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