Related to boat people, related to the war, related to the political climate that led to it? What are you looking for? I ask because there's a blind spot and because the Vietnamese and Hmong friends I've had (A) don't like talking about it (B) are also disgruntled that no one has told their story. "How Vietnam happened" has best been explained by Barbara Tuchman's March of Folly. The dilemma it has, of course, is it's very much the American perspective, as with everything else related to Vietnam. The Vietnam War book most people refer to these days is Matterhorn, which is not non-fiction. I made it about halfway through; it's grim and deals far more with racism within the US military than it does with anything else. In that half there were no vietnamese at all. Superpower Interrupted is useful in that it's a non-American perspective, at least; it paints a portrait of Vietnam as a culture whose principle concern is not running afoul of China. For example, the region has historically been called Nam Viet but the Nguyen Dynasty renamed it Viet Nam to maintain peaceful relations with the Qings.
I think all three? I’ve recently been reading a bit about Vo Nguyen Giáp, the Sino-Vietnamese war, and have had The Sympathizer and a few other books on my to-read list. I think what I’m interested in is the cultural and political context of Vietnam during the 20th century, preferably not from just a Vietnamese War context. Been trying to wrap my head around how this people were in war and conflict for so much of that century both with themselves and with others. This seems like a very complex, very way-too-large-of-a-scope way of coming at this, so apologies if this is not a useful reply. I’m working it out.
Don't apologize, I've come across the subject before but didn't find a satisfactory answer. It's something I'd like to be better read about but haven't found anything satisfactory. I'll bet there's lots of good stuff in Vietnamese, which is more effort than I'm likely to expend. There's an interesting bit in Kaplan's the Revenge of Geography in which he's sitting down with some Vietnamese general in the '80s and observes that the Vietnamese are much friendlier towards the Americans than he expected they would be, considering the circumstances. The General laughs and points out that they'd fought two wars with the Chinese since then and the Chinese were their biggest trading partner. There's a lot of history in Southeast Asia that isn't China or Japan. Visiting Ayutthaya and hearing about the wars between Burma and Siam really gave me a taste of just how euro-centric my historical view was and I've strived to change that ever since. I mean, here's a whole history that never touched you and I'll bet most countries have similar.
Yeah it’s exactly the context of the stuff like this that I’m interested in: One of the hard parts about this is you can’t very well ask a Vietnamese person “hey, what books should I read” because you’ll largely get a blank look back. Because, you know, it’s what they lived! I’ll have to checkout the bookshops around the Wing Luke Museum and the rest of Little Saigon. Will send you some photos of titles if anything stands out! The General laughs and points out that they'd fought two wars with the Chinese since then and the Chinese were their biggest trading partner.