The Vietnam Reader

Table Of Contents

Map of Vietnam
Introduction
Chronology of the War

Green
Robin Moore The Green Berets (1965)
Tim O’Brien If I Die in a Combat Zone (1973)
Tim O’Brien Going After Cacciato (1978)

Early Work
David Halberstam one very hot day (1967)
Tim O’Brien If I Die in a Combat Zone (1973)
Michael Casey Obscenities (1972)
David Rabe Sticks and Bones (1969)
From Demilitarized Zones, Jan Barry and W.D. Ehrhart, Editors

First Wave of Major Work
Ron Kovac Born on the Fourth of July (1976)
James Webb Fields of Fire (1978)
Philip Capto A Rumor of War (1977)
Michael Herr Dispatches (1977)
Tim O’Brien Going After Cacciato (1978)

First Wave of Major Films
The Deer Hunter, Coming Home, Apocalypse Now

Songs
“The Ballad of the Green Berets” Barry Sadler and Robin Moore (1966)
“I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixen’-to-Die-Rag” Country Joe McDonald 1965
“Fortunate Son” Creedence Clearwater RevivalJohn Fogerty (1969)
“The Unknown Soldier” The DoorsJim Morrison (1968)
“What’s Going on” Marvin Gaye (1971)
“War” Edwin Starr (1970)
“Born in the U.S.A.” Bruce Springsteen (1984)
“The Big Parade” 10,000 ManiacsNatalie Merchant (1989)

The Oral History Boom
Mark Baker Nam (1981)
Wallace Terry Bloods (1984)
Keith Walker A Piece of My Heart (1985)
From Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam, Bernard Edelman, Editor (1985)
Al Santoli Everything We Had (1981)

Second Wave of Major Work
John M. Del Vecchio The 13th Valley (1982)
Stephan Wright Meditations in Green (1983)
Larry Heinemann Paco’s Story (1986)

Second Wave of Major Films
Platoon, Full Metal Jacket

Memoirs
Ronald J. Glasser, M.D. 365 Days (1971)
Frederick Downs The Killing Zone (1978)
Robert Mason Chickenhawk (1983)
Michael Lee Lanning The Only War We Had (1987)

Masterwork
Tim O’Brien The Things They Carried (1990)

Homecoming
Larry Heinemann Paco’s Story (1986)
Louise Erdrich Love Medicine (1984)
From Carrying the Darkness, W.D. Ehrhart, Editor (1985)
Bruce Weigl A Romance (1979), The Monkey Wars (1985), What Saves Us (1992)
Tim O’Brien The Things They Carried 1990

Memory
Yusef Komunyakaa Dien Cai Dau 1988
Bobbie Ann Mason In Country (1985)
Kevin Bowen “Incoming” (1994)
Tim O’Brien In the Lake of the Woods (1994)
John Balaban “Mr. Giai’s Poem” (1991)

The Wall
W.D. Ehrhart “The Invasion of Grenada” (1984)
Stewart O’Nan The Names of the Dead (1996)
Yusef Komunyakaa Dien Cai Dau (1988)

Glossary
Selected Additional Bibliography
Selected Additional Filmography
Reading Questions
Acknowledgments
Index