11 Best Southeast Asia Books
Southeast Asia is a popular category for many book lovers. Our team at Speechify has curated a list of the top Southeast Asia audiobooks everyone must read.
See the top 11 Southeast Asia audiobooks below.
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Defiant
- By: Alvin Townley
- Narrator: Joe Barrett
- Length: 14 hours 47 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2014
- Language: English
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4.49(379 ratings)
4.49(379 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0022.95 USDThe story of the indomitable American POWs who endured “Alcatraz,” the Hanoi prison camp where North Vietnam locked its most dangerous and subversive prisoners, and the wives who fought to bring them home During the Vietnam War, hundredsThe story of the indomitable American POWs who endured “Alcatraz,” the Hanoi prison camp where North Vietnam locked its most dangerous and subversive prisoners, and the wives who fought to bring them home
During the Vietnam War, hundreds of American prisoners of war faced years of brutal conditions and horrific torture at the hands of communist interrogators who ruthlessly plied them for military intelligence and propaganda. Determined to maintain their code of conduct, the inmates of the Hanoi Hilton and other POW camps developed a powerful underground resistance. To quash it, the North Vietnamese singled out its eleven leaders, Vietnam’s own “dirty dozen,” and banished them to an isolated jail that would become known as Alcatraz. None would leave its solitary cells and interrogation rooms unscathed; one would never leave.
As these men suffered in Hanoi, their wives launched an extraordinary campaign that would ultimately spark the POW/MIA movement. When the survivors finally returned, one would receive the Medal of Honor, another became a US senator, and a third still serves in congress. A story of survival and triumph in the vein of Unbroken and Band of Brothers, Defiant will inspire anyone wondering how courage, faith, and brotherhood can endure even in the darkest of situations.
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Saigon Kids
- By: Les Arbuckle
- Narrator: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 10 hours 42 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2018
- Language: English
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4.29(28 ratings)
4.29(28 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.95 USDLooking for unusual coming-of-age books? The events leading up to the Vietnam War provide a fascinating backdrop for this coming-of-age tale with a twist. In May 1962, Naval Chief Petty Officer Bryant Arbuckle flew to Saigon to establish a new armedLooking for unusual coming-of-age books? The events leading up to the Vietnam War provide a fascinating backdrop for this coming-of-age tale with a twist.
In May 1962, Naval Chief Petty Officer Bryant Arbuckle flew to Saigon to establish a new armed forces radio station. Next to follow were his wife and three boys, Leslie among them. Saigon Kids is the candid, recondite slice of fourteen-year-old military brat Les Arbuckle’s experience at the American Community School during the critical months of the Vietnam War when events would, quite literally, ignite in downtown Saigon. In 1963 Saigon was beautiful, violent, and dirty–and the most exciting place a fourteen-year-old American boy could live. Saigon offered a rich array of activities, and much to the consternation of their parents and teachers, Les and his fellow military brats explored the dangers with reckless abandon–running from machine gun fire, watching a Buddhist monk burn to death, visiting brothels late at night, trading currency on the black market.
When Les first arrives in Vietnam, he is a stranger in a strange land, expecting boredom in a country he doesn’t know. But the American social scene is more vibrant than he expected. The American Community School is a mix of kids from all over the globe who arrived just as the fuse on Saigon was about to ignite. As the students continue their American lifestyle behind barbed wire, Saigon unravels in chaos and destruction. Despite this ugliness–an ever-present feature of everyday life–Les tells his story of teenage angst with humor and precocity.
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Vietnam
- By: Max Hastings
- Narrator: Max Hastings
- Length: 33 hours 33 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: October 16, 2018
- Language: English
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4.28(3356 ratings)
4.28(3356 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0051.99 USDAn absorbing and definitive modern history of the Vietnam War from the acclaimed New York Times bestselling author of The Secret War. Vietnam became the Western world’s most divisive modern conflict, precipitating a battlefield humiliation forAn absorbing and definitive modern history of the Vietnam War from the acclaimed New York Times bestselling author of The Secret War.
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 United States 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. He portrays the set pieces of Dienbienphu, the 1968 Tet offensive, the air blitz of North Vietnam, and also much less familiar miniatures such as the bloodbath at Daido, where a US Marine battalion was almost wiped out, together with extraordinary recollections of Ho Chi Minh’s warriors. Here are the vivid realities of strife amid jungle and paddies that killed two million people.
Many writers treat the war as a US tragedy, yet Hastings sees it as overwhelmingly that of the Vietnamese people, of whom forty died for every American. US blunders and atrocities were matched by those committed by their enemies. While all the world has seen the image of a screaming, naked girl seared by napalm, it forgets countless eviscerations, beheadings, and murders carried out by the communists. The people of both former Vietnams paid a bitter price for the Northerners’ victory in privation and oppression. Here is testimony from Vietcong guerrillas, Southern paratroopers, Saigon bargirls, and Hanoi students alongside that of infantrymen from South Dakota, Marines from North Carolina, and Huey pilots from Arkansas.
No past volume has blended a political and military narrative of the entire conflict with heart-stopping personal experiences, in the fashion that Max Hastings’ readers know so well. The author suggests that neither side deserved to win this struggle with so many lessons for the twenty-first century about the misuse of military might to confront intractable political and cultural challenges. He marshals testimony from warlords and peasants, statesmen and soldiers, to create an extraordinary record.
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Road to Disaster
- By: Brian VanDeMark
- Narrator: Ron Butler
- Length: 23 hours 12 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: September 18, 2018
- Language: English
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4.22(168 ratings)
4.22(168 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.006.99 USD“The most thoughtful and judicious one-volume history of the war and the American political leaders who presided over the difficult and painful decisions that shaped this history. The book will stand for the foreseeable future as the best“The most thoughtful and judicious one-volume history of the war and the American political leaders who presided over the difficult and painful decisions that shaped this history. The book will stand for the foreseeable future as the best study of the tragic mistakes that led to so much suffering.”–Robert Dallek
Many books have been written on the tragic decisions regarding Vietnam made by the young stars of the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. Yet despite millions of words of analysis and reflection, no historian has been able to explain why such decent, brilliant, and previously successful men stumbled so badly.
That changes with Road to Disaster. Historian Brian VanDeMark draws upon decades of archival research, his own interviews with many of those involved, and a wealth of previously unheard recordings by Robert McNamara and Clark Clifford, who served as Defense Secretaries for Kennedy and Johnson. Yet beyond that, Road to Disaster is also the first history of the war to look at the cataclysmic decisions of those in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations through the prism of recent research in cognitive science, psychology, and organizational theory to explain why the “Best and the Brightest” became trapped in situations that suffocated creative thinking and willingness to dissent, why they found change so hard, and why they were so blind to their own errors.
An epic history of America’s march to quagmire, Road to Disaster is a landmark in scholarship and a book of immense importance.
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Some Gave it All
- By: Danny Lane
- Narrator: Bert DeCoy
- Length: 6 hours 38 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2021
- Language: English
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4.18(125 ratings)
4.18(125 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0024.95 USDBased on an incredible true story, a young Marine fights an unbelievable battle in the abyss of Vietnam. Get a front row seat to the intense action, courage, and sacrifice that he and other Marines endured. Experience the ferocity of battle, theBased on an incredible true story, a young Marine fights an unbelievable battle in the abyss of Vietnam. Get a front row seat to the intense action, courage, and sacrifice that he and other Marines endured.
Experience the ferocity of battle, the deep bonds of brotherhood, and the stinging sweat of fear that hangs persistently over the jungle canopy. Imagine lying in a foxhole when a “Broken Arrow” goes into effect as the enemy sappers overtake their position, forcing these young soldiers to fight the enemy hand to hand.
This is the gripping story of Marine Corporal Danny Lane and other young Marines that stood in faith with God and the Marine Corps during the most agonizing times that no one would want to endure.
Instead of a hero’s welcome, he and other survivors came home to a country that didn’t honor their sacrifices.
“War is hell” but for some, surviving is worse.
Note: A share of the proceeds from this book will be donated to Kickstarter Kids–Character through Karate.
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Vietnam
- By: Stanley Karnow
- Narrator: Edward Holland
- Length: 27 hours 42 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 1999
- Language: English
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4.12(6630 ratings)
4.12(6630 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0029.95 USDIn this comprehensive history, Stanley Karnow demystifies the tragic ordeal of America’s war in Vietnam. The book’s central theme is that America’s leaders, prompted as much by domestic politics as by global ambitions, carried theIn this comprehensive history, Stanley Karnow demystifies the tragic ordeal of America’s war in Vietnam. The book’s central theme is that America’s leaders, prompted as much by domestic politics as by global ambitions, carried the United States into Southeast Asia with little regard for the realities of the region. Karnow elucidates the decision-making process in Washington and Asia and recounts the political and military events that occurred after the Americans arrived in Vietnam. Throughout, he focuses on people, those who shaped strategy and those who suffered, died, or survived as a result.
Panoramic in scope and filled with fresh revelations drawn from secret documents and from exclusive interviews with hundreds of participants on both sides, Vietnam: A History transcends the past with lessons relevant to the present and the future.
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Year of the Hawk
- By: James A. Warren
- Narrator: Fred Sanders
- Length: 11 hours 44 minutes
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
- Publish date: January 01, 2022
- Language: English
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3.98(35 ratings)
3.98(35 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0023.99 USDFrom a celebrated military historian, a powerful, “highly recommended” (Library Journal, starred review) account of the most pivotal year of the Vietnam War–the cataclysm that “continues to haunt American politics andFrom a celebrated military historian, a powerful, “highly recommended” (Library Journal, starred review) account of the most pivotal year of the Vietnam War–the cataclysm that “continues to haunt American politics and culture” (Publishers Weekly).
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The Vietnam War was the greatest disaster in the history of American foreign policy. The conflict shook the nation to its foundations, exacerbating already deep cleavages in American society, and left the country baffled and ambivalent about its role in the world. Year of the Hawk is a military and political history of the war in Vietnam during 1965–the pivotal first year of the American conflict, when the United States decided to intervene directly with combat units in a struggle between communist and pro-Western forces in South Vietnam that had raged on and off for twenty years.
By December 1965, a powerful communist offensive had been turned back, and the US Army had prevailed in one of the most dramatic battles in American military history, but nonetheless there were many signs and portents that US involvement would soon slide toward the tipping point of tragedy. Vividly interweaving events in the US capital with action in Southeast Asia, historian James A. Warren explores the mindsets and strategies of the adversaries and concludes that, in the end, Washington was not so much outfought in Vietnam as outthought by revolutionaries pursuing a brilliant, protracted war strategy. Based on new research, Year of the Hawk offers fresh insight into how a nationalist movement led by communists in a small country defeated the most powerful nation on earth and is “a well-researched overview of how America got into Vietnam–and why it shouldn’t have” (Kirkus Reviews). -
Dereliction of Duty
- By: H. R. McMaster
- Narrator: H. R. McMaster
- Length: 15 hours 58 minutes
- Publisher: HarperAudio
- Publish date: September 25, 2018
- Language: English
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3.98(3344 ratings)
3.98(3344 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0031.99 USD“The war in Vietnam was not lost in the field, nor was it lost on the front pages of the New York Times or the college campuses. It was lost in Washington, D.C.” –H. R. McMaster (from the Conclusion) Dereliction Of Duty is a“The war in Vietnam was not lost in the field, nor was it lost on the front pages of the New York Times or the college campuses. It was lost in Washington, D.C.” –H. R. McMaster (from the Conclusion)
Dereliction Of Duty is a stunning analysis of how and why the United States became involved in an all-out and disastrous war in Southeast Asia. Fully and convincingly researched, based on transcripts and personal accounts of crucial meetings, confrontations and decisions, it is the only book that fully re-creates what happened and why. McMaster pinpoints the policies and decisions that got the United States into the morass and reveals who made these decisions and the motives behind them, disproving the published theories of other historians and excuses of the participants.
A page-turning narrative, Dereliction Of Duty focuses on a fascinating cast of characters: President Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, General Maxwell Taylor, McGeorge Bundy and other top aides who deliberately deceived the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the U.S. Congress and the American public.
McMaster’s only book, Dereliction of Duty is an explosive and authoritative new look at the controversy concerning the United States involvement in Vietnam.
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Combat Swimmer
- By: Robert A. Gormly
- Narrator: Adams Morgan
- Length: 9 hours 57 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2010
- Language: English
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3.88(165 ratings)
3.88(165 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0019.95 USDThe US Navy SEALs created a legend that would grow throughout the Vietnam War, earning an enemy bounty to anyone who could capture or kill one. As leader of the SEALs, Captain Robert A. Gormly tells his amazing story, taking us into some of the mostThe US Navy SEALs created a legend that would grow throughout the Vietnam War, earning an enemy bounty to anyone who could capture or kill one. As leader of the SEALs, Captain Robert A. Gormly tells his amazing story, taking us into some of the most hair-raising missions ever assigned.
After a career including two tours of duty in Vietnam as well as top-secret missions in the Persian Gulf, Gormly examines war from a strategic point of view as well as from his own personal experience. In his vivid, gut-wrenching descriptions, the Mekong comes alive, as hours of careful stalking explode into incredible fusillades of violence. Candid, balanced, and tough-minded, Combat Swimmer is a fascinating and thrilling look into the life of an extraordinary kind of fighting man.
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The Golden Triangle
- By: Bertil Lintner
- Narrator: Richard C. Hottelet
- Length: 2 hours 51 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2006
- Language: English
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3.6(48 ratings)
3.6(48 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0011.95 USDThailand, Laos, and Burma have been known as the “Golden Triangle” because of their historically prominent role in the drug trade. For centuries, these countries have produced the opium that has attracted traders from Europe andThailand, Laos, and Burma have been known as the “Golden Triangle” because of their historically prominent role in the drug trade. For centuries, these countries have produced the opium that has attracted traders from Europe and elsewhere. Economics, religion, and politics combine to make this area not only important but also, to the western mind, exotic.
The World’s Political Hot Spots series explains the basis of conflicts in some of the world’s most politically sensitive areas. Many of these regions are in today’s headlines, and tensions recently have become violent in virtually all of them. Each presentation covers up to ten centuries of background, revealing how and why today’s problems occur.
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The English Governess at the Siamese Court
- By: Anna Harriette Leonowens
- Narrator: Wanda McCaddon
- Length: 10 hours 16 minutes
- Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
- Publish date: January 01, 2006
- Language: English
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3.38(278 ratings)
3.38(278 ratings)Regular Price:Try for $0.0022.95 USDThis 1870 memoir, which was the basis for the musical The King and I, vividly recounts the experiences of Anna Harriette Leonowens, who served as a governess for the sixty-plus children of King Mongkut of Siam and as translator and scribe for theThis 1870 memoir, which was the basis for the musical The King and I, vividly recounts the experiences of Anna Harriette Leonowens, who served as a governess for the sixty-plus children of King Mongkut of Siam and as translator and scribe for the King himself. Bright, young, and energetic, Leonowens was well-suited to her role, and her writings convey a heartfelt interest in the lives, legends, and languages of Siam’s rich and poor.
She also tells of how she and the king often disagreed on matters domestic—this was the first time King Mongkut had met a woman who dared to contradict him, and the governess found the very idea of male domination intolerable. Her exchanges with His Majesty on topics like grammar, charity, slavery, politics, and religion add much to her diary’s rich, cross-cultural spirit and its East-meets-West appeal.
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Cliff Weitzman
Cliff Weitzman is a dyslexia advocate and the CEO and founder of Speechify, the #1 text-to-speech app in the world, totaling over 100,000 5-star reviews and ranking first place in the App Store for the News & Magazines category. In 2017, Weitzman was named to the Forbes 30 under 30 list for his work making the internet more accessible to people with learning disabilities. Cliff Weitzman has been featured in EdSurge, Inc., PC Mag, Entrepreneur, Mashable, among other leading outlets.
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