Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => The Conflicts that came in from the Cold => Topic started by: Dags on December 12, 2019, 12:49:23 PM
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Apologies if this has been done before but inspired by Tom's find here: https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=118199.90
I've nearly finished Mark Bowden's Hué book but are there any other books that the hive mind can recommend for a bit of holiday reading and research? Ideally available for the iPad....
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A Bright Shining Lie is very good, more on the political aspect though.
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Lex McAuley's book on The Battle of Long Tan is an excellent read.
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I have read so far in no particular order:
West Dickens Avenue: A Marine at Khe Sanh (English Edition)
In January 1968, John Corbett and his fellow leathernecks of the 26th Marine Regiment fortified a remote outpost at a place in South Vietnam called Khe Sanh. Within days of their arrival, twenty thousand North Vietnamese soldiers surrounded the base. What followed over the next seventy-seven days became one of the deadliest fights of the Vietnam War—and one of the greatest battles in military history.
Gunbird Driver: A Marine Huey Pilot's War in Vietnam (English Edition)
Gunbird Driver is a memoir of the Vietnam War as seen through the eyes of a young pilot flying an armed UH-1E's in Marine Observation Squadron 6. The book provides information about the missions, operations, and the living conditions at Ky Ha, and about the fellow Marines with whom he served. It also contains several chapters on shipboard operation from deployment aboard the USS Princeton.
The Magnificent Bastards: The Joint Army-Marine Defense of Dong Ha, 1968 (English Edition)
On April 29, 1968, the North Vietnamese Army is spotted less than four miles from the U.S. Marines’ Dong Ha Combat Base. Intense fighting develops in nearby Dai Do as the 2d Battalion, 4th Marines, known as
“the Magnificent Bastards,” struggles to eject NVA forces from this strategic position.
Six Silent Men (101st LRP Rangers Book 1) (English Edition)
"No way in hell you could survive 'out there' with six men. You couldn't live thirty minutes 'out there' with only six men."
Fields of Fire: A Novel (English Edition)
They each had their reasons for joining the Marines. 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 were three young men from different worlds, plunged into a white-hot, murderous realm of jungle warfare as it was fought by one Marine platoon in the An Hoa Basin, 1969. 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 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.
The 13th Valley (English Edition)
A work that has served as a literary cornerstone for the Vietnam generation, The 13th Valley follows the strange and terrifying Vietnam combat experiences of James Chelini, a telephone-systems installer who finds himself an infantryman in territory controlled by the North Vietnamese Army. Spiraling deeper and deeper into a world of conflict and darkness, this harrowing account of Chelini's plunge and immersion into jungle warfare traces his evolution
We Were Soldiers Once . . . and Young: Ia Drang—The Battle That Changed the War in Vietnam (English Edition)
In November 1965, some 450 men of the First Battalion, Seventh Cavalry, under the command of Lt. Col. Harold Moore, were dropped 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 brutally slaughtered. Together, these actions at the landing zones X-Ray and Albany constituted one of the most savage and significant battles of the Vietnam War. They were the first major engagements between the US Army and the People’s Army of Vietnam.
How these Americans persevered—sacrificing themselves for their comrades and never giving up—creates a vivid portrait of war at its most devastating and inspiring. Lt. Gen. Moore and Joseph L. Galloway—the only journalist on the ground throughout the fighting—interviewed hundreds of men who fought in the battle, including the North Vietnamese commanders. Their poignant account rises above the ordeal it chronicles to depict men facing the ultimate challenge, dealing with it in ways they would have once found unimaginable. It reveals to us, as rarely before, man’s most heroic and horrendous endeavor.
Phase Line Green: The Battle for Hue, 1968 (English Edition)
The bloody monthlong battle for the Citadel in Hue pitted U.S. Marines against an entrenched North Vietnamese Army force. By official accounts it was a tactical and moral victory for the Marines and the United States. But here survivor Nicholas Warr describes with urgency and outrage the Marines' savage house-to-house fighting--ordered without air, naval, or artillery support by officers with no experience in that type of combat.
Sparing few in the telling, Warr's firsthand narrative tells of desperate Marine suicide charges and of the Marines' selfless devotion to their comrades. His riveting account of the most vicious urban combat since World War II offers an unparalleled view of how a small-unit commander copes with the conflicting demands and responsibilities thrust upon him by the enemy, his men, and the chain of command.
Hope that helps and is enough for a bit of holiday reading.
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A couple have read and would recommend.
Black April, the 25 year century, lost mandate of heaven, hell in An loc, Vietnam's forgotten army, Vietnam under communism 1975-1982.
Recently downloaded Nguyen cao kys book "how we lost the Vietnam war" but have not got around to reading it yet.
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Michael Herr's "Dispatches", based on (or possibly "inspired by") his experiences in Vietnam as a correspondent for Esquire Magazine. Very readable, focussed on the experience of being in Vietnam rather than the details of specific campaigns.
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'The 13th Valley' by John M. Del Vecchio
'Chickenhawk' by Robert Mason
'Nam' by Mark Baker
'A Rumor of War' by Philip Caputo
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If I die in a combat zone - Tim O’Brien
Dispatches - Michael Herr (awesome book)
Matterhorn - Karl Marlantes
The Dying Place - David A Maurer (Spec Forces/Montagnards....awesome)
Vietnam Journal (Book 1 to 7) - Don Lomax (The best adult themed comic series on the war).
Combat Photography:
Requiem - Horst Faas
Nam - Tim Page
Vietnam Inc - Philip Jones Griffiths
Tunnels of Cu Chi - Tom Mangold
Low Level Hell - Hugh Mills (Loach scouts and Cobra Gunship action)
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Some good suggestion there. May I add 'The Tiger Man of Vietnam' about an Australian SF advisor who ended up running a Montagnard guerrilla force. Shades of Apocalypse Now in the story. https://www.hachette.com.au/frank-walker/the-tiger-man-of-vietnam
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Chickenhawk I would certainly endorse, it stays in my mind 20 years after reading it . Vietnam by Max Hastings , maybe his best book . Dispatches , certainly. I’m afraid couldn’t finish the 13th valley . The GMT boardgame Fire in the Lake is fabulous and covers the whole war , I recommend it as an immersive experience.
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If you backdate to the French-Indochina war, Bernard Fall's The Street With No Name and Hell in a Very Small Place are must reads (as are a lot of his other writings), whilst Martin Windrow's The Last Valley is a comprehensive account of Dien Bien Phu.
Add Graham Green's The Quiet American for fiction, and the 2002 remake of the movie of the novel for the atmosphere - the original film was given a very pro=American slant, completely distorting the novel's message.
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A Bantam War Book "Seven Firefights in Vietnam" - good book for wargames scenarios, make sure you get the "Specially Illustrated Edition"
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Remember this https://www.usmcu.edu/Portals/218/HD%20MCUP/HD%20Pubs/DeathInTheImperialCity.pdf?ver=2018-10-16-102102-263 (https://www.usmcu.edu/Portals/218/HD%20MCUP/HD%20Pubs/DeathInTheImperialCity.pdf?ver=2018-10-16-102102-263)
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I'll add to my original comment,
I'll second, We were Soldiers, Phase Line Green ( Limited in scope on Hue but gritty and interesting), and Fields of Fire (a novel but written by a Vietnam vet, it is outstanding).
I'd add Boys of Company C, and Nam by Mark Baker (a series of vignettes).
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Platoon Leader
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/111268/platoon-leader-by-james-r-mcdonough/ (https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/111268/platoon-leader-by-james-r-mcdonough/)
Many others on my list have been listed
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I have a few good reads
Contact, Australians in Vietnam Lex McCauley
More reference pictures than reading, but worth picking up.
Vietnam the Australian war Paul Ham
Australian account of the Vietnam war.
Crossfire Australian reconnaissance unit in Vietnam Peter Harran
Australias first special reconnaissance platoon formation and experiences
Behind enemy lines, an Australian SAS in Vietnam Terry O'Farrell
A great read, with lots of humour
Chickenhawk Robert Mason
A great read on the use of hueys in Vietnam
Cheers
Matt
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More votes for 'Chickenhawk', '13th Valley' and 'Nam'. I think Mark Baker's 'Nam' is one of my all time favorite books. He did a similar book called "Cops" which was the same format and another fave in my library.
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I have only read a few: Chickenhawk, Platoon Leader, Vietnam Tracks.
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You definitely want to look at this:
https://warontherocks.com/2017/02/a-vietnam-war-reading-list-brought-to-you-by-the-war-hall/
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If you can find either 365 days by Ronald Glasser MD and British GI in Vietnam (by Ian Kemp) are good reads. They got me into Vietnam gaming way back in the early 70s, when I used converted Airfix Afrika Korps and US marine with RoCo minitanks choppers and tracks. Ah... Black and White TV. Anyway
Also
100 Miles of Bad road; armoured cavalry
Con Thien; USMC
Ripcord - 1970; about 101 AB, I think it's part of what 13th valley is based on
Forsaken Warrior; US advisor memoire
Blood and Steel; ARVN Armour development history
Beyond the Wire - by Ian (?) Savage; Mike company operations - the author is Australian
When the Scorpion Stings also Pony Soldiers; Australian M113 operations
'The Team' - official history of ASAS, superbly written and sourced.
I hope that gives you a good spread of topics. Good Reading
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Just finished and highly recommend Eric Hammel's "Ambush Valley" about the 3/26 Marines fight along the DMZ.
https://www.amazon.com/Ambush-Valley-Infantry-Battalions-Survival/dp/0935553460
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I can recommend 'Low Level Hell' - experiences of a Loach scout pilot. Quite hair raising in places.
Usually on Kindle for 99p on Amazon
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Low-Level-Hell-Scout-Pilot-ebook/dp/B001QAP3JQ/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1578995320&sr=8-1 (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Low-Level-Hell-Scout-Pilot-ebook/dp/B001QAP3JQ/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1578995320&sr=8-1)
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Here’s my little list, Australian oriented I have to say:
The Odd Angry Shot,William Nagle. ,truly excellent novel.
Trackers,the Untold Story of the Australian Dogs of War, Peter Haran.
Jungle Tracks,Gary McKay. Centurion tanks in Vietnam(and carriers).
I also rate Matterhorn.
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Have watched the movie of The Odd Angry Shot plus read both the other 2, thoroughly recommend them.
Here’s my little list, Australian oriented I have to say:
The Odd Angry Shot,William Nagle. ,truly excellent novel.
Trackers,the Untold Story of the Australian Dogs of War, Peter Haran.
Jungle Tracks,Gary McKay. Centurion tanks in Vietnam(and carriers).
I also rate Matterhorn.