The Vietnam War

An Intimate History

By: Geoffrey C. Ward, Ken Burns

Narrated by: Brian Corrigan, Fred Sanders, Ken Burns

From the award-winning historian and filmmakers of The Civil War, Baseball, The War, The Roosevelts, and others: a vivid, uniquely powerful history of the conflict that tore America apart--the companion volume to the major, multipart PBS film to be aired in September 2017.

More than forty years after it ended, the Vietnam War continues to haunt our country. We still argue over why we were there, whether we could have won, and who was right and wrong in their response to the conflict. When the war divided the country, it created deep political fault lines that continue to divide us today. Now, continuing in the tradition of their critically acclaimed collaborations, the authors draw on dozens and dozens of interviews in America and Vietnam to give us the perspectives of people involved at all levels of the war: U.S. and Vietnamese soldiers and their families, high-level officials in America and Vietnam, antiwar protestors, POWs, and many more. The book plunges us into the chaos and intensity of combat, even as it explains the rationale that got us into Vietnam and kept us there for so many years. Rather than taking sides, the book seeks to understand why the war happened the way it did, and to clarify its complicated legacy. Beautifully written and richly illustrated, this is a tour de force that is certain to launch a new national conversation.


Read by Brian Corrigan with Fred Sanders, and with an introduction read by Ken Burns

Critic reviews

"The companion volume to Burns’ Vietnam War documentary series on PBS, the book stands alone as a powerful summary of the whole conflict. It tells the story of the war from every conceivable angle, including that of the young Vietnamese fighters. It’s extraordinarily well-reported and written, and filled with memorable photographs and illustrations—a reminder that the war was, perhaps for the first time, shaped as much by powerful images as written reports."
—Lancaster Online, Mark Bowden's "Ten Favorite Books on the Vietnam War"

"A vivid and often captivating volume…a valuable resource."
—David Greenberg, The New York Times Book Review

"Once again Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns deliver the grand historical goods in this feast of a book. For those too young to remember the Vietnam War, this is the essential primer. For those old enough to have Vietnam flashbacks or battle scars, read it and weep. Highly recommended!!"
—Douglas Brinkley

"A sweeping, richly illustrated narrative of a conflict fast retreating in memory... As they have done in numerous collaborations, Ward and Burns take a vast topic and personalize it... Of particular value is the inclusion of Vietnamese voices on both sides of the conflict, most of whom agree more than four decades later that the question of who won or lost is less important than the fact that no one really prevailed... The text is accompanied by more than 500 photographs, some of them immediately recognizable...many others fresh... Accompanying the PBS series to be aired in September 2017, this is an outstanding, indispensable survey of the Vietnam War."
—Kirkus, (starred review)

"Lucid, flowing, and dramatic… Robustly detailed writing… Eye-opening… Powerful in its own right… In their new ‘intimate’ yet capacious history, the award-winning, audience-enthralling duo of historian and screenwriter Ward and documentarian extraordinaire Burns investigate the complex, divisive, and tragic Vietnam War from a unique plurality of perspectives… This is a vivid, affecting, definitive, and essential illustrated history."
—Donna Seaman, Booklist (starred review)

"Lavishly illustrated…. Well-written and deeply researched, this history covers virtually every aspect of the French and American wars in Vietnam from 1945-1975, focusing mainly on military, diplomatic, and political issues…. Anyone looking for an expansive overview of the Vietnam War will find much to admire here."
—Publishers Weekly

Breathtaking In Scope; Heartbreaking In Reality

I bought The Vietnam War because I respect Ken Burns and, well, I wanted to make sense of what I saw on TV and in the newspapers when I was just a little kid.
This book is mindblowing in its scope, in the detail, in the amount of research that was poured into it. It covers about every viewpoint a reader/listener could ask for: background shenanigans at the White House, a grunt's view, the war back home (from peaceful demonstrators to those who made the peace movement something Nixon's public hated/feared); Vietnamese civilians trying to live in the midst of chaos, North Vietnamese and the NLF who were willing to sacrifice everything and kill every American they could.
And much, much more.
It's all delivered in the tones of skilled documentarians who sometimes skimp on the emotion but always, always, deliver blows with dead accuracy. Sometimes devastating, sometimes heartrending, the same tones are used.
And that's the only, only flaw I could find with this audiobook.
Everything else? Well, I'm still wondering how the heartbreak I saw on TV after watching Captain Kangaroo, after hearing at my grade school about POWs, happened: It's all so very tragic, and the fact that we can find lines that trickle their way through our current actions and inactions just about rips my heart out.
Listen to this if you want great history. You won't be disappointed.

Best Vietnam Account Collection out there

God this was tough to listen to at times. The Hell of Vietnam wont be written anywhere like it is in this book. The audiobook version loses none of the impact, this is a must listen for any amateur historian.

Perspective on all aspects of the war

This was tough to get through sometimes for a variety of reasons. It's dry in some places, in others the continuous talk of death forced me to step away for a while. It's worth pushing through to gain a strong understanding of the war, the lead up, and the aftermath.

There's a lot of conclusions to draw from this, but LBJ is a monster in my eyes after this.

The Whole entity,

The narrative regarding the American Army's introduction into Viet Nam reminded me of my year of service as an Army Clerk in an Advisory Group (JUSMAG) IN Thailand in 1956. A group of high ranking officers, including a one star, had been visiting for three days in the area of my detachment (Phitsanulok). At the farewell dinner the night before their departure, one of the group made this statement: "Give me a Company of GI's and I'll go through this country in a week." Having been on several hunting trips in the surrounding area, and as far as Tak, Burma, I knew that the smaller, brown skinned fellas would have a distinct advantage in the jungles of Thailand or any other country in Southeast Asia in a combat situation.

Also, while on an R&R flight to Hong Kong in which most of the other passengers were Officers, some with their wives, I asked the Major sitting next to me as we flew over Viet Nam, how the Army could cope with the seemingly impenetrable jungle below. His reply: "We'll just destroy it."

Awesome Just Awesome

I was looking for a audiobook that could provide a complete telling of the Vietnam War, and I certainly found it in this book. You don’t want to stop listening. The telling of personal, political and heroic stories all in one volume. Truly awesome.