Anonymous wrote:The Quiet American by Graham Greene

+1

The Things They Carried, Matterhorn and Company Commander are terrific for the soldier’s experience, but I’d look elsewhere for a view of societal changes around that time.

Anonymous wrote:I just read a terrific novel about Vietnam from the point of view of a north Vietnamese family.

The Mountains Sing. Excellent, but tragic!

I just finished this, too, and really liked it.
And I also agree with recs for The Sympathizer. It's stunning.

Anonymous wrote:I just read a terrific novel about Vietnam from the point of view of a north Vietnamese family.

The Mountains Sing. Excellent, but tragic!

I will check this out as well as many of the other excellent suggestions that have been made!

I just read a terrific novel about Vietnam from the point of view of a north Vietnamese family.

The Mountains Sing. Excellent, but tragic!

The Quiet American by Graham Greene

Anonymous wrote:This book is NOT about the Vietnam or Korean wars but I'm posting it because it is a fabulous novel about a related area of the world -- The Rent Collector by Camron Wright. It is work of historical fiction based on the documentary River of Victory. The book is about a family who lives in Stung Meanchey, a municipal trash dump in Phnom Penh Cambodia, just after the fall of the Khmer Rouge. The family rents their home in the dump and they make their living scavenging the trash for recyclables.

Ignore my post everyone who only want names of Vietnam and Korean war books!

NP. This sounds really good. Thanks for posting.

Bat 21.

Which was both a book and a movie. It's about an Air Force navigator shot down over Vietnam and how we got rescued.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bat*21

This book is NOT about the Vietnam or Korean wars but I'm posting it because it is a fabulous novel about a related area of the world -- The Rent Collector by Camron Wright. It is work of historical fiction based on the documentary River of Victory. The book is about a family who lives in Stung Meanchey, a municipal trash dump in Phnom Penh Cambodia, just after the fall of the Khmer Rouge. The family rents their home in the dump and they make their living scavenging the trash for recyclables.

Ignore my post everyone who only want names of Vietnam and Korean war books!

A Bright Shining Lie by Neil Sheehan. Won a Pulitzer and lots of other awards back in the day.

jsteele wrote:Former US Senator from Virginia James Webb has an excellent novel about the Vietnam War called "Fields of Fire".

+1 I posted all the POW titles. This is an excellent historical novel and very highly regarded. Webb integrates a lot of his Marine experiences and knowledge into the novel.

- Five Years to Freedom: The True Story of a Vietnam POW by James (Nick) Rowe is an outstanding book from the perspective of a Green Beret who was held in captivity for 5 years.

- Hero Found: The Greatest POW Escape of the Vietnam War by Bruce Henderson about Dieter Dengler who was shot down in Laos.

- The League of Wives: The Untold Story of the Women who took on the US Government to Bring Their Husbands Home by Heath Hardage Lee. It has been a while since I've read her book and I know so many POWs and their wives that I can't remember what is in the book and what isn't. Regardless it is a fascinating look at what a handful of relentless and persevering women did to help bring their husbands home. They were fierce!

- Six Years in the Hanoi Hilton by Amy Shively Hawk, the stepdaughter of James Shively, who was shot down over North Vietnam and, as the title states, spent 6 years in hell in the Hanoi Hilton.

I may not have the titles or authors' names exactly correct. My apologies. I am sure you can find all of the books either through Amazon or through used book stores.

As to the Korean War, try:
Ha Jin, War Trash
Jeff Shaara, The Frozen Hours
Chang-rae Lee, The Surrendered
Robert Olmstead, The Coldest Night
David Halberstam: The Coldest Winter

As for the Vietnam War, definitely second (or third, or fourth) the recommendations for Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried, Viet Than Nguyen's The Sympathizer, and:

Karl Marlantes, Matterhorn
Philip Caputo, A Rumor of War
Graham Greene, The Quiet American
Bảo Ninh, The Sorrow of War
David Halberstam, The Best and the Brightest
Denis Johnson, Tree of Smoke
Tatjana Soli, The Lotus Eaters
David Maraniss, They Marched Into Sunlight

A Prayer for Owen Meany?

I read Michener’s Bridges at Toko Ri in HS and loved it.