The Vietnam Experience was published as a 25-volume illustrated history of the Vietnam War. The first volume, Setting the Stage, was published in 1981, and the final volume, War in the Shadows, was published in 1988.
More than 700,000 people subscribed to the series during its run, and collectively, more than 11 million copies of the books were sold. The series was twice nominated for a Pulitzer Prize by economist John Kenneth Galbraith, who at the time was on the Pulitzer history book committee.
Every major newspaper of record praised The Vietnam Experience. The New York Times, calling the series “the definitive source on the Vietnam War,” said, “How is one to avoid recriminations about the past without looking the past in the eye? These books are the eye.”
The list of The Vietnam Experience titles, in the order they were published:
| 1. | Setting the Stage | 14. | Rain of Fire |
| 2. | Passing the Torch | 15. | The False Peace |
| 3. | Raising the Stakes | 16. | A War Remembered |
4. |
America Takes Over | 17. | Images of War |
| 5. | A Contagion of War | 18. | The Fall of the South |
| 6. | Nineteen-Sixty-Eight | 19. | The North |
| 7. | Fighting for Time | 20. | The Aftermath |
| 8. | Combat Photographer | 21. | Flags into Battle |
| 9. | Thunder from Above | 22. | The Army at War |
| 10. | A Nation Divided | 23. | Pawns of War |
| 11. | South Vietnam on Trial | 24. | Words of War |
| 12. | A Collision of Cultures | 25. | War in the Shadows |
| 13. | Tools of War |
