Vietnam War

Schell rose to prominence for his 1982 book Fate of the Earth, about nuclear disarmament. A former staffer at the New Yorker, he has a new book called Observing the Nixon Years, about the precarious position the United States was in during the Vietnam War.

John Irving began his career writing short books that were critically-acclaimed but commercially unsuccessful. His more sprawling novels, beginning with The World According to Garp, proved to be more popular. Book critic John Leonard reviews Irving's latest, A Prayer for Owen Meany, which he says is fatalistic, religious, and unexpectedly funny.

Film critic David Bianculli says the drama China Beach and a special episode of Nightline deal with the lives of Vietnam veterans in respectful and powerful ways; both are worth watching.

Heinemann served for one year in Vietnam. The experience was so intense that he has built a literary career about it. His book, Paco's Story, won the National Book Award. After releasing two novels, he's working on a nonfiction book about post-traumatic stress disorder.

Lady Borton performed humanitarian work in Vietnam during and after the war. Her experiences in that country with refugees had a profound effect on her. She lives simply and, like many combat veterans, grapples with PTSD and flashbacks. Borton's book about Vietnamese refugees is called Sensing the Enemy.

Journalist Neil Sheehan covered the Vietnam War, and published the leaked Pentagon Papers. His new book is about Lt. Col. John Paul Vann, who served in the war and grew frustrated with Army and political leadership. Vann was an invaluable source to the press during that time.

At 85, Dr. Benjamin Spock has written and published a new book of parenting advice. Spock's philosophy is informed by both his medical and psychological training. In the 1960s, when he was in his 60s, Spock protested against the Vietnam War -- a decision which was not popular with all his readers.

Washington Post staffer Paul Hendrickson has been writing about former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara for years, but hasn't yet found a way use his extensive research to write a book-length profile. He tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross about McNamara's reluctance to share his feelings on the Vietnam War.

The success of Platoon in theaters has led to the development of several television shows about the Vietnam War. Some viewers might be fatigued by their sheer number; for them, TV critic David Bianculli recommends HBO's Vietnam War Stories.

Television Critic David Bianculli reviews the new ABC series "China Beach." Like "M*A*S*H," "China Beach" features the medical corps that tend to the wounded. But unlike "M*A*S*H," most all the main characters in "China Beach" are women - the nurses who work in the operating rooms and run the USO clubs - and the setting is Vietnam.

Television critic David Bianculli reviews a new HBO documentary "Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam." It's combines footage of the war with the voices of actors like Robert De Niro and Sean Penn reading letters the troops wrote home.

Daniel Berrigan, a Jesuit priest who for the past 20 years has been at the forefront of the peace movement. He has been arrested and spent time in prison many times for his acts of civil disobedience. Berrigan was one the Catonsville 9, who protested the Vietnam war in 1968 by destroying draft records, and a member of the Plowshares 8, who damaged nuclear warheads in 1980. He now works at an AIDS hospice in New York City. Daniel Berrigan recently completed his autobiography; it's titled To Dwell in Peace.

Adrian Cronauer, the airman disk-jockey whose stint as a rebellious Armed Forces Radio Network announcer during the Vietnam war is the basis for the movie "Good Morning Vietnam," starring Robin Williams. Cronauer, 49, is a former announcer for WQXR in New York and is now studying communications law at The University of Pennsylvania.

Col. Joe Conmy, technical advisor to the film "Hamburger Hill." As a field commander in Vietnam, Conmy participated in many of the battles depicted in the film. The U.S. Army also hired Conmy as technical advisor in the Francis Ford Coppola film "Gardens of Stone."

Film Critic Stephen Schiff will review "Hamburger Hill," the latest Vietnam War film.

David Horowitz and Peter Collier were New Left activists who gradually embraced neoconservative ideologies. They believe their former compatriots were misguided and misinformed; Horowitz and Collier say the United States has consistently served as a stabilizing force in domestic and international arenas.

Film critic Stephen Schiff says that Full Metal Jacket, about Marines training for and serving in the Vietnam War, is bleak and stylized, but suffers from a lack of developed characters -- a Kubrick trademark better deployed in 2001 and Dr. Strangelove.

Bly's work has dealt with nature, the Vietnam War, and gender differences. He considers the impact living simply in Minnesota has had on his writing.

John Nichols' new novel dwells on the horrors of the Vietnam War. Earlier in life, he moved to New Mexico to work as a political activist. Those experiences were the basis of his popular New Mexico Trilogy.

Former Democratic congressperson and presidential candidate Eugene McCarthy has a new memoir about his political career called Up 'til Now. He talks to Fresh Air's Terry Gross about the tumultuous Vietnam War years.