Vietnam War Memoir

In May 1962, Naval Chief Petty Officer Bryant Arbuckle flew to Saigon to establish a new armed forces radio station. Next to follow were his wife and three boys, Leslie among them. Saigon Kids is the candid, recondite slice of 14-year-old military brat Les Arbuckle's experience at the American Community School during the critical months of the Vietnam War when events would, quite literally, ignite in downtown Saigon.

Fifty years after America's involvement in the Korean War began, Richard E. Mack's memories of his time spent on the front lines are still strong and clear. A career soldier, Mack served in the U.S. Army until 1976, when he retired as a colonel. In Memoir of a Cold War Soldier, he recalls his service in front-line combat infantry units in Korea and Vietnam as a rifle platoon leader, adviser, and battalion commander. His accounts, perceptions, and observations of the military culture are incisive and candid.

This book is written by the men and officers of Victor 4 Coy, New Zealanders who served in the Vietnam War from 1969 to 1970, who tell about their experiences of combat in a faraway land. We have written the book not to celebrate war, but to tell the next generation about what we experienced. It is right that we should do this for our children and for our relatives and friends so that they may know what we did. It is a testament also to those seven comrades who gave their lives for their country. May they rest in peace for eternity.

Jessica Dudley is a child of the Vietnam War. Her parents came from two different worlds and were not able to make things work between them. With her father returning to the United States after his tour of service and her mother staying behind to have her baby, Jessica is born into a home without love.

The story of the indomitable American POWs who endured "Alcatraz," the Hanoi prison camp where North Vietnam locked up its most dangerous and subversive prisoners, and the wives who fought to bring them home. As these men suffered in Hanoi, their wives launched an extraordinary campaign that would ultimately spark the POW/MIA movement. When the survivors finally returned, one would receive the Medal of Honor, another became a U.S. Senator, and a third still serves in Congress.

"Courage," Winston Churchill explained, is "the first of human qualities...because it guarantees all the others." As a naval officer, P.O.W., and one of America's most admired political leaders, John McCain has seen countless acts of bravery and self-sacrifice. Now, in this inspiring meditation on courage, he shares his most cherished stories of ordinary individuals who have risked everything to defend the people and principles they hold most dear.

Story is a force that transcends ages. Through the development of humankind’s culture, the holy vessel of story has exerted a power that defines generations. A good story has the ability to entertain; a great story has the ability to inspire. But a story like Outnumbered 20 to 1 possesses the ability to transform. Now retired, Colonel Bill Collier’s razor-sharp memories of his firsthand experiences in Vietnam, fighting through the brutality, devastation, and desperation, all speak to the nature of that grisly war. And, like many of his fellow soldiers who returned home, he kept many of ...

A vivid, fascinating, and compelling story of a helicopter pilot surviving Vietnam and its aftermath. Joe Sheridan’s memoir is one patriot’s true account of the helicopter war and the brave pilots who fought alongside him.

In this inspiring meditation on courage, Senator John McCain shares his most cherished stories of ordinary individuals who have risked everything to defend the people and principles they hold most dear. These are some of the examples McCain turns to for inspiration and offers to others to help them summon the resolve to be both good and great. He explains the value of courage in both everyday actions and extraordinary feats. Most of all, listeners discover how sometimes simply setting the right example can be the ultimate act of courage.

This book tells Dee Knight's story of "waking up" to the truth about the US war in Vietnam, then refusing the draft and going to Canada where he lived for six years. It relates the years-long campaign for amnesty, in which Knight was a leader. After war resisters won a partial amnesty, Knight continued campaigning against US wars up to the present day.

With remarkable clarity and with great detachment, Kidder looks back at himself from across three and a half decades, confessing how, as a young lieutenant, he sought to borrow from the tragedy around him and to imagine himself a romantic hero. Unrelentingly honest, rueful, and revealing, My Detachment gives us war without heroism, while preserving those rare moments of redeeming grace in the midst of lunacy and danger.

First published in the New Yorker in 1969 and later adapted into an acclaimed film starring Michael J. Fox and Sean Penn, Casualties of War is the shocking true story of the abduction, rape, and murder of a young Vietnamese woman by US soldiers.

Captured by Love shares the real love stories of 20 Vietnam War POWs. Some had wives who started a movement that changed American foreign policy. Others came home and had to start over, while five single men met the loves of their lives. Despite their unique differences, all these couples have been happily married 40 to 65 years. Former POW Lee Ellis and love expert Greg Godek take you on a dramatic journey of faithfulness, passion, excitement, resilience, and practical love lessons from these couples.

What happens when a two-tour Vietnam veteran tries to talk to an anti-war activist decades after the war has ended? Will buried memories, simmering resentment, and divisive stereotypes sabotage their effort? Has too much time passed? Seeking Quan Am tells their story.

In clear, lucid prose, Vietnam War, Revised Edition explores the critical questions surrounding the United States' experience in Vietnam: What led President Lyndon B. Johnson to commit combat troops in 1965? How was it possible for the North Vietnamese to suffer a military defeat in the Tet Offensive in 1968 and yet achieve a political victory?

Robert Peterson arrived in Vietnam in the fall of 1966, a young American ready to serve his country and seize his destiny. What happened in that jungle war would change his life forever. Peterson vividly relives the tense patrols in the Viet Cong-infested Central Highlands, the fierce firefights along the Cambodian border, the ambushes and enemy charges.

Following the success of Jarhead, Anthony Swofford assumed he had exorcised his military demons - but as every veteran knows, that isn't exactly how it works. In these searing, courageous pages, Swofford struggles to make sense of what his military service meant, and to decide - after nearly ending it - what his life can and should become. Consumed by drugs, booze, fast cars, and the wrong women, Swofford almost lost everything and everyone that mattered to him.

True story of the firsthand account of my tour of duty. From March 7, 1970, to January 30, 1971, with the First Cavalry, a rifleman with Charlie Company, First Battalion, Fifth Cavalry. Beginning with the pacification program to the May-and-June invasion into Cambodia, combat assaults and search-and-destroy missions into enemy sanctuaries.

In a world where war is often portrayed in simplistic terms, Echo-4 stands out as a complex and nuanced portrayal of the Vietnam War. It's a book that will make you think, make you feel, and leave you with a profound appreciation for the sacrifices that soldiers make in service of their country. R.C.'s memoir is a fitting tribute to the legacy of those who fought in Vietnam and a powerful reminder of the human cost of war.

Bob Kerrey grew up outside Lincoln, Nebraska, in the 1950s, and in his trademark style - serious, sometimes wry - he tells of his journey from that heartland to the dangers of Vietnam, to the hospitals where he recovered from his grievous injuries, and finally to the Nixon White House where he was awarded the Medal of Honor.