SwiftVets.com

[guiner]

Hello,

Does anyone have any recommendations for a history book covering the vietnam war?

I'm interested in the military parts but in particular I'd really like to know the political causes and influences. Maybe I need two or more books to get both aspects.

I know this is a place I can trust to get a good recommendation, not a book that is revisionist.

Thanks in Advance
Doug

[I B Squidly]

David Halberstam - The Best and The Brightest
-is an epic compendium of the Indo-China war and how the US got there. Be warned that it is not pro-American. I would be happy to learn of a more extensive overview without the pro-Cronkite spin.

Daniel Ellsberg - Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers
-offers a Leatherneck/Pentagon Insider's insight on US policy. It then drifts off into justifications of his contre-tempts with the Nixon administration.

Neither of these pretend to be focused on field operations of US forces but do reveal the hubris of diplomacy, domestic politics, and bureaucracy that hampered and confounded those efforts.

I'l watch this thread for recommendations with a post war perspective.

[stylin19]

This probably doen't do you much good now, but if you can even find a set anymore, I thought the 26-book Time-Life series titled 'The Vietnam Experience.' was half-way decent.
_________________
U.S.M.C. - 1969-1971
RVN- 1970-1971

[d19thdoc]

Guenter Lewy, America in Vietnam (Oxford University Press - 1978).
Still in print.

A classic. Also goes into the anti-war movement and contains the so-far definitive debunking of VVAW and Winter Soldier Investigation.

Available in paperback on Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0195027329/qid=1100831864/sr=2-1/ref=pd_ka_b_2_1/104-0087222-6245551
_________________
For The Honor of the Fifty-Eight Thousand.
"He Can Lose, But He Can Not Hide"

[Jack Hetherton, jr]