Melanie Beresford, Vietnam. New York: Columbia University Press, 1988.
Georges Boudarel, Bui Xuan Quang, Chan Tin, Daniel Hemery, Le Duc Tho, Michael Myers, Nam Cao, Nguyen Duc Nhuan, Nguyen Khac Vien, and Tran Van Tra, La bureaucratie au Vietnam. (Vietnam-Asie-Debat-1.) Paris: l'Harmattan, 1983. 261 pp.
Robert K. Brigham, Guerrilla Diplomacy: The NLF's Foreign Relations and the Viet Nam War. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1999. xviii, 215 pp.
Thomas Campbell, "Facing the Enemy." Naval History, February 1996, pp. 42-45. Cambell became an adviser to RVN Marines late in 1965. Interesting items include an incident of a PAVN soldier who only appeared to be chained to his machine gun.
J.M. Carrier and C.A.H. Thomson, Viet Cong Motivation and Morale: The Special Case of Chieu Hoi. Santa Monica, CA: Rand, 1966 (1975?). RM-4830-2-ISA/ARPA. xxiii, 165pp
David Chanoff and Doan Van Toai, Portrait of the Enemy. New York: Random House, 1986. xxii, 215 pp. Reprinted as 'Vietnam': A Portrait of Its People at War. I.B. Tauris, 1996. 215 pp.
Council of Ministers of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Central Intelligence Agency, January 1977. Vii, 103 pp. Detailed biographical profiles, including dates of trips abroad. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University, in two parts: Front matter and pp. 1-50 (Hoang Anh to Pham Hung) and pp. 51-103 (Pham Hung, continued, to Nghiem Xuan Yem, and index).
Walter P. Davison and Joseph J. Zasloff, A Profile of Viet Cong Cadres. Santa Monica: Rand, 1966 (1975?). RM-4983-1-ISA/ARPA. xiii, 57 pp.
Walter P. Davison, Some Observations on Viet Cong Operations in the Villages. Santa Monica: Rand, 1968. RM-5267-2-ISA-ARPA. xvi, 179 pp.
John Edmund Delezen, Red Plateau: Memoir of a North Vietnamese Soldier. Corps Productions, 2006. 141 pp. The life of Nguyen Van Tung, a PAVN soldier, as written by Delezen, who had served as a recon Marine in the same area (northern I Corps) as Tung, and who became friends with Tung while visiting Vietnam long after the war.
Frank H. Denton, Some Effects of Military Operations on Viet Cong Attitudes. Santa Monica: Rand, 1966 (1975?). RM-4966-1-ISA/ARPA. xiii, 53 pp.
Frank Denton, Volunteers for the Viet Cong. Santa Monica: Rand, September 1968. RM-5647-ISA/ARPA. xiii, 21 pp. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University.
Doan Van Toai and David Chanoff, The Vietnamese Gulag. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1986. 351 pp.
John C. Donnell, Viet Cong Recruitment: Why and How Men Join. RM-5486-1-ISA/ARPA. Santa Monica: Rand, December 1967. xxv, 174 pp.
John C. Donnell and Melvin Gurtov, North Vietnam: Left of Moscow, Right of Peking. P-3794. Santa Monica: Rand, February 1968. 57 pp. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University, in two parts: pp. 1-49 (text) and pp. 50-57 (notes and bibliography).
John C. Donnell, Guy J. Pauker, and Joseph J. Zasloff, Viet Cong Motivation and Morale in 1964: A Preliminary Report. Santa Monica: Rand, 1965. RM-4507/3-ISA. xiii, 74 pp. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University, in two parts: Front matter and pp. 1-31 and pp. 32-74.
David W.P. Elliott, "Revolutionary Re-Integration: A Comparison of the Foundation of Post-Liberation Political Systems in North Vietnam and China." Ph.D. dissertation, Political Science, Cornell, 1976. 722 pp. 76-15903.
David W.P. Elliott and C.A.H. Thomson, A Look at the VC Cadres: Dinh Tuong Province, 1965-1966. RM-5114-1. Santa Monica: Rand, 1967. 89 pp.
David W.P. Elliott and M. Elliott, Documents of an Elite Viet Cong Delta Unit: The Demolition Platoon of the 514th Battalion. Part 1: Unit Composition and Personnel, RM-5848. Part 2: Party Organization, RM-5849. Part 3: Military Organization and Activities, RM-5850. Part 4: Political Indoctrination and Military Training, RM-5851. Part 5: Personal Letters, RM-5852. Santa Monica: Rand, 1969.
Edward J. Emering, Viet Cong: A Photographic Portrait. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Military History, 1999. Photos captured by US and allied forces during the war.
Bernard Fall, The Viet-Minh Regime: Government and Administration in the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. Ithaca: Cornell University/New York: Institute of Pacific Relations, 1954. ix, 143 pp. Rev. and enl. ed. New York: Institue of Pacific Relations/Ithaca: Cornell University, 1956. xi, 196 pp.
Bernard Fall, Le Viet Minh, 1945-1960. Preface by Paul Mus. Paris: Armand Colin, 1960. xii, 377 pp.
Christopher Giebel, Imagined Ancestries of Vietnamese Communism: Ton Duc Thang and the Politics of History and Memory. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2004.
Christopher E. Goscha, Thailand and the Southeast Asian Networks of the Vietnamese Revolution, 1885-1954. Richmond, United Kingdom: Curzon Press, 1999. (Nordic Institute of Asian Studies Monograph Series, no. 79.) 418 pp. An impressive piece of research.
Christopher E. Goscha and Benoît de Tréglodé, eds., Naissance d'un État-Parti: Le Viêt Nam depuis 1945/The Birth of a Party-State: Vietnam since 1945. Paris: les Indes Savantes, 2004. 463 pp.
Leon Gouré and Charles A.H. Thomson, Some Impressions of Viet Cong Vulnerabilities: An Interim Report. Santa Monica: Rand, 1965. RM-4699-1-ISA/ARPA. xi, 94 pp.
Leon Gouré, Anthony J. Russo, and Douglas Scott,
Some Findings
of the Viet Cong Motivation and Morale Study,
June-December 1965. Santa Monica: Rand, 1966. RM-4911-2-ISA/ARPA.
xiii, 46 pp.
Leon Gouré, Some Impressions of the Effects of Military Operations on Viet Cong Behavior. Santa Monica: Rand, 1965. RM-4517-1-ISA. xi, 21 pp.
Leon Goure, Inducements and Deterrents to Defection: An Analysis of the Motives of 125 Defectors. Santa Monica: Rand, August 1968. RM-5522-1-ISA/ARPA. xiii, 41 pp. Mostly guerrillas and VC civilian personnel in the sample, some VC local forces, no main forces or PAVN. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University.
Martin Grossheim, "Revisionism in the Democratic Republic of Vietnam: New Evidence from the East German Archives." Journal of Cold War History, 5:4 (November/December 2005).
Melvin Gurtov, Hanoi on War and Peace. Santa Monica, CA: Rand Corporation, 1967. The full text is available online to paid subscribers of Questia.
Melvin Gurtov, Indochina in North Vietnamese Strategy. P-4605. Santa Monica: Rand, March 1971. 28 pp. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University.
Melvin Gurtov, Viet Cong Cadres and the Cadre System: A Study of the Main and Local Forces. Santa Monica: Rand, 1967. RM-5414-1-ISA/ARPA. xv, 97 pp.
Melvin Gurtov, War in the Delta: Views from Three Viet Cong Battalions. Santa Monica: Rand, 1967 (1975?). RM-5353-1-ISA/ARPA. xi, 59 pp.
Bertrand de Hartingh, Independance et dependance, puissance et impuissance Vietnamienne, le cas de la Republique Democratique. Presses Universitaires du Septentrion, 1998.
William D. Henderson, Why the Vietcong Fought: A Study of Motivation and Control in a Modern Army in Combat. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1979.
L.P. Holliday and R.M. Gurfield, Viet Cong Logistics. RM-5423-1-ISA/ARPA. Santa Monica: Rand, June 1968. xv, 123 pp.
Stephen T. Hosmer, Viet Cong Repression and its Implications for the Future. Lexington, MA: Heath, 1970. ix, 172 pp. A RAND Corporation study.
The Impact of the Sapper on the Viet-Nam War. Saigon: United States Mission in Vietnam, October 1969. 17 pp. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University.
Konrad Kellen, Conversations with Enemy Soldiers in Late 1968/Early 1969: A Study of Motivation and Morale. RM-6131-1-ISA/ARPA. Santa Monica: Rand Corporation, September 1970. 156 pp. Says that VC/PAVN morale seemed firm.
Konrad Kellen, A Profile of the PAVN Soldier in South Vietnam. RM-5013-1/ISA/ARPA. Ranta Monica: Rand, 1966. 73 pp.
Konrad Kellen, A View of the VC: Elements of Cohesion in the Enemy Camp in 1966-1967. RM-5462-1-ISA/ARPA. Santa Monica: Rand, November 1969. xiii, 80 pp. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University, in two parts: Front matter and pp. 1-36 and pp. 37-80.
Lt. Col. Jonathan F. Ladd, USA, "Viet Cong Portrait." Military Review, XLIV:7 (July 1964), pp. 67-80.
Michael Lee Lanning and Dan Cragg, Inside the VC and the NVA: The Real Story of North Vietnam's Armed Forces. New York: Fawcett, 1992.
Thomas K. Latimer, "Hanoi's Leaders and Their South Vietnam Policies: 1954-1968." Ph.D. dissertation, History, Georgetown University, 1972. iv, 360 pp. AAT 7234184. Full text available online if you are browsing from an institution that subscribes to ProQuest Dissertations and Theses.
Nathan Leites, The Viet Cong Style of Politics. Santa Monica: Rand, 1969. RM-5487-1-ISA/ARPA. xxxi, 292 pp.
James W. McCoy, Secrets of the Viet Cong. New York: Hippocrene, 1992. 549 pp. This book, which appears on brief skim to have been rather carelessly written, without much use of Vietnamese sources, really deals with the North Vietnamese Army more than the Viet Cong (though it is careless about the distinction between the two).
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Viet-Nam, Infiltration of Communist Armed Elements and Clandestine Introduction of Arms from North to South Vietnam. Saigon, June 1967. 53 pp. The text, though apparently not all the maps and photos that originally accompanied it, has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University.
National Interrogation Center. Some reports (probably quite a lot, though there are only a few I have noticed so far) of the interrogations of captured Communist personnel, carried out at the National Interrogation Center, have been placed online in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University.
Tran Xuan Thuong, a.k.a. Tran Kim Tien, NIC Case No. 043/23/67, was a tank driver in the PAVN 1963-1965. He was infiltrated into South Vietnam in December 1965, and was captured after taking part in an attack on an ARVN armored school in Gia Dinh province in 1966. Reports on his interrogation: NVA Armored Regiment 202 Chemical Warfare Training in NVN, NIC Report No. 081/67, 20 January 1967, and NVA Armored Regiment 202 Atomic Warfare Training in NVN, NIC Report No. 084/67, 23 January 1967.
Ninh, Kim Ngoc Bao, "Revolution, Politics and Culture in Socialist Vietnam, 1945-1965." Ph.D. Dissertation, Political Science, Yale, 1996. 464 pp. DA 9635392.
Ninh, Kim Ngoc Bao A World Transformed: The Politics of Culture in Revolutionary Vietnam, 1945-1965. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2002. xv, 317 pp.
Office of the Assistant Chief of Staff, G-2, U.S. Army, Vietnam, History of the 273 VC Regiment, July 1964 - December 1969. ii, 33 pp. The battalions making up this regiment originated in IV Corps, but they came north to Tay Ninh province to be joined into the 273 Regiment in 1964. It operated in III Corps until 1969, when it returned to IV Corps. Much of the text (pp. 24, 25, 26, and 29, and the maps, are missing) has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University.
Lt. Col. George S. Patton, USA, "Why They Fight." Military Review, XLV:12 (December 1965), pp. 16-23. Viet Cong motivation.
Pham Hong Linh, "The Congresses and Plenums of the Communist Party of Viet Nam." Goes up to 1984. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University.
Douglas Pike, History of Vietnamese Communism, 1925-1976. Stanford: Hoover Institution, 1978. xiv, 181 pp. Wrong dates, wrong statistics, wrong geography, mistranslations, and every other type of factual error. A few examples:
On p. 88, discussing the Geneva Conference of 1954, Pike says: "The Republic of Vietnam, in which Bao Dai was soon to be deposed by referendum in favor of Ngo Dinh Diem, did not attend and in fact denounced the whole affair." Mention of "the Republic of Vietnam" is an anachronism here; Diem did not start calling his government that until 1955. More important, this government did send an official delegation to the Geneva Conference. The proposals made at the conference by Tran Van Do, who as Foreign Minister in Diem's cabinet was head of this delegation, have been published in the Pentagon Papers (see Gravel edition, vol. I, pp. 569-70) and various other places.
Also on p. 88, Pike says that Le Duan was talking with western journalists in Hanoi during the Geneva Conference of 1954, telling them Vietnam was being betrayed. Le Duan was nowhere near Hanoi during that conference, and would not have dreamed of talking with western journalists had he been there.
p. 111, lines 4-12: "Open rebellion broke out in November 1956 . . . rebellion began, most humiliatingly, in Ho Chi Minh's home province of Nghe An. In two weeks the rioting and insurrection had spread throughout most of the province. A full PAVN division took nearly a month to put down the uprising. Elsewhere in the country other uprisings developed. The worst of these was near Vinh, beginning on November 8 . . ." The problem is that Vinh was the capital of Nghe An province. Apparently Pike had seen some accounts describing an uprising in Nghe An province, and some describing an uprising near Vinh, and didn't realize that Vinh was in Nghe An and that all these accounts referred to the same uprising. So he wrote it up as two uprisings, one in Nghe An and one in an unnamed province containing Vinh.
Note 7 on p. 161, discussing collectivization, treats "work exchange team" and "cooperative" as two different names for the same type of organization. This is incorrect; the work exchange team was smaller and retained much greater elements of private ownership. This error leads him at the bottom of the page to say that there were 4,722 work exchange teams in North Vietnam in 1958. In fact there were at least 100,000 work exchange teams in that year; 4,722 was a figure for the number of cooperatives.
Note 12 on p. 163 gives seven supposed quotes from a report by General Giap on land reform. None of them is really a verbatim translation of the Vietnamese original (Nhan Dan, October 31, 1956, p. 2). The first, third, fourth, and seventh are seriously inaccurate. Note in particular that the third quote says "We attacked indiscriminately all families owning land..." where the original had referred to indiscriminate attacks on "landlords." Not more than one tenth of the families owning land were classified as landlords. One would have expected Pike to have noticed the absurdity of this mistranslation, since he was under the mistaken impression (see p. 101) that 98 percent of the farmers in the Red River Delta owned the land they farmed, an error derived from misinterpretation of data collected by Yves Henry in the 1930s. The fourth and seventh of the translated quotes from General Giap referred to executions where the Vietnamese original did not mention executions, and so on.
Douglas Pike, PAVN: People's Army of Vietnam. Novato, CA: Presidio, 1986. vii, 384 pp. (there is a book club printing that has viii, 373 pp.). Likely to become notorious for Pike's supposed evidence (presented in note 27 to chapter 4) that there was really a North Vietnamese attack against U.S. ships in the second Tonkin Gulf incident, August 4, 1964. He took a sentence published in Hanoi about combat between North Vietnamese and American vessels in the first Tonkin Gulf incident (August 2, 1964), deleted the words "On 2 August 1964" from the beginning of the sentence, and published the remainder of the sentence in quotation marks as a description of the second incident.
Madeleine Riffaud, Dans les maquis "Vietcong". Paris: Julliard, 1965. 267 pp.
Pierre Rousset, Le parti communiste vietnamien. Paris: Maspero, 1975. 363 pp.
A. Sweetland, Rallying Potential Among the North Vietnamese Armed Forces. Santa Monica: Rand, 1970. RM-6375-1-ARPA. 54 pp.
Ton That Thien, The Foreign Politics of the Communist Party of Vietnam: A Study in Communist Tactics. Alternate data list this as either Philadelphia: Taylor & Francis, or New York: Crane Russak, 1989.
Benoît de Tréglodé, Héros et révolution au Viêt Nam, 1948-1964. Paris: l'Harmattan, 2001. 445 pp.
William S. Turley, ed., Vietnamese Communism in Comparative Perspective. Boulder: Westview, 1980. xiii, 271 pp. The full text is available online to paid subscribers of Questia.
The Viet Cong Infrastructure: A Background Paper. Saigon: United States Mission in Vietnam, June 1970. 48 pp. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project at Texas Tech University.
Vietnam Documents and Research Notes, no. 102, The People's Revolutionary Party of South Viet-Nam, Part I. February 1972. vii, 86 pp. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project at Texas Tech University, in two parts: Front matter and a 1965 letter of Comrade "Ba" (Le Duan) to the Saigon Regional Committee, and a 1965 PRP pamphlet.
Christine Pelzer White, "Agrarian Reform and National Liberation in the Vietnamese Revolution: 1920-1957." Ph.D. dissertation, Political Science, Cornell, 1981. 531 pp. AAT 8111002.
J[oseph] J. Zasloff, Political Motivation of the Viet Cong: The Vietminh Regroupees. RM-4703/2-ISA/ARPA. Santa Monica: Rand, May 1968. (Original edition: August 1966). xiv, 183 pp. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project at Texas Tech University: Front matter and Intoduction (pp. i-xiv, 1-22); Part One, "The Regroupees in the North" (pp. 23-65); Part Two, "The Regroupees in the Front" (pp. 67-102, pp. 103-146); Part Three, "The Defectors" (pp. 147-183).
Vietnamese Communism before 1945
Copyright © 1996, 1998, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, Edwin E. Moise. This document may be reproduced only if this copyright notice is reproduced with it. Revised March 8, 2007.