Military history of medieval Vietnam as a subject of special research

The article is a review of the book V.A. Vetyukov. “The Sword Hidden in the Depth of Waters: The Military Tradition of Medieval Vietnam”. The author has summarized the results of his long-term research-work on the traditional Vietnamese army in the Later Le period (1428–1787). The base of the research are Vietnamese sources; first of all, “Records of military establishments” “A classified description of the establishments of past dynasties” (the part “A classified description of the establishments of past dynasties” by Phan Huy Chu (1782–1840); research literature and the author’s field research during his stay in Vietnam and the neighboring countries. In its comprehensive coverage and detailed description, the book is superior to all the works that had been published on the topic not only in Russian and Western, but also in Vietnamese historiography (first of all, the last two parts of the book). At the same time, some conclusions deserve discussions, in particular those on the army structure and its history. In any case, the book is very useful and can serve the base for further research-work, educational literature and lecture series.