If you plan to read Hackworth's "
steel my soldiers hearts", I would recommend getting his other book "
About Face" that covers not just Vietnam, but his entire career. They are both good, but "About Face" is really fascinating, and the better book IMO. According to the jacket cover, Hackworth was the inspiration for Marlon Brando's character in Apocalypse now, Colonel Walter E. Kurtz. 'nuff said.
And when you finish that, download "
The Vietnam Primer" that Hackworth wrote early in the vietnam war as an analysis of tactics being used, for distribution to incoming troops. Should be a good primer for PR:vietnam too
"
A rumor of war" by Philip Caputo is also an interesting and very honest account from a soldier who was brought up on court marshall charges for the deaths of vietnamese civilians. He's honest about his shortcomings as a leader, which is an unusual perspective in a memoir.
I fully agree with "
We were soldiers once, and young" - very good book. Loaded with action, better than the movie.
I have heard a lot of good things about Bing West's "
The Village", but have not read it personally. It's supposed to be a great example of effective counter-insurgency warfare by the marines in Vietnam. His book about Fallujah, "No true glory" was certainly good.
Karnow's "
Vietnam: A primer" is more of a general overview of the war, heavy on the political side. It is a good background book. I always like to read at least one of these for every war.
I have "A bright and Shining Lie" and Appy's "Patriots" on my bookshelf waiting to be read, but still have to get through 3 more books on WW1 before I get to them. Incidentally, this is off topic, but if you want to read a really, REALLY good book on infantry tactics - Get Erwin Rommel's WW1 memoir that goes by the name "
Attacks" or "
Infantry Attacks". Considering that WW1 was static warfare at it's worst and that he was on the losing side, it is amazing how successfull he was at maneuver warfare. He discusses every battle he was in including his thought process, a very detailed account of what happened, and a section at the end of the chapter on lessons to be learned from the battle. He even has maps and diagrams of the battles he drew himself. This is my new favorite book, and I have been trying hard to find more like it. I've read that Patton read this book enough that he had it memorized.