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DVD |
VIDEO |
| Videos about women who served are also HERE . . . | ||||
Some Special Videos! |
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Dear
America - Letters Home From Vietnam (1988) [paperback]
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Vol. 1: Roots
of War/The First Vietnam War 1946-1954 Vol. 2: America's Mandarin/LBJ Goes to War Vol. 3: America Takes Charge/America's Enemy Vol. 4: Tet 1968 & Vietnamizing the War 1969-1973 Vol. 5: Cambodia & Laos/Peace Is at Hand Vol. 6: Homefront Usa/End of the Tunnel Vol. 6: Homefront Usa/End of the Tunnel Vol. 6: Homefront Usa/End of the Tunnel Vol. 7: Legacies |
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Vietnam-Ten
Thousand Day War
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No Time for Tears: Vietnam-The Women Who
Served
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This is a documentary style film about an army camera crew following an infantry platoon. It's pretty good.
Documentary about a trip 100 incountry women made to Vietnam with Connie Stevens. This is several hours of interviews. I found it quite interesting, but it gives the impression of being an unfinished product. That is, had it been released to theaters, it would have been edited further. I recommend it for those with an interest in the subject. For a documentary on women to show to a classroom, try "No Time for Tears: Vietnam-The Women Who Served".
I liked the movie and the cinematography, but it is not about the Vietnam War. NOW I said that when I saw the original version - the Director's Cut seemed to me more about Vietnam and less about Conrad. So pick your poison.
Best
of Nightline:
Vietnam Movies: The Way It Really Was
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China
Beach - Pilot Episode
I pondered a bit before offering this video, but I have been contacted by a number of people (particularly teachers) who are looking for it. However, fair warning, many of the women veterans I know do not think this is at all accurate. I invite you read the reviews at Amazon and to leave your own review See also "Citizen Jane: China Beach, the Vietnam Women’s Memorial, and U.S. Popular Memory" by Kim Heikkila, |
Deathdream
(aka Dead of Night), 1972, Canadian
I just had to add this creepy B (if that) horror film to my list, even though it is not available on video. It's pretty good, all about a returning veteran. Here is a review. Don't read them and spoil the shock if you intend to see the film. AKA "Dead of Night," "Night Andy Came Home, The," "Night Walk," "Veteran, The," "Whispers" and who knows what all else.
I have never seen this Burt Lancaster film. It is set in 1964 and I have always heard it is very good. According to Amazon, the author of the novel likes the movie better than his own book!
Good
Morning Vietnam This is the popular Robin Williams film about an armed forces disk jockey in Vietnam. I thought it was nothing special, but hey, I'm not a movie critic!
You have to buy this Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation (it's in English) from Germany. It wasn't bad for a film that was too gutless to use the words "My Lai."
In Country [video] [DVD] [video en espaniol]
An inexpensive video. Nothing special, but not awful either. Bruce Willis is in it, but he is not as annoying as usual. The book is very good.
Ace surgeon Don Jardian and nurse Deborah Solomon conduct a star-crossed romance while stationed at different bases during the Vietnam War. According to Leonard Maltin's review on Amazon, "What starts out as good bread-and-butter story gets worse as it goes along toward silly conclusion. Overlong, to boot." You are better off reading a book I think! <G>
Secrets Of War: Vietnam (1998) [DVD]
This documentary is, per Amazon, "the remarkable story of hidden supply highways, underground cities, covert camps and double agents."
[A Soldier's Sweetheart video based on "The Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong]
Disappointing. The ending is a mess.
Oliver Stone films. My vet friends really hate these movies. I haven't seen them.
Platoon [DVD] is available, BUT a the captain of the real platoon has written a book
The above movies, I know about. The movies below, you are on your own and let the buyer beware. According to my video expert, the same footage is repackaged and sold over and over. If anyone can provide information on the films below, I would be happy to move them up to my list of videos I can vouch for. My video expert says:
These people are sneaky - they even take PORTIONS of the original government films to make new ones. Regardless of how they do it, you still end up with the same stuff. Some companies buy their competitor's tapes and simply copy them and put them in a different box with a new name. Of course each time you copy a tape the quality gets worse and I swear some of them I've gotten are copies of copies of copies.
Spirited interviews with five veterans are intercut with rare archival images and home movies to explore the day-to-day experiences of these women as nurses and officers, as well as the war’s impact on their lives today.
Vietnam: Lonely Planet Guide Book
For those who want to go back.
Vietnam: In the Year of the Pig (1968) Influential documentary from the late sixties
Vietnam
Then and Now: David Halberstam, Ron Ridenhour Memorial Lecture 2000
Discovery Channel Wings Over Vietnam Series |
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| Wings Over Vietnam | A-4 Skyhawk |
| F-105 Thunderchief | UH-1 Huey |
Combat Vietnam Series (To Hell & Beyond) |
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| Combat Vietnam | Combat Vietnam - The Chopper War (1989) (NOTE: Included in Combat Vietnam Vol. 3) |
| Combat Vietnam Vol. 2: Jungle Warfare/Death on Dragon Mountain (Two video pack) | Air Power/River Sea & Air: Air Power at Khe Sahn & The Navy at War (Two video pack) |
| Combat Vietnam Vol. 3: Chopper War/Tank Attack (Two video pack) | |
Vietnam Home Movies - Note Same Films Bundled with Different Titles! |
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| SINGLE VIDEOS |
TWO VIDEOS BUNDLED AS ONE |
| Specialist 4: Jeffrey Overton and Rifle Company C in the Mekong Delta (see also Front-Line Artillery & Infantry) | Front-Line Artillery & Infantry: Jeffrey Overton and Rifle Company C (see also Specialist 4) and Staff Sgt. Steven White and Outpost Legionnaire at the Ho Chi Minh trail (see also Outpost Legionnaire) |
| Outpost Legionaire (Steve White): Staff Sgt. Steven White and Outpost Legionnaire at the Ho Chi Minh trail (see also Front-Line Artillery & Infantry) | |
| The Gunslingers:James Powell and the Gunslingers (see also Helicopter Gunship Assaults) | Helicopter Gunship Assaults: Major Alfred Demailo and the Smiling Tigers (see also The Smiling Tigers), James Powell and the Gunslingers (see also The Gunslingers) |
| The Smiling Tigers (see also Helicopter Gunship Assaults) | |
| Gator Navy: PC3 Wayne Lamond and the Gator Navy (probably bundled in Operation Air & Sea) | Operation Air & Sea! (see Gator Navy & Sabre Fire) |
| Sabre Fire: Captain Bill Claudio (probably bundled in Operation Air & Sea) | |
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20th Century with Mike Wallace (History Channel) |
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| Vietnam/Cuban Missle Crisis - 20th Century with Mike Wallace | Vietnam-Soldier's Diary |
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U.S. News & World Report Series |
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| Guerilla Warfare-Vietnam (1997) Masters of War | Vietnam-Combat From the Cockpit (1997) Air Combat II |
| Vietnam Choppers (1997) Air Combat II | |
Misc. Documentaries |
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| Battle Hell Vietnam | Vietnam Choppers (1991) |
| The Bombing of Vietnam (1990) | Vietnam Combat |
| Choosing
Sides: I Remember Vietnam - Fields of Fire (1998) Choosing Sides: I Remember Vietnam - The War at Home (1998) Narrated by Michael Moriarity |
Vietnam: A Chronicle of a War (1981) Vietnam-Chronicle of a War narrated by Walter Cronkite |
| Guerrilla Wars-Cuba Vietnam & Afghanistan People's Century | Vietnam Gunboats A & E |
| Hitchhiking Vietnam-Letters From Vietnam (1997) | Vietnam-A Marine Perspective Fourteen combat Marine officers discuss tactics and troops |
| Inside the Soviet Union 5 Vietnam: The Hot Red War | Vietnam River Rats/Phantoms of (Phantoms of what? I don't know . . .) |
| P.O.W. - Americans in Enemy Hands: World War II, Korea, and Vietnam (1991) | Vietnam: Two Decades & A Wake Up (1990) |
| Story of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial: The Last Landing Zone | Wars in Peace: Korea/Vietnam (1995) |
| Vietnam
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Why Vietnam?/Why Khe Sanh? (1988) |
My 
list of books about the Vietnam War in
order by author. They are not so much the ten best books as the ten books that most
influenced and impressed me. They will give you if not a complete overview, insight
into what the war did to the U.S., and to Vietnam, for what is probably generations to
come. They are all must reading.
(Astute observers will see there are not ten books listed; I am still deliberating.)
|
Dusty Battle Dressing: Poems about the Journey of a Nurse in Vietnam What can I say about a work of such quality? One of the finest books of poems to come out of the war. Buy it for $15 through the website or for a steep surcharge from Amazon |
This was one of the earlier books about Vietnam and like everything else
about the war, it wasn't the usual history. Written in the style of Wolfe or Hunter, Herr
is credited with making real the "rock n' roll" war.
[paperback]
[paperback from the UK]
ARMY -CENTRAL HIGHLANDS, 1967: I really like this book. The author arrived in Vietnam in Sept. 1967 and was an army truck mechanic in Pleiku. This is a good book to give someone who thinks if you weren't in the infantry, you weren't in combat. Like so many Vietnam memoirs, the book follows the author's life after Vietnam. [paperback]
ARMY 1st CAV, 1965-66: Mason is another of my favorites. This memoir is
the first book I read about Vietnam and has shaped my view of all the books I have read
subsequently. Mason was a pilot in the First Air Cav at An Khe from 1965-66, seeing action
at Ia Drang. He does a rare writing job in assuming you know nothing about helicopters,
giving you a thorough grounding in UH-1's, and then not talking down to you. You will want
to read the sequel . . .
[paperback]
[paperback from the UK]
Moore, Lt. Gen. Harold G., & Galloway, Joseph L. [authors' website]
We Were Soldiers Once and Young: Ia Drang-The Battle that Changed the War in Vietnam
ARMY 1/7 2/7 CAV, 1965: An extremely well respected dissection of the
battle of Ia Drang, fought at LZ X-Ray and LZ Albany. You will find here eyewitness
accounts from both sides of the battle. But what impressed me the most was the attempt to
identify so many of the participants by name, especially the soldiers who were killed.
This battle is also covered in Chickenhawk [paperback]
[audio
cassette abridged ]
[paperback from the UK]
[audio cassette
abridged from the UK]
O'Brien, Tim [author's website]
The Things They Carried
1990 A gripping series of Vietnam stories gathered in a format of
O'Brien's devising. It is not a collection of short stories, but it is not one story with
a beginning and an ending. It is perhaps closest to listening to a soldier storyteller
over a long period time. While you listen to his stories, you hear a bit of his personal
life; he uses repetition of events and certain phrases to reinforce familiarity with the
tales. Closing the book you believe you know the narrator very well. Attempting to further
confuse fiction with non-fiction, Tim O'Brien gave his storyteller the name "Tim
O'Brien." [paperback]
[paperback from the UK]
Palmer, Laura [author's
website]
Shrapnel in the Heart : Letters and Remembrance from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial
Here is a collection of letters, essays, journals, and recollections that
has made many a non-vet realize the great loss behind each name on the Wall. I
put this book at the top of anyone's reading list. In fact you could say it changed my
life. Before seeing an dramatization of the book, I had not read anything on Vietnam and
had no interest in the subject --sound familiar? [paperback]
[paperback from the UK]
A nurse's story. This is the book that made people realize there are women veterans too and they saw very rugged service. If you are trying to understand the war, this book needs to be on your list. Like so many memoirs of the war, the trip home is in the middle of the book, not on the last page.[paperback]
mean? It is just my very subjective list of the top ten books to read about the
Vietnam War. I list them here.|
United Kingdom |
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Still can't find
it? Try Battleground
Books:
Used books and scarce first editions at reasonable prices.
My Vietnam Related Websites:
Women
in Vietnam ~ Not only nurses served . . .
Dusty's
Home Page ~ Poetry and prose by a woman who was a nurse in Vietnam
Emily's
Poetry ~ By a Red Cross Donut Dolly
Battle
Dressing ~ The Journey of a Nurse in Vietnam
Tim O'Brien's Home Page ~ National Book Award Winner
and Americal Vet
Shrapnel
in the Heart ~ The most moving book you will read on Vietnam
The
Irish on the Wall ~ An effort to locate the Irish who died in Vietnam
Project
Hearts and Minds ~ Help put Viet Nam back together
All
About Vietnam ~ An annotated bibliography of books about Vietnam for
sale thru Amazon Worldwide!
Photos
from a Holts' Military History Tour ~ My trip to Vietnam, February 1998
Illinois
Vietnam Women's Memorial ~ Honoring all the Illinois women who served
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| Page last updated September 17, 2003 |
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