Vietnam/The Sixties 2, Vietnam Literature 7
802. SACK, John. M. NY: New American Library (1967). Account by a reporter who follows a single company through basic training to its first armed encounter in Vietnam. One of the early, important "grunts'-eye-views" of Vietnam. Fine in a very good dust jacket.
803. -. Another copy. Third printing. Near fine in a very good dust jacket.
804. SADLER, Barry. Ballad of the Green Berets. NY: RCA, 1966. Long-playing record album of songs by the Special Forces Staff Sergeant who wrote and popularized the title song of the album. Eleven additional songs, including "I'm a Lucky One" (later the title of a book he wrote), "Salute to the Nurses," "Letter From Vietnam," and more. A monaural recording. Fine in a near fine sleeve. Presumably quite uncommon in such nice shape.
805. SADLER, Barry. The Moi. Nashville: Aurora (1977). A novel of a Green Beret POW, by an author most well-known for having written the popular song "The Ballad of the Green Berets" in the 1960s. Inscribed by the author. Fine in a near fine dust jacket.
806. SADLER, Barry. Phü Nhãm. NY: TOR (1984). Paperback original. A novel of an American sniper in Vietnam. Spine creased; very good in wrappers.
807. SANG, Nguyen. Nung -- Flickan Från Saigon. Göteberg (1974). Swedish collection of stories of the Vietnam war, by a Viet Cong writer, originally published in French. Illustrated with drawings. Sweden was one of the Western countries most sympathetic to the NLF during the war. Fine in wrappers.
808. SCARBOROUGH, Elizabeth Ann. The Healer's War. NY: Doubleday (1988). A novel of a nurse in Vietnam who receives from a Vietnamese holy man an amulet that has supernatural powers. Winner of the Nebula Award for best science fiction novel of the year. The author served in Vietnam as a nurse, and this is her first book. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
809. -. Another copy. Fine in a fine dust jacket but for a small faint spot at the crown.
810. -. Same title. The uncorrected proof copy. Shot from double-spaced typescript. Slight spine indentation; else fine in wrappers.
811. SCHELL, Jonathan. The Village of Ben Suc. NY: Knopf, 1967. The author's first book, an account of the destruction of a Vietnamese village, originally published in The New Yorker, and comprising almost the entire issue in which it appeared. A devastating critique of U.S. policy at a still-fairly-early stage of the war. Fine in a very good dust jacket with some discoloration on the front flap fold, one edge tear, and a decorative sticker covering the price.
812. SCHLESINGER, Arthur M., Jr. The Bitter Heritage. Vietnam and American Democracy 1941-1966. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1967. A critique of U.S. policy in Vietnam by a former Special Assistant to President Kennedy. Inscribed by Schlesinger to George Ball, senior State Department official under Kennedy and Under-Secretary of State under Lyndon Johnson. Ball, who believed in the primacy of American relations with Europe and lamented the damage the Vietnam war did to the U.S. image abroad, including among its allies, was a passionate critic of the American effort in Vietnam, albeit from his position within the government, rather than in public and in the media. This inscription recognizes Ball's special role: "For George Ball/ who conducted this/ fight so long and/ gallantly/ with admiration and/ affection/ Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr." A remarkable association. Paperclip imprint on first few pages; else fine, without dust jacket. An early (January, 1967) published criticism of the war policy by a Washington insider.
813. SCOTT, Peter Dale. The War Conspiracy. The Secret Road to the Second Indochina War. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill (1972). History of U.S. involvement over two decades, which proposes that intelligence distortions by the CIA and other intelligence agencies conspired to alter U.S. policy, effectively amounting to a secret conspiracy within the government to shape U.S. policy in directions that ran counter to the national interest. At least some of the author's then-radical views have since been confirmed by recently released government documents, in particular that the Tonkin Gulf incident, which triggered escalation of the war, was essentially a manufactured event [see above, "French Language Editions, Face aux Skyhawks," for a Vietnamese view of these events]. Fine in a rubbed, near fine dust jacket.
814. SHAPIRO, Stanley. A Time to Remember. NY: Random House (1986). The advance reading copy of this time-travel novel of a man who tries to prevent his brother's dying in Vietnam by traveling back in time to prevent John F. Kennedy's assassination. Fine in wrappers.
815. SHAPLEN, Robert. A Corner of the World. NY: Knopf, 1949. First book by this noted reporter on Southeast Asia, later correspondent for The New Yorker. This is a collection of stories, including one set in Saigon and dealing with a French officer and Vietnamese politics. An early representation of Vietnam in American fiction. Near fine in a near fine, mildly dampstained dust jacket.
816. SHAPLEN, Robert. The Road from War. Vietnam 1965-1970. NY: Harper & Row (1970). The third of his highly praised reports and analyses of the war in Southeast Asia. Shaplen was considered one of the deans of the correspondents in Vietnam because of his extensive experience and background in the Far East, although he was also associated with the "old guard" of reporters, who believed in at least some of the assumptions justifying the American presence, if not actions, in Southeast Asia--a far cry from the "young turks," like Michael Herr, who were thoroughly skeptical of the American viewpoints and policies. Very near fine in a very good dust jacket.
817. SHAWCROSS, William. Sideshow. Kissinger, Nixon and the Destruction of Cambodia. NY: Simon & Schuster (1979). The first book to focus on the growth of the Khmer Rouge movement in Cambodia, and the resultant "killing fields" in that country, as an unintended byproduct of the U.S. policy in Vietnam. Cloth mottled and musty; very good in a very good dust jacket.
818. SHAY, Jonathan. Achilles in Vietnam. Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character. NY: Atheneum (1984). A major study of post-traumatic stress disorder in Vietnam veterans by a psychiatrist who treated thousands of vets after Vietnam. This copy is warmly inscribed by the author to novelist Tim O'Brien, one of the most highly praised writers of the Vietnam experience. The author uses a lengthy quote from O'Brien's The Things They Carried to illustrate the theme of one of his chapters. Fine in a fine dust jacket. Blurbs by Robert Olen Butler and Gloria Emerson, among others.
819. SHEEHAN, Neil. The Arnheiter Affair. NY: Random House (1971). The account of a "mutiny" at sea off the coast of Vietnam in 1966, in which a tyrannical Navy commander was relieved of his command after a series of arbitrary and capricious actions. Sheehan was the UPI bureau chief in Saigon from 1962-64 and later covered the war for The New York Times. Near fine in a very good, price-clipped dust jacket, with a few nicks at crown.
820. SHEEHAN, Neil. A Bright Shining Lie. John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam. NY: Random House (1988). A landmark volume, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. Sheehan, author of The Arnheiter Affair and one of The New York Times reporters who worked on the publication of The Pentagon Papers, found in American officer/advisor John Paul Vann a cipher: through the convoluted turns of Vann's biography we can decipher the maze of American policy during the Vietnam era. One of the essential volumes on the war. Reprinted many times, the first edition is somewhat uncommon. Fine in a very near fine, price-clipped dust jacket creased on the front flap.
821. -. Same title, the uncorrected proof copy. Near fine in wrappers.
822. SHEEHAN, Neil. After the War Was Over. Hanoi and Saigon. NY: Random House (1992). The uncorrected proof copy of this short volume, recounting the author's trip back to Vietnam the year after A Bright Shining Lie was published, and the lingering effects of the war there. Fine in wrappers.
823. SIMPSON, Howard R. To a Silent Valley. NY: Knopf, 1961. An early novel of the "struggle for Indochina" focusing on the French battling the Viet Minh. The author served three years in the early Fifties as a press officer for the U.S. Information Agency in Indochina, a stint that included covering combat operations involving Vietnamese units. Near fine in a price-clipped dust jacket.
824. SIMPSON, Ronald. The Return of Colonel Pho. Derby: Monarch (1965). Paperback original, a spy novel in which a U.S. agent confronts his nemesis from Vietnam in the U.S. Dampstaining to bottom edges and tear to the foredge of one page; only good in wrappers, but an early example of Vietnam and Vietnamese characters appearing in American popular fiction.
825. SLOAN, James Park. War Games. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1971. Originally to have been titled A Small War--about one man's small, private concerns until he is confronted with the need to make a decision about his actions, and take a stand. Near fine in a near fine dust jacket.
826. -. Another copy. Near fine in an internally foxed dust jacket with one triangular edge tear.
827. SMALLEY, Peter. A Warm Gun. (London): Deutsch (1972). A black comedy about a war "not unlike Vietnam" in which the Army is supremely disorganized and the directors of the war, in Washington, completely irrational. Only published in the U.K. (Newman 117). The name is taken from The Beatles' "Happiness is a Warm Gun." The book is dedicated to Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, and their advisors. Fine in a very near fine dust jacket with edge-sunned flaps. Uncommon.
828. SMITH, Hilary, R.N. Lighting Candles. Hospital Memories of Vietnam's Montagnards. (Barre): (Northlight Studio Press) (1988). Reminiscences of an R.N. who worked in Minh-Quy Hospital in the Central Highlands tending sick and injured Montagnards during the years 1971-1973. Issued in wrappers, apparently self-published. Fine.
829. SMITH, Steven Phillip. American Boys. NY: Putnam's (1985). The author's first book, a novel about four soldiers in Vietnam by a writer who served with the 1st Cavalry Division in Vietnam in 1966. Signed by the author. Cloth sunned; near fine in a very good dust jacket with a small chip at the spine crown.
Suppressed CIA Account of Vietnam and Aftermath
830. SNEPP, Frank. Decent Interval. An Insider's Account of Saigon's Indecent End Told by the CIA's Chief Strategy Analyst in Vietnam. NY: Random House (1977). A tell-all memoir of one of the CIA's chief analysts and operatives in Saigon during the last months of the war. Snepp names names and pulls no punches in rendering his judgement of the U.S. policies and people who allowed Saigon to fall without taking steps to protect the Vietnamese who had been helpful to the American efforts for years, and who stood to be executed, or at least brutally "re-educated," when the Communists took over. This book was published without CIA approval in violation of Snepp's secrecy oath and caused a judicial ruling that broadened the government's secrecy requirements of its employees to include even those who had not taken oaths and/or did not deal with classified material. Although no one ever claimed that Snepp revealed classified material, the fact that he published the book without CIA review and submission to CIA censorship caused the court to rule against him, and he had to forfeit his royalties as well. A landmark book in the annals of free speech issues, as well as for its content--a condemnation of U.S. policy on the grounds of patriotism and ethics, from within the intelligence establishment. Reprinted many times. Owner name and date front endpaper; fine in a near fine dust jacket.
831. -. Another copy. Faint remainder mark to top edge; near fine in a near fine dust jacket.
832. SOLOTAROFF, Paul. The House of Purple Hearts. (NY): HarperCollins (1995). The story of the founding of the New England Shelter for Homeless Vets, and five vets who went through its rigorous program. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
833. SONTAG, Susan. Trip to Hanoi. NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (1968). Only issued in wrappers -- no hardcover edition of this personal account was published. Sontag, an "intellectual" but not an "activist" at that time, describes her trip in terms of a growing radicalization which had begun prior to her going to Vietnam. Modest rubbing and slight creasing; a near fine copy.
834. (South Vietnamese Resistance Fighters). Excerpts from the Declaration of Former Resistance Fighters on the Present Situation in South Vietnam. (n.p.): (n.p.), 1960. Eight pages; stapled. A very early protest against American involvement in South Vietnam, written by former members of a number of resistance groups, including the Viet Minh, Buddhist groups, etc. With some sunning and underlining and the word "Okay" written on the cover. Very good, and presumably scarce.
835. (South Vietnamese White Paper). White Paper on Ngo Dinh Diem's Regime. (n.p.): The Free Democratic Party of Vietnam, 1961. A highly critical white paper aimed at the Western powers supporting Diem, especially the U.S., in hopes of undermining his support and helping to promote democracy as an alternative to the Vietnamese communist movement. Stamped "Library of Congress Surplus/ Duplicate." Near fine in white stapled wrappers.
836. SPETZ, Steven N. Rat Pack Six. Greenwich: Fawcett (1969). Paperback original, an early novel of the war which focuses on six soldiers, written by a Vietnam vet. Fine, and, in our experience, quite scarce.
837. STANFORD, Don. The Rice of Affection. London: Robert Hale (1969). A love story set "in a remote tropical country ravaged by guerrilla warfare." Inscribed by the author in 1978. Fine in a near fine, price-clipped dust jacket with a faint stain on the rear panel.
838. -. Another copy. Also inscribed by the author, in 1989, this time on the copyright page, where the author has appended his list of acknowledgements to include the recipient, who shall remain nameless as the name has been carved out of the inscription. Otherwise fine in a near fine, price-clipped dust jacket.
839. STANTON, Shelby L. Vietnam Order of Battle. Washington, D.C.: U.S. News Books (1981). Second printing. Large quarto, the definitive reference to U.S. and allied ground forces in Vietnam. Small abrasion front pastedown; else fine in a very good, modestly edgeworn, price-clipped dust jacket with one corner externally tape-repaired.
840. STEIN, Robert. Apollyon. (n.p.): Maecenas, 1985. Only issued in softcover, a novel of a vet recovering from his experience in Vietnam. The opening scenes are set there. Corner bumped; near fine.
841. STOCKDALE, Jim and Sybil. In Love and War. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press (1990). Second printing. Revised and updated edition of this book first published in 1984, the story of a POW and his wife, who helped start the League of POW Wives. Signed by both authors. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
842. STONE, Robert. Dog Soldiers. Boston: Houghton Mifflin (1974). His second novel, winner of the National Book Award and one of the first, and still best, novels to link the impact of the Vietnam war on American society in the Sixties to the dark side of that era. Filmed as Who'll Stop the Rain. Fading to cloth at crown; near fine in a near fine dust jacket. Signed by the author.
843. STONE, Scott C.S. The Coasts of War. NY: Pyramid (1966). Paperback original, an early novel of combat in Vietnam, about the U.S. Navy patrolling the Mekong River in 1964. The author was stationed in Hong Kong and later traveled throughout Southeast Asia, including Vietnam. Fine.
844. -. Another copy. Near fine.
845. STRETE, Craig Kee. Paint Your Face on a Drowning in the River. NY: Greenwillow (1978). A story for young adults about a group of young Native Americans, one of whom is drafted to Vietnam. This edition was specially bound by the publisher for the library market, in heavier boards than the trade edition. Fine in a fine, price-clipped dust jacket.
846. SUDDICK, Tom. A Few Good Men. NY: Avon (1978). Paperback original, a collection of related stories "of a war gone mad." Signed by the author. Copious notes in the text throughout, and two sheets of additional notes laid in; otherwise very good in wrappers.
847. SUMMERS, Harry G., Jr. On Strategy: The Vietnam War in Context. Carlisle Barracks: Strategic Studies Institute, US Army War College, 1981. An important study of the war by a career officer, applying Clausewitz's principles to the actual conduct of the war. A controversial study even before publication, this has since come to be recognized as one of the pieces of writing to formally articulate the "lessons of Vietnam" in a way that attempts to understand the mistakes and build for the future from the basis of that understanding. Summers focused on the questions at the intersection of military strategy and national policy, and the effect of his (and later, others') analyses of such questions have been amply demonstrated in the U.S. conduct of the Gulf War, for example. No indication of there having been a hardcover edition. Very near fine in wrappers.
848. -. Same title, a 1984 printing of the 1982 revised edition, which added 10 pages of new material. Signed by the author. Near fine in wrappers.
849. -. Same title, a 1985 printing of the 1982 revised edition. Very good in wrappers.
850. SZYMUSIAK, Molyda. The Stones Cry Out. A Cambodian Childhood, 1975-1980. NY: Hill & Wang (1986). "Few will ever describe hell as well as this young Cambodian girl who survived the damnation of Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge." - Sydney Schanberg. An important survivor's account of the Cambodian killing fields. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
851. TAUBER, Peter. The Sunshine Soldiers. NY: Simon & Schuster (1971). Autobiographical account of Basic Training during the Vietnam war era. Fine in a very near fine dust jacket.
852. TAYLOR, Thomas. A-18. NY: Crown (1967). The author's first novel, about a Special Forces strike into North Vietnam. Remainder marks bottom page edges; near fine in a very good dust jacket. An uncommon, early novel of the war.
853. -. Another copy. Owner name under front flap; very good in a rubbed and edgeworn dust jacket, about very good.
854. TIEDE, Tom. Coward. NY: Trident (1968). "The story of a young draftee who refuses to fight in a war he cannot believe in." Review copy with photo laid in. Fine in a near fine, modestly edgeworn dust jacket with one small spot of rubbing on the spine. The author, a reporter, wrote most of this book while on assignment in Vietnam. An early novel to have a distinctly antiwar theme.
855. -. Another copy. Three pages torn at the bottom edge due to a production flaw; near fine in a very good, rubbed dust jacket with an edge tear at the crown and a couple of small chips.
856. TRIPP, Nathaniel. Father Soldier Son. Memoir of a Platoon Leader in Vietnam. South Royalton: Steerforth (1996). Review copy. Well-received personal account of a second lieutenant in Vietnam in the summer of 1968--the bloodiest year of the war. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
857. TULLY, Andrew. The Time of the Hawk. NY: Morrow, 1967. A novel of the war and "the subtle violences of a cease-fire" in Vietnam. Edges foxed and stained; very good in a good, internally foxed, spine-faded, edgeworn dust jacket with an abrasion on the front flap. An early novel of the war by a writer who had earlier written a book on the CIA, and was therefore presumably familiar with political intrigue.
858. (U.S. Government Publications). A Threat to Peace: North Viet-Nam's Effort to Conquer South Viet-nam, Part II. (Washington, D.C.): Department of State (1961). Part II, the appendices only. Includes photographic reproductions of numerous Viet Cong agents' confessions, etc. Near fine in stapled wrappers.
859. VANDERBIE, Jan H. Prov Rep Vietnam. A Provincial Representative's Account of Two Years in Vietnam 1966-68. Philadelphia: Dorrance (1970). Vanity press personal account of the failure of the pacification program in South Vietnam by a former U.S. civilian administrator of it. Near fine in a very good, rubbed dust jacket with several small edge chips.
860. VANDERBREGGEN, Cornelius, Jr. Soon the War is Ending! (Gelderland): (Reapers' Fellowship) (1968). Paperback original, an inspirational volume by a former Marine combat officer, who sees the real war as the struggle between Good and Evil, not the struggle between East and West, or North Vietnam and South. The author served in Vietnam as a missionary after his military service had ended. The book includes a number of letters from soldiers in Vietnam. An unusual volume, illustrated with color photographs of Switzerland and Holland. Owner name; tear at crown; still near fine.
861. VEYSEY, Arthur. Death and the Jungle. London: Library 33 Limited (1966). According to the dust jacket, "the first and only first-hand account of the fighting in Vietnam." Not exactly true, but an early and very scarce account nonetheless. The author covered Vietnam for the Chicago Tribune and these are the stories he wrote from there. Minor foxing; near fine in a very good, price-clipped dust jacket. Uncommon; no U.S. edition that we know of.
862. (Vietnam Embassy Publication). Viet-Nam. At the Crossroads of Asia. (Washington, DC): (Press & Information Office, Embassy of Viet Nam) (n.d.) [1960]. Pamphlet issued by the Vietnamese government: an overview of the country, featuring among other things a frontispiece portrait of President Diem, and a fold-out chart of the organization of the Vietnamese government. Rubbed; near fine in stapled wrappers.
863. (Vietnamese Fiction). TRAN VAN DINH. Blue Dragon White Tiger. Philadelphia: Triam, 1983. The author's second novel, of one Vietnamese official's experience in a decade of war. One of the very small number of novels of the war by Vietnamese that have been published in the West. Inscribed by the author. Fine in a near fine dust jacket with several short edge tears.
864. (Vietnamese Fiction). BAO NINH. The Sorrow of War. NY: Pantheon (1993). First American edition of this highly praised novel by a former North Vietnamese soldier, one of the few to have been published in this country revealing the perspective of the Vietnamese combatants. Fine in a fine dust jacket.
865. VITTO, Frank. To Know You Care... NY: Vantage Press (1974). Pseudonymously written personal account by a Vietnam vet, published by a vanity press. Relates a story of a military noncombatant in Vietnam during the war, a perspective that is little represented in the literature of the war, despite the fact that according to military records the percentage of servicemen who saw combat was relatively low, with many serving in support roles only. Near fine in a near fine dust jacket with some rubbing, particularly on the spine. Uncommon.