The Vietnam War and Its Impact - Bibliography
Andrade, Dale. Trial by Fire: The 1972 Easter Offensive, America's Last Vietnam Battle. New York, 1995. Using official records, interviews with participants, and captured North Vietnamese documents, this important book covers the entire scope of the Easter offensive.
Berman, Larry. Planning a Tragedy: The Americanization of the War in Vietnam. New York, 1982. A detailed archival-based account of the crucial July 1965 decision that Americanized the war in Vietnam.
——. Lyndon Johnson's War: The Road to Stalemate in Vietnam. New York, 1989.
——. No Peace, No Honor: Nixon, Kissinger, and Betrayal in Vietnam. New York, 2001. Drawing on new declassified documents, the case is presented that Nixon and Kissinger viewed the Paris accords as a vehicle for prolonging indefinitely American involvement in Southeast Asia.
Brigham, Robert K. Guerrilla Diplomacy: The NLF's Foreign Relations and the Viet Nam War. Ithaca, N.Y., 1999. The very best account of the NLF's activities during the war. The author utilizes many primary source documents from Hanoi archives and interviews with many Vietnamese leaders.
Bundy, William P. A Tangled Web: The Making of Foreign Policy in the Nixon Presidency. New York, 1998.
Butler, David. The Fall of Saigon. New York, 1985.
Chanoff, David, and Doan Van Toai. Vietnam: A Portrait of Its People at War. New York, 1986.
Clodfelter, Mark. The Limits of Air Power: The American Bombing of North Vietnam. New York, 1989. The most comprehensive account on the subject of U.S. airpower and strategy during the war.
Diem, Bui, and David Chanoff. In the Jaws of History. Boston, 1987. Diem, the former Vietnam ambassador to the United States, offers a gripping personal and political account of his life and the struggle for democracy in Vietnam.
Dillard, Walter Scott. Sixty Days to Peace: Implementing the Paris Peace Accords, Vietnam 1973. Washington, D.C., 1982.
Don, Tran Van. Our Endless War: Inside Vietnam. San Rafael, Calif., 1978.
Engelmann, Larry. Tears Before the Rain: An Oral History of the Fall of South Vietnam. New York, 1990. A stunning series of more than seventy oral history interviews with those who were there for the fall of South Vietnam.
Gaiduk, I. V. The Soviet Union and the Vietnam War. Chicago, 1996. A seminal contribution that draws on Soviet archives to advance understanding of Soviet ideology and policy during the war.
Gardner, Lloyd C. Pay Any Price: Lyndon Johnson and the Wars for Vietnam. Chicago, 1995.
Herring, George C. LBJ and Vietnam: A Different Kind of War. Austin, Tex., 1994.
Hung, Nguyen Tien, and Jerrold L. Schecter. The Palace File. New York, 1986. Based on more than thirty previously unpublished letters between South Vietnam's President Thieu and U.S. Presidents Nixon and Ford, the book documents the broken promises that resulted in the fall of South Vietnam.
Isaacs, Arnold R. Without Honor: Defeat in Vietnam and Cambodia. Baltimore, 1983.
Karnow, Stanley. Vietnam: A History. New York, 1991. This monumental narrative clarifies and analyzes the many facets of the Vietnam War.
Kimball, Jeffrey. Nixon's Vietnam War. Lawrence, Kans., 1998.
Kutler, Stanley I., ed. Abuse of Power: The New Nixon Tapes. New York, 1997.
Logevall, Fredrik. Choosing War: The Lost Chance for Peace and the Escalation of War in Vietnam. Berkeley, Calif., 1999. The first truly comprehensive examination of the making of the war in Vietnam from 1963 to 1965. Develops an international context for the author's analysis and documents that at every step American decision makers chose war over disengagement.
Loi, Luu Van, and Nguyen Anh Vu. Le Duc Tho–Kissinger Negotiations in Paris. Hanoi, 1996. Vietnam diplomats who participated in the negotiations offer an invaluable Vietnamese perspective with documents and analysis.
McNamara, Robert S. In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam. New York, 1995.
——. Argument Without End: In Search of Answers to the Vietnam Tragedy. New York, 1999. Provides a new view of the Vietnam conflict by offering the assessments of what went on in the minds of decision makers in Hanoi and Washington as they confronted one another. The Vietnamese perspectives are especially valuable for the historical record.
Record, Jeffrey. The Wrong War: Why We Lost in Vietnam. Annapolis, Md., 1998.
Shawcross, William. Sideshow: Kissinger, Nixon and the Destruction of Cambodia. New York, 1979.
Sheehan, Neil. After the War Was Over: Hanoi and Saigon. New York, 1992.
Snepp, Frank. Decent Interval: An Insider's Account of Saigon's Indecent End. New York, 1977.
Sorley, Lewis. A Better War: The Unexamined Victories and Final Tragedy of America's Last Years in Vietnam. New York, 1999. Draws on many previously unavailable documents and provides a valuable interpretation for American strategy and policies during the war.
Tang, Truong Nhu. A Viet Cong Memoir. New York, 1985.
Tin, Bui. Following Ho Chi Minh: The Memoirs of a North Vietnamese Colonel. Honolulu, 1995.
Zhai, Qiang. China and the Vietnam Wars, 1950–1975. Chapel Hill, N.C., 2000. In examining China's conduct toward Vietnam, Zhai provides important insights into Mao Zedong's foreign policy and the ideological and geopolitical motives behind it.