“What are the best books about The Vietnam War?” We looked at 279 of the top Vietnam books, aggregating and ranking them so we could answer that very question!
The top 34 titles, all appearing on 3 or more “Best Vietnam War” book lists, are ranked below by how many lists they appear on. The remaining 225+ titles, as well as the lists we used are in alphabetical order at the bottom of the page.
Happy Scrolling!
Lists It Appears On:
In this gripping account of the human cost of the Vietnam War, Ron Glasser offers an unparalleled description of the horror endured daily by those on the front lines. “The stories I have tried to tell here are true, ” says Glasser in his foreword. “Those that happened in Japan I was part of; the rest are from the boys I met. I would have liked to disbelieve some of them, and at first I did, but I was there long enough to hear the same stories again and again, and then to see part of it myself.” Assigned to Zama, an Army hospital in Japan in September 1968, Glasser arrived as a pediatrician in the U.S. Army Medical Corps to care for the children of officers and high-ranking government officials. The hospital’s main mission, however, was to support the war and care for the wounded. At Zama, an average of six to eight thousand patients were attended to per month, and the death and suffering were staggering. The soldiers counted their days by the length of their tour–one year, or 365 days–and they knew, down to the day, how much time they had left. Glasser tells their stories–of lives shockingly interrupted by the tragedies of war–with moving, humane eloquence.
Lists It Appears On:
An inside look at America’s most divisive war… our strategy, and tactics, our conduct, our ‘guilt’ … using documents never before open to public scrutiny
Lists It Appears On:
“Simply the most powerful and moving book that has emerged on this topic.” UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL The national bestseller that tells the truth of about Vietnam from the black soldiers’ perspective. An oral history unlike any other, BLOODS features twenty black men who tell the story of how members of their race were sent off in disproportionate numbers and the special test of patriotism they faced. Told in voices no reader will soon forget, BLOODS is a must-read for anyone who wants to put the Vietnam experience in historical, cultural, and political perspective.
Lists It Appears On:
“A great, courageous fellow, a man of deep moral convictions and an uncompromising disposition.”—John Kerry on Ron Kovic “As relevant as ever, this book is an education. Ron is a true American, and his great heart and hard-won wisdom shine through these pages.” —Oliver Stone, filmmaker “Born on the Fourth of July brings back the era of the Vietnam War at a time when the Establishment is trying to make the nation forget what they call the “Vietnam syndrome.” Ron Kovic’s memoir is written with poetic passion and grips your attention from the very first page to the last.
Lists It Appears On:
From the moment his first novel was published, Larry Heinemann joined the ranks of the great chroniclers of the Vietnam conflict–Philip Caputo, Tim O’Brien, and Gustav Hasford.In the stripped-down, unsullied patois of an ordinary soldier, draftee Philip Dosier tells the story of his war. Straight from high school, too young to vote or buy himself a drink, he enters a world of mud and heat, blood and body counts, ambushes and firefights. It is here that he embarks on the brutal downward path to wisdom that awaits every soldier. In the tradition of Naked and the Dead and The Thin Red Line, Close Quarters is the harrowing story of how a decent kid from Chicago endures an extraordinary trial– and returns profoundly altered to a world on the threshold of change.
Lists It Appears On:
Dirty Work is the story of two men, strangers—one white, the other black. Both were born and raised in Mississippi. Both fought in Vietnam. Both were gravely wounded. Now, twenty-two years later, the two men lie in adjacent beds in a VA hospital.Over the course of a day and a night, Walter James and Braiden Chaney talk of memories, of passions, of fate. With great vision, humor, and courage, Brown writes mostly about love in a story about the waste of war.
Lists It Appears On:
In Saigon during the waning days of the Vietnam War, a small-time journalist named John Converse thinks he’ll find action – and profit – by getting involved in a big-time drug deal. But back in the States, things go horribly wrong for him. Dog Soldiers perfectly captures the underground mood of America in the 1970s, when amateur drug dealers and hippies encountered profiteering cops and professional killers – and the price of survival was dangerously high.
Lists It Appears On:
Going After Cacciato captures the peculiar mixture of horror and hallucination that marked this strangest of wars. In a blend of reality and fantasy, this novel tells the story of a young soldier who one day lays down his rifle and sets off on a quixotic journey from the jungles of Indochina to the streets of Paris. In its memorable evocation of men both fleeing from and meeting the demands of battle, Going After Cacciato stands as much more than just a great war novel. Ultimately it’s about the forces of fear and heroism that do battle in the hearts of us all.
Lists It Appears On:
From the acclaimed scholar and reporter, a thorough and revealing account of the historic turning point in Vietnam’s long struggle–the 1954 battle for Dien Bien Phu Like Gettysburg, Stalingrad, Midway, and Tet, the battle at Dien Bien Phu–a strategic attack launched by France against the Vietnamese in 1954 after eight long years of war–marked a historic turning point. By the end of the 56-day siege, a determined Viet Minh guerrilla force had destroyed a large, tactical French colonial army in the heart of Southeast Asia. The Vietnamese victory would not only end French occupation of Indochina and offer a sobering premonition of the U.S.’s future military defeat in the region, but would also provide a new model of modern warfare on which size and sophistication didn’t always dictate victory. Before his death in Vietnam in 1967, Bernard Fall, a critically acclaimed scholar and reporter, drew upon declassified documents from the French Defense Ministry and interviews with thousands of surviving French and Vietnamese soldiers to weave a compelling account of the key battle of Dien Bien Phu.
Lists It Appears On:
Lynda Van Devanter was the girl next door, the cheerleader who went to Catholic schools, enjoyed sports, and got along well with her four sisters and parents. After high school she attended nursing school and then did something that would shatter her secure world for the rest of her life: in 1969, she joined the army and was shipped to Vietnam. When she arrived in Vietnam her idealistic view of the war vanished quickly. She worked long and arduous hours in cramped, ill-equipped, understaffed operating rooms. She saw friends die. Witnessing a war close-up, operating on soldiers and civilians whose injuries were catastrophic, she found the very foundations of her thinking changing daily. After one traumatic year, she came home, a Vietnam veteran. Coming home was nearly as devastating as the time she spent in Asia. Nothing was the same — including Lynda herself. Viewed by many as a murderer instead of a healer, she felt isolated and angry. The anger turned to depression; like many other Vietnam veterans she suffered from delayed stress syndrome. Working in hospitals brought back chilling scenes of hopelessly wounded soldiers. A marriage ended in divorce. The war that was fought physically halfway around the world had become a personal, internal battle.Home before Morning is the story of a woman whose courage, stamina, and personal history make this a compelling autobiography. It is also the saga of others who went to war to aid the wounded and came back wounded — physically and emotionally — themselves. And, it is the true story of one person’s triumphs: her understanding of, and coming to terms with, her destiny.
Lists It Appears On:
McNamara’s controversial book tells the inside and personal story of America’s descent into Vietnam from a unique point of view, and is one of the most enlightening books about government ever written.
Lists It Appears On:
This classic account of the French War in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia
Lists It Appears On:
Lists It Appears On:
An extraordinary selection of the finest and best-known art from the American war in Vietnam, from Tim O’Brien to Marvin Gaye, from mainstream bestsellers to radical poetry. This authoritative and accessible volume includes fiction, nonfiction, poetry, drama, film, photography, and popular song lyrics from the Vietnam War era, covering a breadth of experiences and perspectives. Also included are incisive reader’s questions–useful for educators and book clubs–in a volume that makes an essential contribution to a wider understanding of the Vietnam War. An indispensable and provocative read for anyone who wants to know more about the war that changed the face of late-twentieth-century America.
Lists It Appears On:
From the author of the New York Times bestseller Matterhorn, this is a powerful nonfiction book about the experience of combat and how inadequately we prepare our young men and women for war.War is as old as humankind, but in the past, warriors were prepared for battle by ritual, religion and literature — which also helped bring them home. In a compelling narrative, Marlantes weaves riveting accounts of his combat experiences with thoughtful analysis, self-examination and his readings — from Homer to the Mahabharata to Jung. He talks frankly about how he is haunted by the face of the young North Vietnamese soldier he killed at close quarters and how he finally finds a way to make peace with his past. Marlantes discusses the daily contradictions that warriors face in the grind of war, where each battle requires them to take life or spare life, and where they enter a state he likens to the fervor of religious ecstasy.Just as Matterhorn is already being acclaimed as a classic of war literature, What It Is Like To Go To War is set to become required reading for anyone — soldier or civilian — interested in this visceral and all too essential part of the human experience.
Lists It Appears On:
Catfish and Mandala is the story of an American odyssey—a solo bicycle voyage around the Pacific Rim to Vietnam—made by a young Vietnamese-American man in pursuit of both his adopted homeland and his forsaken fatherland. Andrew X. Pham was born in Vietnam and raised in California. His father had been a POW of the Vietcong; his family came to America as “boat people.” Following the suicide of his sister, Pham quit his job, sold all of his possessions, and embarked on a year-long bicycle journey that took him through the Mexican desert, around a thousand-mile loop from Narita to Kyoto in Japan; and, after five months and 2,357 miles, to Saigon, where he finds “nothing familiar in the bombed-out darkness.” In Vietnam, he’s taken for Japanese or Korean by his countrymen, except, of course, by his relatives, who doubt that as a Vietnamese he has the stamina to complete his journey (“Only Westerners can do it”); and in the United States he’s considered anything but American. A vibrant, picaresque memoir written with narrative flair and an eye-opening sense of adventure, Catfish and Mandala is an unforgettable search for cultural identity.
Lists It Appears On:
On June 8, 1972, nine-year-old Kim Phuc, severely burned by napalm, ran from her blazing village in South Vietnam and into the eye of history. Her photograph – one of the most unforgettable images of the twentieth century – was seen around the world and helped turn public opinion against the Vietnam War. This book is the story of how that photograph came to be – and the story of what happened to that girl after the camera shutter closed. Award-winning biographer Denise Chong’s portrait of Kim Phuc – who eventually defected to Canada and is now a UNESCO spokesperson – is a rare look at the Vietnam War from the Vietnamese point-of-view and one of the only books to describe everyday life in the wake of this war and to probe its lingering effects on all its participants.
Lists It Appears On:
This novel was the source text of Kubrick’s “Full Metal Jacket”. It follows the career of the sardonic narrator from the organized sadism of Marine basic training to an assignment as a combat reporter in Vietnam to his experiences as a platoon commander after the Tet offensive, portraying the descent into barbarism that marked America’s intervention in Vietnam.
Lists It Appears On:
Here is the epic story of Vietnam and the sixties told through the events of a few gripping, passionate days of war and peace in October 1967. They Marched Into Sunlight brings that tumultuous time back to life while exploring questions about the meaning of dissent and the official manipulation of truth, issues as relevant today as they were decades ago. In a seamless narrative, Maraniss weaves together the stories of three very different worlds: the death and heroism of soldiers in Vietnam, the anger and anxiety of antiwar students back home, and the confusion and obfuscating behavior of officials in Washington. To understand what happens to the people in these interconnected stories is to understand America’s anguish. Based on thousands of primary documents and 180 on-the-record interviews, the book describes the battles that evoked cultural and political conflicts that still reverberate.
Lists It Appears On:
This monumental narrative clarifies, analyzes, and demystifies the tragic ordeal of the Vietnam war. Free of ideological bias, profound in its undertsanding, and compassionate in its human portrayals, it is filled with fresh revelations drawn from secret documents and from exclusive interviews with participants-French, American, Vietnamese, Chinese: diplomats, military commanders, high government officials, journalists, nurses, workers, and soldiers. Originally published a companion to the Emmy-winning PBS series, Karnow’s defining book is a precursor to Ken Burns’s ten-part forthcoming documentary series, The Vietnam War. Vietnam: A History puts events and decisions into such sharp focus that we come to understand – and make peace with – a convulsive epoch of our recent history.
Lists It Appears On:
Frances FitzGerald’s landmark history of Vietnam and the Vietnam War, “A compassionate and penetrating account of the collision of two societies that remain untranslatable to one another.” (New York Times Book Review) This magisterial work, based on Frances FitzGerald’s many years of research and travels, takes us inside the history of Vietnam–the traditional, ancestor-worshiping villages, the conflicts between Communists and anti-Communists, Catholics and Buddhists, generals and monks, the disruption created by French colonialism, and America’s ill-fated intervention–and reveals the country as seen through Vietnamese eyes. Originally published in 1972, FIRE IN THE LAKE was the first history of Vietnam written by an American, and subsequently won the Pulitzer Prize, the Bancroft Prize, and the National Book Award. With a clarity and insight unrivaled by any author before it or since, Frances FitzGerald illustrates how America utterly and tragically misinterpreted the realities of Vietnam.
Lists It Appears On:
A true story from the battlefield that faithfully portrays the horror, the madness, and the trauma of the Vietnam War More than half a million copies of Chickenhawk have been sold since it was first published in 1983. Now with a new afterword by the author and photographs taken by him during the conflict, this straight-from-the-shoulder account tells the electrifying truth about the helicopter war in Vietnam. This is Robert Mason’s astounding personal story of men at war. A veteran of more than one thousand combat missions, Mason gives staggering descriptions that cut to the heart of the combat experience: the fear and belligerence, the quiet insights and raging madness, the lasting friendships and sudden death—the extreme emotions of a “chickenhawk” in constant danger.
Lists It Appears On:
The Best and the Brightest is David Halberstam’s masterpiece, the defining history of the making of the Vietnam tragedy. Using portraits of America’s flawed policy makers and accounts of the forces that drove them, The Best and the Brightest reckons magnificently with the most important abiding question of our country’s recent history: Why did America become mired in Vietnam and why did it lose? As the definitive single-volume answer to that question, this enthralling book has never been superseded. It’s an American classic.
Lists It Appears On:
Graham Greene’s classic exploration of love, innocence, and morality in Vietnam “I never knew a man who had better motives for all the trouble he caused,” Graham Greene’s narrator Fowler remarks of Alden Pyle, the eponymous “Quiet American” of what is perhaps the most controversial novel of his career. Pyle is the brash young idealist sent out by Washington on a mysterious mission to Saigon, where the French Army struggles against the Vietminh guerrillas. As young Pyle’s well-intentioned policies blunder into bloodshed, Fowler, a seasoned and cynical British reporter, finds it impossible to stand safely aside as an observer. But Fowler’s motives for intervening are suspect, both to the police and himself, for Pyle has stolen Fowler’s beautiful Vietnamese mistress. Originally published in 1956 and twice adapted to film, The Quiet American remains a terrifiying and prescient portrait of innocence at large. This Graham Greene Centennial Edition includes a new introductory essay by Robert Stone.
Lists It Appears On:
It is April 1975, and Saigon is in chaos. At his villa, a general of the South Vietnamese army is drinking whiskey and, with the help of his trusted captain, drawing up a list of those who will be given passage aboard the last flights out of the country. The general and his compatriots start a new life in Los Angeles, unaware that one among their number, the captain, is secretly observing and reporting on the group to a higher-up in the Viet Cong. The Sympathizer is the story of this captain: a man brought up by an absent French father and a poor Vietnamese mother, a man who went to university in America, but returned to Vietnam to fight for the Communist cause. A gripping spy novel, an astute exploration of extreme politics, and a moving love story, The Sympathizer explores a life between two worlds and examines the legacy of the Vietnam War in literature, film, and the wars we fight today.
Lists It Appears On:
Originally published in 1978, Webb’s classic novel of the Vietnam War follows three soldiers from different worlds who are plunged into a white-hot murderous realm of jungle warfare as it was fought by one Marine platoon in the An Hoa Basin in 1969. ‘They each had their reasons for being a soldier. They each had their illusions. Goodrich came from Harvard. Snake got the tattoo — Death Before Dishonor — before he got the uniform. And Hodges was haunted by the ghosts of family heroes. They had no way of knowing what awaited them. Nothing could have prepared them for the madness to come. And in the heat and horror of battle they took on new identities, took on each other, and were each reborn in fields of fire…. Fields of Fire is James Webb’s classic, searing novel of the Vietnam War, a novel of poetic power, razor-sharp observation, and agonizing human truths seen through the prism of nonstop combat. Weaving together a cast of vivid characters, Fields of Fire captures the journey of unformed men through a man-made hell — until each man finds his fate.’
Lists It Appears On:
A big, powerful saga of men in combat, written over the course of thirty-five years by a highly decorated Vietnam veteran. Intense, powerful, and compelling, Matterhorn is an epic war novel in the tradition of Norman Mailer’s The Naked and the Dead and James Jones’s The Thin Red Line. It is the timeless story of a young Marine lieutenant, Waino Mellas, and his comrades in Bravo Company, who are dropped into the mountain jungle of Vietnam as boys and forced to fight their way into manhood. Standing in their way are not merely the North Vietnamese but also monsoon rain and mud, leeches and tigers, disease and malnutrition. Almost as daunting, it turns out, are the obstacles they discover between each other: racial tension, competing ambitions, and duplicitous superior officers. But when the company finds itself surrounded and outnumbered by a massive enemy regiment, the Marines are thrust into the raw and all-consuming terror of combat. The experience will change them forever. Written over the course of thirty years by a highly decorated Vietnam veteran, Matterhorn is a visceral and spellbinding novel about what it is like to be a young man at war. It is an unforgettable novel that transforms the tragedy of Vietnam into a powerful and universal story of courage, camaraderie, and sacrifice: a parable not only of the war in Vietnam but of all war, and a testament to the redemptive power of literature. A graduate of Yale University and a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, Karl Marlantes served as a Marine in Vietnam, where he was awarded the Navy Cross, the Bronze Star, two Navy Commendation Medals for valor, two Purple Hearts, and ten air medals.
Lists It Appears On:
The 40th-anniversary edition of the classic Vietnam memoir—featured in the PBS documentary series The Vietnam War by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick—with a new foreword by Kevin Powers. In March of 1965, Lieutenant Philip J. Caputo landed at Danang with the first ground combat unit deployed to Vietnam. Sixteen months later, having served on the line in one of modern history’s ugliest wars, he returned home—physically whole but emotionally wasted, his youthful idealism forever gone. A Rumor of War is far more than one soldier’s story. Upon its publication in 1977, it shattered America’s indifference to the fate of the men sent to fight in the jungles of Vietnam.
Lists It Appears On:
Written on the front lines in Vietnam, Dispatches became an immediate classic of war reportage when it was published in 1977. From its terrifying opening pages to its final eloquent words, Dispatches makes us see, in unforgettable and unflinching detail, the chaos and fervor of the war and the surreal insanity of life in that singular combat zone. Michael Herr’s unsparing, unorthodox retellings of the day-to-day events in Vietnam take on the force of poetry, rendering clarity from one of the most incomprehensible and nightmarish events of our time. Dispatches is among the most blistering and compassionate accounts of war in our literature.
Lists It Appears On:
Bao Ninh, a former North Vietnamese soldier, provides a strikingly honest look at how the Vietnam War forever changed his life, his country, and the people who live there. Originally published against government wishes in Vietnam because of its non-heroic, non-ideological tone, The Sorrow of War has won worldwide acclaim and become an international bestseller
Lists It Appears On:
It is said that in war heaven and earth change places not once, but many times. This book recounts the haunting memoir of a girl on the verge of womanhood in a world turned upside down in Vietnam.
Lists It Appears On:
This passionate, epic account of the Vietnam War centres on Lt Col John Paul Vann, whose story illuminates America’s failures & disillusionment in SE Asia. A field adviser to the army when US involvement was just beginning, he quickly became appalled at the corruption of the S. Vietnamese regime, their incompetence in fighting the Communists & their brutal alienation of their own people. Finding his superiors too blinded by political lies to understand the war was being thrown away, he secretly briefed reporters on what was really happening. One of those reporters was Neil Sheehan.–Amazon (edited) Neil Sheehan was a Vietnam War correspondent for United Press International & the NY Times & won a number of awards for reporting. In 1971 he obtained the Pentagon Papers, which brought the Times the Pulitzer gold medal for meritorious public service. A Bright Shining Lie won the National Book Award & the Pulitzer Prize for Non-Fiction. He lives in Washington DC. Maps The funeral Going to war Antecedents to a confrontation The Battle of Ap Bac Taking on the system Antecedents to the man A second time around John Vann stays Acknowledgments Interviews Documents Source Notes Bibliography Index About the Author
Lists It Appears On:
Each year, the Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps selects one book that he believes is both relevant and timeless for reading by all Marines. The Commandant’s choice for 1993 was We Were Soldiers Once . . . and Young. In November 1965, some 450 men of the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, under the command of Lt. Col. Hal Moore, were dropped by helicopter into a small clearing in the Ia Drang Valley. They were immediately surrounded by 2,000 North Vietnamese soldiers. Three days later, only two and a half miles away, a sister battalion was chopped to pieces. Together, these actions at the landing zones X-Ray and Albany constituted one of the most savage and significant battles of the Vietnam War. How these men persevered–sacrificed themselves for their comrades and never gave up–makes a vivid portrait of war at its most inspiring and devastating. General Moore and Joseph Galloway, the only journalist on the ground throughout the fighting, have interviewed hundreds of men who fought there, including the North Vietnamese commanders. This devastating account rises above the specific ordeal it chronicles to present a picture of men facing the ultimate challenge, dealing with it in ways they would have found unimaginable only a few hours earlier. It reveals to us, as rarely before, man’s most heroic and horrendous endeavor.
Lists It Appears On:
In 1979, Tim O’Brien’s Going After Cacciato – a novel about the Vietnam War – won the National Book Award. In this, his second work of fiction about Vietnam, O’Brien’s unique artistic vision is again clearly demonstrated. Neither a novel nor a short story collection, it is an arc of fictional episodes, taking place in the childhoods of its characters, in the jungles of Vietnam and back home in America two decades later.
| # | Books | Authors | Lists |
| 35 | 1968 | Joe Haldeman | Early Bird Books |
| – | – | – | Goodreads |
| 36 | A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain | History Net | |
| – | – | – | Wikipedia |
| 37 | A Vietcong Memoir: An Inside Account of the Vietnam War and Its Aftermath | Truong Nhu Tang | Signature Reads |
| – | – | – | The Culture Trip |
| 38 | America’s Longest War: The United States and Vietnam, 1950-1975 | Chomsky List | |
| – | – | – | History Net |
| 39 | American Power and the New Mandarins | Chomsky List | |
| – | – | – | Wikipedia |
| 40 | Better Times Than These | Winston Groom | Goodreads |
| – | – | – | Softonic |
| 41 | Dereliction of Duty | Book Depository | |
| – | – | – | Wikipedia |
| 42 | Fortunate Son: The Healing of a Vietnam Vet | Lewis B. Puller Jr. | Goodreads |
| – | – | – | History Net |
| 43 | Gardens Of Stone | Nicholas Proffitt | Goodreads |
| – | – | – | Softonic |
| 44 | Huế 1968: A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam | Mark Bowden | Book Depository |
| – | – | – | Goodreads |
| 45 | If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home | Tim O’Brien | Goodreads |
| – | – | – | History Net |
| 46 | In Country | Bobbie Ann Mason | Goodreads |
| – | – | – | History Net |
| 47 | In Pharaoh’s Army: Memories of the Lost War | Tobias Wolff | Book Riot |
| – | – | – | History Net |
| 48 | In the Lake of the Woods | Tim O’Brien | Goodreads |
| – | – | – | Softonic |
| 49 | Inside Out and Back Again | Wanderlust Storytellers | |
| – | – | – | Words Without Borders |
| 50 | Kill Anything That Moves: The Real American War in Vietnam | Nick Turse | Book Depository |
| – | – | – | Book Riot |
| 51 | Meditations in Green | Stephen Wright | Goodreads |
| – | – | – | History Net |
| 52 | Monkey Bridge | Lan Cao | Goodreads |
| – | – | – | Words Without Borders |
| 53 | My Lai 4: A Report on the Massacre and Its Aftermath | Seymour M. Hersh | Chomsky List |
| – | – | – | Goodreads |
| 54 | Nuremberg and Vietnam | Chomsky List | |
| – | – | – | Wikipedia |
| 55 | Paco’s Story | Larry Heinemann | Goodreads |
| – | – | – | History Net |
| 56 | Reporting Vietnam: American Journalism 1959-1975 | Milton J. Bates | Goodreads |
| – | – | – | NY Times |
| 57 | Sand in the wind | Robert Roth | Goodreads |
| – | – | – | Softonic |
| 58 | Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers | Daniel Ellsberg | Book Depository |
| – | – | – | Goodreads |
| 59 | Steel My Soldiers’ Hearts: The Hopeless to Hardcore Transformation of U.S. Army, 4th Battalion, 39th Infantry, Vietnam | David H. Hackworth | Goodreads |
| – | – | – | Softonic |
| 60 | Such A Lovely Little War: Saigon 1961–63 | Softonic | |
| – | – | – | Words Without Borders |
| 61 | Survivor Love Thy Enemy | James Dennison | Goodreads |
| – | – | – | Softonic |
| 62 | Tet! The Turning Point In The Vietnam War | Don Oberdorfer | Chomsky List |
| – | – | – | Goodreads |
| 63 | The Best We Could Do | Wanderlust Storytellers | |
| – | – | – | Words Without Borders |
| 64 | The Lotus Eaters | Tatjana Soli | Goodreads |
| – | – | – | Softonic |
| 65 | The Nightingale’s Song | Robert Timberg | Goodreads |
| – | – | – | Wikipedia |
| 66 | The Vietnam War: An Interactive Modern History Adventure | Michael Burgan | Book Riot |
| – | – | – | Wanderlust Storytellers |
| 67 | Tree of Smoke | Denis Johnson | Goodreads |
| – | – | – | Softonic |
| 68 | Vietnam Inc. | Chomsky List | |
| – | – | – | Wikipedia |
| 69 | Vietnam: The Ten Thousand Day War | Michael Maclear | Goodreads |
| – | – | – | The Culture Trip |
| 70 | Where the Ashes Are: The Odyssey of a Vietnamese Family | Nguyen Qui Duc | The Culture Trip |
| – | – | – | Words Without Borders |
| 71 | 12, 20 & 5 | Early Bird Books | |
| 72 | A Hard Place: A Sergeant’s Tale | Jacamo Peterson | Goodreads |
| 73 | A Journey of Body and Soul | Trach Ba Vu | Book Riot |
| 74 | A Prayer for Owen Meany | John Irving | Goodreads |
| 75 | A Sense of Duty: Our Journey from Vietnam to America | Words Without Borders | |
| 76 | A Vietnam War Reader: American and Vietnamese Perspectives | Michael H. Hunt | The Culture Trip |
| 77 | About Face: Odyssey Of An American Warrior | David H. Hackworth | Goodreads |
| 78 | Absolutely Nothing (Jason Steed #3) | Mark A. Cooper | Goodreads |
| 79 | After Tet: The Bloodiest Year in Vietnam | Ronald H. Spector | Goodreads |
| 80 | Against the Flood | Words Without Borders | |
| 81 | Against the Grain: A Deep History of the Earliest States | James C. Scott | Not Even Past |
| 82 | Agent Orange – Collateral Damage in Viet Nam | Chomsky List | |
| 83 | All the President’s Men | Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein | Huffington Post |
| 84 | Altamont Augie | Richard Barager | Goodreads |
| 85 | Amaryllis | Craig Crist-Evans | Goodreads |
| 86 | An Enormous Crime | Softonic | |
| 87 | An International History of the Vietnam War | Chomsky List | |
| 88 | An Intimate History of Killing | Joanna Bourke | Book Riot |
| 89 | Anatomy of a crisis;: The Laotian crisis of 1960-1961 | Chomsky List | |
| 90 | Anatomy of a War: Vietnam, the United States, and the Modern Historical Experience | Chomsky List | |
| 91 | And a Hard Rain Fell | John Ketwig | Goodreads |
| 92 | At War with Asia: Essays on Indochina | Chomsky List | |
| 93 | Atrocities in Vietnam: Myths and realities | Chomsky List | |
| 94 | Behind the Red Mist | Words Without Borders | |
| 95 | Between Fact and Fiction: The Problem of Journalism | Chomsky List | |
| 96 | Big Story | Chomsky List | |
| 97 | Birds of Paradise Lost | Words Without Borders | |
| 98 | Black Dog, Black Night: Contemporary Vietnamese Poetry | Words Without Borders | |
| 99 | BLOODS: BLACK VETERANS OF THE VIETNAM WAR: AN ORAL HISTORY | History Net | |
| 100 | Boocoo Dinky Dow: My Short, Crazy Vietnam War | Grady C. Myers | Goodreads |
| 101 | Cat Shit One | Wikipedia | |
| 102 | Charlie Mike | Leonard B. Scott | Goodreads |
| 103 | Conflict in Laos; the Politics of Neutralization | Chomsky List | |
| 104 | Convergence | Deborah Madar | Goodreads |
| 105 | Counter-Revolutionary Violence: Bloodbaths in Fact & Propaganda | Wikipedia | |
| 106 | Cover-up | Chomsky List | |
| 107 | Cracker! The Best Dog in Vietnam | Cynthia Kadohata | Book Riot |
| 108 | Crossing The River | Words Without Borders | |
| 109 | Demonstration Elections: United States Staged Elections in the Dominican Republic, Vietnam and El Salvador | Chomsky List | |
| 110 | Devil’s Guard | Book Depository | |
| 111 | Distant Road—Selected Poems of Nguyen Duy | Words Without Borders | |
| 112 | Don’t Mean Nothing: Short Stories of Vietnam | Susan O’Neill | Goodreads |
| 113 | Dr. America: The Lives of Thomas Dooley, 1927-1961 | Wikipedia | |
| 114 | Dumb Luck | Words Without Borders | |
| 115 | Ecological Consequences of the Second Indochina War | Chomsky List | |
| 116 | Embers of War | Wikipedia | |
| 117 | Ending the Vietnam War: A History of America’s Involvement in and Extrication From the Vietnam War | NY Times | |
| 118 | Enfer rouge mon amour | Words Without Borders | |
| 119 | Fallen Never Forgotten | Wikipedia | |
| 120 | FATAL LIGHT | History Net | |
| 121 | Father, Soldier, Son: Memoir of a Platoon Leader in Vietnam | NY Times | |
| 122 | Fighter Pilot: The Memoirs of Legendary Ace Robin Olds | Robin Olds | Goodreads |
| 123 | Fire Base Illingworth: An Epic True Story of Remarkable Courage Against Staggering Odds | Philip Keith | Goodreads |
| 124 | Five Years to Freedom | Softonic | |
| 125 | Flight of the Intruder (Jake Grafton #1) | Stephen Coonts | Goodreads |
| 126 | Fourth and Forever | Bert Carson | Goodreads |
| 127 | From Both Sides Now: The Poetry of the Vietnam War and Its Aftermath | Philip Mahony | Goodreads |
| 128 | From There to Here: Jorge Cañizares-Esguerra | Not Even Past | |
| 129 | From Yale to Jail: The Life Story of a Moral Dissenter | David T. Dellinger | Goodreads |
| 130 | Goodbye Vietnam | Early Bird Books | |
| 131 | Government and Revolution in Vietnam | Chomsky List | |
| 132 | Guns Up! | Johnnie M. Clark | Goodreads |
| 133 | Hearts, Minds, and Coffee | Kent Hinckley | Goodreads |
| 134 | Hero Found: The Greatest POW Escape of the Vietnam War | Wikipedia | |
| 135 | Highways to a War | Christopher J. Koch | Goodreads |
| 136 | Ho Chi Minh: A Life | William J. Duiker | Goodreads |
| 137 | Homecoming: When the Soldiers Returned from Vietnam | Wikipedia | |
| 138 | Honor Bound: American Prisoners of War in Southeast Asia, 1961 – 1973 | Mia Facts | |
| 139 | In the Mynah Bird’s Own Words | Words Without Borders | |
| 140 | In The Name Of America | Chomsky List | |
| 141 | Informed Dissent: Three Generals and the Vietnam War | Chomsky List | |
| 142 | Intervention: How America Became Involved in Vietnam | Chomsky List | |
| 143 | Into the Mouth of the Cat | Wikipedia | |
| 144 | JFK and Vietnam: Deception, Intrigue, and the Struggle for Power | Chomsky List | |
| 145 | June 17, 1967: The Battle of XOM Bo II | David J. Hearne | Goodreads |
| 146 | Killing Kennedy: The End of Camelot | Book Depository | |
| 147 | Lament of the Soldier’s Wife | Words Without Borders | |
| 148 | Last Night I Dreamed Of Peace: The Diary of Dang Thuy Tram | by Dang Thuy Tram | The Culture Trip |
| 149 | Last Reflections on a War: Bernard B.Fall’s Last Comments on Vietnam | Chomsky List | |
| 150 | Lessons of the Vietnam War: A Critical Examination of School Texts | Chomsky List | |
| 151 | Let the Great World Spin | Colum McCann | Goodreads |
| 152 | Listen, Slowly | Thanhha Ali | Book Riot |
| 153 | Little Cricket | Jackie Brown | Book Riot |
| 154 | Lonely Planet Vietnam (Travel Guide) | Wanderlust Storytellers | |
| 155 | Long Range Patrol | Early Bird Books | |
| 156 | Low Level Hell | Book Depository | |
| 157 | Lyndon Johnson and Vietnam: The Unmaking of a President | Chomsky List | |
| 158 | Marine Sniper: 93 Confirmed Kills | Book Depository | |
| 159 | Monroe | Lisa B. Thompson | Not Even Past |
| 160 | My Vietnam War | E.E. Doc Murdock | Goodreads |
| 161 | Nam-A-Rama | Phillip Jennings | Goodreads |
| 162 | Nam: The Vietnam War in the Words of the Men and Women Who Fought There | Mark Baker | Goodreads |
| 163 | Night Sky with Exit Wounds | Words Without Borders | |
| 164 | No Man’s Land | Words Without Borders | |
| 165 | No Surrender Soldier | Softonic | |
| 166 | Novel Without a Name | Dương Thu Hương | Goodreads |
| 167 | On the Frontlines of the Television War: A Legendary War Cameraman in Vietnam | Yasutsune Hirashiki | Book Riot |
| 168 | Once Upon a Mulberry Field | C.L. Hoang | Goodreads |
| 169 | One to Count Cadence | James Crumley | Goodreads |
| 170 | One Young Soldier | Gary DeRigne | Goodreads |
| 171 | Paradise of the Blind | Words Without Borders | |
| 172 | PATCHES OF FIRE: A STORY OF WAR AND REDEMPTION | History Net | |
| 173 | Patriots: The Vietnam War Remembered from All Sides | Christian G. Appy | Goodreads |
| 174 | Patrol: An American Soldier in Vietnam | Walter Dean Myers | Book Riot |
| 175 | Peace Denied: United States, Vietnam and the Paris Agreement | Chomsky List | |
| 176 | Perils of Dominance: Imbalance of Power and the Road to War in Vietnam | Chomsky List | |
| 177 | Phase Line Green | Nicholas Warr | Goodreads |
| 178 | Planning A Tragedy: The Americanization of the War in Vietnam | Chomsky List | |
| 179 | Platoon Leader: A Memoir of Command in Combat | James R. McDonough | Goodreads |
| 180 | Platoon: Bravo Company | Wikipedia | |
| 181 | Politics of Escalation in Vietnam | Chomsky List | |
| 182 | Red Brotherhood at War: Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos since 1975 | Chomsky List | |
| 183 | Red Thread | Words Without Borders | |
| 184 | Reporter | Book Depository | |
| 185 | Reporting South-East Asia | Chomsky List | |
| 186 | Rethinking Camelot: JFK, the Vietnam War, and US Political Culture | Chomsky List | |
| 187 | Riz Noir | Words Without Borders | |
| 188 | Rolling Thunder (Wings of War, #1) | Mark Berent | Goodreads |
| 189 | Rural pacification in Vietnam | Chomsky List | |
| 190 | Saigon | Early Bird Books | |
| 191 | Saigon: An Epic Novel of Vietnam | Wanderlust Storytellers | |
| 192 | Sir! No Sir! – The Suppressed Story of the GI Movement to End the War in Vietnam | Chomsky List | |
| 193 | Slander | Words Without Borders | |
| 194 | Soldiers in Revolt: GI Resistance During the Vietnam War | Chomsky List | |
| 195 | South Vietnam: Nation Under Stress | Chomsky List | |
| 196 | Spring Essence: The Poetry of Ho Xuan Huong | Words Without Borders | |
| 197 | Stolen Valor | Wikipedia | |
| 198 | Sympathy For The Devil (Hanson #1) | Kent Anderson | Goodreads |
| 199 | The 25 Year War | Wikipedia | |
| 200 | The American Intellectual Elite | Chomsky List | |
| 201 | The Barracks Thief | Tobias Wolff | Huffington Post |
| 202 | The Beauty of Humanity Movement | Wanderlust Storytellers | |
| 203 | The Bitter Heritage: Vietnam and American Democracy 1941-1966 | Chomsky List | |
| 204 | The Boat | Words Without Borders | |
| 205 | The Book of Perceptions | Words Without Borders | |
| 206 | The Book of Salt | Words Without Borders | |
| 207 | The Cage (Abraham book) | Wikipedia | |
| 208 | The Cemetery of Chua Village and Other Stories | Words Without Borders | |
| 209 | The Dynamics Of Defeat: The Vietnam War In Hau Nghia Province | Chomsky List | |
| 210 | The Fearless Man | Donald Pfarrer | Goodreads |
| 211 | The Fire Dream | Franklin Allen Leib | Goodreads |
| 212 | The Fourteenth of September | Rita Dragonette | Goodreads |
| 213 | The Gangster We Are All Looking For | Words Without Borders | |
| 214 | The Given World | Marian Palaia | Huffington Post |
| 215 | The Green Berets (book) | Wikipedia | |
| 216 | THE KILLING ZONE: MY LIFE IN THE VIETNAM WAR | History Net | |
| 217 | The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir | Kao Kalia Yang | The Culture Trip |
| 218 | The Long Gray Line: The American Journey of West Point’s Class of 1966 | Rick Atkinson | Goodreads |
| 219 | The Lost Crusade: America in Vietnam | Chomsky List | |
| 220 | The lost revolution | Chomsky List | |
| 221 | The Lotus and the Storm | Words Without Borders | |
| 222 | The March of Folly | Wikipedia | |
| 223 | The Missing Man: Politics and the MIA | Mia Facts | |
| 224 | The Names of the Dead | Stewart O’Nan | Goodreads |
| 225 | The New Soldier | Wikipedia | |
| 226 | The Odd Angry Shot (book) | Wikipedia | |
| 227 | The Old Man’s Trail: A Novel about the Vietcong | Softonic | |
| 228 | The Other Side of Heaven: Post-War Fiction by Vietnamese and American Writers | Words Without Borders | |
| 229 | The Outside Lands | Hannah Kohler | Goodreads |
| 230 | The Path to Vietnam: Origins of the American Commitment to Southeast Asia | Chomsky List | |
| 231 | The Penguin History of Modern Vietnam | Book Depository | |
| 232 | The Pentagon Papers edited | George C. Herring | Book Riot |
| 233 | THE PHANTOM BLOOPER | History Net | |
| 234 | The Political Economy of Human Rights | Wikipedia | |
| 235 | The Saigon Zoo: Vietnam’s Other War: Sex, Drugs, Rock ‘n Roll | Pete Whalon | Goodreads |
| 236 | The Spitting Image | Wikipedia | |
| 237 | The Stars, the Earth, the River | Words Without Borders | |
| 238 | The Tale of Kieu | Words Without Borders | |
| 239 | The Tunnels of Cu Chi | Book Depository | |
| 240 | The Ugly American | William J. Lederer | Goodreads |
| 241 | The Uncensored War: The Media and Vietnam | Chomsky List | |
| 242 | The Uncle’s Story | Softonic | |
| 243 | The US Government & the Vietnam War: Executive & Legislative Roles, Part 2 1961-1964 | Chomsky List | |
| 244 | The Vietnam Trauma in American Foreign Policy: 1945-75 | Chomsky List | |
| 245 | The Vietnam Wars | Book Depository | |
| 246 | The Wall | Eve Bunting; Illustrated by Ronald Himler | Book Riot |
| 247 | The War Within (Wells book) | Wikipedia | |
| 248 | The Winter Soldier Investigation: An Inquiry into American War Crimes | Chomsky List | |
| 249 | Thud Ridge (book) | Wikipedia | |
| 250 | Tiger The Lurp Dog | Kenn Miller | Goodreads |
| 251 | To move a nation: The Politics of Foreign Policy in the Administration of John F. Kennedy | Chomsky List | |
| 252 | Up Country | Nelson DeMille | Goodreads |
| 253 | Viet Cong: The Organization and Techniques of the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam | Chomsky List | |
| 254 | Vietnam | Book Depository | |
| 255 | Vietnam Diary | Chomsky List | |
| 256 | Vietnam Veterans against the War | Chomsky List | |
| 257 | Vietnam War Memorial | Softonic | |
| 258 | Vietnam, The First Five Years: An International Symposium | Chomsky List | |
| 259 | Vietnam: A Dragon Embattled. Volume 2 | Chomsky List | |
| 260 | Vietnam: A History in Documents | Chomsky List | |
| 261 | Vietnam: The Australian War | Wikipedia | |
| 262 | Vietnam: The Logic of Withdrawal | Chomsky List | |
| 263 | Vietnam: The Origins of Revolution | Wikipedia | |
| 264 | Vietnamerica: A Family’s Journey | Words Without Borders | |
| 265 | Vietnamese Children’s Favorite Stories | Wanderlust Storytellers | |
| 266 | View From the Seventh Floor | Chomsky List | |
| 267 | Voices from the Plain of Jars: Life under an Air War | Chomsky List | |
| 268 | War Comes to Long An: Revolutionary Conflict in a Vietnamese Province | Chomsky List | |
| 269 | War, Peace, and the Viet Cong | Chomsky List | |
| 270 | We Are Soldiers Still: A Journey Back to the Battlefields of Vietnam | Harold G. Moore | Goodreads |
| 271 | Welcome to Vietnam (Echo Company, #1) | Zack Emerson | Goodreads |
| 272 | Well Done Those Men: Memoirs Of A Vietnam Veteran | Book Depository | |
| 273 | What Doesn’t Kill Us | Softonic | |
| 274 | When Broken Glass Floats | Book Depository | |
| 275 | When Governments Collide : Coercion and Diplomacy in the Vietnam Conflict, 1964-1968 | Chomsky List | |
| 276 | When Hell Was in Session | Wikipedia | |
| 277 | When Thunder Rolled | Book Depository | |
| 278 | Why Didn’t You Get Me Out? | Softonic | |
| 279 | Year of the Jungle | Suzanne Collins. | Book Riot |
| Source | Article |
| About Great Books | Top 10 Books About the Vietnam War – About Great Books |
| Book Depository | Vietnam War Books | Book Depository |
| Book Riot | 27 Of The Top Vietnam War Books in Fiction and Non-Fiction |
| Chomsky List | Chomsky’s Recommended Vietnam Books List |
| Early Bird Books | 10 Unforgettable Vietnam War Books |
| Explore The Archive | 9 Fascinating Vietnam War Books |
| Five Books | The Best Books on The Vietnam War |
| Goodreads | Best Literature About the Vietnam War |
| History Net | Top 30 Vietnam War Books |
| Huffington Post | 7 Powerful Books That Explore the Legacy of the Vietnam War |
| Mia Facts | Vietnam POW-MIA Books |
| Not Even Past | Must Read Books on the Vietnam War |
| NY Times | Readers Weighed in on the Best Books About the Vietnam War |
| Quintessential Collection | 5 Best Books on the Vietnam War |
| Signature Reads | Fractured Identity: The 12 Best Vietnam War Books |
| Softonic | 26 Best books about the Vietnam war 2018 |
| The Culture Trip | From All Perspectives: The Best Books About The Vietnam War |
| Wanderlust Storytellers | The Ultimate 2018 List of Best Vietnam Books to Read! |
| Wikipedia | Category:Vietnam War books |
| Words Without Borders | Eight Writers Share Their Must-Read Books from Vietnam |
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