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Top 10 books
All these books can be ordered through your local highstreet bookstore. If you'd rather order online, the links below take you to the relevant page of Amazon (usually Amazon.com). Alternatively, they are also available through Amazon.co.uk.

• Novel Without a Name, Duong Thu Huong
  Radical questioning of the political motives behind the American War from one of Vietnam's leading contemporary writers. Perhaps not surprisingly, Duong Thu Huong was later imprisoned for her outspoken advocacy of human rights.
  
  
• The General Retires & Other Stories, Nguyen Huy Thiep
  Nguyen Huy Thiep, another famous literary name, portrays the lives of ordinary Vietnamese in his provocative short stories.
  
  
• The Stars, The Earth, The River, Le Minh Khue
  Only recently translated into English, Le Minh Khue's short stories details the seesaw of tragedy and hope that defines her war-torn generation.
  
  
• The Other Side of Heaven, (eds) Wayne Karlin, Le Minh Khue & Truong Vu
  Both Vietnamese and American writers feature in this excellent collection of post-war fiction. Common themes echo across the divide: sorrow, pain and survival.
  
  
• When Heaven and Earth Changed Places, Le Ly Hayslip
  Autobiographical novel depicting the American War from a Vietnamese point of view.
  
  
• The Quiet American, Graham Greene
  Required reading, not only for its portrait of Vietnam on the verge of war, but also for Greene's prescient take on the American involvement.
  
  
• A Rumor of War, Philip Caputo
  A classic from the American side of the conflict. Caputo captures both the numbing daily routine of a soldier's life and the frenzied, brutalising combat.
  
  
• A Wavering Grace, Gavin Young
  Poignant, true story of a Vietnamese family torn apart by the war and its aftermath.
  
  
• Hitchhiking Vietnam, Karin Muller
  For a more contemporary view, join this feisty American as she battles red-tape, recalcitrant Minsks and illegal animal traders to find the "real" Vietnam.
  
  
• Shadows and Wind, Robert Templer
  This hard-hitting book casts a critical eye over Vietnam's decade of reform. Templer covers the broad range of issues, from corruption and state censorship to the emergence of a vibrant, consumer-oriented youth culture.

Top 10 films

• Apocalypse Now, Francis Coppola
  Well, I know it doesn't tell us much about Vietnam, but this film more than any other conveys the inhuman horror of war, especially one fought in a steaming, tropical jungle. Crazed Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando) sets himself up as leader of a mountain tribe. Martin Sheen is sent to take him out.
  
  
• Heaven and Earth, Oliver Stone
  By no means a brilliant movie, but a rare view of things from a Vietnamese perspective. It's based on the life of Le Ly Hayslip, showing how Vietnamese culture and society were torn apart by the war.
  
  
• Cyclo, Tran Anh Hung
  This bleak look at present-day Saigon (1995) portrays a city in moral and social turmoil. An impoverished cyclo driver gets sucked into a life of crime in a brutal netherworld.
  
  
• The Scent of Green Papaya, Tran Anh Hung
  Tran Anh Hung's earlier work was a much more lyrical piece. It's set in 1950s Vietnam as traditional life begins to unravel under the onslaught of Western - at this time, French - culture. The sub-plot focuses on women's place in the Confucian hierarchy.
  
  
• The Quiet American, Joseph L Mankiewicz
  Mankiewicz shifts Greene's anti-American stance to anti-Communism, but location shooting in the real 1950's Saigon lends the film a wonderful atmosphere. Great acting, too.
  
  
• Dien Bien Phu, Pierre Schoendoerffer
  A few years later it all came crumbling down at Dien Bien Phu. Schoendoerffer, who was there at the time, crafts an epic film, interweaving battle scenes with events in the last days of colonial Hanoi.
  
  
• Indochine, Regis Wargnier
  Stunning scenery more than compensates for the overly romantic view of life in French Indochina.
  
  
• The Deer Hunter, Michael Cimino
  Friendship tested to the limits when three men are tortured and forced to play Russian roulette by the Viet Cong. One comes home in a wheel chair, one gets addicted to danger in Saigon, and the third goes to bring him home.
  
  
• Dear America: Letters Home from America, Bill Couturie
  Intensely moving documentary in which Robert de Niro, Martin Sheen, Robin Williams et al read extracts from soldiers' letters. The images come from contemporary newsreel and amateur footage.
  
  
• Good Morning Vietnam, Barry Levinson
  To end on a lighter note, Robin Williams excels himself as a US Armed Forces Radio DJ with a nose for trouble. Forget the plot, but the music and Williams' monologues are brilliant.