What are the best books/sources to read about South Vietnam and/or the ARVN?

by alliance000

I am a Vietnamese-American who has had a life long interest regarding the Vietnam War, particularly my family’s role within it due to multiple members serving within the different branches of the South Vietnamese Armed Forces. However, whenever I try to find out information about the war, particularly from the Southern perspective, there is either often very scant mention of the ARVN as a relevant force or there is an excessive focus placed upon American involvement or the PAVN/North Vietnamese as the main, significant Vietnamese force in the country. Are there any good sources that you guys can recommend that can offer a more objective perspective on the ARVN, or at least something that provides a more objective insight on South Vietnam as a whole? Thanks and sorry if my question seems rather long winded!

Velken

You are in luck, as we are entering a golden age for memoirs written by South Vietnamese veterans, as well as more books covering the South Vietnamese contribution to their own war.

As a start, I would wholeheartedly recommend for military memoirs (in no particular order):

  • Counterpart: A South Vietnamese Naval Officer's War by Kiem Do
  • Hell in An Loc: The 1972 Easter Invasion and the Battle that Saved South Vietnam and The Twenty-Five Year Century: A South Vietnamese General Remembers the Indochina War to the Fall of Saigon by Lam Quang Thi
  • Nationalist in the Viet Nam Wars: Memoirs of a Victim Turned Soldier by Nguyen Cong Luan
  • Steel and Blood: South Vietnamese Armor and the War for Southeast Asia by Ha Mai Viet
  • Vietnam Labyrinth: Allies, Enemies, & Why the U.S. Lost the War by Tran Ngoc Chau
  • The Final Collapse by Cao Van Vien

There is a new biography of General Le Minh Dao by his daughter, Children of Hope: The Story of Le Minh Dao, but I haven't read it yet.

Nguyen Cao Ky published a series of memoirs but in all honesty, they reflect his personality and personal shortcomings and I'd read them only as supplementals.

There are a few well-written accountings of the South Vietnamese military strategy and battles post-US withdrawal, but I would say the hands down best is Black April: The Fall of South Vietnam 1973-75 by George J. Veith. He interviewed a great deal of South Vietnamese veterans for it and it is probably the most comprehensive accounting for that period of the war. If you had to read only a single book out of all the ones I recommend, I would recommend this.

Another book covering a similar time span and content is Vietnam Combat Operations 1972-1975 by William E. Le Gro.

For a deeper dive in to the South Vietnamese diplomatic perspective, as well as general governmental affairs, I'd recommend:

  • In the Jaws of History by Bui Diem
  • The Palace File by Nguyen Tien Hung and Jerrold L. Schecter
  • Voices from the Second Republic of South Vietnam (1967–1975) edited by K.W. Taylor

For Vietnamese accounts of the post-war Reeducation Camps, civilian life during the war, or the refugee experience, I would recommend:

  • Vietnam Under Communism, 1975-1982 by Nguyen Van Canh
  • The Bamboo Gulag: Political Imprisonment in Communist Vietnam by Nghia M. Vo
  • Ship of Fate: Memoir of a Vietnamese Repatriate by Tru Dinh Tran
  • Returns of War: South Vietnam and the Price of Refugee Memory by Long T. Bui
  • Mourning Headband for Hue: An Account of the Battle for Hue, Vietnam 1968 by Nha Ca
  • The Sacred Willow: Four Generations in the Life of a Vietnamese Family by Duong Van Mai Elliott

Additionally there is Vietnamerica: A Family's Journey by GB Tran and The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui, both graphic novels about their family experiences.

If you have any additional questions or would like me to narrow down this list further, I am happy to do so!