11 Powerful Books That Explore the Legacy of the Vietnam War

Winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, this profound, startling, and beautifully crafted spy novel is the story of a man whose political beliefs clash with his individual loyalties. An astute exploration of extreme politics, as well as a moving love story, THE SYMPATHIZER examines the legacy of the Vietnam War in literature, film, and the wars we fight today.

From a quiet family farm in Montana in the ’60s, to the grit and haze of San Francisco in the ’70s, to a gypsy-populated post-war Saigon, THE GIVEN WORLD spins around its unconventional heroine, whose brother has gone missing in Vietnam.

A classic work of American literature that has not stopped changing minds and lives since it burst onto the literary scene in 1990, THE THINGS THEY CARRIED is a groundbreaking meditation on war, memory, imagination, and the redemptive power of storytelling as written by a Vietnam veteran.

The bestselling novel and deeply affecting story of a young girl who comes to terms with her father’s death in Vietnam two decades earlier.

A visceral and spellbinding novel by a highly decorated Vietnam veteran, MATTERHORN tells the story of one young man at war, but transforms the tragedy of Vietnam into a powerful and universal story of courage, camaraderie, and sacrifice.

THEY MARCHED INTO SUNLIGHT is the epic history of the Vietnam era told through the events of a few gripping, passionate days of war and peace in October 1967. It explores questions about the meaning of dissent and the official manipulation of truth—issues as relevant today as they were decades ago.


Three young paratroopers waiting to be shipped out are brought together one sweltering afternoon to stand guard over an ammunition dump threatened by a forest fire. They emerge from their common danger full of confidence in their manhood and in the friendship they have formed.

Brutally honest and rich in detail, this posthumously published diary of a twenty-seven-year-old Vietcong woman, saved from destruction by an American soldier, gives us fresh insight into the lives of those fighting on the other side of the Vietnam War.



In the final days of a falling Saigon, THE LOTUS EATERS unfolds the story of three remarkable photographers brought together under the impossible umbrella of war. All three become transformed by the conflict they have risked everything to record.

Published just months before President Nixon’s resignation, ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN revealed the full scope of the Watergate scandal and introduced for the first time the mysterious “Deep Throat.” Woodward and Bernstein’s explosive reports won a Pulitzer Prize for The Washington Post, toppled the president, and have since inspired generations of reporters.

This New York Times bestseller details the author’s life story (portrayed by Tom Cruise in the Oliver Stone film version) from a patriotic soldier in Vietnam, to his severe battlefield injury, to his role as the country's most outspoken anti–Vietnam War advocate.