[MontanaKid]

I have a small library of books on Vietnam. If you are just into examining causes and conditions, another classic is "The Best and The Brightest" which discusses the military and defense brain trust that Kennedy assembled, including McNamara, but also men like Maxwell Taylor, the Bundy brothers, etc. they were there for the advisor phase and they were the brain trust that LBJ relied on as the war escalated (rememberthat term?) to regular US line troops.

But I noted "Bury my Heart" was mentioned. I am a an amateur historian of the Post Civil War Indian battles on the Northin High Plains, principly those occuring in the Dakotas (only one Dakota back then) Montana and Wyoming. Of course the best known of these is the battle of the Little Big Horn.

The best two books I have found, a good analytic work, that includes time studies based on the speed of various horse gaits and horse endurance, is Centennial Campaign, by John Gray. His sequel "Custer's Last Battle" is also valuable. This one simply analyses facts. You will know after reading this, what is actually known about the battle, what are merely well-educated guesses, and what are wild-assed guesses. Soldier and Indian testimony is analysed. The second book reveals Mitch Boyer, a Montana-based scout, who led crow scouts for the "Montana Column" of the 1876 campaign. (They were the guys that found the bodies of Custer and his men) Boyer and six Crows were loaned to Custer three days prior to the battle because Custers Arikira scourt were unfamiliar with SE Montana Territory. Custer relied on Boyer heavily for much of his action leading up to the fight. Anyway. I recommend those two. Not much is left to speculation here. Gray has no axe to grind. Read Centennial first, it's the broad-based analyis of the 1876 campaign. Custer's Last mostly follows the Boyer tangent.