Vietnam is, without a doubt, the country which has the most attention in Western literature and non-fiction. That means finding the best books about Vietnam is easier than for some other countries we cover.
Sadly, a huge percentage of this is, of course, focused on the Vietnam war and the country’s 2,000-odd year history and an integral part of the Angkor, Funan and Chenla empires.
That doesn’t mean that this list is stuffed with Vietnam War Books, mind you, but the Vietnam War is a theme that it’s impossible not to touch on when exploring the nation and the conflict between South Vietnam and North Vietnam that went global, thanks to American intervention.
Having said that, it was much easier to pick a” best books” list for Vietnam than it was to compile a best books for Laos list which is the most under-represented place in the Southeast Asian literature (probably because the country is relatively new, poor and landlocked). So, let’s take a look at the best books to read before going to Vietnam.
Table of Contents
Our 20 Best Books About Vietnam
A Dragon Apparent by Norman Lewis
The only book to make several of our best book lists and that’s because it’s an account of Norman Lewis’ journeys through Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam back in the early 1950s. So, it’s more than a classic Vietnam memoir.
Its companion work is also on our best books of Myanmar list.
Norman Lewis is one of the most prolific travel writers of all time and he wrote for almost 8 decades!
A Dragon Apparent is one of his best and a wonderful snapshot of a much-ignored era in Indochinese history.
You can check out A Dragon Apparent by Norman Lewis on Amazon here.
The Quiet American by Graham Greene
A novel that got a quick mention in our Laos review takes a very deserved slot where it belongs in the Vietnam section.
The movie, starring Michael Caine, is excellent if you’re not a big reader but the book is superb and very readable.
It’s the story of a young American dispatched to Vietnam by Washington to carry out a mysterious mission.
Things take a very dark turn when the naïve American steals a British reporter’s mistress. This is a real page-turner and best read in one sitting.
You can check out The Quiet American by Graham Greene on Amazon here.
Vietnam: Rising Dragon by Bill Hayton
Bill Hayton was thrown out of Vietnam for sticking his nose into the country’s human rights issues.
However, his book about the opening up of the Vietnamese economy as the communist regime relaxed its grip a little is very much worth reading and told with a lot of affection for the people of the nation.
He examines the environmental, social, and moral costs of growth and the price that the Vietnamese are paying in terms of their history in their quest for American money.
You can check out Vietnam: Rising Dragon by Bill Hayton on Amazon here.
The Sorrow Of War by Bao Ninh
Neil has picked up a Pulitzer Prize for reporting and you can see why, in this early work of his.
It’s a Vietnam War book that looks much deeper than most in to why America lost the war.
It is an account of the Vietnam War told by Col JP Vann who shows that the US involvement may always have been doomed thanks to the corruption and incompetence of the South Vietnamese regime and its officers.
It was a “lost war” no matter how much dirty work was carried out on the ground at close quarters and from afar.
Vann eventually realized that the only way to get the truth out was to leak information to a handpicked selection of reporters which included Sheehan.
You can check out The Sorrow Of War by Bao Ninh on Amazon here.
A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam by Neil Sheehan
Neil has picked up a Pulitzer Prize for reporting and you can see why, in this early work of his.
It’s a Vietnam War book that looks much deeper than most in to why America lost the war.
It is an account of the Vietnam War told by Col JP Vann who shows that the US involvement may always have been doomed thanks to the corruption and incompetence of the South Vietnamese regime and its officers.
It was a “lost war” no matter how much dirty work was carried out on the ground at close quarters and from afar.
Vann eventually realized that the only way to get the truth out was to leak information to a handpicked selection of reporters which included Sheehan.
Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes
I confess this novel is lauded so much that it has to make our list but it’s one of the few books on “Best Books Lists” that I really didn’t enjoy.
It’s the writing, not the story that has had me abandon this novel over and over again.
I confess at this point, I doubt I will ever finish the story of Bravo Company and their foray into Vietnam during the war.
Maybe you’ll have a better experience of things than I did?
You can check out Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes on Amazon here.
When Heaven And Earth Changed Places: A Vietnamese Woman’s Journey From War to Peace by Le Ly Hayslip and Jay Wurts
It’s certainly the book with the longest title on our list but it’s actually a short and well-written account of the author’s life.
She was recruited to act as a spy and saboteur during the Vietnamese War when she was nothing but a child. By the age of 16, she’d suffered nearly every indignity possible.
She fled for America when the opportunity arose but 20 years later, she returned to see what could be built in the country and with the family she’d left behind.
This is a very powerful first-hand account and be prepared to cry, quite a bit, during the first half of the tale.
Dispatches by Michael Herr
A smash hit of classic war reportage that was a huge bestseller when it was finally published in 1977.
Even today, this is the book to beat when it comes to the inside view of the Vietnam War.
Be prepared to be shocked, appalled, and revolted in equal measures – and don’t forget there are no happy endings in war.
This is the Vietnam equivalent of the Pentagon Papers.
You can check out Dispatches by Michael Herr on Amazon here.
Street Without Joy: The French Debacle In Indochina by Bernard B Fall
It is fair to say that French colonial rule in parts of Indochina was truly barbaric.
Though the atrocities committed in the name of France have tended to be blurred from sight thanks to the drama of the Vietnam War – they should never be forgotten.
This is a tale of the French War in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia and it’s very much worth your attention.
Catfish and Mandala: A Two-Wheeled Voyage Through The Landscape and Memory of Vietnam by Andrew X Pham
Andrew was born in Vietnam but raised in California. His family was part of the “boat people” exodus from the country during the war.
When his sister killed herself, he walked out of his job, sold everything, and then spent a year on a bicycle touring the world and eventually – arriving in Vietnam
This is a story of a man’s quest for identity in a world where he doesn’t quite fit anywhere.
In America, he’s not quite American, in Vietnam when he’s not being mistaken for a hi-so Asian from Korea or Japan, everyone believes that as a Vietnamese he’s not good enough to do what he set out to do.
The Girl In The Picture: The Story Of Kim Phuc, the Photograph, and The Vietnam War by Denise Chong
The picture of 9-year-old Kim Phuc covered in napalm burns running naked from her village as it was razed to the ground may be the most recognizable image of the 20th century.
It was a key instrument in persuading the American public to abandon their support for the Vietnam War.
Denise Chong takes us behind the scenes to where the photograph came from and shows us what happened to Kim in her adult life.
It also examines the long-term impact of the war on the Vietnamese people.
Vietnam: A History by Stanley Karnow
This is, probably, the finest overview of the Vietnam War that was ever written.
It is a huge narrative that works through all the events without bias and with real compassion for all those involved.
Karnow sought opinions from every party involved in the way and he has immersed himself in declassified documents to create the most accurate portrayal of all participants and their motives.
It was written to be a counterpart to the PBS Series The Vietnam War but it stands fine without the show. It’s everything you’d ever want to know and more.
You can check out Vietnam: A History by Stanley Karnow on Amazon here.
If I Die In A Combat Zone, Box Me Up And Ship Me Home by Tim O’Brien
Tim O’Brien, a former American soldier, writes war books with a first-person perspective and this is Tim’s autobiographical account of his time in Vietnam. It makes an interesting change from his fiction books, which also regularly feature the war.
It begins when Tim joins the army and continues through his time in Korea, right up until his disturbing times in Vietnam during what many consider to be the Indochina War.
Many major publications consider Tim to be the “best writer about Vietnam” and if this book is anything to go by, you might agree with them.
You can find If I Die In A Combat Zone, Box Me Up And Ship Me Home by Tim O’Brien on Amazon here.
Fire In The Lake, The Vietnamese And The Americans by Frances Fitzgerald
This is much more than a book about the war. It was a “first draft of history” according to the author.
She explored the thousands of years leading up to the conflict and showed how American values and Vietnamese values just weren’t compatible with each other.
While US officials claimed to be “defending freedom in Asia”, they simply weren’t.
In fact, the US government was horrifically ignorant of what the people they were fighting “for” wanted or needed.
They also didn’t seem to understand the significance of keeping China at bay for over 1,000 years in how the war might be fought.
A Rumor Of War by Philip Caputo
This is a memoir, so it’s not a history, it’s a work of fictional non-fiction and it relies on the author’s experiences to inform events and the perception of those events.
We learn why Philip joined the Marines, and how his belief that the conflict was “small and unimportant” was so very wrong.
It then follows his eventual court martial for crimes carried out by men under his command, his dishonorable discharge, and his return to the fields of battle 10 years later as a journalist, not a soldier.
The 1996 reprint included additional commentary from the author on how reliving these memories publicly had affected his life.
You can find A Rumor Of War by Philip Caputo on Amazon here.
Fields Of Fire by James Webb
This novel was written only three years after the Americans were sent packing from Saigon and was written by a pro-military, anti-war movement detractor.
So, it might come as a surprise to find that it’s a scathing criticism of the American intervention rather than an attempt to praise it.
It follows the progression of a group of Marines and their commander throughout the fighting and though its key themes are loyalty, leadership, and the impact of death and dying all around you, it’s not scared to point out the problems with the American approach as a whole.
You can find Fields Of Fire by James Webb on Amazon here.
Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and The Memory Of War by Viet Thanh Nguyen
The author is well known for his novel The Sympathizer which follows a North Vietnamese mole serving in the South Vietnamese Army.
However, Nothing Ever Dies is a non-fiction project which examines the impact of the conflict on the wider region and the world.
It was nominated for the National Book Award and it’s very readable.
You can find Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and The Memory Of War by Viet Thanh Nguyen on Amazon here.
Bloods: Black Veterans Of The Vietnam War by Wallace Terry
This looks at things from an unusual perspective, that of the black soldiers who were sent to “Nam” to fight and die for the American side.
It takes 20 unique individual snapshots of what it was like to be there and builds a very disturbing picture of the whole.
This is a deep book that reminds us that every single group in America was affected by this conflict.
You can find Bloods: Black Veterans Of The Vietnam War by Wallace Terry on Amazon here.
Home Before Morning: The Story Of An Army Nurse In Vietnam by Lynda Van Devanter
This is an account of how the war changed the author’s perspective on herself, her country, and war.
It deals with her struggles to deal with PTSD and depression and how she eventually fought back to understand herself more fully.
The Short-Timers by Gustav Hasford
We shouldn’t mention books on Vietnam History without a nod to the book that inspired the movie Full Metal Jacket, which is one of the greatest films of all time.
Hasford is a trained journalist and served as a combat correspondent during the war but the book is a work of fiction, not non-fiction.
Newsweek heralded it as the greatest fictional work about this conflict. We enjoyed it too.
You can find The Short-Timers by Gustav Hasford on Amazon here.
Final Thoughts On The Best Books About Vietnam
These are our best 20 books about Vietnam. There are many more, most of which deal with the ins and outs of specific battles of the war.
Those history books are definitely of interest as are other novels set in Vietnam but there’s only so much you can reasonably be expected to read before visiting the country.
We also haven’t touched on books about Vietnamese refugees because those people have left Vietnam, their stories belong elsewhere.
We hope that all that ought to be written about that conflict has now been written and that broader histories and better examinations of Vietnam’s long and exciting history begin to emerge over the coming decades.
And if you’re wondering “what’s this got to do with digital nomads?” Well, there’s a lot to be said for learning about a place before you travel to it.