Tim O'Brien On Writing About the Vietnam War.

Novelist Tim O'Brien has been called "one of our most eloquent writers about Vietnam" (Playboy). "In the Lake of the Woods" is his new novel about a man whose involvement in the war is much like O'Brien's. Both were at the My Lai massacre, and they shared a need to be accepted -- which drove them to serve in the war.

Novelist Tim O'Brien. He was writing about Vietnam long before it became fashionable to do so. His Vietnam memoir, "If I die in a Combat Zone," was published in 1973. O'Brien's 1979 novel "Going After Cacciato" was praised for its depiction of the Vietnam War. It also was the surprise winner of the 1979 National Book Awards -- beating out books by John Irving and John Cheever.

Kirk Wallace Johnson tells the story of a bitter conflict that arose along the Gulf Coast when Vietnam war refugees began trawling for shrimp in the area. His book is The Fishermen and the Dragon.