This is a list of the Vietnam War books we own or have come across in our travels. If you’d like us to add a book, please e-mail us at warthroughgenerations AT gmail DOT com. Thanks! (**We are constantly adding to this page**)
Most of these books are listed because the Vietnam War is mentioned in the description. Obviously, we haven’t read all of these, so if you read one and discover that the Vietnam War is not a primary or secondary theme, please e-mail us and let us know so we can take it off the list. Thanks!
FTC Disclosure: Links will take you to an Amazon Affiliate page; No purchase is required, though appreciated to cover postage and shipping costs of challenge prizes.
A
A Better War: The Unexamined Victories and Final Tragedy of America’s Last Years in Vietnam by Lewis Sorley
A Bright and Shining Lie by Neil Sheehan
A Brother of Jackals by Brian Carland
A Cambodian Odyssey by Hain Ngor
A Good Scent From a Strange Mountain by Robert Olen Butler
A Hard Place: A Sergeant’s Tale by Jacamo Peterson
A Hundred Feet Over Hell by Jim Hooper
A Lifetime of Peace by Thich Nhat Hanh
A Million Shades of Gray by Cynthia Kadohata
A Piece of My Heart : The Stories of 26 American Women Who Served in Vietnam by Keith Walker
A People’s History of the Vietnam War by Jonathan Neale and Howard Zinn
A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
A Rumor of War by Philip Caputo
A Sense of Honor by James Webb
A Vietcong Memoir : An Inside Account of the Vietnam War and Its Aftermath by Troung Nhu Tang
Absolution by Miriam Herin
Acceptable Loss b Kregg P. Jorgenson
Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character by Jonathan Shay
Across the Mekong River by Elaine Russell
Across the Pond by Michael McCormick
After the Fire, a Still Small Voice by Evie Wyld
After the Flag Has Been Folded: A Daughter Remembers the Father She Lost to War — and the Mother Who Held Her Family Together by Karen Spears Zacharias
After the Massacre: Commemoration and Consolation in Ha My and My Lai by Heonik Kwon
After Sorrow: An American Among the Vietnamese by Lady Borton
All the Broken Pieces by Ann E. Burg
Altamont Augie by Richard Barager
America’s Longest War: The United States and Vietnam, 1950-1975 by George C. Herring
America’s War in Vietnam: A Short Narrative History by Larry H. Addington
America’s White Table by Margot Theis Raven, illustrated by Mike Benny
An Unknown Journey by Dao Huynh
…and a hard rain fell by John Ketwig
Arrival Point by Phillip H. McMath
B
The Bamboo Bed by William Eastlake
Baptism: A Vietnam Memoir by Larry Gwin
The Barracks Thief by Tobias Wolff
The Beauty of Humanity Movement by Camilla Gibb
Becoming the Happiest Human Being on the Planet by Thach JD Hoang
The Best and the Brightest by David Halberstam
The Bird Skinner by Alice Greenway
Black April: The Fall of South Vietnam 1973-75 by George J. Veith
The Black Echo by Michael Connelly
Blackhorse Rider’s: A Desperate Last Stand, an Extraordinary Rescue Mission, and the Vietnam Battle America Forgot by Philip Keith
Blackjack-34 by James C. Donahue
The Boat by Nam Le
Blood Trails: The Combat Diary of a Foot Soldier in Vietnam by Christopher Ronnau
Bloods: Black Veterans of the Vietnam War: An Oral History by Wallace Terry
Blue World by Robert McCammon
The Boat of Dreams: A Christmas Story by Richard Preston and George Henry Jennings
Body Count by William Huggert
Born in the ’40’s, Raised in the ’50’s, Died in the ’60s by George Brondsema
Born On the Fourth of July by Ron Kovic
Borrowed Time: A Medic’s View of the Vietnam War by Charles M. Kinney and Pamela Gillis Watson
The Boys of ’67 by Dr. Andrew Wiest
Brewster by Mark Slouka
The Bridge at Dong Ha by John Grider Miller
Bringing Back the Dead by Joe Domenici
The Brothers K by David James Duncan
The Brutality of War, A Memoir of Vietnam by Gene Dark
C
Camelot’s Court by Robert Dallek
The Candlestickmaker by Dennis McDougal
Charlie One Five; One Marine Company’s Vietnam War by Nicholas Warr
Chasing Stardust by Laurel-Rain Snow
Cherries: A Vietnam War Novel by John Podlaski
Chopper Warriors: Kicking the Hornet’s Nest by William Peterson
Chummy’s Spirit by Hal Clark
Comeback Love by Peter Golden
Condemned Property? by Dusty Trimmer
The Cool Woman by John Aubrey Anderson
Cracker! by Cynthia Kahohata
D
A Dangerous Friend by Ward Just
Darkroom by Joshua Graham
Days of Valor: An Inside Account of the Bloodiest Six Months of the Vietnam War by Robert Tonsetic
Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam by Bernard Edelman
Dien Cai Dau by Yusef Komunyakaa
Dispatches by Michael Herr
Distant Road by Nguyen Duy, translated by Kevin Bowen and Nguyen Ba Chung
Dog Soldiers by Robert Stone
Dogtag Summer by Elizabeth Partridge
Dragon House by John Shors
Drifters by James Michener
E
The Eaves of Heaven: A Life in Three Wars byAndrew X. Pham
Eli the Good by Silas House
Ending the Vietnam War: A History of America’s Involvement in and Extrication from the Vietnam War by Henry Kissinger
The Endless Tour: Vietnam, PTSD, and the Spiritual Void by M.A. Rev. Amy L. Snow
Escape from Saigon by Andrea Warren
Escape With Honor: My Last Hours in Vietnam by Francis Terry McNamara and Adrian Hill
Everybody Sees the Ants by A.S. King
Exiles by Elliot Krieger
F
The Fall of Saigon by Michael V. Uschan
Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers
Falling Through the Earth by Danielle Trussoni
Fatal Light by Richard Currey
The Father of All Things by Tom Bissel
Fielder’s Choice by J. Mark Hart
Fields of Fire by James Webb
Filtered by Time: A True Story of Success in Vietnam by Robert Faulkender
Fire in the Lake by Frances FitzGerald
Flashbacks: On Returning to Vietnam by Morley Safer
The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
For Rouenna by Sigrid Nunez
Forrest Gump by Winston Groom
Fortunate Son: The Healing of a Vietnam Vet, by Lewis Puller
For Rouenna by Sigrid Nunez
Four Hours in My Lai: A War Crime and its Aftermath by Kevin Sim and Micheal Bilton
Fragrant Palm Leaves by Thich Nhat Hanh
The Frangipani Hotel by Violet Kupersmith
From Pearl Harbor to Saigon: Japanese American Soldiers and the Vietnam War by Toshio Whelchel
Full Moon Boat by Fred Marchant
G
Ghosts of War in Vietnam by Heonik Kwon
The Girl in the Picture: The Remarkable Story of Vietnam’s Most Famous Casualty by Denise Chong
Going After Cacciato by Tim O’Brien
Gone Native: An NCO’s Story by Alan Cornett
Goodbye Vietnam by Robert W. Wood
Green Rice by Lam Thi My Da, translated by Martha Collins
Greetings From the Planet Earth by Barbara Kerley
Guns Up! by Johnnie M. Clark
H
The Ha-Ha by Dave King
The Headmaster’s Wager by Vincent Lam
The Healer of Fox Hollow by Joann Rose Leonard
The Healer’s War by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough
Hearts in Atlantis by Stephen King
Hearts, Minds, and Coffee: A Vietnam Peace Odyssey by Kent Hinckley
Hero Found: The Greatest POW Escape of the Vietnam War by Bruce Henderson
Hill 488 by Ray Hildreth and Charles W. Sasser
HOOCH: A Grunt’s Odyssey in Nam ’67 by Richard Gangelhoff
I
I Can Still Hear Their Cries, Even In My Sleep: A Journey Into PTSD by E. Everett McFall
I Was a Pilot for the Mob by David Samuels
If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box me up and Ship me Home by Tim O’Brien
In Country by Bobbie Ann Mason
In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam by Robert S. McNamara
In the Lake of the Woods by Tim O’Brien
In the Path of Flying Objects by Andrew Smith
In the Presence of Mine Enemies by Howard and Phyllis Rutledge
In the River Sweet by Patricia Henley
In the Wake of the Boatman by Jonathon Scott Fuqua
I, Sniper by Stephen Hunter
Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai
It Wasn’t Like Nothing: One Marine’s Adventure in Vietnam by Thomas J. Hynes
J
July, July by Tim O’Brien
K
Kaleidoscope Eyes by Jen Bryant
Keep Your Head Down by Doug Anderson
KIA: A Dr. Kel McKelvey Novel by Thomas Holland
The Killing Zone: My Life in the Vietnam War by Frederick Downs Jr.
L
Land With No Sun: A Year in Vietnam With the 173rd Airborne by Ted Arthurs
Larry Burrows: Vietnam by Larry Burrows and David Halberstam
Last Man Out: A Personal Account of the Vietnam War by James E. Parker Jr.
Last Night I Dreamed of Peace: An Extraordinary Diary of Courage from the Vietnam War by Dang Thuy Tram
Last Reflections on a War by Bernard B. Fall
The Latehomecomer by Kao Kalia Yang
Left for Dead by Jon Hovde and Maureen Anderson
Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann
Letter to My Daughter by George Bishop, Jr.
Letters from Vietnam by Bill Adler
Lessons From the Vietnam War: Truths the Media Never Told You by Leonard Scruggs
Lessons in Disaster: McGeorge Bundy and the Path to War in Vietnam by Gordon M. Goldstein
Lily’s Ghost by Cheryl Drake Harris
Lions of Medina by Doyle Glass
Lizzie’s War by Tim Farrington
The Long Gray Line by Rick Atkinson
Loon: A Marine Story by Jack McLean
Lost Soldiers by James Webb
The Lotus Eaters by Tatiana Soli
The Lotus and the Storm by Lan Cao
Love Beneath the Napalm by James D. Redwood
Lulu in the Sky by Loung Ung
M
Major Problems in the History of the Vietnam War by Robert McMahon and Thomas Paterson
Making of a Quagmire: American and Vietnam During the Kennedy Era by David Halberstam
The Man From Saigon by Marti Leimbach
MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors by Richard Hooker
Masters of the Art: A Fighting Marine’s Memoir of Vietnam by Ronald E. Winter
Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes
Missions of Fire and Mercy: Until Death Do Us Part by William E. Peterson
Mrs. Lieutenant: A Sharon Gold Novel by Phyllis Zimbler Miller (click here for a lesson plan for grades 9-12)
Mountain River: Vietnamese Poetry edited by Kevin Bowen and Bruce Weigl
My Detachment by Tracy Kidder
N
NAM by Mark Baker
Nam Vet: Making Peace With Your Past by Chuck Dean
Neil Armstrong Is My Uncle and Other Lies Muscle Man McGinty Told Me by Nan Marino
The Nightingale’s Song by Robert Timberg
No Man’s Land by Duong Thu Huong
No Place to Hide: A Novel of the Vietnam War by Gerry Carroll
No Surrender Soldier by Christine Kohler
Northern Lights by Tim O’Brien
Not By the Book: A Combat Intelligence Officer in Vietnam by Eric Smith
Nothing Left to Lose by Allan G. Johnson
Novel Without a Name by Duong Thu Huong
O
Of Spies and Lies by John Sullivan
Once a Warrior King: Memories of an Officer in Vietnam by David Donovan
One Day Too Long by Timothy Castle
One Holy Night by J.M. Hochstetler
100 Missions North: A Fighter Pilot’s Story of the Vietnam War by Kenneth H. Bell
On Strategy: A Critical Analysis of the Vietnam War by Harry G. Summers
The Other Side by Jason Aaron and Cameron Stewart
Our Vietnam: The War 1954-1975 by A.J. Langguth
Our War: What We Did in Vietnam and What It Did to Us by David Harris
Outlaws in Vietnam by David Eastman
P
Paco’s Story by Larry Heinemann
Paradise of the Blind by Duong Thu Huong
Patriots: The Vietnam War Remembered From All Sides by Christian G. Appy
Perfect Spy by Larry Berman
Phantom Warriors: LRRPs, LRPs, and Rangers in Vietnam by Gary Linderer
In Pharoah’s Army: Memories of the Lost War by Tobias Wolff
Phase Line Green; The Battle for Hue, 1968 by Nicholas Warr
Platoon Leader: A Memoir of Command in Combat by James R. McDonough
Playing Basketball With the Viet Cong by Kevin Bowen
Plum Wine by Angela Davis-Gardner
The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Vietnam War by Phillip Jennings
Poppies, Pipes, and People by Joseph Westermeyer
Pucker Factor 10: Memoir of a U.S. Army Helicopter Pilot in Vietnam by James Joyce
Q
The Quiet American by Graham Greene
R
The Raid by Benjamin F. Schemmer
RAMJET: My Secret Life With PTSD by Roger Blake
Reconciliation Road byJohn Douglas Marshal
Red Smoke: A Buck Wood’s Novel by Miles D. Fleming
The Reeducation of Cherry Truong by Aimee Phan
Reflections of a Warrior: Six Years as a Green Beret in Vietnam by Franklin D. Miller and Elwood J.C. Kureth
Remembering Heaven’s Face: Moral Witness in Vietnam by John Balaban
Requiem: By the Photographers Who Died in Vietnam and Indochina by Horst Faas and Tom Page
Ride the Thunder: A Vietnam War Story of Honor and Triumph by Richard Botkin
The Right War by Nathan Maddox
Ripcord: Screaming Eagles Under Siege, Vietnam 1970 by Keith William Nolan
The Road Home by Ellen Emerson White
Rock ‘n’ Roll Soldier: A Memoir Dean Ellis Kohler with Susan VanHecke
Rolling Thunder in a Gentle Land: The Vietnam War Revisited by Andrew Wiest
ROTORS: A Novel of the Vietnam War by Roger Gallagher
Rules for Old Men Waiting by Peter Pouncey
The Running Man by Michael Gerard Bauer
Running With the Enemy by Lloyd Lofthouse
S
Saigon: An Epic Novel of Vietnam by Anthony Grey
Saint Training by Elizabeth Fixmer
SEAL Warrior by Thomas Keith
Search and Destroy by Dean Hughes
II CORPS: the CIA in Vietnam by Tim Lilly
Semper Cool by Barry Fixler
Semper Fi: Vietnam by Edward Murphy
Steinbeck in Vietnam: Dispatches from the War edited by Thomas E. Barden
The Sentimentalists by Johanna Skibsrud
Shooting the Moon by Frances O’Roark Dowell
The Short-Timers by Gustav Hasford
Shrapnel in the Heart by Laura Palmer
Snake’s Daughter by Gail Hosking Gilberg
SOG: The Secret Wars of America’s Commandos in Vietnam by Major John Plaster and General John Singlaub
Song of Napalm by Bruce Weigl
The Sorrow of War by Bao Ninh
Stalking the Vietcong: Inside Operation Phoenix by Stuart Herrington
Street Without Joy by Bernard Fall
Strength & Honor: America’s Best in Vietnam by Terry Garlock
Surviving Hell by Leo Thorsness
T
Tales of Ramasun: US Spooks and Spies in Thailand During the Vietnam War by M.H. Burton
10,000 Days of Thunder by Phillip Caputo
Tested in the Fire of Hell by Richard Vnuk
Then Came the Evening by Brian Hart
They Marched Into Sunlight: War and Peace Vietnam and America October 1967 by David Maraniss
The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
13 Cent Killers, The 5th Marine Snipers in Vietnam by John J. Culbertson
The 13th Valley by John Del Vecchio
Thirty Days With My Father: Finding Peace from Wartime PTSD by Christal Presley
This Must Be My Brother by Leann Thieman and Carol Dey
365 Days by Ronald Glasser
365 and a Wake-Up by Frank Jolliff
Tiger the Lurp Dog by Kenn Miller
The Time in Between by David Bergen
Tipping Point by Fred Marchant
To the Limit: An Air Cav Huey Pilot in Vietnam by Tom A. Johnson
Tragedy in Paradise, A Country Doctor’s Story by Doctor Charles Weldon
Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson
Triumph Forsaken: The Vietnam War, 1954-1965 by Mark Moyar
12, 20, 5: A Doctor’s Year in Vietnam by John Parrish
The Twins Platoon by Christy Sauro
U
The Ugly American by Eugene Burdick and William Lederer
Unexpected Gifts by S.R. Mallery
The Unwanted: A Memoir of Childhood by Kien Nguyen
Up Country by Nelson DeMille
V
Valor in Vietnam: Chronicles of Honor, Courage, and Sacrifice 1963-1977 by Allen B. Clark
Very Crazy, G.I.: Strange But True Stories of the Vietnam War by Kregg P. Jorgenson
Veterans of War, Veterans of Peace edited by Maxine Hong Kingston
Vietnamerica: A Family’s Journey by GB Tran
Vietnam by Mary McCarthy
Vietnam: A History by Stanley Karnow
Vietnam: A Portrait of its People at War by David Chanoff and Doan Van Toai
Vietnam: The History of an Unwinnable War, 1945-1975 by John Prados
Vietnam: The Necessary War by Michael Lind
Vietnam: The Real War: A Photographic History by Associated Press and Pete Hamill
Vietnam at War: The History, 1946-1975 by Phillip B. Davidson
Vietnam Medal of Honor Winners by Edward F. Murphy
The Vietnam Reader Edited by Stewart O’Nan
The Vietnam Reader by Walter Capps
The Vietnam Trilogy by Walter C. Kuhlman
Vietnam Veterans Since the War: The Politics of Ptsd, Agent Orange, and the National Memorial by Wilbur J. Scott
The Vietnam War by Mitchell K. Hall
The Vietnam War by Katie Daynes
The Vietnam War: A Concise International History by Mike Atwood Lawrence
The Vietnam War: A Graphic History by Dwight Jon Zimmerman, Chuck Horner, and Wayne Vansant
The Vietnam War: A History in Documents by Marilyn B. Young, John J. Fitzgerald, and A. Tom Grunfeld
The Vietnam War on Trial: The My Lai Massacre and the Court Martial of Lieutenant Calley by Michael Belknap
The Vietnam War in American Stories, Songs, and Poems by H. Bruce Franklin
Vietnam Wars 1945-1990 by Marilyn Young
Vietnam Wives: Facing the Challenges of Life With Veterans Suffering Post-Traumatic Stress by Aphrodite Matsakis
The Vietnamese and Their Revolution by John T. McAlister, Jr. and Paul Mus
Virgin Soul by Judy Juanita
The Voice I Just Heard by Susan Dormady Eisenberg
W
The Waiting by Suzanne Woods Fisher
Waiting Wives: The Story of Schilling Manor, Home Front to the Vietnam War by Donna Moreau
The Walking Dead: A Marine’s Story of Vietnam by Charles W. Sasser and Craig Roberts
The Wall: Images and Offerings From the Vietnam Veterans Memorial by Michael Norman
Wandering Souls by Wayne Karlin
War & Watermelon by Rich Wallace
The War Above the Trees by Ronald Carey
The War Behind Me: Vietnam Veterans Confront the Truth About U.S. War Crimes by Deborah Nelson
War Child: A Story of Survival by Juliet Lac
The War Comes Home by Aaron Glanz
War Comes to Long an: Revolutionary Conflict in a Vietnamese Province by Jeffrey Race
War of Numbers by David Hackworth, Sam Adams
War Stories: An Enlisted Marine in Vietnam by Stephen G. MacDonald
War Torn: Stories of War from the Women Reporters who Covered Vietnam by Tad Bartimus, Tracy Wood, Kate Webb, Laura Palmer, Edith Lederer, and Jurate Kazickas
Warriors: An Infantryman’s Memoir of Vietnam by Robert Tonsetic
War’s Trophies: A Tale of Vietnam by Henry Morant
The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt
We Are Soldiers Still: A Journey Back to the Battlefields of Vietnam by Lt. Gen. Harold G. Moore (Ret.) and Joseph L. Galloway
We Were Brothers by Dane Hoover
We Were Soldiers Once . . . and Young by Lt. Gen. Harold G. Moore (Ret.) and Joseph L. Galloway
What Harry Saw by Thomas Moran
What It Is Like to Go to War by Karl Marlantes
What Should We Tell Our Children About Vietnam? by Bill McCloud
When Heaven and Earth Changed Places by Le Ly Hayslip and Jay Wurtz
When Soldiers Cried by David Shea
Whitewash/Blackwash: Myths of the Viet Nam War by B. Laurie
Why Are We in Vietnam: A Novel by Norman Mailer
The Wind Whispers War: A Vietnam Love Story by kgcummings
Window on a War: An Anthropologist in the Vietnam Conflict by Gerald Cannon Hickey
Wings of Air America by Terry Love
The Women Carry River Water by Nguyen Quang Thieu, translated by Martha Collins
Wounded: Vietnam/Iraq by Ronald Glasser
X
Xin Loi, Viet Nam: Thirty-One Months of War: A Soldier’s Memoir by Al Sever
Y
The Year of the Monkey: A Novel by William Lewis
Z
The Zenith by Duong Thu Huong
FTC Disclosure: Links will take you to an Amazon Affiliate page; No purchase is required, though appreciated to cover postage and shipping costs of challenge prizes.
War Through the Generations 