This page includes resources which may be of use to those contemplating a trip to Viet Nam. They are suggestions only.
Viet Nam the Country:
David Lamb, VIETNAM, NOW: A Reporter Returns. Public Affairs/Perseus Book Group, 2002. The author/reporter during the Vietnam war, rediscovers the country he never knew during the tragic conflict.
John Wesley Fisher, WITH THE FLIP OF A COIN. Pronghorn Press, 2015. This book is actually a fictional depiction around Eastern wisdom and war healing, but it is also a vivid travel guide to the new Vietnam. The author offers psychological and historical lessons about war and its aftermath, immersing the reader within Vietnamese culture.
Truong Buu Lam, A STORY OF VIET NAM. OutskirtsPress.com, 2010. One of the very few histories of Viet Nam in English, this one focuses on culture as much as politics.
Karen Muller, HITCHHIKING VIETNAM. The Globe Pequot Press 1998. A woman’s solo journey in an elusive land.
Frances FitzGerald, FIRE IN THE LAKE: The Vietnamese and the Americans in Vietnam. Little, Brown and Company Publishing, 1972. A straight forward look at the historical account of the recent wars in Viet Nam.
Veterans Issues with War
Edward Tick, WAR AND THE SOUL: Healing Our Nation’s Veterans from Post-traumatic Stress Disorder. Quest Books, 2005. Just as the title says: war and the soul. Challenges the idea that PTSD is a “disorder,” suggesting instead that it is the soul’s flight from untenable conditions.
John Wesley Fisher, THE WAR AFTER THE WAR: A Warrior’s Journey Home. Pronghorn Press, 2011. A personal journey by the author utilizing the model presented by Edward Tick in War and the Soul.
Jonathan Shay, ACHILLES IN VIETNAM: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character.Touchstone, 1994. A reading of Homer’s Iliad as a study of PTSD, this book weaves the ancient account with stories of Vietnam veterans.
Karl Marlantes, WHAT IT IS LIKE TO GO TO WAR. Atlantic Monthly Press, 2011. A realistic account of the adrenalin, sorrow and moral issues related to taking a life, albeit in combat.
Viet Nam Related Novels
John Wesley Fisher, ANGELS IN VIETNAM. Pronghorn Press, 2002. The journey of a drafted soldier to understand his involvement with war.
Andrew Pham, CATFISH AND MANDALA. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1999. A two-wheeled voyage through the landscape and memory of Viet Nam.
Karl Marlantes, MATTERHORN: A Novel of the Vietnam War. Atlantic Monthly Press, 2010. A beautifully crafted novel of the mud, blood, brotherhood, terror, politics waste and even love found in war.
John Wesley Fisher, NOT WELCOME HOME. Pronghorn Press, 2005. A veteran of the Vietnam War takes off on a venture of a lifetime … returning to the land of his nightmares.
Viet Nam Related Poetry and Other Non-Ficition
Edward Tick, THE GOLDEN TORTOISE. Red Hen Press, 2005. Journeys in Viet Nam, presented in poetry.
Larry Kerschner, GRAVE LINES. Self published and available on ebooks, 2013. A veterans truth on the victims, horror and unanswered questions of war, presented in poetry.
Quang Van Nguyen and Marjorie Pivar, THE FOURTH UNCLE IN THE MOUNTAIN. St. Martin’s Griffin Publishing, 2004. A complicated tale of Viet Nam’s anguished history, of healing and faith.
Max Cleland, STRONG AT THE BROKEN PLACES. Longstreet Press, 1980/2000. This is a survival story both from the Vietnam War and from public life.
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