I have chosen these books because they tie up the persepectives on some key aspects of the Vietnam war, namely:

• What lead from the French being defeated to the American Invasion.
• The experimental use of Helicopters and the Airborne Cavalry.
• The ground fight from the persepctive of the foot soldiers (Grunts).
• The differences in tactic between the PAVN/VC and the US Military.
• Dispelling of certain myths surrounding the war and its veterans.

Chickenhawk by Robert Mason remains, for me, the most readable account of Vietnam. It is also an important historical account of the dawn of helicopter warfare – the big idea was to be able to get the troops to the battle quickly in tough terrain. Mason’s story is an exempelary one of a bright eyed boy enticed by the excitement of flying and fighting for his country. The story takes us briefly through his training, and then onto his initial days in Vietnam and the process of him becoming a hardened veteran when faced with death, fear and the growing collapse of moral amongst himself and his peers. Mason’s job throughout the book is a common tale of waiting followed by  missions flying into often “hot” landing zones (under intense fire) delivering troops and collecting the dead and wounded. It also gives us a somewhat detached look at those fighting on the ground (”The Grunts”).

Two books that give inciteful accounts of the war for foot soldiers from different perspectives are Phillip Caputo’s A Rumour of War and General Hal Moore’s account of the LZ X-Ray and LZ ALbany battles, We Were Soldiers Once and Young (The Latter having a slightly disjointed theatrical version starring Mel Gibson.

Moore tells the tale of the battle that changed the Vietnam war, in the Ia Drang valley. 500 troops were dropped into the valley on a search and destroy mission. Unknown to them, they were surrounded by 200o of the enemy in the form of North Vietnamese Army regulars and the infamous VC. Under the stewardship of General Moore they fought heavily, sometimes hand to hand with the enemy, with both sides suffering substantial losses. This was the first major battle of the Vietnam war. The book contains much about the strategy of war and knowing your enemy, whilst telling both thrilling and often tragic accounts of the individuals involved. Moore takes the time to name casualties, their ages their hometowns as events unfold.

Although the Americans pulled out of Ia Drang claiming victory (Vietnam was a war of attrition meaning victories came from body counts as opposed to claiming terrain). The book continues where the film leaves off with the massacre at LZ Albany where troops leaving the valley were surrounded, broken up from their leaders and often brutally killed at the hands of the NVA. The stories are often of bravery, but not for the feint hearted. Moore’s book  is emotional, but contains less of a glossy ending than the film.

Caputo on the other hand tells a story similar to Mason’s of a rite of passage from youth to military to Vietnam. The writer was one of the first “in country” and his eagerness soon turns to frustration as they see evidence of skirmishes but never close enough to feel like they are in a war. This changes midway through the book when the remit of the Marines is changed from defensive to more proactive. Caputo finds himself commanding small platoons on often futile search and destroy missions. The book culminates chillingly in the detention of Caputo and two of his troops on charges of murder when a mission goes horribly wrong. With no happy ending the book does close with a grass roots account of the fall of Saigon when Caputo returns as a journalist a decade after he first set foot in Vietnam.

Away from the personal accounts, Vietnam: A War Lost and Won by Nigel Cawthorne provides an excellent background to the whole conflict, including a brief history of Vietnam’s previous struggles and defeat of the Chinese and the French Colonialists. It also touches on the war at home with more background on the foreign policy of America at the time, and their reason for entering into the war. The book contains a numerous facts and figures about how many bombs were dropped, how many rounds were spend and how many lives were lost.  There is also a better account of what really happened at Hamburger Hill as opposed to the Hollywood interpretation.

Finally moving entirely into the domain of policy making and the war at home is Daniel Elsberg’s Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and The Pentagon Papers. This book is not light reading, but for anyone with a little knowledge of the politics behing the war it is essential reading. Elsberg was an insider who like many of his peers advising the White House were commiting the USA to the conflict on a daily basis whilst personally believing it to be a catalog of errors and fully aware from before the start it was an unwinnable war. Ultimately Elsberg risked over a century in jail by leaking the Pentagon Papers to the press. He became so disillusioned with the war he felt the risk worth it. Arguably, his actions started the events that lead to the withdrawal of American forces in the area and the first war the United States had ever lost in its history.

I have chosen these books because they provide a well rounded perspective on the Vietnam War, including the war on the ground, the war in the air, the timeline and the politics surrounding the whole conflict.

Finally, although it is touched upon in these works, a good resource for understanding the history of the French, their subsequent defeat and the build up to American occupation in Vietnam are  two seminal works: Street Without Joy: The French Debacle in Indochina by Bernard B. Fall and The Last Valley: Dien Bien Phu and the French defeat in Vietnam by Martin Windrow.  Fall’s book was published before the Vietnam war and was staple reading for many of the officers and politicians involved.  So stark a message on insurgent warfare in Vietnam it delivers, it makes you wonder why the lessons were not learnt by America before so many lives were lost.