Bell, Kenneth H. 100 Missions North. Washington, DC: Brassey’s, Inc., 1993, Kindle. Brig. Gen. Bell earned the 100-Mission F-105 patch; he describes how in his book.
Brokhausen, Nick. We Few: US Special Forces in Vietnam. Havertown, PA: Casemate Publishers, 2018, Kindle. Green Berets work with the Montagnards in Vietnam.
Broughton, Jack. Thud Ridge. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1969.
The first book I read about flying into North Vietnam, now a collectible.
Burrough, Bryan. Days of Rage. New York: Penguin Books, 2016, Kindle.
Excellent read of a turbulent period in US history.
Byers, Margery. “U.S. Prisoners in North Vietnam,” Life, October 20, 1967, 21-33. I still have my copy of this issue.
Clarke, Thurston. Honorable Exit: How a Few Brave Americans Risked All to Save Our Vietnamese Allies at the End of the War. New York: Doubleday, 2019, Kindle. The before and after of the iconic photo of the fall of Saigon.
Denton, Jeremiah A. When Hell Was in Session. WND Books, 2009.
Adm. Denton’s story also became a movie starring Hal Holbrook.
Dooley, Thomas A. Deliver Us from Evil. New York: Farrar, Straus & Cudahy, 1956. I read this from Mom’s collection of Dr. Dooley’s trilogy of service in Southeast Asia.
Drendel, Lou. F-105 Thunderchief Illustrated. Venice, Florida: Aviation Art., Inc., 2017, Kindle. A definitive source on the Thud.
Drury, Bob and Tom Clavin. Last Men Out: The True Story of America’s Heroic Final Hours in Vietnam. New York: Free Press, 2011, Kindle. The last twenty-four hours of Americans in Saigon.
Eiseley, Loren. The Star Thrower. Orlando: A Harvest Book Harcourt, Inc., 1979. The origin of the Starfish Story.
Elliott, Mai. The Sacred Willow: Four Generations in the Life of a Vietnamese Family. New York: Oxford University Press, 2017. One family's history through the fall of Saigon.
Fall, Bernard B. Street without Joy. 2nd ed. Lanham, Maryland: Stackpole Books, 2018, Kindle. Military men of all ranks took this book to Vietnam with them.
Grizzard, Elizabeth C. My Journey to America: An Escape from Communist Laos. US: self-pub, 2015. A Laotian refugee tells her escape story.
Hampton, Dan. The Hunter Killers. New York: HarperCollins Publishers Inc., 2015, Kindle. The story of the Wild Weasels, who flew out front to get shot at by SAMs, written by a fighter pilot.
Herrington, Stuart A. Peace with Honor?: An American Reports on Vietnam 1973-75. Novato, CA: Presidio Press, 1983. An Army intel officer describes Saigon's last year.
Hunt, Maj. Gen. Ira A. Jr. Losing Vietnam: How America Abandoned Southeast Asia. Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 2013, Kindle. A general describes the effects of dwindling support.
Koestler, Arthur. Darkness at Noon. New York: Bantam Books, 1966. Fictional account of a Communist Party loyalist held in the gulag during Stalin. Zack had read this, which enabled him to remember the tap code.
Kennedy, Rory, dir. Last Days in Vietnam. WGBH Boston, 2014. Accurate documentary of Saigon's final days. The burning C-130 in the trailer caught my attention.
Lavell, Lt. Col. A.J.C. Last Flight from Saigon. Pickle Partners Publishing, 2014, Kindle. Putting the final airlift together to save lives.
Lee, Choua, as told to Mary Albanese. The Girl with Ten Names: My Escape from Laos to Freedom. United Kingdom: Oxshott Press, 2015. A Hmong woman describes her family's escape to freedom.
Lee, Heath Hardage. The League of Wives. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 2019. Much has been written about the warriors who fought the battles in the prison camps. Much less has been written about the wives and parents back home. This book focuses on those wives and parents, heroes all.
Lockwood, Lee. “U.S. Prisoners and an Eerie Puppet Show,” Life, April 7, 1967, 44. Lt. Cdr. Stratton’s performance created debates in the POW camps. His exaggerated bowing went against the “Don’t bow in public” directive which was part of the BACK US guidelines created by the senior ranking officers.
McConnell, Malcolm. Into the Mouth of the Cat: The Story of Lance Sijan, Hero of Vietnam. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1985. Blown out of the sky at the Ban Laboy Ford by his own bombs, Lance Sijan’s story of resistance and survival inspired other POWs. At the Air Force Academy, I lived in the New Dorm. It is now Sijan Hall.
Means, Howard. 67 Shots. Boston: Da Capo Press, 2016, Kindle. Chronicles not only that fateful day at Kent State University, but the riots and turmoil preceding it.
Michener, James. Kent State. New York: Random House, 1971. A noteworthy history of the Kent State tragedy based on extensive interviews by a prolific American author.
Moore, Harold G. and Joseph L. Galloway. We Were Soldiers Once…and Young: Ia Drang-The Battle That Changed the War in Vietnam. New York: Random House, 1992. Exposes the myth that the war in South Vietnam was just a war against a local Viet Cong insurgency. In November 1965, the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, stirred up a hornet's nest of North Vietnamese army.
Nguyen, Con. My Last Flight Out: Last Pilot Who Escaped after the Fall of Viet Nam. N.p.: Lulu Publishing Services, 2019. A South Vietnamese helicopter pilot relates his family's flight to find the US Navy.
Olds, Robin. Fighter Pilot. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2010. Autobiography by the World War II ace and Vietnam War wing commander, who led from the front with his aggressive flying and his illicit handlebar mustache. Christina Olds, the general’s daughter, and Ed Rasimus, a pilot friend, finished the book after General Old’s death.
Peck-Barnes, Shirley. The War Cradle: The Untold Story of “Operation Babylift.” Denver: The Vintage Press Works, 2000. The story of the "silent heroes" who fought to save the children.
Pham, Quang X. A Sense of Duty: My Father, My American Journey. New York: Ballantine Books, 2005, Kindle. A Vietnamese refugee tells his story of becoming a US Marine pilot.
Prior, BJ Elliot. Behind My Wings. Bedford, TX: Burkhart Books, 2017. Heartfelt memoir of a flight attendant flying men and a few women to war. She weaves her story with stories by veterans.
Rochester, Stuart I. and Frederick Kiley. Honor Bound. Washington, DC: Office of the Secretary of Defense, Historical Office, 1998, Kindle. Perhaps the definitive history of the US Vietnam prisoner of war experience, written by a Defense Department historian and an Air Force Academy English professor. On a personal note, while at the Academy, Professor Kiley taught me how to read and appreciate the poetry of e.e. cummings.
Sherwood, John Darrell. Fast Movers. New York: The Free Press, 1999. Highly readable history of the air war in Vietnam, based on interviews with legendary pilots and military archives.
Stockdale, Jim & Sybil. In Love and War. New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1984. The first story of the Vietnam POW experience I read, written together by the Medal of Honor recipient and his wife, the founder of the National League of Families.
Tennyson, Alfred, Lord. “The Charge of the Light Brigade.” https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45319/the-charge-of-the-light-brigade. Chronicles the ill-fated charge of British light cavalry against a well-defended artillery battery due to miscommunication through the chain of command. US civilian leaders repeated the mistake by sending “light” fighter aircraft against well-defended North Vietnamese targets while dictating self-defeating tactics.
Townley, Alvin. Defiant. New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2014, Kindle. Riveting story of the hard-core resisters in Hanoi’s most infamous prison and of their wives back home.
Vien, General Cao Van. The Final Collapse. Pickle Partners Publishing, 2016, Kindle. The last chairman of the South Vietnamese General Staff gives an insider's view of Saigon's defeat.
Vu, Tran Tri. Lost Years: My 1,632 Days in Vietnamese Reeducation Camps. Berkeley: Institute of East Asian Studies, 1988. A Vietnamese officer details his years in prison after the war.
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