The Vietnam War occurred between 1955 and 1975 and killed almost 4 million people including 58,220 U.S. service members. These 10 nonfiction and fiction books about the Vietnam War define the conflict and explore the lives of those who were impacted by it.

1. Dereliction of Duty by H.R. McMaster

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“McMaster’s only book, Dereliction of Duty is an explosive and authoritative new look at the controversy concerning the United States involvement in Vietnam.”

2. Chickenhawk by Robert Mason

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“As a child, Robert Mason dreamed of levitating. As a young man, he dreamed of flying helicopters – and the U.S. Army gave him his chance. They sent him to Vietnam where, between August 1965 and July 1966, he flew more than 1,000 assault missions. In Chickenhawk, Robert Mason gives us a devastating bird’s eye-view of that war in all its horror, as he experiences the accelerating terror, the increasingly desperate courage of a man ‘acting out the role of a hero long after he realises that the conduct of the war is insane,’ says the New York Times, ‘And we can’t stop ourselves from identifying with it.'”

3. In the Weeds: A Novel by Mark Ozeroff

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“An absurdist tale of gas, grass, ass, and Vietnam. War has made Air Force pilot Slats Kisov an adrenaline junkie. Using his exceptional low-and-slow flying skills, he smuggles marijuana into Florida from the Bahamas. Will Slats’ former battles with the Viet Cong, hijackers, PTSD, and Mother Nature prepare him for his most perilous battle of all―the one he must wage against Chief Bobby Ray Pistle? Strap yourself in and get ready for a bumpy ride. And one spectacular landing!”

4. A Rumor of War by Philip Caputo

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“In March of 1965, Lieutenant Philip J. Caputo landed at Danang with the first ground combat unit deployed to Vietnam. Sixteen months later, having served on the line in one of modern history’s ugliest wars, he returned home―physically whole but emotionally wasted, his youthful idealism forever gone.”

5. The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli

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“As the fall of Saigon begins in 1975, two lovers make their way through the streets, desperately trying to catch one of the last planes out. Helen Adams, a photojournalist, must leave behind a war she has become addicted to and a devastated country she loves. Linh, her lover, must grapple with his own conflicting loyalties to the woman from whom he can’t bear to be parted, and his country.”

6. 365 Days by Ronald J. Glasser

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“At Zama, an average of six to eight thousand patients were attended to per month, and the death and suffering were staggering. The soldiers counted their days by the length of their tour―one year, or 365 days―and they knew, down to the day, how much time they had left. Glasser tells their stories―of lives shockingly interrupted by the tragedies of war―with moving, humane eloquence.”

7. Tree of Smoke: A Novel by Denis Johnson

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“This is the story of Skip Sands—spy-in-training, engaged in Psychological Operations against the Vietcong—and the disasters that befall him thanks to his famous uncle, a war hero known in intelligence circles simply as the Colonel.”

8. In An Empty Room: A Novel by Stephen Spotte

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“When a Marine fireteam searches an isolated Vietnamese village believed to be a supply depot for the Viet Cong an IED explodes, leaving only one survivor of the five-man unit. But who is he: Bunny, Hillbilly, Poke, Injun, or “the LT”? Because he is horribly burned, disfigured, and unable to speak, the military doctors don’t know, but the people back home in a coal mining camp in southern West Virginia think they know. Most unsettling of all the survivor himself isn’t certain who he is.

“Spanning the landscape from Vietnam’s warn-torn jungles to hardscrabble Appalachia, In An Empty Room is a gripping examination of time, memory, consciousness, and selfhood and suggests unanticipated conclusions about the nature of human identity.”

9. The Long Gray Line by Rick Atkinson

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“This is the story of the twenty-five-year adventure of the generation of officers who fought in Vietnam. With novelistic detail, Atkinson tells the story of West Point’s Class of 1966 primarily through the experiences of three classmates and the women they loved–from the boisterous cadet years and youthful romances to the fires of Vietnam, where dozens of their classmates died and hundreds more grew disillusioned, to the hard peace and family adjustments that followed.”

10. The Quiet American by Graham Greene

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“Into the intrigue and violence of Indo-China comes Pyle, a young idealistic American sent to promote democracy through a mysterious ‘Third Force’. As his naive optimism starts to cause bloodshed, his friend Fowler, a cynical foreign correspondent, finds it hard to stand aside and watch. But even as he intervenes he wonders why: for the sake of politics, or for love?”

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