Two great Vietnam books, one of which inspired Full Metal Jacket

The Short-Timers

The Phantom Blooper

Available here - as they were previously posted on the author's website - are two really great books about Vietnam.

The first one, The Short Timers, was adopted by Stanley Kubrick and became Full Metal Jacket, which I think most people will know. The movie is fairly true to the book, but as usual the book is better.

The second one, which I think is better, features the same main character but is considerably darker, covering time spent as a prisoner of war and detailing the war from the perspective of the Vietnamese.