SIEGE AT DIEN BIEN PHU
- Bodard, Lucien. The Quicksand War. Boston: Atlantic-Little, Brown & Company, 1967.
Crew (LtCol), Erskine B. "La Guerre d'Indochine." Marine Corps Gazette. April-June, 1966.
Fall, Bernard B. "Dien Bien Phu: A Battle To Remember." Vietnam. Mamin E. Gettleman, ED. New York: Fawcett, 1965.
Fall, Bernard B. Hell in a Very Small Place. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1967.
Fall, Bernard B.Street Without Joy. Harrisburg: Stackpole, 1963.
Giap (Gen.), Vo Nguyen. Dien Bien Phu. Hanoi: Editions en Langues Etrangeres; rev. ea., 1964.
Kelly, George A. Lost Soldiers: The French Army and Empire in Crisis, 1947-62. Cambridge: M.I.T. Press, 1965.
Navarre (Gen.), Henri. Agonie de l 'Indochina. Paris: Plon; 2nd rev. ea., 1956.
Rocolle, Pierre. Pourquoi Dien Bien Phu. Paris: Flammarion, 1968.
Roy, Jules. The Battle of Dienbienphu. New York: Pyramid, 1966.
TET OFFENSIVE 1968
- FMFM-6 Marine Infantry Battalion. Quantico: Marine Corps Schools, 1962.
Giap, Vo Nguyen. People's War, People's Army: The Viet Cong Insurrection Manual for Underdeueloped Countries. New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1962.
"House to House." Leatherneck. May, 1968.
Oberdorfer, Don. Tet!. New York: Doubleday & Company, 1971.
Simmons (BrigGen), Edwin H. "Marine Corps Operations in Vietnam, 1968." United States Naval Institute Proceedings May, 1970.
Waldron (Maj.), Miles, and Beavers, Richard. Operation Hue City. Washington, D.C.: 31st Military History Department, 1968.
Westmoreland (Gen.), William M. Report on the War in Vietnam. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1969.
Much information on U.S. Marine operations and the conditions of the fighting was provided by interviews with 18 Marine Offices, NCOs and Enlisted Men who participated in the fighting at Hue and in the I Corps area during the Tet Offensive.
To attempt a comprehensive listing of all the books that have been published on Viet Nam would require a publication double the size of CONFLICT. But, in addition to the above bibliography, the following compilation will give you a broad base from which you can expand your knowledge of Viet Nam further.
Advanced Research Projects Agency. Counterinsurgency: A Symposium -- April 16-20, 1962. Santa Monica: The Rand Corporation, 1963.
Buttinger, Joseph. Vietnam: A Dragon Embattled 2 Vols., New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1967.
Burchett, Wilfred. North of the Seventeenth Parallel. Delhi: People's Publishing House, Ltd.,
1956.
Cooper, Chester L. The Lost Crusade: America In Vietnam. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1970.
Corson, William R. The Betrayal. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1968.
Fall, Bernard B. Last Reflections on a War. New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1967.
The Two Viet-Nams: A Political and Military Analysis. New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1966.
Viet-Nam Witness, 1953-66. New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1966.
Fitzgerald, Frances. Fire in the Lake: The Vietnamese and the Americans in Vietnam. Boston: Little, Brown & Company, 1972.
Fulbright, J. William. The Vietnam Hearings. New York: Vintage Books -- Division of Random
House, 1966.
Glasser, Ronald J. 365 Days. New York: George Braziller, 1971.
Halberstam, David. The Best and the Brightest. New York: Random House, 1973.
Hammer, Ellen J. The Struggle for Indochina, 1945-1955. Stanford: Stanford University Press,
1966.
Harvey, Frank. Air War -- Vietnam. New York: Bantam Books, 1967.
Herbert(Lt.Col., Ret.), Anthony B. Soldier. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1973.
Lacouture, Jean. Vietnam: Between Two Truces. New York: Vintage Books -- Division of Random
House, 1966.
Lancaster, Donald. The Emanc~pation of French IndoChina. London: Oxford University Press,
1961.
Littauer, Raphael, and Uphoff, Norman, Eds. The Air War in Indochina. Boston: Beacon Press,
1972.
Marshall, S.L.A. Battles in the Monsoon. New York: William Morrow & Company, 1967.
Marshall, S.L.A. The Fields of Bamboo. New York: The Dial Press, 1971.
Shaplen, Robert. The Lost Revolution: The U.S. in Vietnam, 1946-1966. New York: Harper & Row,
1966.
Shaplen, Robert. Time Out of Hand: Revolution and Reaction in Southeast Asia. New York:
Harper & Row, 1969.
Warner, Denis. The Last Confucian. New York: Macmillan Company, 1964.
Zasloff, J.J. Role of Sanctuary in Insurgency: Communist China's Support to the Viet Minh,
1946-1954. Santa Monica: The Rand Corporation, 1967.
The perspectives presented in the above books range from broad impersonal overviews to intensely personal "foxhole" viewpoints. Buttinger, Cooper, Fitzgerald, Hammer, Lacouture, Lancaster, Shaplen and Warner describe the "Big Picture" quite well in the time segments their propective works cover.
One of the most prolific authors and a pioneer in the area was Bemard Fall, whose seven books and numerous articles extensively covered the military and political history of Viet Nam in the 20th Century. Unfortunately, his work ends in 1967 when he became a casualty of the War. Burchett is noted, not so much for the excellence of his work as for the type. He is a paid propagandist for the North Vietnamese who puts his heart into his work.
The War's impact on the domestic scene is reflected in Fulbright's and Halberstam's works. Fulbright's Hearings leave one to draw one's own conclusions.
Totally divorced from the political scene, S.L.A. Marshall's books describe the War at company and platoon level as only he can describe small unit actions.
Two other active participants and critics of the War are Herbert and Comon. Both led battalions, both were effective combat leaders, and both are highly critical of American tactics and policy. Controversy over their judgements continues, and again, the reader must decide which side is correct.
However, if you are seeking a completely objective history of the War, you will have to wait at least ten years until passions and tempers cool and access to the other side's records is available. The best history of the American War in Vietnam is yet to be written.
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