Vietnam and The Sixties, Vietnam 2
38. BRYAN, C.D.B. Friendly Fire. NY: Putnam (1976). An important nonfiction work, which was made into a television miniseries, Friendly Fire chronicles the radicalization of a patriotic Midwestern family after their son is killed by "friendly" (i.e. U.S.) fire, and they try to get the details from a balky government, seemingly more interested in protecting those responsible, but still living, than in honoring the dead. An important book, which chronicles the process by which opposition to the war filtered from the "radical fringes" of society into the middle class mainstream. This is an advance review copy. Fine in a very near fine dust jacket.
39. -. Another copy, not a review copy. Near fine in near fine dust jacket.
40. BUNTING, Josiah. The Lionheads. NY: Braziller (1972). An important novel, being one of the first to be critical of the U.S. conduct of the war that was written by a ranking officer in the military: the author was an infantry Major at the time of publication, and an instructor at West Point. Fine in very near fine dust jacket.
41. BURCHETT, Wilfred. Who Controls Vietnam? (Chicago): (SDS) (1968). Three articles by Burchett, the most prominent left-wing journalist of the Vietnam era, which originally appeared in The Guardian. Pamphlet; stapled wrappers. Some surface staining; very good.
42. BURCHETT, Wilfred. Vietnam Will Win! NY: Guardian, 1970. Second, revised edition. Introduction by David Dellinger, one of the Chicago Seven. Gift inscription inside front cover. Very good in wrappers.
43. BURKE, Todd and DeAnn. Anointed for Burial. Plainfield: Logos (1977). Personal account of two missionaries in Cambodia during the two years prior to the fall of Phnom Penh and the ascension of the Khmer Rouge. Previous owner gift inscription. Very good in wrappers. No indication of there having been a hardcover edition.
44. BUTLER, Robert Olen. Sun Dogs. NY: Horizon (1982). His second book, a novel of ideas which is also a fine thriller. Only marginally related to Vietnam, but the war provides an important subtext to the story: one of the characters is haunted throughout the book by memories of a week he spent years earlier as a captive of the Viet Cong. Fine in lightly rubbed dust jacket.
45. BUTLER, Robert Olen. On Distant Ground. NY: Knopf, 1985. This novel of a U.S. intelligence officer who is court-martialed for kidnapping and setting free a Viet Cong officer in the closing days of the war manages to speak volumes about the conflicting loyalties the war engendered in all who confronted it, whatever side they were on. That conflict mirrors in the microcosm the larger conflict which engulfed the country during the war, and it does so with artistry and a complete lack of didacticism. Context is paramount in this novel: single sentences seem to carry as much weight as an entire ambitious novel might have been expected to. But beyond the question of conflicting loyalties, a second sub-plot involves the main character's evolving conviction that he had fathered a son in Vietnam, his obsession with finding out if that is true, and with finding the boy if it is. In this, Butler again touches a deep nerve, for the war in Vietnam raised seemingly endless questions of responsibility: in the character of David Fleming, insistent on taking responsibility for a son he isn't even sure exists, Butler has created a heroic metaphor and has articulated that aspiration to noble motives and endeavors which early in the war seemed to come from national resolve but later had to be found by each individual for himself, in his own actions and decisions. In the main character's pursuit of a goal he isn't even sure exists, the novel functions as a modern-day Grail quest. Fine in fine dust jacket.
46. BUTLER, Robert Olen. The Alleys of Eden. NY: Holt (1994). The reissue of his first book, published after his winning the Pulitzer Prize for A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain. Set in Saigon at the fall of South Vietnam and then later in the U.S. after the war, this is a powerful novel that introduced a writer who is only now beginning to receive his just recognition. Fine in fine dust jacket.
47. BUTTINGER, Joseph. The Smaller Dragon. NY: Praeger (1958). An early, classic study of Vietnam, one which was built upon repeatedly by later analysts and historians, including the author himself in his Vietnam: A Dragon Embattled, published in 1967 and itself another classic of history and analysis. Near fine in very good dust jacket.
48. CAMPBELL, Alex. Unbind Your Sons. The Captivity of America in Asia. NY: Liveright (1970). The issue in wrappers. Front cover very slightly splayed; else fine.
49. CAPPS, Walter H. The Unfinished War. Vietnam and the American Conscience. Boston: Beacon (1982). An analysis of the war as a "devastating challenge to our national self-image." This is the issue in wrappers. Remainder mark bottom page edges; else fine.
50. -. Another copy of the issue in wrappers, also with a remainder mark. Ink price on half-title; very good.
51. CAPUTO, Philip. A Rumor of War. NY: HRW (1977). One of the first personal accounts of the war to be published after the fall of Saigon and to receive wide distribution: it was a Main Selection of the Book of the Month Club. Caputo recounts his experiences in Vietnam as a Marine, which ended in a court-martial when two of his troops killed two civilians. The anguish of the war, and the way it not only divided a nation against itself but individuals from within, is recounted with directness and force by a thoughtful individual who is also a good writer. Fine in fine dust jacket.
52. -. Another copy. Foxing to top edge; near fine in near fine, price-clipped dust jacket.
53. -. Same title, the Book Club edition. Fine in near fine, spine-faded dust jacket.
54. CAPUTO, Philip. DelCorso's Gallery. NY: HRW (1983). Uncorrected proof copy of his third book, second novel, about a photojournalist covering wars from Vietnam to Beirut. One short edge tear upper front spine fold; else fine in wrappers.
55. CAPUTO, Philip. Indian Country. NY: Bantam, 1987. His third novel, about a vet who is shattered by his experience in Vietnam. One of the few novels to attempt to deal explicitly with post-traumatic stress disorder in Vietnam vets. Fine in fine dust jacket.
56. CARROLL, Gerry. North Star. NY: Pocket (1991). Advance reading copy of this novel of Navy combat pilots in Vietnam, written by a retired Navy aviator. Introduction by Tom Clancy. Fine in wrappers, with publisher's promotional material laid in.
57. CARROLL, James. Prince of Peace. Boston: Little Brown (1984). A novel of a priest in Vietnam by a novelist who is himself an ex-priest. Fine in fine dust jacket.
58. -. Same title, the advance reading copy. Printed black wrappers rubbed; otherwise near fine.
59. CASSIDY, John. A Station in the Delta. NY: Scribner's (1979). The author's first book, a novel of the CIA in Vietnam. The author served in Vietnam as an Operations Officer in the Clandestine Service for the CIA. Very near fine in like dust jacket.
60. CHARLTON, Michael and MONCRIEFF, Anthony. Many Reasons Why. The American Involvement in Vietnam. NY: Hill and Wang (1978). Two British journalists dissect the reasons for American policy and for its failure, through a series of interviews with key participants. Remainder stamp bottom page edges; else very near fine in like dust jacket.
61. (Chemical Warfare). Harvest of Death. Chemical Warfare in Vietnam and Cambodia. NY: Free Press (1972). A sober assessment of U.S. policy regarding chemical weapons, which ends up as a scathing indictment of the policy, its makers, and a public that tacitly accepted it, thereby becoming complicit. Near fine in very good dust jacket.
62. CHESNAUX, Jean. The Vietnamese Nation. Contribution to a History. Sydney: Current, 1966. Revised, updated and abridged translation of this book originally published in France in 1954. An important overview.
63. CHIGAS, George. Chanthy's Garden. (Lowell): (Loom Press) (1988). Poems based on the experience of a Cambodian refugee from the "killing fields" who settled in the U.S. Fine in stapled wrappers.
64. CHOMSKY, Noam. At War with Asia. NY: Pantheon (1970). A series of essays on Indochina by a leading intellectual critic of the U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia. Fine in fine dust jacket with slight rubbing at the spine extremities.
65. CLUTTERBUCK, Richard L. The Long War. Counterinsurgency in Malaya and Vietnam. NY: Praeger (1966). An ex-library copy, replete with library markings and circulation envelope; therefore good, in very good dust jacket with accession label on spine. An important, pertinent subject, about which few volumes have been produced for general consumption.
66. COETZEE, J.M. Dusklands. Johannesburg: Raven, 1974. First book by this noted South African writer, later a winner of the Booker Prize. Two novellas, one of which, "The Vietnam Project," deals with a researcher investigating the effectiveness of U.S. propaganda and psychological warfare in Vietnam. This is the true first edition, preceding its British publication by seven years, and American by eleven. Fine in a fine dust jacket. A very scarce book by an important writer.
67. -. Another copy. Very near fine in a dust jacket with several edge tears, one internally tape-repaired; otherwise about near fine.
68. COLEMAN, Charles. Sergeant Back Again. NY: Harper & Row (1980). The author's first book, a novel of a Vietnam vet in a psychiatric ward in a VA hospital. Fine in fine, price-clipped dust jacket.
69. CONNOLLY, David. Illumination Rounds. A Collection of Thoughts by a Survivor of the War in Vietnam. (n.p.): (n.p.) (n.d.). Photocopied typescript of this collection of poems and short prose pieces. A number of the pages reproduce holograph originals, in whole or in part. Apparently never published in this form [see below]. Fine.
70. CONNOLLY, David. Lost in America. Woodbridge: Vietnam Generation & Burning Cities Press (1994). Galleys. 8 1/2" x 11". With a handful of editorial emendations in red ink. Fine.
71. COONTS, Stephen. The Intruders. NY: Pocket (1994). Advance reading copy of the sequel to Flight of the Intruder. Fine in wrappers.
72. CORSON, William R. The Betrayal. NY: Norton (1968). Watershed account of corruption in Vietnam, written by a Marine lifer who resigned just before the publication of this book. Near fine in near fine, price-clipped dust jacket. Reprinted a number of times, the first edition is somewhat uncommon.
73. CRAIS, Robert. Stalking the Angel. NY: Bantam (1989). The second Elvis Cole mystery, and the first to be published in hardcover. Cole is a Vietnam vet, and his experiences in Vietnam play a part in the series, helping to shape his character and his reactions to events. Fine in fine, price-clipped dust jacket.
74. CROWTHER, John. Firebase. NY: St. Martin's (1975). Sticker removal abrasion front pastedown; else fine in fine dust jacket. An uncommon novel of the war.
75. CRUMLEY, James. One to Count Cadence. NY: Random House (1969). The author's first book, of Gis in the Philippines in the early '60s, before being shipped to Vietnam. A few droplets have marked the top edge stain, but still a near fine copy in a dust jacket with a short tear at the upper edge of the rear panel; still near fine. A nice copy, and signed by the author.
76. -. Another copy. Shadow of previous owner label front flyleaf; else fine in fine dust jacket with one small edge tear at the spine crown.
77. CURREY, Richard. Fatal Light. NY: Dutton (1988). Currey's well-received first novel, a powerful series of stories of a medic in Vietnam. Currey himself served four years as a medic with the Marines. Laudatory dust jacket comments by several other writers of notable Vietnam-related booksTim O'Brien, Jayne Anne Phillips, and Philip Caputo. Fine in dust jacket.
78. -. Another copy. Owner name front flyleaf; else fine in jacket.
79. CUTLER, Thomas J. Brown Water, Black Berets. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press (1988). Book club edition. The definitive history of coastal and riverine warfare in Vietnam. Fine in fine dust jacket with slight rubbing to flap folds. Signed by the author in 1989.
80. DANHIEL, Georges. Doc-Lap. Paris: Pierre-Seghers (1947). Revolutionary French poetry, sympathetic to the Vietnamese independence movement, written by a young French veteran of World War II and Indochina. An early example of the political schism created by the postwar declaration of independence of Vietnam, and the French attempt to reestablish the pre-war colonial state. Minor edge-darkening; else fine in self-wrappers. A small, fragile volume, presumably quite uncommon, and historically and politically notable.
81. DAVIDSON, Lt. Gen. Phillip B. Vietnam at War. (Novato): Presidio (1988). An overview of the wars in Vietnam over 30 years, 1946-1975, which focuses on the central character in all of them, Vietnamese General Vo Nguyen Giap. Fine in fine dust jacket.
82. DEAN, Chuck. Nam Vet: Making Peace with Your Past. (Mountlake Terrace): (Point Man International) (1988). A nonfiction volume about dealing with post traumatic stress disorder, written by a Vietnam vet and including chapters on his experience in Vietnam. Fine in wrappers.
83. (Death Certificate). METZLER, Carl E. Certificate honoring Metzler's memory and "devoted and selfless consecration," auto-penned by then-President Kennedy. 8" x 10". Very near fine. With original mailing envelope, addressed to Mrs. Metzler.
84. DEL VECCHIO, John M. The 13th Valley. NY: Bantam (1982). An exhaustively researched novel that follows a company of the 101st Airborne in an operation closely based on an actual campaign in the summer of 1970. Both the amount and the historical accuracy of the information conveyed are impressive, and Del Vecchio is also an accomplished writer, so the novel is powerful in dramatic terms as well. Reprinted many times. Fine in a fine dust jacket. A very nice copy of a bulky, heavy book that shows wear easily.
85. DENNIS, Charles. Stoned Cold Soldier. London: Bachman & Turner (1973). A satirical novel that was only published in England and which is one of the scarcer novels of the war. Fine in near fine, price-clipped dust jacket, with a little wear at heel of spine.