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Best single volume: Korean War and Vietnamese Conflict

bignickel

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bignickel
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I found that John Keegan's "World War I" was a fantastic book about the whole of the conflict, and really enjoyed it. Although not the whole theater Ronald Spector's "Eagle against the Sun" was great for covering the Pacific WW2 in pretty much it's entirety.

However, my knowledge of the Korean War and Vietnamese conflict are sorely lacking.

Can I get a recommendation for single volume books for each conflict? I'd prefer if the Vietnamese book go back to WW2 or shortly thereafter, when the US allowed the French army to back in unimpeded.
 
I’ve read two books on the Korean War. Both were about fifteen or twenty years ago so take that with a grain of salt.

The first one was Max Hastings’s books called The Korean War, which I thought was really good. It does have quite a bit about the British involvement because he is a British author.

The other one was by Bruce Cumings called… The Korean War. Cumings is often criticized for being too pro-North Korea, and if I remember rightly he obscures the role of Kim Il Sung in starting the war (just as he had done in a two volume book on the Origins of the Korean War, according to BR Myers, only to be contradicted by official documents released from the Soviet archives which apparently completely show him desperate for a war against the ROK).

I would probably go with the Hastings book.
 
Thanks. I'm checking out John Toland's and Michael Hickey's books' reviews as well.

As for Vietnam..., "Fire in the Lake"? I don't know, will have to keep looking after reading about Korea.
 
Can I commend Indy Neidell's current series on the Korean War on YouTube? (15-20 minute reports of the week's news from 74 years ago, released week-by-week in real time)

While not of course a book, they do regularly quote from multiple authors, with captions naming the books they're quoting from. So that might be a useful source of other books to consider.

www.youtube.com

The Korean War by Indy Neidell

Share your videos with friends, family, and the world
www.youtube.com www.youtube.com
 
Holy cats, didn’t know Indy had a Korean War series. I was following his WW1 series for quite awhile but fell off due to scheduling.

I’ll have to check it out.
 
Serendipity! I was reading about the Inchon invasion on Sunday, 9/15, which turns out to be the 75th anniversary of the invasion!
 
Sorry, I just saw this thread. When I took a class called America in Vietnam in college, our general text was Vietnam: A History, by Stanley Karnow. That was about 35 years ago, so I don't really remember my impressions of it, but the professor obviously thought enough of it to assign it. I have a vague recollection that I thought enough of it to reread it several years later, but I may be misrembering.

Further, I happen to know a historian who's currently working on writing the US Army's (belated) official history of the Vietnam War. (Although he may soon be out of a job, as the Secretary of Defense War seems to think the Center of Military History doesn't contribute to the Army's warfighting capability. 🙄) I'll ask him if he has any recommendations.
 
SpitfireIX said:
Further, I happen to know a historian who's currently working on writing the US Army's (belated) official history of the Vietnam War. (Although he may soon be out of a job, as the Secretary of Defense War seems to think the Center of Military History doesn't contribute to the Army's warfighting capability. 🙄) I'll ask him if he has any recommendations.
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Yes, because a military force has nothing to gain from knowing where it succeeded or more importantly, where it failed, during it's operations. :sneaky:

Yeah, any books you'd recommend, I'll take a look at.
 
bignickel said:
Yes, because a military force has nothing to gain from knowing where it succeeded or more importantly, where it failed, during it's operations. :sneaky:

Yeah, any books you'd recommend, I'll take a look at.
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I suppose I should have seen this coming. :oops: He wants to know "what war" you're specifically interested in. Do you mean including the French and after US withdrawal (1958-1975)? Are you just interested in the "American war" (1965-1973)? Are you more interested in the soldiers' perspective, or the generals' and the politicians'? What about the American "home front?"
 
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I would prefer it start right after WW2 with the first Indochina War and General Douglas Gracey letting the French army back in, and then to the end of the Vietnam War, if possible. I’m mostly interested in the military/political aspects, and if it includes soldiers experiences, the more the better.

Hmm, it might be the case that a single volume won’t be enough.
 
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bignickel said:
I would prefer it start right after WW2 with the first Indochina War and General Douglas Gracey letting the French army back in, and then to the end of the Vietnam War, if possible. I’m mostly interested in the military/political aspects, and if it includes soldiers experiences, the more the better.

Hmm, it might be the case that a single volume won’t be enough.
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I'll pass that along. You're probably right that a single volume won't be enough.
 
Max Hastings book on the Korean War is the single best one volune on the topic.
Sadly, there has not been a really satisfactory history of the Vietnam war that is balanced between the political and the military aspects.Hastings book on Nam is good on the politics weak on the military aspects..whcih is surprising coming from Hastings.
 
Sounds like I’d have to read Hastings book for the political, and another book for the military. I’m half way through Toland’s book on Korea now; I’ll have to read Hastings take later.
 
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