America 250 · 1968–1980
What to read and watch aboutVietnam & the Seventies
To understand Vietnam & the Seventies, start with Fire in the Lake: The Vietnamese and the Americans in Vietnam (Frances FitzGerald, 1972) — the book. 7 further picks — histories, biographies, novels, screen and audio — follow below.
The decade that lost a war, drove out a president, and broke the postwar bargain.
From Tet through the Iran hostage crisis — Vietnam, Watergate, the oil shocks, stagflation, the fall of Saigon, the Bicentennial, the disco era. The decade Americans tend to skip in their memory.
Presidents who served
Histories
Fire in the Lake: The Vietnamese and the Americans in Vietnam
Frances FitzGerald · 1972
Pulitzer + National Book Award. Vietnam as the Vietnamese saw it — the first American history to make that case.
Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America
Rick Perlstein · 2008
The era through Nixon's rise. Perlstein on how the country that elected him became the country he leaves us.
All the President's Men
Bob Woodward · 1974
Woodward and Bernstein's own account of the Watergate reporting — written in the months after Nixon resigned.
Lives
Richard Nixon: The Life
John A. Farrell · 2017
The best modern one-volume Nixon — uses the tapes without becoming a Watergate book.
Fiction
The Things They Carried
Tim O'Brien · 1990
O'Brien's linked Vietnam stories — what soldiers carried, literal and metaphorical. The era's defining war fiction.
On screen
The Vietnam War
Ken Burns · 2017
PBS ten-part documentary by Burns and Lynn Novick. 18 hours; the most ambitious thing either has made.
Apocalypse Now
Francis Ford Coppola · 1979
Coppola's Heart of Darkness in Vietnam — the war movie that broke the genre.
All the President's Men
Alan J. Pakula · 1976
Pakula's film with Redford and Hoffman as Woodward and Bernstein — the canonical Watergate movie.
Common questions
What is the best book to start understanding the Vietnam & the Seventies era?
To understand the political fracturing of the period, start with Rick Perlstein's Nixonland. For a deep dive into the cultural and geopolitical complexities of the conflict, Fire in the Lake by Frances FitzGerald provides an essential analysis of the Vietnamese and American experience during the Vietnam & the Seventies era.
Why does the Vietnam & the Seventies era matter in American history?
The Vietnam & the Seventies era represents a period that broke the postwar bargain. It was defined by the loss of the Vietnam War, the resignation of a president due to Watergate, and significant economic instability, including the oil shocks and stagflation that fundamentally altered the American landscape.
What is the best screen treatment for the Vietnam & the Seventies era?
The 2017 documentary series The Vietnam War is the definitive screen treatment for this period. It offers a comprehensive look at the conflict that defined the Vietnam & the Seventies era, covering the timeline from the Tet Offensive through the fall of Saigon and its lasting impact on the nation.
How many U.S. presidents served during the Vietnam & the Seventies era?
Three U.S. presidents served during the Vietnam & the Seventies era. Their administrations navigated the decade's defining crises, including the conclusion of the Vietnam War, the Watergate scandal, the Bicentennial, and the Iran hostage crisis, which collectively marked the end of this transformative period in American history.
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