Reading Matter

[Oldboy]

So guys I am about to press the buy button on Kindle for Max Hastings Vietnam. What are your views. I'm looking for a good read that gives me a bit of the politics of the campaign and an overview of the fighting. I grew up with Vietnam on the news throughout my early years but would like a full perspective.

[Sparrow]

I “read” it in Audiobook in the car and thought it was excellent but it does focus a lot on the politics (which I found fascinating). I’d strongly recommend as great start in understanding the war but you’ll need other books to satisfy the “wargamer” in you.

Hope this helps

[jasper]

The same experience as Sparrow. The audiobook is great. A lot of focus on the politics. Absolutely a good read/listen.

[Oldboy]

Thank you I will start there

[Arrigo]

contrary opinion.

not a fan of Hastings, his latest effort is quite poor, even for himself. As usual half truth, poor research,  some outright errors,  plenty of opinions presented as truth. But I know   sir Max has plenty of admirers.  I would recommend Graham Cosmas two volume series on MACV, freely available from the US Army Center of Military History for an big overview. The first three volume of the Combat Operations series (Stemming the Tide, Taking the Offensive, and Staying on Course) are extremely good for the military operations and the issues behind it (and Stemming the Tide spend time also discussing preparation for deployment). If you ask nicely they will even give you hard copies, sometimes even for free!

Of published books, Abandoning Vietnam by James Willbanks is excellent (starting from 69), and an interesting approach to the first half of the war is Westmoreland's War by Lewis  Gaddis. General Palmer 'Summons of the Trumpet' is dated  but has some interesting hindsight  on the US military.

There is plenty better than Hastings... 

[carlos marighela]

For a broad overview, Karnow’s Vietnam: A History is probably your best start point. It’s certainly accessible. Vietnam: The Ten Thousand Day War, the accompanying book to the CBS (Canada) documentary series retains fond memories, although I haven’t picked it up in over a decade. I haven’t read the Hastings book but like Arrigo I’m not a fan of his writings.

My favourite book on the war remains Neil Sheehan’s A Bright Shining Lie. Excellent story telling.

For military ops, in addition to the above mentioned US Army studies, the eight volume USMC official histories are available on-line. They span the length of USMC involvement from the advisory period right through to the evacuation of Saigon and the Mayaguez incident. You can download them as PDF’s.

Expensive and naturally limited to the Australian experience but the multi volume Australian Official Histories are excellent works and along with the WW2 and other post war conflicts, probably the benchmark for such works. Highly readable yet containing detailed accounts of operations as well as the broader context of things.

[carlos marighela]

By the by, if anyone else is interested in the Australians in Vietnam then probably your best ‘wargamer’s primer’ is the old Australian Army TIB Infantry Battalion Lessons from Vietnam 1965-71. It’s a gold mine of information and provides insights into differing SOPs and preferences between battalions as it arose from a post war survey. Helpful to have some basic understanding of Australian Army structure for the organisational bits but not essential. I was looking for my old copy the other day only to discover it has been made available on-line.

https://www.army.gov.au/sites/g/files/net1846/f/tib_69_infantry_battalion_lessons_from_vietnam_1965-71_0.pdf

[Ultravanillasmurf]

Good find Carlos. I will have a look.

My view on Hastings has been coloured by reading too much Private Eye (and yes I do own the book he co-authored with Simon Jenkins, but that was bought a long time ago).

[Oldboy]

Thanks to you all. Looks like a lifelong commitment painting and reading. Been there before so not too daunting.

[carlos marighela]

Slightly off topic but this seems as good as anywhere....

Was recently poking around looking for my copy of Jim Webb’s Fields of Fire a novel by a Marine veteran, in part based on his own experiences. I recalled it as being a pretty decent read, although it must be thirty years or more since I read it. Whilst it looks like my copy must have been lost at some point, I found a downloadable version on Apple books for less than I could probably find one in second hand shop.

Just finished re-reading it and it’s every bit as good as I recall. Probably good for inspiration for a few non Hue games with your Empress or Gringo 40 marines. Most of the action is set around Go Noi Island, Arizona and Dodge City, south of Danang.

Well worth a read.

[Paul @ Empress Miniatures]

So guys I am about to press the buy button on Kindle for Max Hastings Vietnam. What are your views. I'm looking for a good read that gives me a bit of the politics of the campaign and an overview of the fighting. I grew up with Vietnam on the news throughout my early years but would like a full perspective.

As Sparrow says its a good place to start and get a good overview but the inner wargamer will start to crave more wargamy books, of which there are plenty. I only got about a third of the way through before branching off. I need to go back to it 

There is a huge amount of reading matter on this conflict but my favourite so far is Phase Line Green which captures the atmosphere of the fighting around Hue in 68.

   

[Andrew_McGuire]

I second Carlos’s recommendation of Fields of Fire. I also read it about 30 years ago, and would gladly reread it if I could find my copy. Webb’s other novels, some of which I’ve read fairly recently, are also good.

As the line into fiction, albeit based on personal experience, has already been crossed, I would strongly recommend Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes, another marine veteran, though, unlike Webb’s, his fictional portrayal of his experiences took 30 years to write.

[Sir_Theo]

Fields of Fire is indeed very good. Some brilliant fiction came out of the Vietnam War.

[Andrew_McGuire]

That’s very true, but it’s odd that so little of it is in print. With the notable exception Of Tim O’Brien’s books, most of the fiction published by veterans in the 1970’s and 80’s is now very difficult to find. Even Fields of Fire is OOP, I think. One I’ve had absolutely no success in tracking down is The Phantom Blooper by Gustav Hasford, who also wrote The Short Timers, on which Full Metal Jacket is based.

It’s worth mentioning that not all of the noteworthy fiction is from the American side; a book I own but have yet to read is The Sorrow of War by Bao Ninh, a North Vietnamese veteran of the war. It was banned in his own country before being published in English.

This reminds me of a comics mini-series, now available in a collected edition, called The Other Side, which tells the parallel stories of a Marine and PAVN soldier leading up to the siege of Khe Sanh in which they both take part, without ever being aware of each other as individuals. The author is Jason Aaron, who happens to be Gustav Hasford’s nephew.

[Brummie]

If its like any of Max Hastings other work I'd steer clear.

Arrigo's summary is as much as needs to be said really but generally Hastings is very good at feeding into popular perceptions no matter how wrong they tend to be. Back in Uni the only thing his work was good for was tearing to pieces.