A recent discussion with colleagues about the relative merits of Ken Burns and Lynn Novick's series The Vietnam War (PBS, 2017) and running a workshop on teaching the conflict in Indochina prompted me to think about where my views have been primarily drawn from in recent years.
Part of this discussion with colleagues involved several participants (myself included) putting forward the argument that one thing we appreciated about the Burns and Novick series was that it included more Vietnamese perspectives than is common for popular narratives of the war in the United States (and Australia). I've since come to question my beliefs about this after reading commentary like this and like this and also viewing discussions like this. But it is also worth letting Ken Burns and Lynn Novick speak for themselves on their approach to the series.
Perhaps obviously, views on the series are likely to remain divided (and my own will probably evolve) but what is clear is that even if the series incorporates more non-American perspectives, it is still playing catch-up. What any basic reading of the historiography – the works produced by professional historians and serious commentators on the war – from the last two decades will show is that historians have been pushing research beyond American-centric narratives, questions and sources for decades. Burns and Novick, therefore, weren't pushing boundaries when they released the series in 2017 but reflecting (perhaps not all that well) developments within this field of history that have been with us for many years.
In the introduction to volume 4.3 (2009) of the Journal of Vietnamese Studies Edward Miller and Tuong Vu have written:
'Efforts to understand the Vietnam War as an episode in US history continue today — and rightly so, given that the war was a major event in twentieth-century American politics, society, and culture. Recently, however, growing numbers of scholars have expressed dissatisfaction with the old American-centered approaches. Since the 1990s, this dissatisfaction has manifested itself in two key interpretive trends. First, some authors have sought to internationalize the study of the war by examining the roles played by foreign powers besides the United States. In recent years, these authors have produced breakthrough analyses of the interventions of China and the Soviet Union in the conflict; they have also explored how other European and Asian countries helped shape the course and outcome of the conflict. At the same time, other scholars have chosen to focus on the Vietnamese dimensions of the war — on the roles played by various Vietnamese groups and individuals and on the sources that illuminate Vietnamese decisions and motives. These two trends, though they have unfolded separately, are not contradictory or otherwise incompatible with each other, and both have enriched our understanding of the Vietnam War immensely.' [1]
Put simply, a major project to tell more-than-American stories about the Second Indochina War is no less than three decades old. The extent to which the work of historians has penetrated public memory of these events is obviously difficult to determine but, as with many other parts of history, the public can often lag behind the professionals who are able to consult new sources and who have time to research and collaborate.
The List
So, what I'd like to set out here is a list of books that I think could provide a helpful start for anyone wanting to update their reading on the Vietnam War. That is, anyone who wants to begin to explore recent historiography to see what the historians are exploring in their work. The criteria I've used to select these books are:
They are broad in scope rather than deeply engaged with a specific or more obscure part of the history (I was not looking for highly specialised works that only experts could make sense of or find worthwhile)
Connected to this, they would be good for use within a survey-style course dealing with the broad features of the conflict
They are readable (that is, not overly long and are potentially accessible for secondary school students)
They reflect recent scholarship from a broad range of perspectives
This list will not be exhaustive and I have deliberately avoided certain categories including biographies and books that explore the memory of the conflict in different parts of the world. Although these are extremely important, I wanted to concentrate here on the mechanics and dynamics of the conflict itself focussing mainly on the period between 1954 and 1975. In addition, I have tried to avoid this list becoming a full catalogue of everything 'new' and have rather selected a reasonable number and breadth of histories that would help bring a student, teacher or interested reader generally up to date with current historiography of the Vietnam War.
On a final introductory note, I have left off this list a range of books that I have found very valuable over the years (such as George Herring's America's Longest War and De Groot's A Noble Cause?). I suspect that these are far more widely known, owned and used so I have tried to focus on books published within the last 10 – 15 years.
1. Historiographical overviews
The books in this first section all provide good insight into some of the big debates and trends within the research on the Second Indochina War. Most are edited volumes that try to bring together scholars of different backgrounds, research interests and conclusions which make them very helpful for orienting readers to larger conversations that scholars have had in relation to many important aspects of the conflict.
One of the books listed below, Kort's The Vietnam War Re-Examined (2017), is not an 'edited volume' but in many parts of the book he brings together and summarises key works of 'revisionist' historians and it is useful for understanding key ideas put forward by a range of historians from that general perspective.
Since I always start with the historiography with any new topic, it made sense to put these books at the start of the list.
D Anderson and J Ernst (eds), The War that Never Ends: New Perspectives on the Vietnam War, University of Kentucky Press, 2014
Mark Bradley and Marilyn Young (eds), Making Sense of the Vietnam Wars: Local, National and Transnational Perspectives, Oxford University Press, 2008
Gary Hess, Vietnam: Explaining America's Lost War, Wiley-Blackwell, 2008
Michael Kort, The Vietnam War Re-Examined, Cambridge University Press, 2017
Robert J. McMahon (ed) Major Problems in the History of the Vietnam War (4th Ed.), Houghton Mifflin, 2008
Andrew Weist and Michael Doidge (eds) Triumph Revisited: Historians Battle for the Vietnam War, Routledge, 2010
Marilyn Young and Robert Buzzanco (eds), A Companion to the Vietnam War, Wiley-Blackwell, 2006
2. Introductory or overview histories
I have kept this part of the list deliberately short. These two books are brilliant introductions to the 'narrative' of the Second Indochina War. They both synthesise current scholarship in highly readable accounts that move beyond 'the American War' fixation. If anyone asks me where to start with the basic 'story' of the Second Indochina War, I would point them to these (in this order).
Mark Phillip Bradley, Vietnam at War, Oxford University Press, 2009
Mark Atwood Lawrence, The Vietnam War: A Concise International History, Oxford University Press, 2009
3. Post-Geneva developments (1954 – 1964)
There are many good chapters in the historiographical overviews identified above that explore different aspects of the decade following Geneva. These four, however, provide deeper insights into the developments across three key 'layers' of the conflict: the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North), the Republic of Vietnam (South) and the international arena. The following section also highlights works that specifically examine other key nations involved in the region at the time: the People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union (but both are extensively discussed in some of the books below):
Pierre Asselin, Hanoi's Road to the Vietnam War, 1954 - 1965, University of California Press, 2015
Jessica Chapman, Cauldron of Resistance: Ngo Dinh Diem, the United States, and 1950s Southern Vietnam, Cornell University Press, 2013
Ronald Frankum, 'Vietnam during the Rule of Ngo Dinh Diem, 1954 - 63', in D Anderson and J Ernst (eds), The War that Never Ends: New Perspectives on the Vietnam War, University of Kentucky Press, 2014, pp. 121 – 142
Frederick Logevall, Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America's Vietnam, Penguin Random House, 2012
4. Beyond typical US narratives
The books in this part of the list explore the conflict from perspectives other than the United States. There are many others that I could include but these are the most familiar to me and books that also fit the criteria a set out at the beginning of this discussion.
The first book below, Fry's The American South and the Vietnam War (2015), requires some brief justification. This book is obviously focussed on exploring the United States during the war. It does so, however, with a unique approach at its heart; breaking beyond the traditional emphasis on opinion polls and anti-war movements. It helps reshape our understanding of the American home front and recapture some of the complexity within the United States during this conflict.
Joseph Fry, The American South and the Vietnam War: Belligerence, Protest and Agony in Dixie, University Press of Kentucky, 2015
Edward Miller and Tuong Vu, 'The Vietnam War as a Vietnamese War: Agency and Society in the Study of the Second Indochina War', Journal of Vietnamese Studies, Vol. 4, No. 3, 2009, pp. 1 – 17 (the entire edition of this journal is dedicated to exploring new perspectives of the conflict and may be worth looking into in more detail but this, introductory, essay is a good place to start).
Lien-Hang Nguyen, Hanoi's War: An International History of the War for Peace in Vietnam, The University of North Carolina Press, 2012
Douglas Pike, Vietnam and the Soviet Union, Westview Press, 1987 (this is one of the few older books on this list because I wanted to included something specifically on the USSR)
Dang Thuy Tram, Last Night I Dreamed of Peace, Random House, 2005 (this is the recent translation of a diary kept by a North Vietnamese doctor that provides incredible insight into the complexities of serving with/for the DRV during the war).
Tuong Vu, Vietnam's Communist Revolution: The Power and Limits of Ideology, Cambridge University Press, 2016
Qiang Zhai, China and the Vietnam Wars, 1950 – 75, University of North Carolina Press, 2000
5. The Military Dimensions
The military dimensions of the Second Indochina War have been explored almost ad nauseam so I have also kept this section brief. The old 'orthodox' and 'revisionist' debates about strategy are still alive and well and historians such as Mark Moyar, Lewis Sorely and Gregory Daddis remain very active.
Gregory Daddis, Westmoreland's War: Reassessing American Strategy in Vietnam, Oxford University Press, 2015
Gregory Daddis, Withdrawal: Reassessing America's Final Years in Vietnam, Oxford University Press, 2017
Lewis Sorely, A Better War: The Unexamined Victories and Final Tragedy of America's Last Years in Vietnam, Harvest, 1999 (although this another book that is a little dated now it does form an important part of the discussion developed by Gregory Daddis in the two books identified immediately above so it needs to be mentioned)
George Veith, Black April: The Fall of South Vietnam, 1973 – 75, Encounter Books, 2013
There is also a useful debate/discussion between Mark Moyar and Gregory Daddis made available here hosted by the Virginia Military Institute.
Endnotes
[1] Edward Miller and Tuong Vu, 'The Vietnam War as a Vietnamese War: Agency and Society in the Study of the Second Indochina War', Journal of Vietnamese Studies, Vol. 4, No. 3, 2009, pp. 1 – 17, quote from p. 2