April Fools
by George W. Schwarz
Relates the suffering of the Vietnamese during evacuations, 1972-1975 period. Schwarz worked for American companies in Vietnam during the war.
A Bad Attitude: A Novel from the Vietnam War
by Dennis Mansker
Mansker was a company clerk (i.e. a "chairborne ranger") at the 543rd Transportation Company at Thu Duc and the 151st Transportation Company at TC Hill,
Long Binh.
Bayou Samurai
by Franklin D. Rast
The year is 1971. American involvement in Vietnam is winding down and the United States prepares for reversion of Okinawa back to
Japan. Enter Indiana Jones-like Captain Rast, fresh from his tour of duty in Vietnam, ready to begin his next adventure on “The Rock.” Assigned
to the top-secret “Operation Red-Hat,” the removal of WMD’s from Okinawa, Captain Rast is catapulted into a world of military cover-ups,
renegade officers, CIA operatives, sinister drug lords, murder, firefights, and (Oh, Yes!) steamy sex.
Rast’s first-rate novel, filled with colorful and sometimes loony characters, snappy and witty dialogue, and biting political commentary, is an
exciting and action-packed book from beginning to end.
A Buffalo's Revenge
by Bob Lupo
Doc Lusane, James Jaggers, and Pee Wee Anson struggle to survive in the chaos of a war with no beginning no end
and no purpose. The very land is an enemy. It is a war where the people dance to the rhythms woven in the tears of
centuries. It is a war where the rice paddies, the jungle, the animals, the air, wind, sun, signifies permanence in a trial of
blood and bones. It is a trial with no jury and no exit. The home front explodes in a swirl of anarchy and assassinations. Doc
and Jags and Pee Wee discover limits, discover a horizon beyond themselves, beyond the gritty need to kill to live,
beyond the first instinct of the first breath, beyond the craving desire to walk, talk, groove, and hate, back, back in the World.
They discover love beyond the peculiar cadence of language or dialect. They discover life beyond race or color. They
discover themselves.
Bob Lupo, formerly a Wall Street bond analyst, was a combat medic in Vietnam.
C.M.A.C.: Saga of a Saigon Warrior
by James J. Finnegan, Vietnam Vet, U.S. Army Signal Corps
"Things were pretty screwed up by the time Lt. James A. Callaghan reached Saigon. TET '68 had just ravaged the country and there were still daily terrorist activities
in and around the city. The C.M.A.C. Command was waiting for him and this is his story."
Catfish and Mandala: A 2 Wheeled Voyage Through the Landscape and Memory of Vietnam
by Andrew X. Pham
The son of Vietnamese parents who suffered terribly during the Vietnam War and brought their family to America when he was 10, Pham, on the cusp of his 30s, defied his parents'
conservative hopes for him and his engineering career by becoming a poorly paid freelance writer. After the suicide of his sister, he set off on an even riskier path to travel some
of the world on his bicycle. In the grueling, enlightening year that followed, he pedaled through Mexico, the American West Coast, Japan, and finally his far-off first land, Vietnam.
The Cave
by Sam McGowan
"The Cave" is the story of 20-year old Tobin Carter, a young Tennesseean with a passion for caves and cave exploration, who is shot down over eastern Laos in 1966 while on
the classified Blind Bat C-130 flare mission. Knowing that Laos is honeycombed with caves, Carter had made plans and a special survival kit containing items that he knew
would be useful in a cave. Despairing of rescue, Toby realizes that he is going to die in Laos. When he makes a surprising discovery in the cave, he elects to go out in a
blaze of glory in his own personal war against the North Vietnamese, particularly the gun crews who had shot him down. But another discovery causes him to change his plans and
instills inside him the will to live. Although "The Cave" is a work of fiction, it is based on the author's experiences as a C-130 flareship crewmember combined with his later
experiences exploring caves in the hills of Eastern Kentucky. It is an aviation book, a military/adventure story and an outdoor/adventure tale that will appeal to veterans,
military aviation enthusiasts and outdoorsmen, especially cavers.
Conduct to the Prejudice of Good Order
by Dan Dane
"Conduct to the Prejudice of Good Order" offers a glimpse of conditions in the First Cavalry Division around Bien Hoa during the last years of the Vietnam war. In 1971, Bill Blake encounters fragging, racism, and heroin addiction while defending soldiers in court-martial trials as a young Army JAG lawyer. Much like the soldiers he defends, Blake finds himself in conflict with his superior officers.
The story of a drafted, civilian attorney serving as an Army lawyer in Vietnam gives this book a unique perspective. Captain Blake's experiences accentuate many of the troublesome aspects of the war, including the draft, authority of commanding Generals, domestic demand for troop withdrawal, and in the end, the manufacture and delivery of heroin to the American troops.
Although conditions varied widely during the ten years of the war, the historical fiction genre allows veterans to recognize historically correct settings in Vietnam during 1971 and 1972. The fictitious characters and circumstances provide an entertaining read for those who lived through the era as well as those for whom Vietnam is only a curiosity out of the distant past.
This short novel is one of the most readable and provocative accounts of the Vietnam war.
Dan Dane earned a JD degree from the University of Arkansas and was licensed to practice law in 1969. He immediately entered the U.S. Army and received a direct commission
as a JAG officer. After a short stay in Arizona he was re-assigned to the Third Brigade of the First Cavalry Division in Vietnam.
Diverting the Buddha
by Bob Swartzel
A political thriller set in early 1966 Vietnam. Swartzel was a witness to the main events outlined in his novel. He served with the U.S. Army Signal Corps in Hue, South Vietnam, through the rise and fall of the
Buddhist democracy movement. He was an eyewitness to the cover-ups that followed the machinegun attack on Lieutenant Thuc and the pro-democracy students.
Ghosts In The Wire
by Franklin D. Rast
Ghosts In the Wire is a vivid first-person account of what many veterans experienced upon their return from the war in
Vietnam. It is a sequel to Rast's first book -- "Don's Nam," which quintessentially depicts his tour of duty in Vietnam during
1969 and 70 with the Orient Express.
The Ghosts of Vietnam: A memoir of growing up, going to
war, and healing
by Jim Stewart
Raised in rural northeastern Maryland, Jim Stewart spends his childhood playing baseball, catching frogs in the woods, and learning to play
guitar. A personal tragedy strikes the day he graduates from high school. Jim finds the need to leave home and joins the army in February of 1966.
After a grueling stint in basic training, Jim is shipped off to Vietnam as a military policeman. He endures mortar shelling, takes part in Operation
Cedar Falls, and makes lifelong friends along the way. While stationed at Saigon, he even meets a girl, falls in love, and has a child.
After his tour of duty ends, Jim returns to Vietnam determined to be with Mai. When he starts working at the Army Post Exchange in Saigon, Mai gives
birth to their daughter. Jim insists they move to America, but Mai refuses. Jim then makes a decision that will haunt him the rest of his life.
Rich with detail and brimming with emotion, Jim shares his extraordinary journey through a tumultuous time, revealing his internal struggles as he copes
with "The Ghosts of Vietnam."
Highway One
by James E. Davidson, Vietnam 1968
"When the light at the end of the tunnel in Vietnam was getting pretty dim in 1968, the Pentagon decided to 'Vietnamize' the war. The United States'
strategy was to turn the fighting over to the South Vietnamese, supplying them with weapons, material, and advisors. However, the problem with this
new policy was not so much the persistence of the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong soldiers, but the American advisors and their advice. These Americans
weren't necessarily incompetent, it was just that they were sent to Vietnam for only a one-year tour of duty and always felt like they had to do
something. So when a young Army lieutenant, who only wants out of the Army, is sent to a small village to build a rifle range for the local self-defense force
during his last fourteen days in-country, he becomes caught between the Army's gung-ho philosophy and the villagers' traditional Asian concept of
the relationship between time and war. To further complicate things, he is drawn to a beautiful woman in the village who is mysteriously close to the
local Viet Cong."
Incident at Muc Wa
by Daniel Ford
Daniel Ford's wonderful novel served as the basis for the excellent Vietnam War film, "Go Tell the Spartans."
The Last Hookers
by Carle E. Dunn
Colonel Dunn brings to life worldwide events that led America to Viet Nam. From President Truman to President Nixon, he shines light into dark corners of the Central Intelligence
Agency, the National Security Agency, and the White House. Based on fact, he traces events from Germany, Japan, Great Britain, France, North and South Viet Nam and the United States
that made America's involvement in Southeast Asia unavoidable.
Major General Nguyen Van Hieu
by Tin Nguyen, Raymond R. Battreall
Meet one of the most gallant warriors of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam. This biography depicts ARVN Major General Hieu under different facets: his personal life,
his military career, his military exploits, and his unjust death. It reveals General Hieu as an unsung hero, whose tactical and strategic skills put him among the best
soldiers of modern times, at par with General Rommel of Germany, Patton of the United States, Montgomery of England and Leclerc of France.
Memories Are Like Clouds
by Diana J. Dell
Set in the 1950s, "Memories Are Like Clouds" is a touching childhood memoir of a sister and her brother, who died in Vietnam. This
poignant baby-boom story, filled with memorable characters, is a fond remembrance of growing up in small-town America when life seemed simple.
Memories of Maggie: Martha Raye: A Legend Spanning Three Wars
by Noonie Fortin
A wonderful book about a great American.
The Only War We've Got: Early Days in South Vietnam
by Daniel Ford
A war correspondent's journal, from the Mekong Delta to the Central Highlands, including the patrol that inspired the novel "Incident at Muc Wa"
and the Burt Lancaster film "Go Tell the Spartans."
REMF Diary
by David A. Willson
"This plotless, characterless debut, which reads as memoir loosely disguised as fiction, is related by a nameless soldier, a 24-year-old
self-described loser ("a piece of jetsam on the sea of life") with a menial desk job in Vietnam. The often self-deprecating narrator is also
funny, intelligent and cynical." --Publishers Weekly
A Saigon Party: And Other Vietnam War Short Stories
by Diana J. Dell, USO Vietnam 1970-72
In 1970, two years after her brother Kenny was killed in the Mekong Delta, Diana Dell went to Vietnam as a civilian with USO.
For the first six months, she was a program director at the USO Aloha Club at 22nd Replacement Battalion in Cam Ranh Bay,
then this humanitarian organization's in-country director of public relations, and also the host of a daily radio show, "USO Showtime,"
on American Forces Vietnam Network (AFVN), the military station in Saigon.
As an eyewitness to the most significant event of the coming-of-age Baby Boom Generation, she claims that she
will be telling war stories until her final moment on this earth.
However, Diana’s tales -- some exaggerated, many true -- are not about battles, blood, gore, or angst. They are about participants
of the war other than grunts: CIA agents, bar girls, war profiteers, missionaries, donut dollies, strippers, civilian
contractors, pilots, cooks, telephone operators, disc jockeys, rock stars, landladies, pedicab drivers, generals, Buddhist
monks, movie stars, pickpockets, politicians, prostitutes, prisoners, beggars, nightclub owners, drug counselors,
Montagnard tribesmen, foreign correspondents, ambassadors, doctors, humanitarians, celebrity tourists, and other REMFs,
civilian as well as military.
Very Crazy, G.I.: Strange but True Stories of the Vietnam War
by Kregg P. J. Jorgenson
In this compelling, highly unusual collection of amazing but true stories, U.S. soldiers reveal fantastic, almost unbelievable events that occurred in places ranging
from the deadly Central Highlands to the Cong-infested Mekong Delta.
