Vietnam Additional Resources

Hell In a Very Small Place: The Siege of Dien Bien Phu, by Bernard Fall (Da Capo Press, 2002). A compelling account of the famous battle, based on thousands of interviews and declassified government documents.
Ho Chi Minh: The Missing Years, by Sophie Quinn-Judge (University of California Press, 2003). A focus on the early years—1919-1940—of Vietnam’s favorite leader.
Postcolonial Vietnam: New Histories of a National Past, by Patricia Pelley (Duke University Press, 2002). A postmodern critical perspective on a well-known past.
Postwar Vietnam: Dynamics of a Transforming Society, by Hy V. Luong (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2003). An historical perspective of the country in the aftermath of war.

Dispatches, by Michael Herr (Vintage, 1991). Vivid, mind-numbing stories from the front as recorded by Esquire correspondent Herr render this one of the must-reads on the subject of the American War. This book served as the inspiration for a number of movies, including Apocalypse Now.
A People’s History of the Vietnam War, by Howard Zinn (New Press, 2004). The story of the American War, as told by the people who fought it, opposed it, and lived it.
Requiem: By the Photographers Who Died in Vietnam and Indochina, by Horst Faas, David Halberstam, Tim Page (Random House, 1997). A harrowing photographic account of the two Indochina Wars in Vietnam and other areas of the conflict.
The Sorrow of War, by B=o Ninh (Riverhead Trade, 1994). A moving novel about love and war in the North; a must-read for anyone familiar with American War literature. Written by a North Vietnamese veteran.
The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien (Penguin, 1998). A fictional account of the harrowing effects of the war on the human mind and soul.
Vietnam: A History, by Stanley Karnow (Penguin, 1983). A Pulitzer Prize-winning, straightforward and journalistic history of the American War.

Catfish and Mandala, by Andrew X. Pham (Picador, 2000). A Vietnamese-American returns to his homeland many years after leaving for California and takes on the country by bike. A poignant, insightful account of contemporary Vietnam.
Culture and Customs of Vietnam, by Mark W. McLeod and Nguyen Thi Dieu (Greenwood Press, 2001). A comprehensive guide to the Vietnamese people and customs. Refreshingly little emphasis on the war with the United States.
Shadows and Wind: A View of Modern Vietnam, by Robert Templar (Penguin, 1999). Analyzes Vietnam’s position in today’s globalized world through interviews and analysis.
Vietnam, Now, by David Lamb (PublicAffairs, 2003). A comprehensive look at modern Vietnam, written by a wartime reporter upon his return to the country years later.

The General Retires and Other Stories, by Nguyen Huy Thiep (Oxford University Press, 1987, trans. 1993). A collection of short stories focusing on the difficulty of everyday life after the American War.
The Lover, by Marguerite Duras (Pantheon, 1984). A wild young French girl’s tale of growing up in colonial Vietnam.
The Quiet American, by Graham Greene (Penguin Classics, 1955). One of the best works of one of the 20th century’s greatest authors. A British correspondent watches as the French blunder and struggle for control in Vietnam. Brilliantly anticipates the Americans’ tragic involvement a decade later.

Cyclo, dir. Tran Anh Hung (1995). A look into the world of crime and drugs in HCMC through the eyes of a struggling cyclo driver.
Green Dragon, dir. Timothy Bui (2001). Two young Vietnamese refugees deal with the realities of a new life in America.
The Scent of Green Papaya, dir. Tran Anh Hung (1993). An aesthetically masterful, molasses-slow romance between a servant and her employer. Oscar winner for Best Foreign Film in 1994.
Three Seasons, dir. Tony Bui (1999). A film detailing the crazy wanderings of an American vet who has returned to HCMC.
The Vertical Ray of the Sun, dir. Tran Anh Hung (2000). A beautiful film depicting the lives of three sisters in modern Vietnam.

Apocalypse Now, dir. Francis Ford Coppola (1979). The unforgettable Coppola masterpiece, considered one of the greatest war films ever made. It depicts the hopelessness and insanity on the American side during the war, in the form of tortured Captain Willard (Martin Sheen) and crazed Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando).
The Deer Hunter, dir. Michael Camino (1978). Robert de Niro, Christopher Walken, John Savage, and Meryl Streep star in this emotional tale of the war’s effect on a young American generation.
Full Metal Jacket, dir. Stanley Kubrick (1987). A tense psychological analysis of the war through the eyes of soldiers in training and in combat.
Good Morning, Vietnam, dir. Barry Levinson (1987). A US Armed Forces Radio DJ (Robin Williams) humors the troops but tells them a little more than the military would like them to know.
Platoon, dir. Oliver Stone (1986). Two young officers deal with the harrows of war in the first in Stone’s Vietnam War trilogy.

Daughter from Da Nang, dir. Gail Dolgin (2002). Winner of the Sundance Film Festival Award for Best Documentary; story of a Vietnamese-American woman who returns to Vietnam in search of her mother.
Indochine, dir. Regis Wargnier (1992). The legendary French actress Catherine DeNeuve is a rich rubber plantation owner dealing with personal and political scandal in colonial Vietnam.
The Quiet American, dir. Philip Noyce, with Brendan Fraser and Michael Caine (2002). A remake of the 1958 film directed by Joseph Mankiewicz, based on Graham Greene’s novel.

Authentic Vietnamese Cooking: Food from a Family Table, by Corinne Trang (Simon & Schuster, 1999). The author shares her family recipes and the history behind Vietnam’s traditional dishes.
Pleasures of the Vietnamese Table, by Mai Pham (Morrow Cookbooks, 2001). A Vietnamese expat living in America returns and weaves a delectable tale of her adventure through Vietnamese cuisine.
The Foods of Vietnam, by Routhier (Stewart, Tabori and Chang, 1999). Vietnamese-born New York City chef Routhier shares her secret recipes.
The Vietnamese Cookbook, by Diana My Tran (Capital Books, 2003). All of the classics and some rarer dishes fill the pages.