Books about 20th century wars...

My favorite genre is war books, World War 2 in particular but Vietnam is a close second. I'd like some recommendations of your favorites please. My main criteria is that it is not simply a recitation of numbers and troop movements, a few of the books I've read were super keen on reporting every single company employed on this front or that front or how many tons of bombs were dropped on air raids on each day in August 1944 and those hold less interest for me. I am interested in political machinations behind the scenes as well. My favorites have been Max Hasting's "Armageddon: The Battle for Germany", David Halberstam's "The Best and the Brightest" (good example of more of a political-themed book), Barbara Tuchman's "The Guns of August", Michael Herr's "Dispatches", John Lukac's "Five Days in London", May 1940 and Neil Sheehan's "A Bright Shining Lie". Biographies of figures whose lives were defined by war such as FDR or Hirohito are welcome too. Thanks!

I recently read The First World War by Hew Strachan, which is excellent. I think there was an AskMeFi question awhile back that resembled this; you might want to search for it to find more recommendations.

Thanks languagehat, picked it up used at a bookstore today...$4! Looking forward to reading it.

Try Kaputt! by Curzio Malaparte. There's a new edition out but I have it in an old Avon PB with a cheesy cover. Anyway: Malaparte was an Italian Fascist journalist who reported the war for the Fascist press. Somewhere along the way he lost his political religion and wound up with this novel which is about the collapse of Europe. There are lots of small bits that stick with you -- the horses and the frozen lake, the Swedish aristocrats, other stuff. It's not a conventional war novel of battle but it is a particularly nasty look at a very nasty business.

A book about an underreported war: Brother Enemy by Nayan Chanda. Chanda is an Indian journalist who had access to many of the personalities involved in the China-Vietnam conflict that was fought mostly in Cambodia. This book analyzes, from outside, the political shifts and ideological conflicts in what was another battle in a millenium-long war.

They marched into sunlight : war and peace, Vietnam and America, October 1967 by David Maraniss. amazon link.

I really enjoyed The Moon Is Down by John Steinbeck, not your typical war book but written from the perspective of a village under occupation. It was originally a propaganda piece, but I reckon it has held its own over time.