(Part 3) Best vietnam war biographies according to redditors

I looked around for an answer to this, and the only thing I've been able to find is an excerpt from a book called Defiant: The POWs Who Endured Vietnam's Most Infamous Prison suggesting that U.S. intelligence agencies picked up on it at least:

> “When U.S. intelligence agencies reviewed the video before it was aired, they appreciated more than just the commander’s courageous statement. He had also covertly relayed information about the conditions in Hanoi. The blinks that seemed so strange to television viewers were, in fact, very deliberate. Unbeknown to his captors, Jerry had blinked in Morse code.”

Also read a cool tidbit from a WaPo article

>In his memoir, Adm. Denton recalled devising a communication system for the inmates involving coughs, sniffs and sneezes. Such noises, because of the men’s poor health, was not readily discerned by the North Vietnamese and allowed the POWs to maintain a spirit-sustaining sense of community

Whenever the Bronco comes up, I have to recommend Marshall Harrison's A Lonely Kind of War about his experiences as a FAC in Vietnam.

They were, you have no idea what the fuck you are talking about.

https://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Call-Duty-Story-American/dp/1590382471

read it then repeat your statement

Run, Don't Walk: The Curious and Courageous Life Inside Walter Reed Army Medical Center by Adele Levine. It's a hilariously true read...would recommend to PTs and non-PTs alike! https://www.amazon.com/Run-Dont-Walk-Curious-Courageous/dp/1583335552

This book: [Rattler One-Seven] (http://www.amazon.com/Rattler-One-Seven-Helicopter-Military-Biography/dp/1574412213) is a damn good account of the helicopter war through the eyes of Chuck Gross, the author, who basically went straight from High School to flying Hueys in Vietnam.

That looks interesting, I'd love to find a copy.

I have also read a couple of accounts written by AC-130A crew members from the Vietnam War which were really interesting too: Spectre Gunner: The AC-130 Gunship by David M. Burns and Callsign Spectre by Jeff Noecker.

Both give some interesting insights into their operations.

No. No. No. People have heavily romanticized his legacy. He and Bobby were implementing a new world order and they were warmongers. This should be mandatory reading for anyone who thinks JFK was some kind of white knight: http://www.amazon.com/Rethinking-Camelot-Vietnam-Political-Culture/dp/0896084582

Gun Totin' Chaplain

I know this guy. He's a good guy. Did 29 years, served with the 101st in Vietnam, retired a full bird. Said not carrying a weapon was a real distraction for the rest of the guys, so he carried one to put their mind at ease. Never fired a shot, though.

Also, he wrote a book called Semper Cool after the incident so there's that going for him.

I have never read this book, but the the description on the Amazon site says that the author was with the Marine unit that landed at Da Nang in March 1965. The book is very popular so I'm sure that it would interest you, regardless.

A Rumor of War: The Classic Vietnam Memoir

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When Hell Was In Session

> Jeremiah Denton, the senior American officer to serve as a Vietnam POW, tells the amazing story of the almost eight years he survived as a POW in North Vietnam. In 1966, he appeared on a television interview from prison and blinked the word "torture" in Morse Code, confirming for the world that atrocities were taking place in the Hanoi Hilton.

Surviving Hell: A POW’S Journey

> Thorsness was shot down, captured, and transported to the Hanoi Hilton. Surviving Hell recounts a six-year captivity marked by hours of brutal torture and days of agonizing boredom. With a novelist’s eye for character and detail, Thorsness describes how he and other American POWs strove to keep their humanity. Thrown into solitary confinement for refusing to bow down to his captors, for instance, he disciplined his mind by memorizing long passages of poetry that other prisoners sent him by tap code. Filled with hope and humor, Surviving Hell is an eloquent story of resistance and survival. No other book about American POWs has described so well the strategies these remarkable men used in their daily effort to maintain their dignity.

Are the two I read about the Hanoi Hilton. There are many others if you look at the related purchases

There are a few books about the Vietnam war you should read. My favorite was Chained Eagle by Everett Alvarez the first American shot down over North Vietnam.

We signed the Geneva Conventions because we deplored the treatment of POWs.

The ends do NOT justify the means. If they did, we might as well start torturing our own citizens.

You would fit nicely in 1984.

The Hill Fights: The First Battle of Khe Sanh

I used to inhabit rec.aviation.military and Ed Rasimus was one of the most prolific posters there.

He had lots of good stories about the F105 and even wrote a couple of books.

By all accounts he preferred the flying the Chief over the Phantom as it was a single-seat single-engine plane.

Another good read that's 'sponsored' by the CMSgt Richard Etchberger Foundation. https://www.amazon.com/dp/0986083100/ref=olp_product_details?_encoding=UTF8&me=

Don't bunch up. Its a good book. Read it if you get a chance, its pretty quick.

Another is First in, Last Out. Its a bunch of short stories by Wild weasel pilots, mechanics, and the engineers who designed them.

For third party accounts on the splits in Vietnamese thought during and immediately following colonization, see:

• Misalliance: Ngo Dinh Diem, the United States, and the Fate of South Vietnam (https://www.amazon.com/Misalliance-United-States-South-Vietnam/dp/0674072987/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1491375687&sr=8-2&keywords=ngo+dinh+diem)
  
• Ember's of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America's Vietnam (https://www.amazon.com/Embers-War-Empire-Americas-Vietnam/dp/0375756477)
  
  For first party accounts from the South Vietnamese who actually fought the war, and their reasons for fighting, see:
  
  
• The Twenty-Five Year Century: A South Vietnamese General Remembers the Indochina War to the Fall of Saigon (https://www.amazon.com/Twenty-Five-Year-Century-Vietnamese-Remembers/dp/1574411438/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1491375844&sr=1-1&keywords=the+twenty-five+year+century)
  
• Steel and Blood: South Vietnamese Armor and the War for Southeast Asia (https://www.amazon.com/Steel-Blood-South-Vietnamese-Southeast/dp/1591149193/ref=pd_sim_14_17?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1591149193&pd_rd_r=J4VPFGVBA417KNR11DVM&pd_rd_w=C89QH&pd_rd_wg=LoxSx&psc=1&refRID=J4VPFGVBA417KNR11DVM)
  
  You will see that it's not as black and white as you make it out to be, and they weren't serving simply to be slaves to the white man. Many of the South Vietnamese army officers previously fought against France during the war for independence, but then fought against the communists, particularly because of the 'land reforms' that the communists implemented right after independence.
  
  See "Paradise of the Blind" https://www.amazon.com/Paradise-Blind-Duong-Thu-Huong/dp/0060505591
  
  Regarding the women, there aren't any hard statistics on how many date or marry white men, but a few years ago there were around 100,000 marriages to foreigners per year (http://www.thanhniennews.com/society/100000-vietnamese-women-marry-foreigners-each-year-556.html). This isn't broken down by nationality or race unfortunately.
  
  In my own personal experience, I worked in Saigon for 2.5 years and many of the local Vietnamese female lawyers in my office were daughters of Northern communist government officials and/or veterans, and a few of them dated WM expats. A good friend of mine, whose father was a North Vietnam army veteran, is currently engaged to an Italian guy. So it's not just the 'losers' of that war who will date or marry whites.

I'm currently reading "Cleared Hot!" by Col. Bob Stoffey, it was common (at least for pilots and ground crews) to drink alcohol in the base bar.

He also writes about going to Da Nang to obtain supplies and other goods that was hard to come-by within the US supply chains. US personnel also used Da Nang to unwind, especially on Fridays and Saturdays.