
Hanoi’s War
An International History of the War for Peace in Vietnam
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $29.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Hillary Huber
About this listen
While most historians of the Vietnam War focus on the origins of US involvement and the Americanization of the conflict, Lien-Hang T. Nguyen examines the international context in which North Vietnamese leaders pursued the war and American intervention ended. This riveting narrative takes the listener from the marshy Mekong Delta swamps to the bomb-saturated Red River Delta, from the corridors of power in Hanoi and Saigon to the Nixon White House, and from the peace negotiations in Paris to high-level meetings in Beijing and Moscow, all to reveal that peace never had a chance in Vietnam.
Hanoi’s War renders transparent the internal workings of America’s most elusive enemy during the Cold War and shows that the war fought during the peace negotiations was bloodier and much more far-reaching than thought before. Using never-before-seen archival materials from the Vietnam Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as materials from other archives around the world, Nguyen explores the politics of warmaking and peacemaking not only from the North Vietnamese perspective but also from that of South Vietnam, the Soviet Union, China, and the United States, presenting a uniquely international portrait.
©2012 Lien-Hang T. Nguyen (P)2012 Blackstone AudioListeners also enjoyed...
-
Embers of War
- The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America's Vietnam
- By: Fredrik Logevall
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 32 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this landmark work that will forever change your understanding of how and why America went to war in Vietnam, author Fredrik Logevall taps newly accessible diplomatic archives in several nations and traces the path that led two Western nations to tragically lose their way in the jungles of Southeast Asia. He brings to life the bloodiest battles of France’s final years in Indochina - and describes how, from an early point, a succession of American leaders made disastrous policy choices that put America on its own collision course with history.
-
-
Understanding Why We failed the People of Vietnam
- By VA on 03-22-21
By: Fredrik Logevall
-
Vietnam
- An Epic Tragedy, 1945-1975
- By: Max Hastings
- Narrated by: Max Hastings, Peter Noble
- Length: 33 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Vietnam became the Western world’s most divisive modern conflict, precipitating a battlefield humiliation for France in 1954, then a vastly greater one for the US in 1975. Max Hastings has spent the past three years interviewing scores of participants on both sides, as well as researching a multitude of American and Vietnamese documents and memoirs, to create an epic narrative of an epic struggle. Here are the vivid realities of strife amid jungle and paddies that killed two million people.
-
-
A more nuanced view than Ken Burns' companion book
- By Vu on 10-21-18
By: Max Hastings
-
A Continent Erupts
- Decolonization, Civil War, and Massacre in Postwar Asia, 1945-1955
- By: Ronald H. Spector
- Narrated by: BJ Harrison
- Length: 24 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The end of World War II led to the United States' emergence as a global superpower. For Western Europe it marked the beginning of decades of unprecedented cooperation and prosperity that one historian has labeled "the long peace." Yet half a world away, in China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Korea, and Malaya—the fighting never really stopped, as these regions sought to completely sever the yoke of imperialism and colonialism with all-too-violent consequences.
-
-
Detailed Military History
- By RainyDay on 12-25-23
-
The Wages of Destruction
- The Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economy
- By: Adam Tooze
- Narrated by: Adam Tooze, Simon Vance
- Length: 30 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An extraordinary mythology has grown up around the Third Reich that hovers over political and moral debate even today. Adam Tooze's controversial book challenges the conventional economic interpretations of that period.
-
-
Ties the story together in an amazing way
- By Philo on 08-23-21
By: Adam Tooze
-
Hue 1968
- A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam
- By: Mark Bowden
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 18 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
By January 1968, despite an influx of half a million American troops, the fighting in Vietnam seemed to be at a stalemate. Yet General William Westmoreland, commander of American forces, announced a new phase of the war in which "the end begins to come into view". The North Vietnamese had different ideas. In mid-1967, the leadership in Hanoi had started planning an offensive intended to win the war in a single stroke.
-
-
I KNEW This Book Would Sting Me . . . .
- By Rum Runner on 07-28-17
By: Mark Bowden
-
The Thirty Years War
- Europe's Tragedy
- By: Peter H. Wilson
- Narrated by: Matthew Waterson
- Length: 33 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Thirty Years War devastated seventeenth-century Europe, killing nearly a quarter of all Germans and laying waste to towns and countryside alike. Peter Wilson offers the first new history in a generation of a horrifying conflict that transformed the map of the modern world.
-
-
Less caffeine, narrator
- By Jeff Joyner on 02-12-24
By: Peter H. Wilson
-
Embers of War
- The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America's Vietnam
- By: Fredrik Logevall
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 32 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this landmark work that will forever change your understanding of how and why America went to war in Vietnam, author Fredrik Logevall taps newly accessible diplomatic archives in several nations and traces the path that led two Western nations to tragically lose their way in the jungles of Southeast Asia. He brings to life the bloodiest battles of France’s final years in Indochina - and describes how, from an early point, a succession of American leaders made disastrous policy choices that put America on its own collision course with history.
-
-
Understanding Why We failed the People of Vietnam
- By VA on 03-22-21
By: Fredrik Logevall
-
Vietnam
- An Epic Tragedy, 1945-1975
- By: Max Hastings
- Narrated by: Max Hastings, Peter Noble
- Length: 33 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Vietnam became the Western world’s most divisive modern conflict, precipitating a battlefield humiliation for France in 1954, then a vastly greater one for the US in 1975. Max Hastings has spent the past three years interviewing scores of participants on both sides, as well as researching a multitude of American and Vietnamese documents and memoirs, to create an epic narrative of an epic struggle. Here are the vivid realities of strife amid jungle and paddies that killed two million people.
-
-
A more nuanced view than Ken Burns' companion book
- By Vu on 10-21-18
By: Max Hastings
-
A Continent Erupts
- Decolonization, Civil War, and Massacre in Postwar Asia, 1945-1955
- By: Ronald H. Spector
- Narrated by: BJ Harrison
- Length: 24 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The end of World War II led to the United States' emergence as a global superpower. For Western Europe it marked the beginning of decades of unprecedented cooperation and prosperity that one historian has labeled "the long peace." Yet half a world away, in China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Korea, and Malaya—the fighting never really stopped, as these regions sought to completely sever the yoke of imperialism and colonialism with all-too-violent consequences.
-
-
Detailed Military History
- By RainyDay on 12-25-23
-
The Wages of Destruction
- The Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economy
- By: Adam Tooze
- Narrated by: Adam Tooze, Simon Vance
- Length: 30 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An extraordinary mythology has grown up around the Third Reich that hovers over political and moral debate even today. Adam Tooze's controversial book challenges the conventional economic interpretations of that period.
-
-
Ties the story together in an amazing way
- By Philo on 08-23-21
By: Adam Tooze
-
Hue 1968
- A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam
- By: Mark Bowden
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 18 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
By January 1968, despite an influx of half a million American troops, the fighting in Vietnam seemed to be at a stalemate. Yet General William Westmoreland, commander of American forces, announced a new phase of the war in which "the end begins to come into view". The North Vietnamese had different ideas. In mid-1967, the leadership in Hanoi had started planning an offensive intended to win the war in a single stroke.
-
-
I KNEW This Book Would Sting Me . . . .
- By Rum Runner on 07-28-17
By: Mark Bowden
-
The Thirty Years War
- Europe's Tragedy
- By: Peter H. Wilson
- Narrated by: Matthew Waterson
- Length: 33 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Thirty Years War devastated seventeenth-century Europe, killing nearly a quarter of all Germans and laying waste to towns and countryside alike. Peter Wilson offers the first new history in a generation of a horrifying conflict that transformed the map of the modern world.
-
-
Less caffeine, narrator
- By Jeff Joyner on 02-12-24
By: Peter H. Wilson
-
SOG
- The Secret Wars of America's Commandos in Vietnam
- By: John L. Plaster
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 14 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
John Plaster’s riveting account of his covert activities as a member of a special operations team during the Vietnam War is “a true insider’s account...this eye-opening report will leave readers feeling as if they’ve been given a hot scoop on a highly classified project” (Publishers Weekly). Code-named the Studies and Observations Group, SOG was the most secret elite US military unit to serve in the Vietnam War - so secret that its very existence was denied by the government.
-
-
More, give me more.
- By LEE on 03-06-19
By: John L. Plaster
-
A Rumor of War
- By: Philip Caputo
- Narrated by: L. J. Ganser
- Length: 13 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When it first appeared, A Rumor of War brought home to American readers, with terrifying vividness and honesty, the devastating effects of the Vietnam War on the soldiers who fought there. And while it is a memoir of one young man's experiences and therefore deeply personal, it is also a book that speaks powerfully to today's students about the larger themes of human conscience, good and evil, and the desperate extremes men are forced to confront in any war.
-
-
The Reality of the U.S in the Vietnam War
- By Glenn on 09-10-12
By: Philip Caputo
-
The Pentagon Papers
- The Secret History of the Vietnam War
- By: Neil Sheehan, E. W. Kenworthy, Fox Butterfield, and others
- Narrated by: James Anderson Foster
- Length: 37 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The basis for the film The Post, The Pentagon Papers are a series of articles, documents, and studies examining the Johnson Administration's lies to the public about the extent of US involvement in the Vietnam War, bringing to light shocking conclusions about America's true role in the conflict. With a brand-new foreword by James L. Greenfield, this edition of the Pulitzer Prize-winning story is sure to provoke discussion about free press and government deception.
-
-
Awful as an audiobook
- By Sean on 02-08-18
By: Neil Sheehan, and others
-
The 2020 Commission Report on the North Korean Nuclear Attacks Against the United States
- By: Jeffrey Lewis
- Narrated by: Neil Hellegers
- Length: 6 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The 2020 Commission Report on the North Korean Nuclear Attacks Against the United States is an exciting piece of "speculative fiction." The novel posits that there was a nuclear attack against the US on March 21, 2020 by North Korea, and that a national bipartisan commission was created to investigate what and how it happened. It's pretty scary stuff.
-
-
Speculation, but, well done.
- By brian on 10-16-18
By: Jeffrey Lewis
-
Black Snow
- Curtis LeMay, the Firebombing of Tokyo, and the Road to the Atomic Bomb
- By: James M. Scott
- Narrated by: L.J. Ganser
- Length: 12 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Seven minutes past midnight on March 10, 1945, nearly 300 American B-29s thundered into the skies over Tokyo. Their payloads of incendiaries ignited a firestorm that reached up to 2,800 degrees, liquefying asphalt and vaporizing thousands; sixteen square miles of the city were flattened and more than 100,000 men, women, and children were killed. Black Snow is the story of this devastating operation, orchestrated by Major General Curtis LeMay, who famously remarked: "If we lose the war, we'll be tried as war criminals."
-
-
Top notch!
- By anonymous on 10-24-22
By: James M. Scott
-
Stalin, Volume I
- Paradoxes of Power, 1878-1928
- By: Stephen Kotkin
- Narrated by: Paul Hecht
- Length: 38 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Volume One of Stalin begins and ends in January 1928 as Stalin boards a train bound for Siberia, about to embark upon the greatest gamble of his political life. He is now the ruler of the largest country in the world, but a poor and backward one, far behind the great capitalist countries in industrial and military power, encircled on all sides. In Siberia, Stalin conceives of the largest program of social reengineering ever attempted.
-
-
Excellent Book But First Time Listener Beware
- By Nostromo on 03-23-15
By: Stephen Kotkin
-
Beyond the Wall
- A History of East Germany
- By: Katja Hoyer
- Narrated by: Sam Peter Jackson
- Length: 16 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1990, a country disappeared. When the Iron Curtain fell, East Germany ceased to be. For over forty years, from the ruin of the Second World War to the cusp of a new millennium, the German Democratic Republic presented a radically different Germany than what had come before and what exists today. Socialist solidarity, secret police, central planning, barbed wire: this was a Germany forged on the fault lines of ideology and geopolitics. Acclaimed historian Katja Hoyer sets aside the usual Cold War caricatures of the GDR to offer a kaleidoscopic new vision of this vanished country.
-
-
Good summary of ordinary life in the DDR
- By Z' on 03-09-24
By: Katja Hoyer
-
G-Man (Pulitzer Prize Winner)
- J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century
- By: Beverly Gage
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman
- Length: 36 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A major new biography of J Edgar Hoover that draws from never-before-seen sources to create a groundbreaking portrait of a colossus who dominated half a century of American history and planted the seeds for much of today's conservative political landscape.
-
-
Amazing!
- By Jessica Armas on 12-06-22
By: Beverly Gage
-
The Great Delusion
- Liberal Dreams and International Realities
- By: John J. Mearsheimer
- Narrated by: Noah Michael Levine
- Length: 9 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this major statement, the renowned international-relations scholar John Mearsheimer argues that liberal hegemony, the foreign policy pursued by the United States since the Cold War ended, is doomed to fail. It makes far more sense, he maintains, for Washington to adopt a more restrained foreign policy based on a sound understanding of how nationalism and realism constrain great powers abroad.
-
-
Dense, fact filled, sober analysis and prescription
- By John Brynjolfsson on 12-15-18
-
Into the Bright Sunshine
- Young Hubert Humphrey and the Fight for Civil Rights (Pivotal Moments in American History Series)
- By: Samuel G. Freedman
- Narrated by: Mike Lenz
- Length: 17 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
During one sweltering week in July 1948, the Democratic Party gathered in Philadelphia for its national convention. The most pressing and controversial issue facing the delegates was not whom to nominate for president—the incumbent, Harry Truman, was the presumptive candidate—but whether the Democrats would finally embrace the cause of civil rights and embed it in their official platform. On the convention's final day, Hubert Humphrey, the relatively obscure mayor of the midsized city of Minneapolis, ascended the podium.
-
-
Narrator bungles pronunciations
- By ARV on 09-23-23
-
Cold War: A Captivating Guide to the Korean War and Vietnam War
- By: Captivating History
- Narrated by: Duke Holm
- Length: 4 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The narrative of the Korean War in the West, and particularly in the United States, tells the tale of a conflict between two global superpowers and competing ideologies in a far-flung corner of the globe. The reality is that the wheels of motion that drove the country to war in 1950 began turning long before American boots set foot on Korean soil. The heart of the conflict was a civil war between a population arbitrarily divided by colonization and the global geopolitics at the end of the Second World War.
-
-
Audiobook not too captivating
- By A. L. Hinson on 01-27-20
-
Candy Bombers
- By: Andrei Cherny
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 24 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Acclaimed author Andrei Cherny tells the gripping saga of a rag-tag band of Americans - with limited resources and little hope for success - keeping West Berliners alive in the face of Soviet tyranny, winning the hearts and minds of former enemies, and giving the world a shining example of fundamental goodness.
-
-
Wonderful Story, Well-Read
- By Alex on 10-07-09
By: Andrei Cherny
Critic reviews
What listeners say about Hanoi’s War
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Bo Burlingham
- 01-22-23
Fascinating and insightful
A unique opportunity to understand how the war unfolded from the perspective of the north Vietnamese and Viet Cong. Loads of new material never before avait to Western audiences
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Mark U.
- 04-26-15
Understanding politics in SE Asia.
If you are a Vietnam vet, as I am, you should read this book. The US policy's were not in the best interest of peaceful coexistence in the world. From the soldiers point of view the command structure, both governmental and military, was FUBAR.
There was certainly a lot more strife within the north (Hanoi) than I realized. There were many things that I have wondered about, now I have a much better understanding of what was really happening.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Buretto
- 01-28-18
Rapprochement is the key, I think
If you could sum up Hanoi’s War in three words, what would they be?
Rapprochement, rapprochement, rapprochement. I recognise the word is tightly tied to international politics such as Sino-Soviet relations, much in the same way the the word *detente* is inextricable from American-Soviet history. But the repeated use of the word became a bit of a distraction. A conservative estimate would be two dozen instances. Maybe it wouldn't have been bad if the narrator had used a French pronunciation... but unfortunately, it was anglicised.
What did you like best about this story?
It gave an interesting, thorough (though, in all fairness, not completely verifiable) view of the history of war in Vietnam in the latter half of the 20th century. It details the strategies and infighting of all combatants, not merely American, but more importantly, various factions of Vietnamese in the north and the south, along with the Soviet Union, China, Cambodia, Laos not to mention the legacy of the French.
What about Hillary Huber’s performance did you like?
It wasn't terrible, but a bit flat. (And the rapprochement thing could have been better in French).
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
Not really. There is a lot of information, many organisations, and numerous players to keep track of, so it was best to keep it in digestible chunks.
Any additional comments?
I expected to hear a political agenda that never really came... thankfully. Therefore, it did keep an air of objectivity. Every faction comes in for scrutiny and scorn. If the book demonstrates anything, it's that the history of wars in Vietnam, more than just the American involvement, was more convoluted that anyone could imagine. The one take-away I got (not explicitly expressed in the book) was that it refutes the notion that anti-war activity in the States prevented an American victory (otherwise known as the Rambo excuse). The Vietnamese in the north and the south were just as divided in their motivations and goals. Yet still, it was never going to be winnable, for anyone from the outside.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 03-27-18
Amazing research
Very impressed with the research and viewpoint gathered from the communist side of the war. Highly recommend to anyone interested in understanding more about the politics and continuous poker match with not just the USA, North Vietnam, and South Vietnam but also how local countries and other key Cold War countries had incremental impacts on this outcome.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
- Amazon Customer
- 10-21-21
great book
great informative book. the reader was a bit difficult to listen too at times because it sounded very monotone and muffled at louder volumes but the book itself was a great piece of work!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- philip
- 01-22-22
Hanoi’s Perspective
Outstanding history. Focuses on the diplomatic side of the war rather than a military narrative. I don’t understand the criticism of the narrator, I thought she was excellent.
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
-
Performance
-
Story
- J. F. Uccello
- 06-21-15
Worst narrator ever. Combined with weak text.
What would have made Hanoi’s War better?
A better narrator and a better writer.
Would you ever listen to anything by Lien-Hang T. Nguyen again?
No.
What didn’t you like about Hillary Huber’s performance?
Awful, flat, smarmy performance. Reading as if for first time. Robotic and utterly uninvolved reading.
Any additional comments?
Another book on this subject, actually well written, would be great. For now read A Bright Shining Lie by Sheehan. It is possible the terrible narrator ruins this book. Cannot listen further.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful