Vietnam War Bibliography:

The ARVN and the RVN

James R. Arnold, Rangers. Illustrated History of the Vietnam War, no. 10. New York: Bantam, 1988. 158 pp. Includes a section toward the end on RVN rangers.

Robert K. Brigham, ARVN: Life and Death in the South Vietnamese Army. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2006. xiv, 178 pp. A short, well-researched study of the ARVN enlisted ranks. Not a chronologically-organized history; the chapters are "Conscription," "Training," "Morale," "Battles," and "Families."

Bui Diem with David Chanoff, In the Jaws of History. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1987. x, 367 pp. Bui Diem was RVN Ambassador to the US from 1967 to 1972.

Bui Diem, Gong kim lich su: hoi ky chinh tri. Paris: Pham Quang Khai, distributed by Editions Sudasie, 2000. v, V, 596, 13 pp. A significantly revised Vietnamese version of the previous item.

Thomas R. Cantwell, "The Army of South Vietnam: A Military and Political History, 1955-1975". Doctoral Dissertation, University of New South Wales, 1989. Order directly from university?

General Cao Van Vien, ARVN, "Vietnam: What Next?" Military Review, April 1972 (vol. LII, no. 4), pp. 22-30. Vien proposes cutting the Ho Chi Minh Trail, either by establishing a barrier just south of the 17th parallel, reaching from Dong Ha all the way across the Laotian panhandle to Savannakhet, on the Thai border, or by an invasion of North Vietnam a little to the north of the 18th parallel.

Gen. Cao Van Vien, Leadership.  McLean, VA: General Research Corporation [on a contract with the U.S. Army], 1978. v, 201 pp. General Vien had been Chairman of the Joint General Staff, Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces. Most of the text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University, in four parts: front matter and pp. 1-44, pp. 45-94, pp. 95-144, and pp. 145-199. The Glossary (pp. 200-201) has not been placed on-line. 1989.

Cao Xuan Huy, Thang ba gay sung: hoi ky. Westminster, CA: Van Khoa, 1986. 139 pp.

Code of Military Justice and Other Texts of Application. Directorate of Military Justice, Republic of Vietnam. Includes Ordinance No. 8 of 14 May 1951; Ordinance No. 01/UBLDOG of June 24, 1965, promulgating a state of war; Law 10/68, November 5, 1968, regarding the state of war. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University, in two parts: front matter and pp. 1-44, pp. 45-57.

The Constitution of the Republic of Vietnam. Saigon: Secretariat of State for Information, (1956? 1957?). 40 pp. The text of the constitution promulgated October 26, 1956, with commentary. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University.

Richard Critchfield, The Long Charade: Political Subversion in the Vietnam War. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1968. xi, 401 pp. Criticism of the top leadership of the RVN.

Victor J. Croizat, "Starting the Corps in South Vietnam." Naval History, April 1996, pp. 45-49.

"Data on GVN Field Force/Police (1968-71)." A collection, compiler not specified, of U.S. government documents relating to the National Police, and police-operated jails, of the Republic of Vietnam. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University, in two parts: first and second,

Hoanh Linh Do Mau, Viet Nam mau lua que huong toi. Huong Que, 1986. 3d ed. Westminster, CA: Van Nghe, 1993. 1089 pp.

Colonel Do Ngoc Nhan, ARVN, "Initiative in the Vietnam War" Military Review, August 1972 (vol. LII, no. 8), pp. 77-86. Colonel Nhan was deputy chief of the Central Training Command, RVNAF.

John C. Donnell, "National Renovation Campaigns in Vietnam." Pacific Affairs 32:1 (March 1959), pp. 73-88. If you browse the Internet through an institution that has subscribed to JSTOR, you can access the text directly or go through the JSTOR Pacific Affairs browse page.

William F. Dorrill, South Vietnam's Problems and Prospects: A General Assessment. RM-4350-PR. Santa Monica: Rand, October 1964. xi, 86 pp.

Van Nguyen Duong, The Tragedy of the Vietnam War: A South Vietnamese Officer's Analysis. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2008. 280 pp.

Daniel Ellsberg, in the late 1960s, wrote several papers, internal publications of the Rand Corporation, summarizing conversations he had had with two men who had formerly held positions in the Republic of Vietnam: Vu Van Thai (Vo Van Thai), RVN Ambassador to the United States 1965-1967, and Hoang Van Chi, who as an employee of the RVN Ministry of Information in the 1950s is said to have coined the term "Viet Cong." Santa Monica: Rand, 1969. The texts have been posted on Daniel Ellsberg's web site.

Embassy of the Republic of Vietnam, Washington, D.C. A number of publications of the embassy have been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project at Texas Tech University. Those in several series under the title Viet-Nam Bulletin have been listed below in two groups: Viet-Nam Bulletin (political issues) and Viet-Nam Bulletin (economic and social issues). Embassy publications not in these series include:

Sean Fear, "Saigon Goes Global: South Vietnam's Quest for International Legitimacy in the Age of Détente," Diplomatic History, 43:3 (June 2018), pp. 428-55. Extremely interesting.

Sean Fear, Theatres of Diplomacy: Domestic Politics and Civil Society in U.S.-South Vietnamese Relations. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press (forthcoming). Based on the quality of the item immediately above, I am very optimitic about this book.

Ray Fontaine, The Dawn of Free Vietnam: A Biographical Sketch of Doctor Phan Quang Dan. Brownsville, TX: Pan American Business Services, 1992. 207 pp. Fontaine, who arrived in Vietnam in 1968, worked with Dr. Dan beginning late in 1970.

Allan E. Goodman, Government and the Countryside: Political Accommodation and South Vietnam's Communal Groups. P-3924. Santa Monica: Rand, 1968. 38 pp.

Albert Grandolini, Fall of the Flying Dragon, South Vietnamese Air Force 1973–75. Houston, TX: Harpia, 2011. 253 pp. Extensively illustrated.

Allan E. Goodman, An Institutional Profile of the South Vietnamese Officer Corps. Santa Monica, CA: Rand, 1970.

Hai Ba Pho, Vietnamese Public Management in Transition: South Vietnam Public Administration, 1955-1975. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1990. x, 199 pp.

Ha Mai Viet, Steel and Blood: South Vietnamse Armor and the War for Southeast Asia. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2008. xi, 458 pp.

Gerald C. Hickey, Accommodation and Coalition in South Vietnam. Santa Monica, CA: Rand, 1970. 65 pp. Rand Paper P-4213.

Gerald C. Hickey, Accommodation in South Vietnam: The Key to Sociopolitical Solidarity. Santa Monica, CA: Rand, 1967. 28 pp. Rand Paper P-3707.

Hieu Dinh Vu et al., A.R.V.N. Ranger: Biet Dong Quan (alternate title on title page The ARVN Rangers). N.p., n.d. 224 pp. Mostly deals with 1968 to 1975.

Hoang Khoi Phong, Ngay N + . . .: Hoi ky. Westminster, CA: Van Nghe, 1988. 272 pp.

Stephen T. Hosmer, Konrad Kellen, and Brian M. Jenkins, The Fall of South Vietnam: Statements by Vietnamese Military and Civilian Leaders.  New York: Crane, Russak, 1980.  264 pp. A 1977 preliminary draft written for the Rand Corporation, significantly different from the final published version, has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University, in five parts: front matter and pp. 1-46, pp. 47-96, pp. 97-145, pp. 146-185, and pp. 186-203.

Pang Yang Huei, "Beginning of the End: ARVN and Vietnamisation (1969-72)". Small Wars and Insurgencies, 17:3 (September 2006), pp. 287-310.

Huynh Van Lang, Nhan chung mot che do (Witness to a System), 3 vols. Westminster, CA: self-published/Van Nghe, n.d. (2000 or 2001). 549, 445, 483 pp. Mostly deals with the Diem-Nhu era.

Uy-Ban Lien-Bo Dac-Trach (ve) Ap Chien-Luoc (Inter-Ministry Committee for Strategic Hamlets): detailed minutes (in Vietnamese) of many meetings of the committee have been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University, in the collection titled "Douglas Pike Collection: Other Manuscripts - Intra Ministry Committee for Strategic Hamlets". A few randomly chosen examples:
Meeting of 2 March 1962 (29 pp.)
Meeting of 12 April 1963 (63 pp.)
Meeting of 6 September 1963 (40 pp.)

"Improving South Vietnam's Internal Security Scene." Report prepared by the Department of Defense, with input from JSC, State, AID, and CIA, May 1970, in response to NSSM 19 of February 11, 1969. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University, in four parts: Front matter and pp. 1-43; pp. 44-56; Annex A VC/NLF Method of Operation; Annex B GVN Forces Engaged in Internal Security Operations; pp. B-1-1 to B-1-11 on the National Police; Annex C (GVN Management and Operational Techniques, including a lot on GVN detention facilities and policies); Annex D, Constraints; Annexes E and F (Force Structure and Force Level Alternatives; US Agency General Comments; also documents and data on Phung Hoang).

Brian M. Jenkins, A People's Army for South Vietnam: A Vietnamese Solution. Santa Monica: Rand, November 1971 (at least the cover and title page say 1971, but the footnote on pp. iii-iv was written around the middle of 1972, so the actual publication of the version containing this footnote must have been at or after that time). This document has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University, in two parts: front matter and pp. 1-21, and pp. 22-63. R-897-ARPA. xv, 63 pp.

Roy Jumper, "Mandarin Bureaucracy and Politics in South Viet Nam." Pacific Affairs 30:1 (March 1957), pp. 47-58. If you browse the Internet through an institution that has subscribed to JSTOR, you can access the text directly or go through the JSTOR Pacific Affairs browse page.

Jeremy Kuzmarov, "Modernizing Repression: Police Training, Political Violence, and Nation-Building in the 'American Century'." Diplomatic History 33:2 (april 2009), pp. 191-221. Looks at US efforts to train and support police forces in third-world countries, especially Vietnam. A bit strident in its criticism of US policy.

Jean Lacouture, "Who is Thieu?" New York Review of Books, 19:9 (November 30, 1972).

Lt. Gen. Lam Quang Thi, ARVN, "Military Academies and the Challenge of the Seventies." Military Review, March 1972 (vol. LII, no. 3), pp. 90-93.

Lt. Gen. Lam Quang Thi, ARVN, "Leadership and Environment" Military Review, September 1972 (vol. LII, no. 9), pp. 16-20. Lt. Gen. Thi was deputy commander of I Corps.

Lam Quang Thi, The Twenty-Five Year Century: A South Vietnamese General Remembers the Indochina War to the Fall of Saigon. Denton: University of North Texas Press, 2001. 423 pp. Lt. Gen. Thi, a VNA/ARVN officer since 1951, was deputy commander of I Corps in 1975.

Lam Quang Thi, Autopsy: The Death of South Vietnam. Phoenix: Sphinx Publishing, 1986. iii, 212 pp.

Vinh-The Lam, The History of South Vietnam: The Quest for Legitimacy and Stability, 1963–1967. London and New York: Routledge, 2021. 196 pp.

Danny Lane, Black Silk Pajamas: The Autobiography of the Former "First Lady" of South Vietnam. n.p.: Xlibris, 2000. 260. Apparently an as-told-to autobiography of Mai Thi Nguyen, wife of Nguyen Van Loc, RVN prime minister from November 1967 to May 1968. I am not optimistic.

Martin Loicano, "Military and Political Roles of Weapons Systems in the Republic of Viet Nam Armed Forces, 1966-1972." Ph.D. dissertation, History, Cornell University, 2008. 275 pp. DA 3330042.

Trinh Luu and Tuong Vu, eds., Republican Vietnam, 1963-1975: War, Society, Diaspora. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2023 (forthcoming).

Ly Tong Ba, Hoi ky 25 nam khoi lua. Westminster, CA: Tu-Quynh, n.d. 290 pp. Memoir by an ARVN officer who among other things participated in the Battle of Ap Bac in 1963, commanded the ARVN 23d Infantry Division in the defense of Kontum during the Easter Offensive of 1972, and commanded the ARVN 25th Infantry Division 1973-75.

The Measure of Aggression: A Documentation of the Communist Effort to Subvert South Vietnam. Saigon: Republic of Vietnam, August 1966. 42 pp. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University.

Robert C. Mikesh, Flying Dragons: The South Vietnamese Air Force. MBI Publishing, 1988. 208 pp. Rev. ed. Atglen, PA: Schiffer, 2005. 224 pp. Extensively illustrated, and with considerable detailed data in appendices.

John Grider Miller, "Old Bloody Hands," Naval History 14:5 (October 2000).

Charles Christopher Morrisey, "From 'In Country' to in the Pentagon: United States Military Policy and Training of the South Vietnamese Army." Ph.D. dissertation, History, Bowling Green State University, 2002. 309 pp. The abstract does not give the impression there was significant use of Vietnamese sources.

Nguyen Ba Can, Dat nuoc toi: hoi ky chanh tri (My homeland: a political memoir). San Jose, California: Hoa Hao Press, 2003. 587 pp. Can worked his way up from district chief of Cai Be, in Dinh Tuong province, 1958, to speaker of the lower house, 1971-1975. He was briefly premier, April 1975.

Nguyen Buu Thoai, Tro lai mat khu sinh lay. 2d ed. Houston, 2000. 454 pp. Thoai was an officer in the 2d Battalion, 33d Regiment, 21st ARVN Infantry Division, mid to late portions of the war, in IV Corps.

Nguyen Buu Thoai, Trong canh cua ngoai chan may. 2d ed. Houston, 2003. 463 pp.

Nguyen Cao Ky, Twenty Years and Twenty Days. New York: Stein and Day, 1976. 239 pp. The paperback (New York: Stein and Day, 1984) is titled How We Lost the Vietnam War. The memoirs of the RVN Air Force General, a North Vietnamese, who became Prime Minister of the Republic of Vietnam from 1965 to 1967.

Nguyen Cao Ky, with Marvin J. Wolf, Buddha's Child: My Fight to Save Vietnam. New York: St. Martin's, 2002. 272 pp. Transcript of Ky's extended discussion of his book on the C-SPAN show "Booknotes," July 14, 2002.

Nguyen Chanh Thi, Viet Nam: Mot troi tam su. Los Alamitos, CA: Xuan Thu, 1987.  386 pp.  Memoirs of the ARVN officer who was central both to the almost successful November 1960 coup against Ngo Dinh Diem, and to the 1966 Buddhist uprising in I Corps.

Nguyen Cong Luan, Nationalist in the Vietnam Wars: Memoirs of a Victim Turned Soldier. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2012. xv, 598 pp. Luan, born in North Vietnam, came south in 1954, became an ARVN officer, and served in the ARVN's General Political Warfare Department during the later part of the war. He was imprisoned for years after the war.

Hai Dang Nguyen (Nguyen Dang Hai), Get Up One More Time. Ellicott City, MD: H & T Publishers, 2007. xvi, 275 pp. Born in Haiphong in 1929, Hai began military training at the Military Academy of Officers of Reserve, at Nam Dinh, in 1951. Graduated in 1952, a classmate of Nguyen Cao Ky, assigned a staff job in Hanoi, then sent to France for quartermaster training. Converted to Catholic in 1956. Served in the ARVN Quartermaster Corps until he became Deputy Director of Cabinet under PM Nguyen Van Loc.

Nathalie Huynh Chau Nguyen, "War and Diaspora: The Memories of South Vietnamese Soldiers," Journal of Intercultural Stuidies 34:6 (2013), pp. 697-713.

Nathalie Huynh Chau Nguyen, South Vietnamese Soldiers: Memories of the Vietnam War and After. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2016. xx, 291 pp.

Nguyen Ngoc Linh, ed., The Armed Forces of the Republic of Viet Nam. Saigon: The Vietnam Council on Foreign Relations, 1969. 18 pp. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University.

Nguyen Phu Duc, The Viet-Nam Peace Negotiations: Saigon's Side of the Story. Edited by Arthur Dommen. Christiansburg, Virginia: Dalley Book Service, 2005. xiv, 463 pp. Duc was Special Assistant for Foreign Affairs to President Thieu.

Nguyen Tien Hung and Jerrold Schecter, The Palace File. New York: Harper & Row, 1986.  xiv, 542 pp.  Story of the relationship between the Saigon government and Washington, roughly 1969-75. Schecter has been both a journalist and a government official in the U.S.; Hung was a senior official in Saigon and is writing largely from his own knowledge.

Nguyen Tran, Cong va toi (Accomplishments and misdeeds). Xuan Thu, 1992. 863 pp. Among other things, Nguyen Tran was province chief of Dinh Tuong, in the Mekong Delta, 1956-58. He is said to have been pretty good.

Nguyen Van Thieu, President of the Republic of Vietnam, 1967-1975. Texts of a number of speeches by President Thieu have been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University.

Nguyen Van Thieu, interview with Orianna Fallaci, January 1973, in Oriana Fallaci, Interview with History (New York: Liveright, 1976), pp. 45-73.

Tin Nguyen (Nguyen Van Tin), Major General Nguyen Van Hieu, ARVN. San Jose, California: Writers Club Press/iUniverse, 2000. xix, 451 pp. Revised and expanded edition published as General Hieu, ARVN: A Hidden Military Gem. iUniverse, 2005. 686 pp. General Hieu, the author's brother, was deputy commander of III Corps when he died in 1975.

Nguyen Xuan Phong, Hope and Vanquished Reality. New York: Center for a Science of Hope/Philadelphia: Xlibris, 2001. 374 pp. Phong, head of the RVN delegation in Paris, returned to Vietnam April 25, 1975 and witnessed the fall of Saigon. He remained in Vietnam, and was imprisoned. Chapter 7, nominally about his experiences in prison, contains extended flashbacks to his role as a member of the RVN cabinet in the 1960s, and American policies during that period.

Nguyen Xuan Phong, oral history. The text is copyright by, and has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University, in multiple parts: sessions one and two, September 25 and 26, 2002 (goes up to the early 1960s), session three and four, September 27 and 30, 2002 (goes up to the coup of 1963; Phong was working for Esso, an American oil corporation), October 1 and 4, 2002 (from the Buddhist protests of 1963 up to Phong's becoming Minister of Labor in 1965, but there are a lot of digressions to earlier and later periods), October 11 and 14, 2002 (he was minister of welfare, then he became the Chieu Hoi minister in 1967, then in 1968 he became a member of the RVN delegation to the Paris negotiations), October 16 and 23, 2002 (mostly on the Ngo Dinh Diem era, but also on the Paris negotiations), November 6 and 21, 2002 (Paris negotiations), December 5, 2002, and January 10, 2003 (to the end of the war in 1975), January 24 and February 7, 2003 (a lot about his time in a re-education camp after the war), February 18 and March 14, 2003, (more on re-education) May 22 and June 11, 2003, (after his release in 1980), June 19, 2003.

Office of the Secretary of Defense, "Improving South Vietnam's Internal Security Scene." May 1970. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University, in four parts: front matter and pp. 1-43 ("Post-Hostilities Plans and Programs" begins on p. 38), pp. 44-56, Annexes A and B, Annexes B continued, Annexes C and D, Annexes E and F.

Major General David E. Ott, "Vietnamization: FA Assistance Programs. Field Artillery, January-February 2007, pp. 34-41.

Guy J. Pauker, An Essay on Vietnamization.  Santa Monica: Rand, 1971.  R-604-ARPA.  xi, 93 pp.

Andrew X. Pham, The Eaves of Heaven: A Life in Three Wars. Harmony, 2008. 301 pp. Andrew X. Pham has written the life story of his father Thong Van Pham [?? Has he Americanized the names, shifting the order to put surname at the end?], who was born into a wealthy landlord family in the Red River Delta, went south after the Geneva Accords, was drafted into the ARVN in 1963, served in the Rural Development program, and did time in a reeducation camp after 1975. The book is written in the first person, as if Thong Van Pham had written it.

Pham Phong Dinh (real name Pham Quoc Thoai), Quan luc Viet nam cong hoa trong con bau lua.  Winnipeg: Tu Sach Vinh Danh, 1998.  399 pp.  One chapter for each division, and each other major component of the RVNAF, in the 1970s.

Pham Phong Dinh, Chien su quan luc Viet nam cong hoa. Winnipeg: Tu Sach Vinh Danh, 2001. 602 pp. To some extent based on the previous item, but very substantially altered and expanded.

Quang X. Pham, A Sense of Duty: My Father, My American Journey. New York: Ballantine, 2005. xiii, 261 pp. Approximately the first third of the book is devoted to the service of the author's father, Pham Van Hoa, as a VNAF pilot during the war. The father underwent prolonged reeducation after the war.

Major General Pham Quoc Thuan, ARVN, "A Vietnam Solution" Military Review, June 1971, pp. 91-96. A major part of the proposal is cutting off the food supply to the Viet Cong.

Pham Van Lieu, Tra ta song nui, 3 vols. Houston, TX: Van Hoa, 2002-(2003?). Vol. 1, 1928-1963. 2002. 472 pp. Vol. 2, 1963-1975. 2003. 544 pp. Vol. 3, 1975-1985. 2003? Lieu commanded the Vietnamese Marine Corps briefly in 1956, and commanded the National Police Feb 1965 to April 1966; a supporter of Nguyen Chanh Thi and Phan Khac Suu.

Phan Thu Lang, Tran Le Xuan: giac mong chinh truong.  A Chau, 1998.  204 pp.  Biography of Madame Nhu.

John Prados, "Vietnamization: Success or Failure?" VVA Veteran, 27:6 (November/December 2007), pp. 37-40.

Merle L. Pribbenow, "Drugs, Corruption, and Justice in Vietnam and Afghanistan: A Cautionary Tale". Washington DecodedK, 11/11/2009. Convincingly refutes the widespread rumors that General Dang Van Quang, National Security Advisor to President Nguyen Van Thieu, was massively corrupt, and a major figure in the drug trade.

RD Ministry, Republic of Viet Nam, Military Cadre Administration: National RD Congress, 1966. Assorted materials, ending with translated texts of songs and poems. The congress had been held in Tuyen Duc, December 29-30, 1966. The text has been placed online in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University, in four sections: first section, next, next, next.

Republic of Vietnam, Preliminary Report on the Achievements of the War Cabinet, from June 19, 1965 to September 29, 1965. 55 pp., of which pp. 3-14 are a speech by Prime Minister Nguyen Cao Ky, October 1, 1965. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University.

Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces. Extensively illustrated monthly publication of the Psywar Directorate, National Defense Department, Saigon. A few issues have been placed online in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University.

"RVNAF Organization Chart (30 May 1973); "Pricipal Officials of the GVN" (18 April 1974); "Current Personnel Roster of JGS Staff and Appropriate Field Commanders" (30 May 1973). The texts of these documents from the files of Colonel William E. LeGro have been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University.

Secretariate of State for Land Property and Land Reform, "Land Reform Program Before 1954 and Land Reform Programs and Achievements Since July 1954." July 31, 1959. 12 pp. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University.

Lt. Col. David E. Shepherd, Jr., USA, "Republic of Vietnam's National Police" Military Review, June 1971, pp. 69-74

Vincent J. Sherry, Jr., "The Evolution of the Legal System of the Republic of Viet Nam." Ph.D. dissertation, Political Science, University of Southern Mississippi, 1973. 448 pp. 73-32027.

Ralph H. Smuckler, et. al., Report on the Police of Viet Nam. Saigon: Michigan State University Vietnam Advisory Group, December 1, 1955. iii, 51 pp. Includes the Civil Guard. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University, in two parts: front matter and pp. 1-37 and pp. 38-51 followed by illustrations.

Lewis Sorley, "Reassessing the ARVN." Vietnam Magazine, April 2003, pp. 42-48, 65.

Lewis Sorley, ed., The Vietnam War: An Assessment by South Vietnam's Generals. Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press, 2010. 944 pp. A collection of studies written by senior ARVN officers shortly after the end of the war, on contract for the U.S. Army (see Indochina Monographs), edited by Lewis Sorley.

"Special 1970 Pacification and Development Plan." Circular 1626-PThT/BDPT/KH, 30 May 1970, issued by the Prime Minister. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project at Texas Tech University.

Heather Stur, "Fateful Misunderstandings about the Republic of Vietnam," Diplomatic History 42:3 (June 2018), pp. 390-395.

Heather Stur, "Blurred lines: the home front, the battlefront, and the wartime relationship between citizens and government in the Republic of Vietnam," War & Society 38:1 (2019), pp. 57-79.

Anthony J. Tambini, F-5 Tigers over Vietnam. Boston: Branden Books, 2001. 93 pp. VNAF air operations.

K. W. Taylor, ed., Voices from the Second Republic of South Vietnam (1967-1975). Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Southeast Asia Program, 2014. vii, 172 pp.

The Si (a.k.a. Tran Van Hung, original name Nguyen Van The), Giot le tong dong lich su (A tear in the stream of history). Forest Park, Georgia: self-published, 2002. 351 pp. The author, born in Nghe An, was a victim of the land reform in 1956. He escaped to the South later in the 1950s. After 1975, he was imprisoned by the Communists.

The Times of Vietnam was an English-language Saigon newspaper that was closely associated with the government of Ngo Dinh Diem, and ceased to publish when Diem was overthrown and killed in 1963. At least one issue of the weekly magazine associated with it has has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project at Texas Tech University: The Times of Vietnam Magazine, IV:29 (July 22, 1962). Articles include "The Nha Trang Naval Training Center," "A Growing Navy," "Village Defense" (reprinted from the Christian Science Monitor), "Life in Communist China as Seen by a Hong Kong Cartoonist," "Angry Young Women" by J.F. Villasanta (on women in the anticommunist struggle), and "Young Man on the Move" by Nguyen Khiem Cat (a profile of National Assembly member Nguyen Phuong Thiep).

Ton That Dinh, 20 Nam Binh Nghiep. Milpitas, CA: Chanh Dao, 1998. 455 pp. Memoir by an ARVN general who, as commander of III Corps, played a crucial role in the coup that overthrew Ngo Dinh Diem in 1963.

Tran Ngoc Chau, with Ken Fermoyle, Vietnam Labyrinth: Allies, Enemies, and Why the U.S. Lost the War. Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press, 2012. xxiii, 436 pp.

Tran Ngoc Nhuan, Doi quan ngu. Los Alamitos, CA: Xuan Thu, 1992. 718 pp. Nhuan, born in 1933 in Quang Binh, was trained at the VNA's National Military Academy in 1952, became an officer of the VNA and later the ARVN, and served in the RVN Senate from 1967 to 1973.

Nu-Anh Tran, Disunion: Anticommunist Nationalism and the Making of the Republic of Vietnam, 1954-1963 (forthcoming).

Tran Quang Khoi, "Fighting to the Finish: The Role of South Viet Nam's III Armor Brigade and III Corps Assault Force in the War's Final Days." Armor, March-April 1996, pp. 19-25. Includes a biographical sketch of BG Khoi, who commanded III Armor Brigade.

Tran Van Don, Our Endless War. San Rafael, CA: Presidio Press, 1978. x, 274 pp. By an ARVN general, born in France, who played a major role in the 1963 coup against Ngo Dinh Diem.

Tran Van Don, Viet Nam nhan chung: hoi ky chanh tri. Los Alamitos, CA: Xuan Thu, 1989. 562 pp. Much longer and more detailed than the English-language version of General Don's memoirs. Has more on the CIA role in the coup that overthrew Ngo Dinh Diem in 1963, and a lot of detail about individuals--things like lists of members of the cabinet at particular dates.

Tran Van Lam, The Peacemakers. Saigon: Vietnam Council on Foreign Relations, 1969. 15 pp. This is a speech Foreign Minister Lam made before the council in Saigon on October 29, 1969. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project at Texas Tech University.

Tran Van Ngo, et al., Who's Who in Vietnam, 3d ed. Saigon: Vietnam Press, 1974. 10, 968 pp. The full text has been placed online at the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University, in ten sections: front matter and pp. 1-83 (Nguyen Van Ai to Chung Tan Cang);   pp. 84-183 (Doan Ba Cang to Nguyen Cao Dam);   pp. 184-275 (Nguyen Cao Dam [con't] to Nguyen Huu Hanh);   pp. 276-375 (Nguyen Ngoc Hanh to Vu Van Khieu);   pp. 376-475 (Le Ba Khieu to Nguyen Van Loc);   pp. 476-575 (Tran Van Loc to Chau Kim Nhan);   pp. 576-675 (Pham Thong Nhan to Vo Thanh Son);   pp. 676-775 (Ton That Soan to Kieu Mong Thu);   pp. 776-875 (Le Van Thu to Phan Dinh Tuan);   pp. 876-968 (Phan Dinh Tuan [con't] to Nguyen Vy).

General Tran Van Nhut, with Christian L. Arevian, An Loc: The Unfinished War. Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press, 2009. xiii, 227 pp. The title is a bit misleading; this is General Nhut's autobiography, with two chapter (pp. 112-164) on the battle for An Loc, north of Saigon, during the Easter Offensive of 1972. Nhut joined the Vietnamese National Army in 1953, and graduated from the military academy at Dalat in July 1954. He was province chief of Binh Long province (of which An Loc was the capital) from 1970 to 1972. In 1972 he became commander of the 2d Infantry Division, in I Corps.

Truong Duong, Doi chien binh (Life of a Soldier). Self-published by the author, in Boynton Beach, Florida, 1998 (printed by Tu Quynh, in California). 316 pp. Truong Duong was a major in an airborne unit; the focus of the book is the years 1972-75.

Tuong Vu and Sear Fear, eds., The Republic of Vietnam, 1955-1975: South Vietnamese Perspectives on Nation Building. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Southeast Asia Program, 2020. 210 pp.

George J. Veith, Drawn Swords in a Distant Land: South Vietnam's Shattered Dreams. New York: Encounter Books, 2021. xiv, 632 pp. An overall history of the Republic of Vietnam.

Viet-Nam Bulletin. Washington, D.C.: Embassy of Viet-Nam. A number of issues of this publication have been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project at Texas Tech University. The listing that follows is in chronological order, intermingling regular issues with two numbered series of special issues:

Lt. Gen. Vinh Loc, ARVN, "Search for Professional Excellence." Military Review, December 1968 (vol. XLVIII, no. 12), pp. 51-55. The National Defense College in Saigon, of which Vinh Loc was commandant, established in 1967.

LT. Gen. Vinh Loc, ARVN, "National Defense: The Key to Vietnam Survival" Military Review, July 1971, pp. 90-95.

Vinh Truong, Vietnam War: The New Legion, 2 vols. Victoria, BC, Canada: Trafford, 2010. I have glanced at a few pages and found them incoherent. Volume I has a long chapter on the Battle of Ap Bac.

Hieu D. Vu (Vu Dinh Hieu), Republic of Vietnam Army Ranger. Self-published, 2011. 421 pp. Most chapters were written by Vu; some by other officers. Most of the book deals with the period from January 1973 onward.

Vu Van Thai, Fighting and Negotiating in Vietnam: A Strategy. Santa Monica: Rand, October 1969. RM-5997-ARPA. xv, 68 pp. The preface and summary (pp. iii-xiii) have been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project at Texas Tech University.

Jac Weller, "RVNAF Training: The Vital Element in Vietnamization." Military Review, October 1972 (vol. LII, no. 10), pp. 35-49).

Colonel George F. Westerman, USA, and Captain James L. McHugh, Jr., USAR, "Reaching for the Rule of Law in South Vietnam" Military Review, January 1968 (vol. XLVIII, no. 1), pp. 78-85). Condensed from an article published in the American Bar Association Journal, February 1967.

Andrew Wiest, Vietnam's Forgotten Army: Heroism and Betrayal in the ARVN. New York: NYU Press, 2008. xviii, 350 pp. The story of two officers who won good reputations in the ARVN 1st Division: Tran Ngoc Hue (Harry Hue Tran), as a battalion commander in Operation Lam Son 719 in 1970, fought very tenaciously until wounded and then captured; he spent many years in reeducation camps after the war. Pham Van Dinh, on April 2, 1972, during the Easter Offensive, surrendered Camp Carroll (in northern Quang Tri province) to the PAVN and then switched sides, supporting the PAVN. An extremely useful book; Dinh and Hue had been involved in many of the crucial events of the war in northern I Corps.

Works on the government of Ngo Dinh Diem can be found in the section Temporary Peace and Renewed War, 1954-1964.

Indochina Monographs (written for the U.S. Army after the war by former ARVN officers).

Personal Accounts, Vietnamese

 

 

Politics and Elections

John C. Donnell and Charles A. Joiner, eds., Electoral Politics in South Vietnam. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books, 1974. v, 198 pp.

Sean Fear, "The Ambiguous Legacy of Ngo Dinh Diem in South Vietnam's Second Republic (1967–1975)," Journal of Vietnamese Studies 11:1 (Winter 2016), pp. 1-75.

Allan E. Goodman, Politics in War: The Bases of Political Community in South Vietnam. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1973. xv, 313 pp.

Allan E. Goodman, "Conflict and Accomodation within a Legislative Elite in South Vietnam." Pacific Affairs 44:2 (Summer 1971), pp. 211-227. If you browse the Internet through an institution that has subscribed to JSTOR, you can access the text directly or go through the JSTOR Pacific Affairs browse page.

Edward S. Herman and Frank Brodhead, Demonstration Elections: U.S.-Staged Elections in the Dominican Republic, Vietnam, and El Salvador. Boston: South End Press, 1984. The full text is available online to paid subscribers of Questia.

Charles A. Joiner, The Politics of Massacre: Political Processes in South Vietnam. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1974.  xv, 346 pp.

Peter King, "The Political Balance in Saigon." Pacific Affairs 44:3 (Autumn 1971), pp. 401-420. If you browse the Internet through an institution that has subscribed to JSTOR, you can access the text directly or go through the JSTOR Pacific Affairs browse page.

Donald Kirk, "The Thieu Presidential Campaign: Background and Consequences of the Single-Candidacy Phenomenon", Asian Survey, 12:7 (July 1972), pp. 609-624. If you browse the Internet through an institution that has subscribed to JSTOR, you can access the text directly or go through the JSTOR Asian Survey browse page.

James McAllister, "A Fiasco of Noble Proportions: The Johnson Administration and the South Vietnamese Elections of 1967," Pacific Historical Review, 73:4 (November 2004), pp. 619-652.

Nguyen Khac Ngu, Dai cuong ve cac dang phai chinh tri Viet nam (A general introduction to Vietnamese political parties). Montreal, Canada: Nhom ngien cuu su dia, 1989. 144 pp.

Howard R. Penniman, Elections in South Vietnam. Washington: American Enterprise Institute, 1972. 246 pp.

Political Parties and Political Opposition in Viet-Nam. Viet-Nam Documents Series, No. 6. Washington, D.C.: Embassy of Vietnam, (1969?). 18 pp. The text of Law No. 009/69, of June 19, 1969, governing political parties. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University.

Robert G. Scigliano, "Political Parties in South Vietnam under the Republic." Pacific Affairs 33:4 (December 1960), pp. 327-346. If you browse the Internet through an institution that has subscribed to JSTOR, you can access the text directly or go through the JSTOR Pacific Affairs browse page.

WGBH, a major public television and radio station in Boston that produces many important documentaries, has placed online The Vietnam Collection, which includes both video and transcripts of more than 200 interviews with people (mostly Vietnamese and Americans) who were involved with the Indochina wars, conducted during the preparation of the 1983 documentary Vietnam: A Television History and Stanley Karnow's book Vietnam: A History. Bui Diem, Hoang Duc Nha, Ngo Dinh Luyen, Nguyen Cao Ky, Tran Ngoc Chau, Tran Van Don, and many others.

Eleazar A. Williams, The Election Process in Vietnam: The Road to a Functioning Polity. Washington, D.C.: National War College, 1971. 168 pp.

For the role of religious groups in Vietnamse politics, see Religions below.

 

 

Administration

Luther A. Allen and Pham Ngoc An, A Vietnamese District Chief in Action.  Saigon: Michigan State University Vietnam Advisory Group, 1961.  Reprinted Washington: Agency for International Development, 1961. viii, 72 pp. Dien Ban district, a densely populated rural district on Highway 1 in Quang Nam province. The full text of the famous Law 10-59 is included as an appendix (pp. 69-71). The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University, in two parts: front matter and pp. 1-42 and pp. 43-72.

Henry Bush, "Interview with Dr. Henry Bush." Oral history, February 25, 1967. 41 pp. Dr. Bush was U.S. advisor to the National Institute for Administration in Saigon, and editor of the Public Administration Bulletin. He provides interesting information about the RVN administration and U.S. advisors to it. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University.

Decree Number 198-SL/DUHC of 24 December 1966 Governing the Reorganization of Village, Hamlet Administration. 22 pp. Translated by AID. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University.

Decree Number 199-SL/DUHC Governing Election of Village Council Members, Hamlet Chiefs and Deputy Hamlet Chiefs. 24 December 1966. 13 pp. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University.

Nghiem Dang, Viet-Nam: Politics and Public Administration. Honolulu: East-West Center Press, 1966.

Nguyen Quoc Tri, "Culture and Technical Assistance in Public Administration--A Study of what can be Transferred from the United States to Vietnam." Ph.D. dissertation, Public Administration, University of Southern California, 1970. 462 pp. AAT 7025070. The full text is available online if you are browsing the Internet through an institution that has paid the fee for ProQuest Dissertations and Theses.

Phan Thanh Ngo, "Pay in the Public Sector in Vietnam: A Combined Approach." Ph.D. dissertation, Political Science(?), U. of Southern California, 1975. 233 pp. 75-15557.

Hai B. Pho, Vietnamese Public Management in Transition: South Vietnam Public Administration 1955-1975. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1990. x, 199 pp.

Public Administration Bulletin, renamed in 1966 Public Administration Bulletin Vietnam. Much information, including lists of names of officials down to the level of district chief, population data by province, and English translations of speeches by President Thieu, and of important laws and decrees of the Republic of Vietnam, can be found in this AID publication. Many issues from 1963 to 1969, and a few from 1970 and 1971, are available online.

Jerry M. Silverman, "Local Government and National Integration in South Vietnam." Pacific Affairs 47:3 (Autumn 1974), pp. 305-325. If you browse the Internet through an institution that has subscribed to JSTOR, you can access the text directly or go through the JSTOR Pacific Affairs browse page. University of Southern Mississippi, 1973. 448 pp. 73-32027.

Ralph H. Smuckler, et. al., Recommendations Concerning the Department of Interior, the Regions and Provinces, supplement, part II, Background Information. Saigon: Michigan State University Vietnam Advisory Team, January 1956. i, 32 pp. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University, in two parts: front matter and pp. 1-28 and pp. 29-32.

Tran Anh Tuan, "Anti-Corruption and the Censorate: The Vietnamese Experience." Ph.D. dissertation, (Political Science?), Syracuse, 1973. 323 pp. 74-8318. Focuses on the Censorate established under the constitution of 1967. The conclusion is that no institutional mechanism can cure corruption unless it has strong political backing. Based on Vietnamese newspapers, government publications, and a survey of officials.

Lloyd W. Woodruff, Local Administration in Viet-Nam: Its Future Development. Saigon: Michigan State University Advisory Group [and] National Institute of Administration, Republic of Viet-Nam, June 1961. Report No. 3, Local Administration Series. v, 416 pp. Much more of this deals with present and past conditions than the title would suggest. Includes some documents, and essays by persons other than Woodruff. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project at Texas Tech University, in multiple parts, the URLs of which are all the same except for one letter at the end, from front matter and pp. 1-45 to pp. 395-416.

Lloyd W. Woodruff, assisted by Nguyen Ngoc Yen, Local Administration in Vietnam: The Number of Local Units. Saigon: Michigan State University Advisory Group, Republic of Viet-Nam National Institute of Administration, November 1, 1960. Report no. 1, Local Administration Series. vi, 48 pp. plus extensive appendices. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project at Texas Tech University, in three parts: front matter and pp. 1-43, pp. 44-48 and A-1 to G-1, and pp. G-2 to G-6.

Joseph J. Zasloff and Nguyen Khac Nhan, A Study of Administration in Binh Minh District. Saigon: Michigan State University Viet Nam Advisory Group and National Institute of Administration, October 1961. iii, 66 pp. Binh Minh was in Vinh Long province. Includes a detailed account of a few days in the life of the district chief in April 1960. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project at Texas Tech University, in two parts: front matter and pp. 1-44 and pp. 45-66.

 

 

Prisons

Marcel Berni, "Capture, classification and incarceration of Communist captives during Vietnam's American War," Journal of Southeast Asian Studies54:3 (October 2023), pp. 526-47.

Donald E. Bordenkircher as told to Shirley A. Bordenkircher, Tiger Cage: An Untold Story. Cameron, WV: Abby, 1998. 241 pp. Donald Bordenkircher was the US Senior Advisor to the RVN Director of Corrections from early 1968 into the early 1970s. He argues that the revelation in 1970 of the "Tiger Cages" at the prison on Con Son Island was a very distorted piece of anti-American propaganda.

Holmes Brown and Don Luce, Hostages of War: Saigon's Political Prisoners. Washington: Indochina Mobile Education Project, 1973. iii, 109 pp.

The Civilian Prisoner Question in South Viet Nam. Saigon: National Commission for Information, Republic of Vietnam, November 1973. 35 pp. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University.

Le Anh Tu, Eric Prokosch, and Truong Dinh Hung, eds. and translators, After the Signing of the Paris Agreements: Documents on South Vietnam's Political Prisoners. Cambridge, MA: NARMIC (National Action/Research on the Military Industrial Complex, a project of the American Friends Service Committee) and the Vietnam Resource Center, July 1973. 49 pp. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University, in two parts: pp. 1-32, and pp. 33-49 and map of Con Son prison.

Political Prisoners in South Vietnam. London: Amnesty International, 1973. 37 pp.

The Republic of Viet Nam Penitentiary System and the Civilian Prisoner Question. Saigon: Republic of Vietnam National Commission for Information, June 1973. 33 pp., plus numerous pages of photographs without page numbers. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University.

 

 

Chieu Hoi

Lawrence E. Grinter, "Amnesty in South Viet Nam: An Analysis of the Chieu Hoi (Open Arms) Program in the Republic of Viet Nam". Unpublished paper, August 1967. xxi, 144 pp. plus extensive unpaginated appendices. The research was done in South Vietnam in 1966, when the author was working for the Simulmatics Corporation, under Project Agile funded by DARPA. It is unclear whether the report was written at Simulmatics, or after Grinter's return to the University of North Carolina. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University, in five parts: pp. i-xxi, 1-29,   pp. 30-79,   pp. 80-129,   pp. 130-144, and appendices,   additional appendices, including one on the Khmer Kapachea Krom (KKK).

Ho Van Cham, The Chieu Hoi Program in Vietnam. Saigon: Vietnam Council on Foreign Relations, n.d. (1970?). 25 pp. Ho Van Cham was the Open Arms Minister, in charge of the Chieu Hoi program. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University.

Jeanette A. Koch, The Chieu Hoi Program in South Vietnam, 1963-1971. R-1172-ARPA. Santa Monica, California: Rand, January 1973. The RAND Corporation both sells this in book form, and allows people to read it for free online. xix, 223 pp.

Jeannine S. Swift, "Chieu Hoi: A US Pacification Program in vietnam Revisited, 1963-1972." n.p., n.d. vii, 129 pp. The main focus is on II Corps. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project at Texas Tech University, in three parts: Front matter and pp. 1-43, pp. 44-93 (second half of the main text, and the first two maps, showing South Vietnam, and II Corps as a whole), pp. 94-129 (the maps of individual provinces of II Corps, and other end matter).

Tal Tovy, "Learning from the Past for Present Counterinsurgency Conflicts: The Chieu Hoi Program as a Case Study," Armed Forces & Society 38:1 (2012), pp. 142-163.

A Winn, "Inducement Strategies in the Vietnam War," in Ofer Fridman, Vitaly Kabernik, and Francesca Granelli, eds., Info Ops: From World War I to the Twitter Era (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2022). Covers 1963 to 1969.

See also Nguyen Xuan Phong, Viet-Nam Bulletin no. 14, and Viet-Nam Info Series no. 32 (listed under Viet-Nam Bulletin), above.

 

 

The Vietnamese Navy (VNN)

Bong dem & su mang: hoat dong chien tranh ngoai le, Luc luong Biet Hai, So Phong Ve Duyen Hai, Nha Ky Thuat. n.p., 2010. 580 pp. On the Sea Commandos of the RVN Coastal Security Service.

Diep My Linh, Hai quan Viet Nam Cong hoa ra khoi, 1975. Alief, TX: Diep My Linh, 1990. 368 pp.

Ho Van Ky Thoai, Can truong trong chien bai [Bravery in Defeat]. n.p.: self-published, 2007. 331 pp.

Thoai Hovanky [Ho Van Ky Thoai], The Last Admiral: Memoirs of the Last Surviving South Vietnamese Admiral. n.p.: self-published, 2021. ii, 180 pp. Extensively illustrated. Surely some overlap with the preceding item, but not just a translation.

Khu hoi cuu tu nhan chinh tri Viet Nam California, ed., Tuong niem 40 nam Tet Mau Than & 34 nam tran hai chien Hoang Sa cua Hai Quan Quan Luc VNCH. Westminster, CA: Tuan bao tach nhiem, 2008. 472 pp.

Kiem Do and Julie Kane, Counterpart: A South Vietnamese Naval Officer's War. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1998. xii, 233 pp. Kiem Do was accepted into a French training program for officers for the Navy of the State of Vietnam when he graduated from secondary school in Hanoi in 1954. By 1975 he was a Captain in the Vietnamese Navy (VNN), and Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations. The book is written in 3d, not 1st, person.

The Times of Vietnam was an English-language Saigon newspaper that was closely associated with the government of Ngo Dinh Diem, and ceased to publish when Diem was overthrown and killed in 1963. At least one issue of the weekly magazine associated with it has has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project at Texas Tech University: The Times of Vietnam Magazine, IV:29 (July 22, 1962). Articles include "The Nha Trang Naval Training Center " and "A Growing Navy."

Viet-Nam Bulletin. Washington, D.C.: Embassy of Viet-Nam. A number of issues of this publication have been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project at Texas Tech University.

 

 

RVN Marines

Lt. Col. Douglas T. Kane, USMC, "Vietnamese Marines in Joint Operations." Military Review, November 1968 (vol. XLVIII, no. 11), pp. 26-33.

CSM Michael Martin, Warriors of the Sea: Marines of the Second Indochina War. Paducah, KY: Turner Publishing Company. 160 pp. The Vietnamese Marine Corps.

Pham Van Lieu, Tra ta song nui, 3 vols. Houston, TX: Van Hoa, 2002-(2003?). Vol. 1, 1928-1963. 2002. 472 pp. Vol. 2, 1963-1975. 2003. 544 pp. Vol. 3, 1975-1985. 2003? Lieu commanded the Vietnamese Marine Corps briefly in 1956, and commanded the National Police Feb 1965 to April 1966; a supporter of Nguyen Chanh Thi and Phan Khac Suu.

Tran Xuan Dung, ed., History of the Vietnamese Marine Corps, Army of the Republic of Vietnam/Chien su Thuy quan luc chien, Quan luc Viet nam cong hoa. n.p., 1997. 516 pp. Bilingual volume, with Vietnamese and English text on facing pages.

 

 

U.S. Advisors

Ronald L. Beckett, Jack of All Trades: An American Advisor's War in Vietnam, 1969-70. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole, 2016. x, 239 pp. Beckett commanded the district advisory team in Dinh Quan District, Long Khanh Province, April 1969 to June 1970.

Andrew James Birtle, "Advisory Service in Vietnam: Detrimental to an Officer's Career?" Journal of Military History, 74:3 (July 2010), pp. 871-77.

Col. Robert W. Black, A Ranger Born: A Memoir of Combat and Valor from Korea to Vietnam. New York: Ballantine, 2002. 320 pp. The main focus is on Black's 1967-68 tour as a district senior adviser in Long An.

Kevin M. Boylan, "Goodnight Saigon: American Provincial Advisors' Final Impressions of the Vietnam War," Journal of Military History 78:1 (January 2014), pp. 233-270. What the final reports written by US province senior advisers when completing their tours in Vietnam, between 1969 and 1973, reveal about the extent to which the extent to which the Communists were being defeated, the RVN strengthened, and the war being won.

Admiral William J. Crowe, Jr., with David Chanoff, Line of Fire: From Washington to the Gulf, the Politics and Battles of the New Military. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993. 367 pp. of which pp. 75-85 are devoted to Crowe's tour in 1970 (probably stretching into 1971) as an adviser to RVN riverine forces in the Mekong Delta.

BG Donald D. Dunlop, "Senior Officer Debriefing Report." Dunlop had been Deputy Senior Advisor, III Corps, 22 June 1968 to 30 April 1969. 45 pp. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University.

Andrew J. Gawthorpe, "Rural Government Advisers in South Vietnam and the U.S. War Effort, 1962-1973," Journal of Cold War Studies, Vol. 23, No. 1 (Winter 2021), pp. 196-227.

John A. Graham, who arrived in Hue February 12, 1971 as Municipal Senior Advisor for Hue a member of CORDS Advisory Team 18, Thua Thien Province, has donated a number of the monthly reports he wrote titled "Hue City Monthly Narrative" to Texas Tech University, which has made them available online through the Virtual Vietnam Archive of its Vietnam Project, from his report for February 1971 dated 2 March 1971, and his report for March 1971 dated 2 April 1971, to his report for May 1972 dated 2 June 1972. Graham also donated other of his reports, including "Radicalism in Hue: The Politics of Discontent dated 1 November 1971, and reports he had written on election campaigns in Hue, such as "Election Report #3: Lower House Election" dated 7 August 1971, and some of the monthly reports of his superior, the Thua Thien Province Senior Advisor, Robert H. Wenzel, such as "Province Report" for July 1971 dated 3 August 1971. Notice that the various documents in the John Graham collection have the same URL except for the last two digits, so one can browse through the collection simply by altering the last digits of the URL.

John A. Graham, "Anatomy of a Crisis - Hue City (Phase One - April 30-May 10 1972), 11 May 1972, 6 pp.; "Anatomy of a Crisis - Hue City (Phase Two-May 11-19 1972), 20 May 1972, 6 pp.; "Anatomy of a Crisis - Hue City (#3 - May 20-June 2)", 3 June 1972, 3 pp. The full texts of these very interesting reports on the way the people of Hue, and the RVN authorities there, responded to the crisis of the Easter Offensive in 1972, have been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University.

Gerald C. Hickey, with W.P. Davison, The American Military Advisor and his Foreign Counterpart: The Case of Vietnam. RM-4482-ARPA. Santa Monica: Rand, March 1965. xx, 85 pp.

John D. Howard, First In Last Out: An American Paratrooper in Vietnam with the 101st and the Vietnamese Airborne. Guilford, CT: Stackpole, 2017. xii, 252 pp. Howard graduated from West Point in 1964. He served in Vietnam 1965-66 in the 1st Brigade, 101st Airborne Division. He returned for a second tour in May 1972 as senior adviser to the 6th Airborne Battalion, an elite ARVN unit. He did not have a good relationship with his counterpart.

David M. Livingstone, "Public Safety Division and the National Police Field Force in Vietnam, 1964-1971," in Donald Stoker and Edward B. Westermann, eds., Expeditionary police advising and militarization: building security in a fractured world (Solihull, West Midlands, UK: Helion, 2018).

CSM Michael N. Martin, ed., Angels in Red Hats: Paratroopers of the Second Indochina War: Elite Vietnamese Paratroopers and their American Advisors. Louisville, KY: Harmony House, 1995. 184 pp. Text written mostly by various US advisors to ARVN airborne units; plentiful photographs, including 14 pp. on uniforms, patches, decorations and flags.

John Mason, Riding the Rails in Vietnam - 1965. Fairfax, VA: Mason Publishing Group, 2019. 225 pp. Mason arrived in Vietnam in December 1964 and became the chief US military advisor to the RVN Railway Security Group in III Corps. He had a high opinion of RVN troops, and a low opinion of RVN officers. The volume contains many photos, and copies of contemporary documents.

Col (Ret) Keith M. Nightingale, Living and Breathing: Just Another Day in vietnam. CreateSpace, 2015. 266 pp. Nightingale, then a 1st Lieutenant, was Deputy Senior Advisor to the Vietnamese 52d Ranger Battalion in June 1967, when the battalion was cautht in a devastating ambush in War Zone D.

Robert Nylen, Guts: Combat, Hell-raising, Cancer, Business Start-ups, and Undying Love: One American Guy's Reckless, Lucky Life. New York: Random House, 2009. 272 pp. Includes Nylen's year as a lieutenant in Vietnam, approximately 1968, in the 2/12 Cavalry and as an advisor to RF/PF.

Robert D. Parrish, Combat Recon: My Year with the ARVN. New York: St. Martin's, 1991. xv, 291 pp. Lt. Parrish was an advisor 1967-68 first to the 3d Battalion of the 7th Infantry Regiment, 5th ARVN Infantry Division, then to reconnaissance units of that division, in III Corps.

William Reeder Jr., Extraordinary Valor: The Fight for Charlie Hill in Vietnam. Globe Pequot / Lyons Press, 2022. 296 pp. Special Forces Major John Duffy won the Medal of Honor for his actions as an adviser to the 11th ARVN Airborne Battalion near Dak To in April 1972, during the Easter Offensive.

A. P. Slaff, "Naval Advisor Vietnam," Proceedings of the U.S. Naval Institute, April 1969, pp. 38-44.

Richard Taylor, Prodigals: A Vietnam Story. Havertown, PA: Casemate, 2003. xviii, 331 pp. Taylor as a first lieutenant was an adviser to the 2d Battalion, 11th Infantry Regiment, ARVN 7th Infantry Division, in the Mekong Delta 1967-68. He was in the fighting in My Tho during the Tet Offensive. During his second tour, 1970-71, he initially commanded B Company, 1/7 Cavalry, 3d Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, then (pp. 268- ) was his battalion's intelligence officer.

Phil Tompkins, Ruff Puff: A "MAT" Team Leader's Story. Tompkins was sent to Vietnam in March 1969. CreateSpace, 2011. 290 pp.

Robert L. Tonsetic, Forsaken Warriors: The Story of an American Advisor with the South Vietnamese Ranges and Airborne, 1970-71. Philadelphia: Casemate, 2009. 233 pp.

Terry T. Turner, "Mobile Advisory Teams in Vietnam: A Legacy Remembered," On Point: The Journal of Army History, 16 (Spring 2011), pp. 34-41.

Bob Worthington, Under Fire with ARVN Infantry: Memoir of a Combat Advisor in Vietnam, 1966-1967. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2018. viii, 232 pp. Wothington, a captain, trained for in 1965 for service as an advisor, first taking the MATA course at the Army Special Warfare School (Fort Bragg) and then an eight-week Vietnamese language course at the Defense Language Institute. He arrived in Vietnam in January 1966 and was sent to Quang Nam province, initially as an advisor to RF/PF. By June he was helping Marines with the CAP program. In early July he became an advisor to the ARVN 3rd Battalion, 51st Regiment.

Bob Worthington, Fighting Viet Cong in the Rung Sat: Memoir of a Combat Advisor in Vietnam, 1968-1969. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2021. x, 273 pp. Worthington arrived in Vietnam for his second tour in August 1968, was assigned as district senior adivsor, Trang Bang District, Hau Nghia Province in III Corps. Later shifted to the Rung Sat.

 

South Vietnam: Economy and Society

Clifton G. Barton, "Credit and Commercial Control: Strategies and Methods of Chinese Businessmen in South Vietnam." Ph.D. dissertation, Cultural Anthropology, Cornell, 1977. 392 pp. 7801609. Barton did research for this in Vietnam intermittently between June 1967 and April 1975.

David Chanoff and Doan Van Toai, "Vietnam": A Portrait of its People at War. I.B. Tauris, 1996. 240 pp.

William Roy Crawford, "The Impact of Political Violence on Marketing Development in South Vietnam: 1955 through 1972." Ph.D. dissertation, Marketing, University of Alabama, 1976. 519 pp. DA 77-12183.

Douglas C. Dacy, Foreign Aid, War, and Economic Development: South Vietnam, 1955-1975. Cambridge University Press, 1986.

Do-Lam Chi Lan, La Mère et l'enfant dans le Viêt-nam d'autrefois.  Paris: l'Harmattan, 1998.  351 pp.

Olga Dror, "Raising Vietnamese: War and Youth in the South in the Early 1970s," Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 44:1 (February 2013), pp. 74-99.

Olga Dror, Making Two Vietnams: War and Youth Identities, 1965–1975. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2019 (forthcoming).

Thomas Engelbert, Die chinesische Minderheit im Süden Vietnams (Hoa) als Paradigma der kolonialen und nationalistischen Nationalitätenpolitik (The Chinese Minority in the South of Vietnam [Hoa] as a Paradigm of Colonial and Nationalist Nationalities Policies). Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2002. 703 pp.

(J. Price Gittinger, ed.?), "English Translations of Basic Vietnamese Land Tenure Legislation." Saigon, 1957. Ordinances of 1955 and 1956. 41 pp. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project at Texas Tech University.

Allan E. Goodman and Lawrence M. Franks, Between War and Peace: A Profile of Migrants to Saigon.  New York: The Asia Society, 1974.  62 pp.

Allen E. Goodman and Lawrence M. Franks, "The Dynamics of Migration to Saigon, 1964-1972." Pacific Affairs 48:2 (Summer 1975), pp. 199-214. If you browse the Internet through an institution that has subscribed to JSTOR, you can access the text directly or go through the JSTOR Pacific Affairs browse page.

Guy Gran, "Vietnam and the Capitalist Path to Modernity: Village Cochinchina 1880-1940." Ph.D. dissertation, History, University of Wisconsin - Madison, 1975. 632 pp. 75-20769.

David W. Haines, The Limits of Kinship: South Vietnamese Households, 1954-1975. DeKalb, IL: Southeast Asia Publications, Northern Illinois University, 2006. xvii, 331 pp.

David L. Hess, "The Educated Vietnamese Middle Class of Metropolitan Saigon and their Legacy of Confucian Authority, 1954-1975." Ph.D. dissertation, History, New York University, 1977. 577 pp. DA 78-03101. Hess taught English at the University of Saigon, 1966-68.

Jade Ngoc Huynh, South Wind Changing. Gray Wolf Press, 1994.

Donald Kirk, "The Thieu Presidential Campaign: Background and Consequences of the Single-Candidacy Phenomenon". Asian Survey, 12:7 (July 1972), pp. 609-624. If you browse the Internet through an institution that has subscribed to JSTOR, you can access the text directly through the link above, or go through the JSTOR Asian Survey browse page.

Bruce Lockhart and Tran Ky Phuong, eds., The Cham of Vietnam: History, Society, and Art. Singapore: NUS Press (distributed in the United States by University of Hawaii Press), 2010.

Stewart Lone, "Remembering Life in Urban South Vietnam, circa 1965-1975," in Stewart Lone, ed., Daily Lives of Civilians in Wartime Asia: From the Taiping Rebellion to the Vietnam War (Westport, CT, and London: Greenwood Press, 2007), pp. 219-246.

Philip Marnais, Saigon After Dark. New York: Macfadden-Bartell, 1967. 127 pp. Deals with the question of how much prostitution there was.

Gary D. Murfin, "War, Life, and Stress: The Forced Relocation of the Vietnamese People." Ph.D. dissertation, Political Science(?), Hawaii, 1975. 321 pp. DAH76-16504. Based on surveys of refugees and forced evacuees conducted in 1967.

An Nguyen, "Third Force: South Vietnamese Urban Opposition to the Nixon Doctrine in Asia, 1969–1975." Ph.D. dissertation in progress, University of Maine.

Nguyen Anh Tuan, South Vietnam Trial and Experience: A Challenge for Development. Monographs in International Studies, Southeast Asia Series 80. Athens: Ohio University Press, 1987. 461 pp. A study of the South Vietnamese economy, with a strong emphasis on government financial policy, by a former RVN Minister of Finance.

Nguyen Thuy Phuong, "The rivalry between the French and American educational missions during the Vietnam War (1955-1975)," International Journal of the History of Education, Special Issue 1-2, Volume 50, 2014, pp. 27-41.

Nguyen Thuy Phuong, L'école française au Vietnam de 1945 à 1975. Encrage, 2017.

Nguyen Tuan Cuong, "The Promotion of Confucianism in South Vietnam (1955-1975) and the Role of Nguyen Dang Thuc as a New Confucian Scholar," Journal of Vietnamese Studies 10:4 (Fall 2015), pp. 30-81.

Van Nguyen-Marshall, "Student Activism in Time of War: Youth in the Republic of Vietnam, 1960s-1970s," Journal of Vietnamese Studies 10:2 (Spring 2015), pp. 43-81.

Van Nguyen-Marshall, Between War and the State: Civil Society in South Vietnam, 1954–1975. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2023. xv, 223 pp.

Linda Ho Peché, Alex-Thai Dinh Vo, and Tuong Vu, eds., Toward a Framework for Vietnamese American Studies: History, Community, and Memory. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2023.

Pham Chi Do (Chi Do Pham?), "Inflationary Finance in Wartime South Vietnam: 1960-1972." Ph.D. dissertation, Economics, University of Pennsylvania, 1976. 243 pp. 76-22760.

Jason A. Picard, "'Renegades': The Story of South Vietnam's First National Opposition Newspaper, 1955–1958," Journal of Vietnamese Studies 10:4 (Fall 2015), pp. 1-29.

Gontran de Poncins, From a Chinese City. Translated from the French by Bernard Frechtman. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1957. pb Palo Alto: Trackless Sands Press, 1991. 256 pp. An account of Cholon, approximately 1955.

Dorothy J. Pratt, "Student Political Activism in the Vietnam Conflict: A Case Study of the Evolution of Activist Student Politics in Vietnam from Independence to the Paris Accord, 1954-1973." Ph.D dissertation, Political Science, M.I.T., 1975. 307 pp.

John S. Schafer, "The Trinh Cong Son Phenomenon." Journal of Asian Studies, 66:3 (August 2007), pp. 597-643. A popular singer in South Vietnam from the 1960s onward. Includes Vietnamese and English texts of some songs.

Joann L. Schrock et. al., Minority Groups in the Republic of Vietnam. DA PAM 550-105. Washington: GPO, 1966. ix, 1163 pp. Prepared at the Cultural Information Analysis Center, American University, as one volume of the Ethnographic Study Series. When I purchased my copy from the National Technical Information Service (it was available there as item AD649980), what I got was simply a stack of loose paper, with holes punched so I could install it in a 3-ring binder, but the price was very reasonable. The full text has been placed online at the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University, in 23 sections: front matter and pp. 1-41 (Bahnar), pp. 42-94 (Bahnar, Bru, Cua), pp. 95- (Cua, Halang), pp. 147- (Halang, Hre), pp. 199- (Hre, Hroi), pp. 253- (Hroi, Jarai), pp. 305- (Jarai, Jeh, Katu), pp. 358- (Katu, Koho), pp. 410- (Koho, Ma), pp. 461- (Ma, M'nong), pp. 512- (M'nong, Muong), pp. 563- (Muong, Raglai, Rangao), pp. 616- (Rengao, Rhade), pp. 666- (Rhade), pp. 717- (Rhade, Sedang, Stieng), pp. 770- (Stieng, Binh Xuyen), pp. 823- (Binh Xuyen, Cao Dai, Cham), pp. 876- (Cham), pp. 928- (Cham, Chinese), pp. 978- (Chinese, Hoa Hoa), pp. 1031- (Hoa Hao, Khmer), pp. 1084- (Khmer, Indians and Pakistanis; indices for Bahnar through Hre), pp. 1137-1163 (indices for Hre through Indians and Pakistanis--there is a separate alphabetical index for each minority category).

Heather Marie Stur, Saigon at War: South Vietnam and the Global Sixties. Cambridge University Press, 2020. xiv, 280 pp.

Heather Stur, "To Do Nothing Would be to Dig Our Own Graves: Student Activism in the Republic of Vietnam," Journal of American-East Asian Relations, 26:3 (2019), pp. 285-317.

Philip Taylor, Cham Muslims of the Mekong Delta: Place and Mobility in the Cosmopolitan Periphery. Copenhagen: Nordic Institute of Asian Studies, 2007. 248 pp. (Distributed in the United States by the University of Hawaii Press.)

Philip Taylor, The Khmer Lands of Vietnam: Environment, Cosmology, and Sovereignty. Hololulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2014. xvii, 316 pp.

N[igel]. J. Thrift and D[ean]. K. Forbes, "Cities, Socialism and War: Hanoi, Saigon and the Vietnamese Experience of Urbanisation," Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 3:3 (1985), pp. 279-308.

Nigel Thrift and Dean Forbes, The Price of War: Urbanization in Vietnam, 1954-1985. Routledge, 2012. 188 pp.

Simon Toner, "Imagining Taiwan: The Nixon Administration, the Developmental States, and South Vietnam's Search for Economic Viability, 1969-1975," Diplomatic History 41:4 (September 2017), pp. 772-798.

Nu-Anh Tran, "South Vietnamese Identity, American Intervention, and the Newspaper Chinh Luan [Political Discussion], 1965–1969." Journal of Vietnamese Studies, Vol. I, nos. 1-2 (February/August 2006), pp. 169-209.

Tran Kiem-Luu, "Economic Development in Vietnam: The Role of Entrepreneurship and Public Policy." D.B.A. dissertation, George Washington University, 1975. 200 pp. 75-18699. The field research was done January to April, 1974.

Tran Quang Minh, Agricultural Development in Viet Nam. Saigon: Vietnam Council on Foreign Relations, n.d. (1970?). 24 pp. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project at Texas Tech University.

Tsai Maw-kuey, Les Chinois au Sud-Vietnam. Paris: Bibliothèque Nationale, 1968. 293 pp.

Viet-Nam Bulletin. Washington, D.C.: Embassy of Viet-Nam. A number of issues of this publication have been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project at Texas Tech University:

Nghia M. Vo, Saigon: A History. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2011. 307 pp.

Vo Phien, Literature in South Vietnam, 1954-1975. Melbourne, Australia: Vietnamese Language and Culture Publications, 1992. 239 pp.

Louis A. Wiesner, Victims and Survivors: Displaced Persons and Other War Victims in Viet-Nam, 1954-1975. New York: Greenwood Press, 1988. xxx, 448 pp. Foreword by Phan Quang Dan. Has a section on the migration of 1954-55 after the Geneva Accords.

 

Religions in Vietnam

Pascal Bourdeaux, "The French-Speaking Reformed Church, a Neglected Source of Protestantism in Vietnam: Observations on the Origins of a Minority Religion," in Thomas Engelbert, ed., Vietnam's Ethnic and Religious Minorities: A Historical Perspective (Peter Lang, 2016), pp. 115-134.

Léopold Cadière, Croyances et pratiques religieuses des Viêtnamiens, 2d ed. Paris: École Française d'Extrème-Orient, 1992. 3 vols. 243, 343, 286 pp. Although this is labelled a second edition, the only thing that has changed is the title. The original was Croyances et pratiques religieuses des Annamites. Hanoi: Imprimerie d'Extrème-Orient, 1944-57.

Piero Gheddo, The Cross and the Bo-Tree: Catholics and Buddhists in Vietnam. New York: Sheed and Ward, 1970. xv, 368 pp. Translated by Charles Underhill Quinn. Italian original Cattolici e buddhisti nel Vietnam. Vallecchi Editore Firenze, 1968. Gheddo was an Italian Catholic priest.

Frances R. Hill, "Millenarian Machines in South Vietnam," in Comparative Studies in Society and History, no. 13 (1971), pp. 325-350. If you browse the Internet through an institution that has subscribed to JSTOR, you can access the text directly.

Vladimir Nikolaevich Kolotov, Saigonskie rezhimy 1945-1963: religiia i politika v IUzhnom V'etname (The Saigon regimes 1945-1963: religion and politics in South Vietnam). Saint Petersburg: Izd-vo Sankt-Peterburgskogo universiteta, 2001. 303 pp.

The Religions of South Vietnam in Faith and Fact. BiblioBazaar, 2007. 188 pp. Reprint of a work originally issued as NAVPERS 15991, The Religions of South Vietnam in Faith and Fact. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of the Navy, Bureau of Naval Personnel, 1967. vii, 97 pp.

I. Milton Sacks, "Some Religious Components in Vietnamese Politics," in Robert F. Spencer, ed., Religion and Change in Contemporary Asia (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1971), pp. 44-66. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University.

 

Buddhism

Chinh Dao, Ton giao & chinh tri: Phat giao, 1963-1967 (Religion and politics: Buddhism, 1963-1967). Houston: Van Hoa, 1994. 359 pp.

Eugene Ford, Cold War Monks: Buddhism and America's Secret Strategy in Southeast Asia. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2017. 375 pp. The main emphasis is on Thailand, but there is also some consideration of Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia.

James H. Forest, The Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam: Fifteen Years for Reconciliation. Alkmaar, Netherlands: International Fellowship of Reconciliation, 1978. 88 pp.

Kiem Dat, Lich su tranh dau Phat giao Viet nam, vol. 1. Los Angeles: Phat Hoc Vien Quoc Te, 1981.

Le Cung, "Phong trao Phat giao Mien Nam Viet Nam nam 1963" (The Buddhist Struggle Movement in South Vietnam, 1963), Luan an Pho tiensi khoa hoc lich su, Hanoi, 1997. The Harvard-Yenching Library has a copy. Published as Phong trao Phat giao Mien Nam Viet Nam nam 1963. Hanoi: Nha xuat ban Dai hoc quoc gia Ha Noi, 1999. 332 pp.

Le Van Hoa, "Correlates of the Politically Radical-Conservative Attitudes among Buddhist Clergyman Leaders in South Vietnam." Ph.D. dissertation, Sociology, Kentucky, 1973. 197 pp. 74-19617. Statistical analysis of results of interviews with 153 leading monks.

James McAllister, "'Only Religions Count in Vietnam': Thich Tri Quang and the Vietnam War". Modern Asian Studies, 42:4 (July 2008), pp. 751-782.

Mark Moyar, "Political Monks: The Militant Buddhist Movement During the Vietnam War". Modern Asian Studies, 38:4 (2004), pp.749-784. Very hostile to the militant Buddhists. I have not read the whole article, but on p. 756 Moyar seemed to me to be exaggerating the evidence on Thich Tri Quang's relations with the Communists.

Nguyen Lang, Viet Nam Phat giao su luan. Saigon: La Boi, 1974. 472 pp.

Nguyen Tai Thu, ed., Minh Chi et al., History of Buddhism in Vietnam. Hanoi: Social Sciences Publishing House, 1992. viii, 427 pp.

Nguyen The Anh, "From Indra to Maitreya: Buddhist Influence in Vietnamese Political Thought." Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 33:2 (June 2002), pp. 225-41.

Robert J. Topmiller, The Lotus Unleashed: The Buddhist Peace Movement in South Vietnam, 1964-1966. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2002. xii, 214 pp.

Robert John Topmiller, "The Lotus Unleashed: The Buddhist Struggle Movement in South Vietnam, 1964-1966." Ph.D. dissertation, History, University of Kentucky, 1998. 314 pp. DA 9906646.

See also Hoa Hao Buddhism below.

 

Cao Dai

Sergei Blagov, Caodaism: Vietnamese Traditionalism and Its Leap into Modernity. Huntington, NY: Nova Science Publishing, 2001. xiv, 211 pp.

Sergei Blagov, Honest Mistakes: The Life and Death of Trinh Minh The (1922–1955): South Vietnam's Alternative Leader. Huntington, NY: Nova Science Publishers, 2001. xi, 246 pp.

Le Caodaïsme en images. Paris: Dervy, 1949. 175 pp.

Central Holy See of Tam Quan, Central Viet Nam, Nguyen Kim Hung, trans., The book of three vehicles of Caodaism doctrine: complete set of the books: grade: Small vehicle, Medium vehicle, Superior vehicle. Hanoi: NXB Ton giao, 2009. 406 pp.

Gabriel Gobron, Histoire et philosophie du caodaïsme: bouddhisme rénové, spiritisime vietnamien, religion nouvelle en Eurasie. Paris: Dervy, 1949. 214 pp.

Janet Hoskins, The Divine Eye and the Diaspora: Vietnamese Syncretism becomes Transpacific Caodaism. University of Hawaii Press, 2015. 308 pp.

Jeremy Jammes and David A. Palmer, "Occulting the Dao: Daoist Inner Alchemy, French Spiritism, and Vietnamese Colonial Modernity in Caodai Translingual Practice," Journal of Asian Studies 77:2 (May 2018), pp. 405-428.

Nguyen Kim Hung, trans., The True Sutra of Earch Mother. Oklahoma City, OK: Hung Nguyen, 2010. 87 pp. A Cao Dai scripture.

Nhi Lang, Phong trao khang chien Trinh Minh The: hoi ky ky su. Falls Church, VA: Alpha, 1989. 401 pp.

Victor L. Oliver, Caodai spiritism: a study of religion in Vietnamese society. Leiden: Brill, 1976. x, 145 pp.

Jayne Susan Werner, Peasant Politics and Religious Sectarianism: Peasant and Priest in the Cao Dai in Viet Nam. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Southeast Asia Studies, 1981. 122 pp.

 

Hoa Hao

Pascal Bourdeaux, Bouddhisme Hoa Hao, D'un royaume l'autre: Religion et revolution au Sud Viet Nam (1935-1955). Paris: Les Indes Savantes, 2022. 475 pp.

(John Donnell?), "The Hoa Hao Sect and its Social Democratic Party Dang Dan Chu Xa Hoi Viet Nam)." n.p., n.d. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project at Texas Tech University, in two parts: pp. 1-39 and pp. 40-51.

Francis Masgnaud, Un bouddhisme social et persécuté:le Phat Giao Hoa Hao. Saint-Paul: Souny, 2009. 286 pp.

Nguyen Long Thanh Nam, Hoa Hao Buddhism in the Course of Vietnam's National History. Abridged translation by Sergei Blagov. New York: Nova Science Publishing, 2003. xx, 178 pp.

Nguyen Van Hau, Nhan thuc Phat giao Hoa Hao. Saigon: Huong Sen, 1969. 303 pp.

A.M. Savani, Notes sur la secte P.G.H.H. Saigon, 1951. The Hoa Hao. Written by a French officer.

 

Catholicism

Doan Doc Thu and Xuan Huy, Giam muc Le Huu Tu va Phat Diem, 1945-1954 - Nhung nam tranh dau hao hung (Bishop Le huu Tu and Phat Diem, The years of heroic fight). 1973. Reprinted Houston, TX: Xuan Thu, 1984. Phat Diem, on the southern edge of the Red River Delta, was effectively ruled by Bishop Le Huu Tu during the First Indochina War. Doan Doc Thu was Bishop Tu's secretary.

Thomas Engelbert, ed., Vietnam's Ethnic and Religious Minorities: A Historical Perspective. Peter Lang, 2016.

Charles Keith, Catholic Vietnam: A Church from Empire to Nation. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2012. xiv, 312 pp. Almost entirely devoted to the period up to 1954.

Ronald Spector, "Phat Diem Nationalism, Religion and Identity in the Franco-Viet Minh War. Journal of Cold War Studies 15:3 (Summer 2013), pp. 34-46. Phat Diem, on the southern edge of the Red River Delta, was effectively ruled by Bishop Le Huu Tu during the First Indochina War.

Trân Thi Liên, "Les catholiques vietnamiens dans la République du Viêtnam (1954–1963)" in Pierre Brocheux, ed., Du conflit d'Indochine aux conflits indochinois (Paris: Éditions Complexe, 2000), pp. 53–80.

Tran Thi Lien, "The Challenge for Peace within South Vietnam's Catholic Community: A History of Peace Activism." Peace & Change 38:4 (October 2013), pp. 446-73.

 

Other Christianity

James C. Hefley, By Life or by Death. Grand Rapids: Zonderman, 1969. 208 pp. Evangelical Christian missionaries in Vietnam.

Luke S. Martin, A Vietnam Presence: Mennonites in Vietnam during the American War. Morgantown, PA: Masthof Press, 2016. 600 pp.

Phu Hoang Le, "A Short History of the Evangelical Church of Viet Nam (1911-1965)." Ph.D. dissertation, New York University, 1972. 562 pp. 73-8180.

 

Personal Accounts, Vietnamese

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Copyright © 1996, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, Edwin E. Moise. This document may be reproduced only by permission. February 5, 2024.