The Vietnam War Audiobook By Geoffrey C. Ward, Ken Burns cover art

The Vietnam War

An Intimate History

Preview

Try for $0.00
Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

The Vietnam War

By: Geoffrey C. Ward, Ken Burns
Narrated by: Fred Sanders, Ken Burns, Brian Corrigan
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $31.50

Buy for $31.50

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

About this listen

From the award-winning historian and filmmakers of The Civil War, Baseball, The War, The Roosevelts, and others: a vivid, uniquely powerful history of the conflict that tore America apart - the companion volume to the major multipart PBS film to be aired in September 2017.

More than 40 years after it ended, the Vietnam War continues to haunt our country. We still argue over why we were there, whether we could have won, and who was right and wrong in their response to the conflict. When the war divided the country, it created deep political fault lines that continue to divide us today. Now, continuing in the tradition of their critically acclaimed collaborations, the authors draw on dozens and dozens of interviews in America and Vietnam to give us the perspectives of people involved at all levels of the war: US and Vietnamese soldiers and their families, high-level officials in America and Vietnam, antiwar protestors, POWs, and many more. The book plunges us into the chaos and intensity of combat, even as it explains the rationale that got us into Vietnam and kept us there for so many years. Rather than taking sides, the book seeks to understand why the war happened the way it did and to clarify its complicated legacy. Beautifully written, this is a tour de force that is certain to launch a new national conversation.

©2017 Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns (P)2017 Random House Audio
Southeast Asia United States Vietnam War War Military Emotionally Gripping Imperialism Roosevelt Family Air Force
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Critic reviews

"Lucid, flowing, and dramatic...robustly detailed writing...eye-opening...powerful in its own right.... In their new 'intimate' yet capacious history, the award-winning, audience-enthralling duo of historian and screenwriter Ward and documentarian extraordinaire Burns investigate the complex, divisive, and tragic Vietnam War from a unique plurality of perspectives." (Donna Seaman, Booklist)

"The melancholy tone of Ken Burns's voice exactly suits the mood of this history of the Vietnam War... Burns adds no false drama but always reads with a tone of respect for the front-line combatants and the earnest opponents.... Overall, the audio does the print version full justice." (AudioFile)

Featured Article: The Best Vietnam War Audiobooks, Fiction and Nonfiction


Over the past four decades, many people have written about the Vietnam War in an effort to make sense of the raging debates, the staggering death and destruction, and the lingering trauma. History is often complicated, biased, or missing key information, especially when it comes to war. Arm yourself with comprehensive knowledge of the conflict with our selection of titles detailing the Vietnam War, from fiction to nonfiction, personal stories to histories.

What listeners say about The Vietnam War

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1,012
  • 4 Stars
    131
  • 3 Stars
    34
  • 2 Stars
    6
  • 1 Stars
    4
Performance
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    911
  • 4 Stars
    124
  • 3 Stars
    24
  • 2 Stars
    4
  • 1 Stars
    3
Story
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    917
  • 4 Stars
    108
  • 3 Stars
    24
  • 2 Stars
    7
  • 1 Stars
    5

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Breathtaking In Scope; Heartbreaking In Reality

I bought The Vietnam War because I respect Ken Burns and, well, I wanted to make sense of what I saw on TV and in the newspapers when I was just a little kid.
This book is mindblowing in its scope, in the detail, in the amount of research that was poured into it. It covers about every viewpoint a reader/listener could ask for: background shenanigans at the White House, a grunt's view, the war back home (from peaceful demonstrators to those who made the peace movement something Nixon's public hated/feared); Vietnamese civilians trying to live in the midst of chaos, North Vietnamese and the NLF who were willing to sacrifice everything and kill every American they could.
And much, much more.
It's all delivered in the tones of skilled documentarians who sometimes skimp on the emotion but always, always, deliver blows with dead accuracy. Sometimes devastating, sometimes heartrending, the same tones are used.
And that's the only, only flaw I could find with this audiobook.
Everything else? Well, I'm still wondering how the heartbreak I saw on TV after watching Captain Kangaroo, after hearing at my grade school about POWs, happened: It's all so very tragic, and the fact that we can find lines that trickle their way through our current actions and inactions just about rips my heart out.
Listen to this if you want great history. You won't be disappointed.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

35 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Best Vietnam Account Collection out there

God this was tough to listen to at times. The Hell of Vietnam wont be written anywhere like it is in this book. The audiobook version loses none of the impact, this is a must listen for any amateur historian.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Perspective on all aspects of the war

This was tough to get through sometimes for a variety of reasons. It's dry in some places, in others the continuous talk of death forced me to step away for a while. It's worth pushing through to gain a strong understanding of the war, the lead up, and the aftermath.

There's a lot of conclusions to draw from this, but LBJ is a monster in my eyes after this.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Awesome Just Awesome

I was looking for a audiobook that could provide a complete telling of the Vietnam War, and I certainly found it in this book. You don’t want to stop listening. The telling of personal, political and heroic stories all in one volume. Truly awesome.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Required Reading\Listening for the Entire Planet

so many things so different from memoriesgrowong up. really breaks our hearts. never forget. Ken Burns. Again.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Incredible

An excellent summary of the Vietnam War. Politically neutral and filled with harrowing stories from a tragic era. Very well done.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Outstanding journalism and reflection on the War

As someone born in the 80s, I have always struggled to understand the Vietnam War beyond the stereotypes and cursory treatment the conflict gets in American education. This book, especially with its historical preamble to U.S. involvement, gave me that understanding and did it through the voices of those involved, and balanced the human element with the detailed military history view that is required to comprehend how we got so involved and why the outcomes became what they did.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent and comprehensive

Far from being a rehash of the equally superb television series---thorough, balanced, and narrated in a manner that contributes positively to comprehension and appreciation while staying out of the way. Certainly a definitive work.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

The Whole entity,

The narrative regarding the American Army's introduction into Viet Nam reminded me of my year of service as an Army Clerk in an Advisory Group (JUSMAG) IN Thailand in 1956. A group of high ranking officers, including a one star, had been visiting for three days in the area of my detachment (Phitsanulok). At the farewell dinner the night before their departure, one of the group made this statement: "Give me a Company of GI's and I'll go through this country in a week." Having been on several hunting trips in the surrounding area, and as far as Tak, Burma, I knew that the smaller, brown skinned fellas would have a distinct advantage in the jungles of Thailand or any other country in Southeast Asia in a combat situation.

Also, while on an R&R flight to Hong Kong in which most of the other passengers were Officers, some with their wives, I asked the Major sitting next to me as we flew over Viet Nam, how the Army could cope with the seemingly impenetrable jungle below. His reply: "We'll just destroy it."

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Brilliant

And unbelievable work of scholarship and compassion have your Kleenex handy your thoughts will not be far behind

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful