior: General Harold K. Johnson and the Ethics of Command (1998)
• Stuckey, John D. and Joseph H. Pistorius. "Mobilization for the Vietnam War: A Political and Military Catastrophe." Parameters 15 (1985): 26-38; LBJ's political and diplomatic fears blocked mobilization
• Taylor, John M. General Maxwell Taylor: The Sword and the Pen (1989)
• Ginger R. Davis. "Review of James H. Willbanks, Abandoning Vietnam: How America Left and South Vietnam Lost Its War," H-War, H-Net Reviews, November, 2004.

Washington Perspective: White House, State Dept.; Diplomacy

• "Intelligence and Vietnam" top secret 1969 State Department study [released in 2004]
• Anderson, David L. ed. Shadow on the White House: Presidents and the Vietnam War, 1945-1975 (1993), essays on each President
• Arnold, Hugh M. "Official Justifications for America's Role in Indochina, 1949-1967," Asian Affairs (1975), 3:31-48, found 23 different themes for intervention
• A Bitter Peace: Washington, Hanoi, and the Making of the Paris Agreement by Pierre Asselin (2002) Read Chapter 1 Argues the peace negotiations were not secondary to the ground and air wars. On the contrary, they dictated battlefield activities by both sides. All sides ignored the peace agreement once it had served certain immediate, cynical purposes. For Washington, those included the release of American prisoners, withdrawing from Vietnam without formally capitulating, and preserving American credibility in the Cold War; for Hanoi, they included the withdrawal of American forces, saving the socialist revolution in the North, and improving the prospects of reunification.
• Steven Wagner. "Review of Pierre Asselin, A Bitter Peace: Washington, Hanoi, and the Making of the Paris Agreement," H-Diplo, H-Net Reviews, January, 2004.
• Berman, Larry. Planning a Tragedy: The Americanization of the War in Vietnam (1982)
• Berman, Larry. "Coming to Grips with Lyndon Johnson's War." Diplomatic History, 17 (Fall 1993) 519-38.
• Berman, Larry. Lyndon Johnson's War (1989), good analysis online edition
• Bird, Kai. The Color of Truth - McGeorge Bundy and William Bundy: Brothers in Arms. A Biography (1998) Read Chapter 1 on 1961
• Bundy, William P. Tangled Web: The Making of Foreign Policy in the Nixon Presidency (1998), highly critical scholarly study by top LBJ advisor. Read Chapter 1 on 1950s
• Joseph R. Cerami, "Presidential Decisionmaking and Vietnam: Lessons For Strategists," Parameters (1996) 26: 66-80;
• Cohen, Warren I. and Nancy Bernkopf Tucker. Lyndon Johnson Confronts the World: American Foreign Policy, 1963-1968 (1994)
• Dallek, Robert. Flawed Giant: Lyndon Johnson and His Times, 1961-1973 (1998), best biography. Read Chapter 1 on LBJ as VP
• DiLeo, David L. George Ball, Vietnam, and the Rethinking of Containment (1991), LBJ's outspoken dove; realism says stay out
• Duiker, William J. U.S. Containment Policy and the Conflict in Vietnam (1994)
• Ross A. Fisher, Robert F. Turner, and John Norton Moore. To Oppose Any Foe: The Legacy of U.S. Intervention in Vietnam 2006 - 618 pages
• Gardner, Lloyd. Pay Any Price: Lyndon Johnson and the Wars for Vietnam (1995)
• Joseph A. Fry, Debating Vietnam: Fulbright, Stennis, and Their Senate Hearings 2006 - 199pp
• H.R. Haldeman, The Haldeman Diaries: Inside the Nixon White House (1994); a much more complete version, on CD-ROM, is The Haldeman Diaries: Inside the Nixon White House, the Complete Multimedia Edition (1994), often available via www.ebay.com
• Herring, George. LBJ and Vietnam: A Different Kind of War (1994)
• Isaacson, Walter. Kissinger (1992), good biography
• Jacobs, Lawrence R. ; Robert Y. Shapiro, "Lyndon Johnson, Vietnam, and Public Opinion: Rethinking Realist Theory of Leadership," Presidential Studies Quarterly Sept 1999 29#3 p592+ available on INFOTRAC The authors use primary archival records from Lyndon Johnson's presidency to rethink realist theory in international relations concerning leadership of public opinion in foreign policy. Much as the realists expect, Johnson pursued a strategy of opinion leadership that was intended to direct public opinion as he and his administration reacted to the country's international position. Using archival evidence and statistical analysis, the authors examine the relationship between public opinion information that was privately channeled to the White House and several measures of Johnson's behavior including presidential statements and military decisions about bombing and troop deployments. They find that Johnson was unresponsive to public opinion and also generally ineffective in directing public opinion. They conclude that realists' analysis of opinion leadership in representative democracies is inadequate and can lead to impractical prescriptions. What is needed is a theory of foreign policy making that incorporates the complexities of opinion leadership.
• Kaiser, David E. American Tragedy: Kennedy, Johnson, and the Origins of the Vietnam War (2000).
• Kimball, Jeffrey. Nixon's Vietnam War (1998), major study, harsh tone; argues Nixon pretended to be a madman to confuse his foes.
• Kissinger, Henry
  White House Years (1979) covers 1969-73
  Years of Upheaval (1982) covers 1973-74
  Years of Renewal (1999) covers 1974-77
  Ending the Vietnam War (2003) Read Chapter 1
  Diplomacy (1994) offers a broad interpretation. 1997 speech
• Latham, Michael E. Modernization As Ideology: American Social Science and 'Nation-Building' in the Kennedy Era (2000).
• Nixon, Richard. RN (1977), essential memoirs
• Schulzinger, Robert D. A Time for War: The United States and Vietnam, 1941-1975 (1997), good overview. online edition
• Siff, Ezra Y. Why the Senate Slept (1999). Passage of Tonkin Gulf Resolution in 1964.
• Serewicz, Lawrence W. ''America at the Brink of Empire: Rusk, Kissinger, And the Vietnam War'' (2007)
• Small, Melvin. The Presidency of Richard Nixon (1999), good overview.
• Financing the war scholarly official US Army history
• Vietnam Syndrome (avoid interventions)
  Campbell, Kenneth J. "Once Burned, Twice Cautious: Explaining the Weinberger-Powell Doctrine," Armed Forces and Society (1998) 24: 357-74.
  Herring, George C. "Reflecting the Last War: The Persian Gulf and the "Vietnam Syndrome," Journal of Third World Studies (1993) 10: 37-51.
  Kimball, Jeffrey P., "The Stab-in-the-back Legend and the Vietnam War," Armed Forces & Society 1988 14(3): 433-458. Although associated with post-World War I Germany, the "stab-in-the-back" perspective is a common cultural response to defeat in war. An American, post-Vietnam War version maintains that the military could have won the war but for the activities of Democratic presidents, Congress, civilian strategists, the press, and antiwar protesters.
  Nixon, Richard. No More Vietnams (1985), says US won the war but lost the peace in 1975 because of Congressional irresponsibility.
• Serewicz, Lawrence W. America at the Brink of Empire: Rusk, Kissinger, and the Vietnam War. (LSU Press, 2007. xii, 233 pp. isbn 978-0-8071-3179-4.
• Woods, Randall Bennett
  "Dixie's Dove: J. William Fulbright, the Vietnam War, and the American South." Journal of Southern History 60 (Aug 1994): 533-52.
  Fulbright: A Biography (1995)
• Ziemke, Caroline F. "Senator Richard Russell and the 'Lost Cause' in Vietnam, 1954-1968," Georgia Historical Quarterly (1988) 72: 30-71. Powerful Senator who switched from dove to hawk

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