The Veteran's Bookstore
When I Was a Young Man
by Bob Kerrey.
"This is not the story I intended to tell." So writes Medal of Honor winner Bob Kerrey, whose
youthful innocence died in the Mekong Delta one midnight in 1969.
Kerrey, the former Nebraska senator, touched off controversy when, in 2001, he admitted to
having taken part in a Vietnam War incident in which women and children had been killed. That
terrible event stands at the center of this book, which, among other things, offers a sharp critique of
the conduct of the war; Kerrey writes that it "could not be won because we focused too much on
stopping communism and too little on building a free and independent nation."
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Lost Soldiers
by James H. Webb.
Webb's cultural and political portrayal of Vietnam 25 years after the war's end is delivered with such bold strokes and magical detail that it really doesn't matter that the plot itself is relegated to the backseat. This is a highly personal and empathetic look at today's Vietnam, a land of misery and inequity, yet one still vibrantly alive. The story follows the experiences of Brandon Condley, an ex-Marine whose job it is to find missing American soldiers, dead or alive.
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The Soldier's Story : Vietnam in Their Own Words
by Ron Steinman.For a visceral description of the Vietnam War, nothing can be more authentic than the voices of the men who fought it. Seventy-seven soldiers, from grunts to generals, recount their impressions of the war. Shocking details have embedded themselves in these men's minds. Their intensely personal descriptions, colored by terror and often an understated heroism, tell us what it was really like to fight in the streets and jungles of Southeast Asia. |
Women in Vietnam by Ron Steinman. Between 8000 and 12000 women served in Vietnam during the war. Most served as nurses, but others served as part of the Women's Army Corps, civilian Red Cross "Donut Dollies", entertainers, and a variety of other fields. The author, an award-winning TV journalist, writes the stories of 15 of these women from then until now.
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 A Bright Shining Lie : John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam
by Neil Sheehan.
Sixteen years in the making, A Bright Shining Lie is a monumental account of Vietnam by a prizewinning journalist who was there. It melds biography and history in a masterful way to tell the story of Lt. Col. John Paul Vann, a soldier cast in the American Hero mold, the closest the United States came in Vietnam to a Lawrence of Arabia.
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 A Piece of My Heart:
The Stories of 26 American Women Who Served in Vietnam
by Keith Walker. More than 15,000 women served in Vietnam--volunteers,
entertainers, nurses and military personnel. Now for the first time,
their story is told--a harrowing tale of life on the combat lines, where
round-the-clock rocket attacks rocked the hospitals, the USO stages
and fire bases and jungle
outposts.
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 A Soldier Reports
by William C. Westmoreland. General Westmoreland reflects on his career and the Vietnam War. Some have criticized this book as being long on personal rhetoric and short on facts, but if you want to read about Westy's thoughts, this is the book.
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 A World of Hurt : Between Innocence and Arrogance in Vietnamby Mary Reynolds Powell. In 1970, twenty-three year-old Army nurse, Mary Reynolds boarded a plane bound for Vietnam. Uncertain and alone, Mary had no idea what lay ahead. Almost thirty years later, Mary tells of that year in her life: a year of discomfort, fear and anger, as well as courage, hope and love. |
 About Face/the Odyssey of an American Warrior
by David H. Hackworth, Julie Sherman.
He joined the army at 15 and is today America's most decorated living
soldier. In one of the most extraordinary military memoirs of our time, About
Face chronicles the wars of David H. Hackworth--from World War II to
his opposition to U.S. tactics and goals in Vietnam. Photographs.
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 Acceptable Loss by Kregg, P.J. Jorgenson.
The true-to-life story of a Ranger who volunteered to serve on a Blue
Team in the Air Cavalry, racing to the aid of soldiers who faced the same
dangers he had barely survived in the jungles of Vietnam. Whether
enduring NVA sniper attacks, surviving "friendly" fire, or landing in hot
LZs, Jorgenson discovered that in Vietnam you never knew whether you
were paranoid or just painfully aware of the possibilities.
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Brothers in Arms : A Journey from War to Peace
by William Broyles.
Founding Editor of Texas Monthly magazine, co-creator/writer of the
acclaimed China Beach television series, and coauthor of the Apollo
13 screenplay, William Broyles, Jr., now lives and writes in Austin.
After serving as Editor-in-Chief of Newsweek from 1982 to 1984,
he became one of the first veterans of the war to return to Vietnam to
confront the men and women he fought against and his own
memories.
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Chickenhawkby Robert C. Mason. Synopsis:The triumphant sequel to Robert Mason's bestselling account of his service as a chopper pilot in Vietnam--a no-holds-barred autobiography that reveals the war's shattering legacy in the heart of a returning vet. |
Code-Name Bright Light: The Untold Story of U.S. POW Rescue Efforts During the Vietnam War
by George J. Veith.
This well-documented book makes use of numerous interviews with key participants, personal diaries and correspondence, archival research in many repositories, and the unearthing of some material not previously exploited.
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 Don's Nam by Franklin D. Rast.
Synopsis from the publisher:
Don's Nam is a vivid first-person account of war in Vietnam centered
around the daily activities of the Orient Express, it is a story unlike any
other account of the war. Written from a diary, and documented with
operational reports, eyewitness accounts, journals, and photos, Rast
eloquently and passionately takes the reader on a gut-wrenching roller
coaster ride of horror, courage, and sacrifice that the headlines and TV
news never saw.
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 Fortunate Son:The Autobiography of Lewis B. Puller Jr,
by Lewis B.Puller Jr.
The son of the most decorated Marine in the Corps' history, Puller volunteered for duty in Vietnam after college. He came home a few months later missing both legs, his left hand, and two fingers of his right hand. He would never walk again, though he would complete law school, serve on President Ford's clemency board, and run for Congress. He would also live with the nightmares of Vietnam, and his growing dependence on alcohol. Few have told their story with more honesty, or more devastating openness. -- As a sad footnote: Lewis Puller committed suicide in 1996.
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Kiss the Boys Goodbye
How the United States Betrayed Its Own Pows in Vietnam
by Monika Jensen-Stevenson, William Stevenson.
In this shocking expose, two award winning journalists provide startling evidence that American government officials, right up to the highest echelons, know and have always known, that American POW's were left behind at the end of the war. More amazingly, they allege that these officials have regularly obstructed the efforts of private citizens to discover the truth.
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 Last Reflections on a War
by Bernard B. Fall, Don Oberdorfer "Last Reflections on a War stands as a fine representative sample of Fall's work as a whole; as such, it is nearly as personal as an autobiography. . . . That the collection includes an excellent outline of Vietnamese history, a discussion of the basic issues of the war, and an emotive picture of Vietnam, 1967, speaks to the depth of Fall's knowledge and the scope of his concerns."-Frances FitzGerald, from a 1968 review. |
Marine Sniper : 93 Confirmed Kills
by Charles Henderson, E. J. Land
He's silent, invisible. He lies in one position for days, barely twitching a muscle, able to control his heartbeat and breathing. His record has never been matched: 93 confirmed kills. This is the story of Sergeant Carlos Hathcock, Marine sniper, legend of military lore.
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 Shrapnel in the Heart:
Letters and Remembrance from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial
by Laura Palmer. Since its dedication in 1982, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial has
become the embodiment of America's pain, grief and healing in the
wake of our least popular war. Shrapnel in the Heart is an evocative,
heart-wrenching collection of over 100 letters left at the
memorial--and the stories of the wives, children and buddies who
wrote them. Photos.
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 The Nightingale's Song by Robert Timberg.
This astonishing tale of five of Annapolis's best and brightest--Oliver
North, Bud McFarlane, John Poindexter, John McCain, and Jim
Webb--recounts how the most divisive American war of the 20th
century, the Vietnam conflict, came back to haunt the nation during
the reign of Ronald Reagan.
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 Vietnam Shadows:The War, Its Ghosts, and Its Legacy
By Arnold R. Isaacs. The New York Times Book Review, Adam Garfinkle: "His range is impressive. He comments on everything from the moral opacity of Robert McNamara to American "escape-goating"--his neologism for the impulse to produce counterfactual histories in which we win the war after all. " |
Why Didn't You Get Me Out? Betrayal in the Viet Cong Death Camps : The Truth About Heroes, Traitors, and Those Left Behind by Frank Anton, Tommy Denton
American pilot Frank Anton was a prisoner of the Viet Cong in the jungles of Vietnam for five years--longer than any other P.O.W. who survived. The hope of rescue sustained him for much of that time. After the war, however, Anton learned that military intelligence had known where he was all along, but gave orders not to expedite his rescue. Now, after 20 years of silence about the matter, Anton has decided to tell his story.
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 Ghosts and Shadows : A Marine in Vietnam, 1968-1969
by Phil Ball.
From Library Journal:
Ball was a typical Midwestern teenager in 1967 when he volunteered for
the U.S. Marine Corps. His young adult days were quickly transformed
from peacetime tranquility to the unending stress of Marine boot camp,
infantry combat in Vietnam (ten combat operations and one Purple Heart),
and the long and difficult struggle with posttraumatic stress syndrome as he
began to readjust to civilian life. Ball's memoir reveals the face of war as
viewed by the rifleman on the sharp end. A finely crafted and emotionally
charged portrait of combat and the young men caught up in it, this narrative
will certainly find an admiring audience.
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