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A research guide covering the major aspects of the Vietnam War.

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Memorials

Vietnam: 50 Years Remembered

In 1965, the United States officially became involved in the conflict in Southeast Asia where decades of turmoil had been building since the beginning of World War II. The fall of French Indochina and the spread of Communism, catapulted the country into one of its longest and deadliest wars.

The history of U.S. involvement is told in this 7 part documentary series featuring personal stories from veterans and detailing the battles, strategy, and politics of a war that consumed multiple U.S. Presidents.

VIETNAM: 50 YEARS REMEMBERED is a chronicle of the tragedy that tested the strength of our country and forever changed the social and political landscape of the world.

Watch videos on Kanopy. 

Vietnam

Many Americans opposed the Vietnam war, protesting and leading demonstrations. Four people were killed in a demonstration at Kent State University.

Source: AVON

Perspectives

Vietnam: the Real War

The Vietnam War has left a deep and lasting impression in American life, from its impact on the men and women who fought in it, to the journalists and photographers who covered it, to the millions of Americans who protested against it or supported it. Thanks to an uncensored press, the world knew and saw more of this war than any in history before or since. The Associated Press made an unprecedented commitment to reporting the conflict: It gathered an extraordinary group of superb photojournalists in its Saigon bureau and these men created one of the great photographic legacies of the twentieth century. Collected here are images that tell the human story of the Vietnam War, as we watch the American presence in the war swell from a trickle of military advisers in the late 1950s, through dramatic operations involving thousands of soldiers in the 1960s, to the fall of Saigon in 1975. These are pictures that both recorded and made history, taken by unbelievably courageous photojournalists. In a moving essay, writer Pete Hamill, who reported from Vietnam in 1965, celebrates their achievement, focusing on five masters who took many of the photographs in the book: Horst Faas, Henri Huet, Eddie Adams, Nick Ut, and Phuoc Van Dang.

Embers of War

WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE   Written with the style of a great novelist and the intrigue of a Cold War thriller, Embers of War is a landmark work that will forever change your understanding of how and why America went to war in Vietnam. Tapping newly accessible diplomatic archives in several nations, Fredrik Logevall traces the path that led two Western nations to tragically lose their way in the jungles of Southeast Asia. He brings to life the bloodiest battles of France's final years in Indochina--and shows how, from an early point, a succession of American leaders made disastrous policy choices that put America on its own collision course with history. An epic story of wasted opportunities and deadly miscalculations, Embers of War delves deep into the historical record to provide hard answers to the unanswered questions surrounding the demise of one Western power in Vietnam and the arrival of another. Eye-opening and compulsively readable, Embers of War is a gripping, heralded work that illuminates the hidden history of the French and American experiences in Vietnam.   ONE OF THE MOST ACCLAIMED WORKS OF HISTORY IN RECENT YEARS Winner of the Francis Parkman Prize from the Society of American Historians * Winner of the American Library in Paris Book Award * Winner of the Council on Foreign Relations Arthur Ross Book Award * Finalist for the Cundill Prize in Historical Literature   NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The Washington Post * The Christian Science Monitor * The Globe and Mail   "A balanced, deeply researched history of how, as French colonial rule faltered, a succession of American leaders moved step by step down a road toward full-blown war."--Pulitzer Prize citation   "This extraordinary work of modern history combines powerful narrative thrust, deep scholarly authority, and quiet interpretive confidence."--Francis Parkman Prize citation   "A monumental history . . . a widely researched and eloquently written account of how the U.S. came to be involved in Vietnam . . . certainly the most comprehensive review of this period to date."--The Wall Street Journal   "Superb . . . a product of formidable international research."--The Washington Post   "Lucid and vivid . . . [a] definitive history."--San Francisco Chronicle   "An essential work for those seeking to understand the worst foreign-policy adventure in American history . . . Even though readers know how the story ends--as with The Iliad--they will be as riveted by the tale as if they were hearing it for the first time."--The Christian Science Monitor

Secrets

Daniel Ellsberg began his career as the coldest of cold warriors-a U. S. Marine company commander, a Pentagon analyst, and a staunch supporter of America's battle against Communist expansion. But in October 1969, Ellsberg-fully expecting to spend the rest of his life in prison-set out to turn around American foreign policy by smuggling out of his office the seven-thousand-page top-secret study, known as the Pentagon Papers, of U.S. decision making in Vietnam. Now, for the first time, Ellsberg tells the full story of how and why he became one of the nation's most impassioned and influential anti-war activists-and how his actions helped alter the course of U.S. history. Covering the decade between his entry into the Pentagon and Nixon's resignation, Secrets is Ellsberg's meticulously detailed insider's account of the secrets and lies that shaped American foreign policy during the Vietnam era. Ellsberg provides a vivid eyewitness account of the two years he spent behind the lines in Vietnam as a State Department observer-an experience that convinced him of the hopelessness of Johnson's policies and profoundly altered his own political thinking. As Ellsberg recounts with drama and insight, the release of the Pentagon Papers, first to The New York Timesand The Washington Post, set in motion a train of events that ultimately toppled a president and helped to end an unjust war. Infused with the political passion and turmoil of the Vietnam era, Secretsis at once the memoir of a committed, daring man, an insider's exposé of Washington, and a meditation on the meaning of patriotism under a government intoxicated by keeping secrets.

Blackhorse Riders

Winner of the 2013 Silver Medal in History from the Military Writer's Society of America Finalist, 2013 Colby Award Winner of the 2012 USA Best Book Award for Military History Philip Keith's Blackhorse Ridersis the incredible true story of a brave military unit in Vietnam that risked everything to rescue an outnumbered troop under heavy fire--and the thirty-nine-year odyssey to recognize their bravery. Deep in the jungles of Vietnam, Alpha Troop, 1st Squadron, 11th Armored Cavalry, the famed Blackhorse Regiment, was a specialized cavalry outfit equipped with tanks and armored assault vehicles. On the morning of March 26, 1970, they began hearing radio calls from an infantry unit four kilometers away that had stumbled into a hidden North Vietnamese Army stronghold. Outnumbered at least six to one, the ninety-man American company was quickly surrounded, pinned down, and fighting for its existence. Helicopters could not penetrate the dense jungle, and artillery and air support could not be targeted effectively. The company was fated to be worn down and eventually all killed or captured. Overhearing the calls for help on his radio, Captain John Poindexter, Alpha Troop's twenty-five-year-old commander, realized that his outfit was the only hope for the trapped company. It just might be possible that they could "bust" enough jungle by nightfall to reach them. Not making the attempt was deemed unacceptable, so he ordered his men to "saddle up." With the courage and determination that makes legends out of ordinary men, they effected a daring rescue and fought a pitched battle--at considerable cost. Many brave deeds were done that day and Captain Poindexter tried to make sure his men were recognized for their actions. Thirty years later Poindexter was made aware that his award recommendations and even the records of the battle had somehow gone missing. Thus began the second phase of this remarkable story: a "battle" to ensure that his brave men's accomplishments would never be forgotten again. The full circle was completed when President Obama stepped to the podium on October 20, 2009, to award the Alpha Troop with the Presidential Unit Citation: the highest combat award that can be given to a military unit.

Hanoi's War

While most historians of the Vietnam War focus on the origins of U.S. involvement and the Americanization of the conflict, Lien-Hang T. Nguyen examines the international context in which North Vietnamese leaders pursued the war and American intervention ended. This riveting narrative takes the reader from the marshy swamps of the Mekong Delta to the bomb-saturated Red River Delta, from the corridors of power in Hanoi and Saigon to the Nixon White House, and from the peace negotiations in Paris to high-level meetings in Beijing and Moscow, all to reveal that peace never had a chance in Vietnam. Hanoi's War renders transparent the internal workings of America's most elusive enemy during the Cold War and shows that the war fought during the peace negotiations was bloodier and much more wide ranging than it had been previously. Using never-before-seen archival materials from the Vietnam Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as materials from other archives around the world, Nguyen explores the politics of war-making and peace-making not only from the North Vietnamese perspective but also from that of South Vietnam, the Soviet Union, China, and the United States, presenting a uniquely international portrait.

Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War

The largest and most comprehensive study to date of one of the longest and most divisive conflicts in U.S. history. ABC-CLIO presents the largest and most comprehensive study to date of the wars in Vietnam. This authoritative, three volume masterwork details early U.S. involvement in Vietnam and brings Vietnamese history to the present with discussions of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam from 1975 through 1997. Students and researchers will find that this comprehensive work includes more coverage of diverse topics, and more information on individual Vietnamese and American participants and earlier, relevant periods in Vietnamese history, than any other encyclopedia of its kind. * Over 900 A-Z entries with extensive cross references after each entry * Biographies of key Vietnamese and American participants * 200 primary source documents * 150 illustrations and 22 maps

Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War: A Political, Social, and Military History

Now in its second edition, this comprehensive study of the Vietnam War sheds more light on the longest and one of the most controversial conflicts in U.S. history.

Selma to Saigon

The civil rights and anti-Vietnam War movements were the two greatest protests of twentieth-century America. The dramatic escalation of U.S. involvement in Vietnam in 1965 took precedence over civil rights legislation, which had dominated White House and congressional attention during the first half of the decade. The two issues became intertwined on January 6, 1966, when the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) became the first civil rights organization to formally oppose the war, protesting the injustice of drafting African Americans to fight for the freedom of the South Vietnamese people when they were still denied basic freedoms at home. Selma to Saigon explores the impact of the Vietnam War on the national civil rights movement. Before the war gained widespread attention, the New Left, the SNCC, and the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) worked together to create a biracial alliance with the potential to make significant political and social gains in Washington. Contention over the war, however, exacerbated preexisting generational and ideological tensions that undermined the coalition, and Lucks analyzes the causes and consequences of this disintegration. This powerful narrative illuminates the effects of the Vietnam War on the lives of leaders such as Whitney Young Jr., Stokely Carmichael, Roy Wilkins, Bayard Rustin, and Martin Luther King Jr., as well as other activists who faced the threat of the military draft along with race-related discrimination and violence. Providing new insights into the evolution of the civil rights movement, this book fills a significant gap in the literature about one of the most tumultuous periods in American history.

Research & Reference

The History of the World (April 1969-May 1970)

With morale plummeting in Vietnam, President Nixon begins withdrawing American troops. As news breaks of an unthinkable massacre committed by American soldiers, the public debates the rectitude of the war.

Source: AVON