Keith William Nolan (May 7, 1964 – February 19, 2009) was an American military historian, focusing on the various campaigns of the Vietnam War.
As a child, Nolan was deeply affected by reports of war that he would see on the nightly news; as he grew into a young man, he would later say that these images are what sparked his interest in writing about the Vietnam conflict.
[2] Nolan was in good health and working on his twelfth manuscript (published posthumously) in 2007 when a routine office visit to his general practitioner revealed a large, late-stage tumor in his lung.
Despite intensive treatments, Keith William Nolan died of lung cancer in February 2009 in Wentzville, Missouri at the age of 44.
He left behind a young daughter and many loved ones, as well as a tight-knit community of Vietnam War-era veterans whose stories he wrote about in his books.