July, July.
Book Description
A remarkable memoir of small-unit leadership and the coming of age of a young soldier in combat in Vietnam.'
"Using a lean style and a sense of pacing drawn from the tautest of novels, McDonough has produced a gripping account of his first command, a U.S. platoon taking part in the 'strategic hamlet' program. . . . Rather than present a potpourri of combat yarns. . . McDonough has focused a seasoned storyteller’s eye on the details, people, and incidents that best communicate a visceral feel of command under fire. . . . For the author’s honesty and literary craftsmanship,
Platoon Leader seems destined to be read for a long time by second lieutenants trying to prepare for the future, veterans trying to remember the past, and civilians trying to understand what the profession of arms is all about.”–Army Times
From the Paperback edition.
Customer Reviews:
Platoon Leader: A Memoir of Command in Combat .......2007-03-09
Platoon Leader was an excellent read, and one I would recommend for all those enjoy military reading. I would especially suggest it to all junior military leaders. Entertaining and well written, the author discusses at length his role as a leader, and what he views as good and bad leaders. The aspect of the book I enjoyed the most was it allowed the reader to see leadership, on a small-unit level, working in real-world combat conditions. Unlike many books leaders read for professional development, it shows how leadership works when employed and doesn't just philosophize about leadership principles.
This book isn't just for Lieutenants........2007-02-17
As a junior officer I have an entire list of professional reading that I am trudging my way through, but so far McDonough has been by far the most enjoyable and has made the biggest impact on my own leadership style. Both Platoon Leader and Defense of Hill 781 are great books, but Platoon Leader is so far the best military memoir I have read. It has been over a year since I read this book, but the three things that have stuck with me are:
1. Do the right thing, at the right time, for the right reason.
2. Death in a combat zone is more about just being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Sooner or later your luck runs out, but you have the duty to your fellow soldiers to do everything in your power to protect them.
3. The stealing of a bottle of soda from a grandmother leads slowly but inevitable to the rape of her granddaughter. If you let your soldiers steal at all you are setting the stage for what atrocities they will commit later. You must always be vigilant in your discipline.
While I do not have combat experience, I am currently serving in Iraq and know second handedly that these concepts still hold true.
Other than the leadership aspect of the book, Mcdonough is just a great story teller and is able to make the book engaging and addicting.
Outstanding Book .......2006-02-23
James McDonough provides an in-depth look at infantry platoon operations in Vietnam. This is a must read for anyone who intends to pursue a military career. The book is very graphic, but also very succint and to the point. McDonough doesn't waste time with superfluous details, every word is well chosen and critical to the telling of the story. Once you begin reading, you will not want to stop. It is a quick read, and well worth the time it takes.
A gripping Vietman narrative.......2004-11-04
"Platoon Leader: A Memoir of Command in Combat," by James R. McDonough, chronicles the author's experiences as an officer in the Vietnam War from 1970-71. His platoon is charged with manning an outpost next to the village of Truong Lam.
This is a fascinating, well-written account. McDonough fills his narrative with vivid details that really made his story come alive in my mind. He doesn't flinch at describing the goriest and most horrific images of war. There are also moments of irony and bitter humor. Also noteworthy is the informative material about tactics used in Vietnam. And the author humanizes the story by touching on such "down-and-dirty" issues as the latrine his platoon used.
McDonough's story is populated with a compelling cast of characters. Particularly intriguing is his exploration of relationships among the various groups he encountered in the war zone--U.S. enlisted men, his fellow Army officers, Vietnamese military allies, enemy forces, and the many civilians caught up in the conflict.
While rich in scenes of combat, "Platoon Leader" goes beyond being just an action-packed war yarn. The book explores the ethics and morals of war. McDonough deals directly with the danger a soldier faces in becoming dehumanized by the brutality of war. He vividly portrays the struggle of a leader to remain wise and humane, yet also tough and resolute, under the most trying of circumstances. This book is both a profound meditation on wartime leadership and a powerful work of American literature.
A very different kind of war story........2004-01-16
Lieutenant Colonel James McDonough has written a truly different memoir of his experiences in Vietnam. I believe that this is because McDonough is a different type of leader and individual. His account of his personal experience in Vietnam is not glorified or gory, it is a more emotional recollection of the things that he did, good and bad, while serving as platoon leader in Vietnam. This book is a must for young military officers as well as those considering military service. There is no bravado in this book, because there is nothing fantastic about killing another man, or trying to help civilians who have been needlessly attacked. The book has a very real quality to it, which I found at different times both unsettling and moving. McDonough is not a killer, he is a soldier and an officer. While he may often silently question the purpose of the things he did or was ordered to do in Vietnam, he never hesitated in carrying out his responsibilities as platoon leader. Although he may have been afraid, he was still responsible for 25 other men who were even more afraid than he was. Overall, one of the best memoirs I have ever read.
Book Description
This supplementary book provides a history of the Vietnam War from the perspective of North Vietnam. Professor Duiker is one of the English speaking world's foremost authorities on this period of Vietnamese history and is a former foreign service officer posted in Vietnam. Based on recent scholarship and evidence, this book includes Vietnamese documents and research available to very few scholars. Quotes are sprinkled throughout the book to show how the Vietnamese felt about the events that were taking place around them, and why they decided to behave the way they did. Written for the general reader, this lively account of "the other side" includes distinctive photographs and sources.
Customer Reviews:
Informative and easy to use.......2007-02-14
I got this book for my history class and have found it to be very informative and gives more than one point of view on the events it covers. (the only thing I find distracting is that the binding broke down right away - this happened with many other students who got their books from various places). The index is handy and the abbreviations key is helpful.
Fascinating account of the conflict from a new perspective.......1998-12-05
You won't find the information you get in "Sacred War" in many other books. Whereas most Vietnam literature concentrates on American decision-making, this book reminds us that there was another side to the Vietnam War. A very detailed account of Vietminh and Viet Cong thinking and insightful as into why we didn't win the war.
Average customer rating:
- Born In The U.S.A.
- A coward?
- Breaking the Silence
- Sickening cowardice and narcissism
- Cowardice
|
Desertion: In the Time of Vietnam
Jack Todd
Manufacturer: Houghton Mifflin
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ASIN: 0618091556 |
Amazon.com
Jack Todd made a fateful decision in 1969. A farm boy from a time and place where the obligation to serve in the military was taken for granted, Todd had just completed basic training at an army post near Seattle when he opted to take a Vietnam-veteran friend's advice and slip across the border into British Columbia rather than risk his life fighting in an unpopular war. His life in Canada was by no means easy; he spent time on Skid Row among fellow deserters and draft evaders, many of them parasitical criminals, and, although he was a veteran journalist, he had to start from scratch at a Vancouver paper, slowly winning the acceptance of his colleagues.
Todd renounced his American citizenship, which made him one of a handful of Vietnam-era deserters to have been ineligible for the general amnesty offered during Jimmy Carter's presidency--he could not even return to the United States for his mother's funeral. In this graceful memoir, Todd revisits what he calls his "absurd decision" to leave his country. Absurd, in part, because he later discovered he would not have been sent to Vietnam at all, but was instead slated to serve as a military journalist in Germany. For that decision he has many regrets, although he has clearly made a good life for himself in his adopted country. The cost was perhaps too great, though: "The effect of forced exile is felt not in any sudden tearing away but in the corrosive loss, over a period of time, of too many of the things that make you who you are." --Gregory McNamee
Book Description
In 1969, Jack Todd was twenty-three and happy beyond his dreams. He had left behind a hardscrabble youth in a small Nebraska town, had an exciting and enviable job as a reporter on the Miami Herald, and was wildly in love with his beautiful Cuban-American girlfriend. As the war in Vietnam drew closer, he assumed that he would fight, as the men in his family had always fought, though he was increasingly troubled by America's role there. His oldest friend had just returned from Vietnam and was already showing signs of the war-caused trauma that would destroy him; he had seen and done things too terrible to describe. He begged Jack to dodge the draft, to go to Canada. Nevertheless Jack entered the army and completed basic training. On leave before his departure for Vietnam, he agonized over a momentous decision. By now deeply opposed to the war, he crossed the border into Canada, leaving behind his family, the girl he loved â and his beloved homeland. Now one of Canada's most successful journalists, Jack Todd is a remarkable writer of great power and vibrancy. It has taken him thirty years to come to terms with the guilt and shame of desertion, to break the silence, to tell this controversial, important, profoundly American story. In a dark century, when many "only obeyed orders," he chose not to. This is an intensely moving personal story told with passion and literary verve, as well as an eloquent account of a tortured time in American history. It is hard to put down, and impossible to forget.
Customer Reviews:
Born In The U.S.A........2003-01-27
Toward the end of his treacly memoir, Jack Todd lists all the things he lost when he deserted the Army and fled the country during the Vietnam War, or as he so euphemistically moans, was "forced into exile". Country. Citizenship. Profession. Family. Love. He acknowledges that he will be called a coward and perhaps "... the people who say that are right". Well, if the shoe fits, wear it.
Todd aspired to be a Marine Corps officer but couldn't handle the training and washed out within weeks. Like so many spurned lovers his ardor turns to hatred. He makes an obscene parody of the Marine Corps hymn and describees perfect Marine material as "muscular nineteen-year olds with low foreheads and thick shoulders. Dumb and strong". He tries to ward off the draft by waving his unqualified separation papers from the Corps like a talisman but has no luck; he was inducted into the Army but fled to Canada before he was finished recruit training, motivated less by principle than by the fact that his girlfriend had broken up with him.
Excuses, excuses, excuses. His mother, his girlfriend, his best friend all told him to flee to Canada (Mr. Todd, much later, was afraid to return to the United States for his mother's funeral for fear of being arrested) so he went. Even when he renounces his American citizenship and becomes a Canadian he finds someone to blame-Richard Nixon. Mr. Nixon can be blamed for many things but causing a deserter to swear allegiance to a foreign country is not one of them.
A coward?.......2002-10-04
If you're not afraid of ideas and opinions that may differ from your own, read this book.
Is it cowardly, or un-American, to avoid a war if you truly feel it is wrong? The U.S. government does not rule by divine right. Our country was formed as a direct result of Americans revolting against what they considered to be unjust government. If it is our obligation, today, to blindly follow our government's "authority", then it was equally the obligation of our fore-fathers to do so in the 1700's. How many Americans think the Fathers of the Revolution were traitors for not submitting to the authority of their government?
After WWII, many Germans said, "we were just following orders...". It was not a legitimate excuse then, no has it ever been. We each have the power of reason, the power to judge right from wrong, and it is our moral and ethical obligation to exercise that power. It is NEVER right to turn that power over to someone else - not to the government, not to Ronald Reagan or to Bill Clinton, not to religious "authority" - not to anyone! "Desertion" is an account of one young man, an average American, exercising this power. Jack Todd's account of his stuggle in determining what his duty was is well worth reading!
If you want to read a tremendous account of soldiers selflessly answering the call to arms for what they knew was a just cause, read "We Were Soldiers Once...And Young". Whether you thought the war was right or wrong, these men were laying their lives on the line, doing their duty as they saw it, no matter what the personal consequences. That in and of itself deserves respect.
On the other hand, if you want to read a great story about an American avoiding a war he knew to be unjust, read "Desertion". That action, when motivated by a desire to do the right thing, is also deserving of respect. It is possible for people to hold opposing opinions about the same issues. We shouldn't feel the need to ridicule or persecute those that hold beliefs different than our own (although, unfortunately, THAT seems to be the American Way).
JFK said, "War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today." Apparently, from reading some of the reactions to this book, that day still lies in the distant future.
Breaking the Silence.......2001-09-06
Between 50,000 and 100,000 young men and women fled northward to Canada during the Vietnam War era. Yet, their voices have remained largely silent during the past three decades while a significant body of literature concerning the war experience has been evolving. Jack Todd has broken that silence with the publication of Desertion: In the Time of Vietnam, a moving memoir of a young man who followed his conscience to Canada in 1970 and waged his own private "war" as an exile in search of himself in an unknown land.
This intensely personal account follows Todd from childhood growing up in a small Nebraska town to a promising career at the Miami Herald to basic training at Fort Lewis, Washington. Six weeks into basic training, Todd begins to contemplate flight northward as the dehumanization of the military experience and a growing antiwar conviction convince him to reluctantly leave his country. The decision is not made without Todd's painful acknowledgement of loss ("family, country, career, the woman I love") and moral agonizing over leaving his homeland of 23 years ("It's not that I live in America or that I am American. We are indistinguishable. You grow up the way I did, you don't know where your country leaves off and you start."). Ambivalence haunts him ("One instant I'm leaning one way, the next moment I've swung in the opposite direction. It's like watching a compass needle waver back and froth, back and forth, until it settles on true north.") until the morning early in 1970 when a friend escorts him over the Canadian border to freedom, and there is no turning back.
The memoir concentrates primarily on Todd's life as an exile in a country "that is so much like home that every morning when you get up you have to remind yourself that this is not home, that home is now a place where you can no longer go." Starting in Vancouver he drifts from city to city, on the verge of homelessness much of the time, never staying in any one place long enough to make lasting relationships or discover the security of stability. "The only constant seems to be this endless flight, running on and on and getting no place at all," he writes.
Even as Todd attempts to create a new life in this strange territory, he struggles to write about the exile experience in prose that is both poetic and poignant. "I worry at the theme of exile," he writes, "the meaning of existence on what is, for me in this endless winter, the wrong side of a three thousand-mile border."
By the time the war ends in 1975 Todd feels as if he has been "fighting it one way or another" for the past eight years since becoming a "late convert to the antiwar movement in 1967." Although draft dodgers and deserters are granted amnesty after the war, "it is too late for me," writes a deeply regretful Todd, who earlier made the "absurd decision" to renounce his American citizenship during a period of deep disillusionment. "I have given up my country, my citizenship, my profession, my family, my belief in myself, my true love, everything but my life. For this I will be called a coward," he writes, "and perhaps the people who say that are right. I feel it's the hardest, bravest thing I ever did, but it's not for me to judge." Todd stops short of claiming to be a casualty of war, but does place himself among many others of his generation who were "very different people after we had passed through that fire."
Today Todd is an award-winning journalist for the Montreal Gazette who has "spent half a life on each side of the border" and feels both American and Canadian "in roughly equal parts," although the Wildcat Hills of Nebraska, where he returns to visit as an outsider, will always be considered home "even if there aren't too many people out here who would care to claim me."
Todd's compelling story has waited more than a quarter of a century to be told and undoubtedly took much courage to write. Desertion is a different kind of war story than many that are included in the Vietnam War literary canon, but it is nevertheless a war story. Breaking the silence of desertion, Todd has created a story of conscience, bravery, remorse, and ultimately, hope.
Sickening cowardice and narcissism.......2001-08-16
Why books like this continue to get published is beyond me. The author is a not very interesting sad case. Having washed out of Marine Corps OCS he turns against the entire United States and its armed forces. The story is one of personal cowardice in search of a moral justification which the author is pathetically unable to provide. Why publishers remain obsessed with deserters and antiwar protestors remains a mystery to me; I'd rather read about the heroism of the men who served in Vietnam. I'd like to invite the author to come to any of the many military unit reunions held every year in the US to celebrate the brotherhood and comradeship of those of us who answered our country's call in its hour of need, some reluctantly but all did their duty. Come and see what you missed; the hollow sense of shame that pervades your book will be easier to understand.
Cowardice.......2001-08-09
Todd is a coward and his self-serving mea culpa an affront to the memory of my friends and comrades who placed duty, honor, and country ahead of themselves.
May he live out his life north of the border surrounded by thousands of unsold books.
Customer Reviews:
I BREAK YOUR NECK!.......2006-05-16
HAHAHAHHAA What a funny sub-teacher; Mr. Lam is a fierce general, althought he broke the necks of evil vietcongs, he prefers shooting them up with a machine gun.
Excellent insight on the Indochina and Vietnam Wars.......2003-01-30
I bought this book because I was intrigued by the prospect of reading a memoir from the point of view of a South Vietnamese soldier. Although Gen. Lam Quang Thi was a very high-ranking member of the ARVN (Army of the Republic of Vietnam) and attained high rank at a young age, I got the impression that he was one of the truly gifted officers in that army, who was idealistic about serving his country to the best of his abilities.
Throughout the book, Thi regularly takes issue with the corruption and incompetence of many of his fellow officers, and recounts the political situation in the South, where coup after coup after coup left the country of South Vietnam basically a rudderless ship. He tells of how many of his fellow officers attained high ranks, up to and including senior generals, not because of superior soldiering prowess, but because of having the right political connections. Even he (the author) benefitted a little from the political machinations of some of his superiors. In this regard, the book is an excellent source on the socio-political scene in Saigon in the 1960's.
However, as a war memoir, I found the book a little light in descriptions of battle and how he and the men under his command coped with the strain of combat. This is why I give the book only four stars. I suppose that as a general, his viewpoints of battle tend to be more detached and "big picture" oriented, which is reflected in his writing. Most descriptions of battles his units fought were mostly like, "We swept the area with the 1st regiment, while the 2nd was held in reserve. After heavy contact, we suffered 25 dead while the VC suffered 100 dead." None of the harrowing descriptions which can be found in many other terrific war memoirs are present here. Since so many of those other types of books have been written by American soldiers, with American perspectives, I was excited to finally be able to read one written from an Asian soldier's perspective. However, I was somewhat disappointed in this regard. All in all, however, I feel that this is a book that most Vietnam War buffs should read.
a life of Occupation and War..........2002-04-11
General Thi shares with us the major events of his life, from losing his father at an early age to the Viet Minh, to how his Uncles and Aunts were so instrumental in providing the Extended Family (Confucian) Values that enabled Lam and his brother to pull themselves up by their hard work and many accomplishments in school and later in their adult life.
We see through Lam's eyes the French Occupation of Vietnam, the reasons for the Viet Minh, the Fall of the French, the coming of the Americans, Lam's Army Career and how he so skillfully plays the hand Life has given him, making the best of what he has, leading all the way to making ARVN Lt. General (Three Star General) at such an early age through his sheer abilities and hard work.
The book also allows the Reader to see and experience Vietnamese Culture, from Tet (Chinese New Year), the tasty foods (I still can smell the Cha Gio) cooked in celebration of their various Holidays and Occations, to Confucian Extended Family Values of Respect for Elders and a High Premium on Education as the way to get ahead in Life, and how even later on in their lives when he outranks his Older Brother (who was "only" a Two Star General) that Older Brother still made the Final Decision and was obeyed when it came to Family Matters.
For those of you who did not know, Vietnamese Wives and Mothers, while seemingly docile and obedient, were actually Very Powerful when it came to Family Matters of Finance and Children. Vietnamese Family Values were demonstrated as we watch Lam and his Family when they get to visit with Emperor Bao Dai's Mother, and her demonstrated tenderness towards Children.
An excellent example of what one Vietnamese Life was like from 1950 to 1975, and HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
Book Description
A Trauma Artist examines how O'Brien's works variously rewrite his own traumatization during the war in Vietnam as a never-ending Þction that paradoxically "recovers" personal experience by both recapturing and (re)disguising it. Mark Heberle considers O'Brien's career as a writer through the prisms of post-traumatic stress disorder, postmodernist metaÞction, and post-World War II American political uncertainties and public violence. Based on recent conversations with O'Brien, previously published interviews, and new readings of all his works through 1999, this book is the Þrst study to concentrate on the role and representation of trauma as the central focus of all O'Brien's works, whether situated in Vietnam, in post-Vietnam America, or in the imagination of protagonists suspended between the two. By doing so, Heberle redeÞnes O'Brien as a major U.S. writer of the late twentieth century whose representations of self-damaging experiences and narratives of recovery characterize not only the war in Vietnam but also relationships between fathers and sons and men and women in the post-traumatic culture of the contemporary United States.
Customer Reviews:
good resource.......2007-01-04
I bought this for my students to use as a resource in my Vietnam War lit course. I'm enjoying it as much as my students.
Book Description
Weaving together the histories of three distinct conflicts, Phillip B. Davidson follows the entire course of the Vietnam War, from the initial French skirmishes in 1946 to the dramatic fall of Saigon nearly thirty years later. His connecting thread is North Vietnamese General Vo Nguyen Giap, a remarkable figure who, with no formal military training, fashioned a rag-tag militia into one of the world's largest and most formidable armies. By focusing on Giap's role throughout the war, and by making available for the first time a wealth of recently declassified North Vietnamese documents, Davidson offers unprecedented insight into Hanoi's military strategies, an insight surpassed only by his inside knowledge of American operations and planning. Eminently qualified to write this history, Davidson--who served as chief intelligence officer under Generals Westmoreland and Abrams--tells firsthand the story of our tragic ordeal in Indochina and brings his unique understanding to bear on topics of continuing controversy, offering a chilling account, for example, of when and where the U.S. considered using nuclear weapons. The most comprehensive and authoritative history of the conflict to date, Vietnam at War sparkles with a rare immediacy, and brings to life in compelling fashion the war that tore America apart. We witness the chaos in Saigon when fireworks celebrating the Tet holiday are suddenly transformed into deadly rocket and machine-gun fire. We sit in on high-level meetings where General Westmoreland plans operations, or simply engages in some tough "headknocking" with subordinates. And in the end we learn that even the seemingly limitless resources of the U.S. military could not match the revolutionary "grand strategy" of the North Vietnamese. With its easy movement from intimate memoir to trenchant military analysis, from the conference rooms of generals to the battle-scarred streets of Hue, this is military history at its most gripping. A monumental, engrossing, and unforgettable chronicle, Vietnam at War is indispensable for anyone hoping to understand a conflict that still rages in the American psyche.
Customer Reviews:
The Professional Soldier's View.......2006-10-24
General Davidson had the inside track on the Vietnam War, at least from the American side, and for the American portion of the war. As he rightly notes, the war was a Vietnamese war, first against the French (with some Vietnamese fighting with the French), then against the Americans (with many Vietnamese fighting with the Americans, including the majority in the South), and finally a purely fratricidal war with the stalwart Soviets and Chinese Communists backing the North while the feckless Americans backed (and ultimately failed to back) the South.
No one was in a better position to understand the American piece of the 30-year war than General Davidson. The primary value of this history is seeing the story through the eyes of a central participant. Davidson researched the French part of the war, and he kept up with the final struggle between the two Vietnams through American reporting and, later, through selected documents obtained from North Vietnamese sources. The core of the book, and the best part, is the central American war that Davidson participated in. Davidson properly thought it important to add the two other parts to present a full history of the Vietnamese struggle.
One could question whether or not General Giap deserved the heightened status that Davidson accords him. Davidson needed some way to tie all the pieces together, and he lit upon Giap as a qualified foil. He was qualified, but probably not the best qualified. There were a number of other Vietnamese, both North and South, who might have been chosen as well. Certainly Ho Chi Minh was the driving force in the North. The problem with picking him was that he died well before the war ended (while Giap survived the war). In the South there was the dominant figure of Ngo Dinh Diem, the one patriot who might have carried off the defense of the South against Ho Chi Minh's aggressive ambitions, but who was, of course, taken out by the blind machinations of Averill Harriman and Henry Cabot Lodge. Other candidates for the central role in the South were ultimately vanquished by the North, and thus disqualified by being absent at the finish. Still, the two striking figures were Ho Chi Minh in the North and Ngo Dinh Diem in the South, although neither lived to see the end of the war.
Davidson's book is superior to any other history written by the time he wrote his book. Subsequent historians, with access to larger documentation and historical pools of information, may well achieve a more definitive historical grasp. And, indeed, Davidson does not seek to put the war into any larger historical context. But all subsequent historians will draw on the special first-hand knowledge, and sense of the war, that Davidson employs in this essential work.
Davidson makes a lousy historian.......2003-07-05
I am truly hating this book. I am still slogging through it as I have a genuine desire to understand the Vietnam conflict in detail. When I see coverage of the vietnam war in the media - be it films, or documentaries, I want to know how they relate to the big picture and understand both sides of the struggle. However, this book is so painful I really dont know if I will make it to the end.
The main problem is that Davidson has some major faults as a historian. First, as a previous reviewer mentioned, he definitely glosses over a lot. This is obvious to anyone reading the book who will immediately notice how vacous some descriptions are. Some of the accounts just dont feel full fleshed enough and it is from such a high level you are not drawn into the description.
Next, I was incredibly annoyed by his style. He seems to make some base assumptions about the readers knowledge of the war, and as such he makes comentary about decisions which recks any anticipation. For example, in a truly gripping historical account which makes the reader interested in the topic and rams facts into your head, you detail a political decision. You then show the reader how this grows into a real world action or series of actions. Then you critique the decision as an interesting summarization point of view. This book however, is plagued with examples of jumping the gun, where Davidson will detail some decision or political action, put in some personal critique explaining why this will be a terrible decision, then documents in dry detail (and sometimes not even too much detail) what happened. Of course you know what is going to happen already as he has thrashed it out in agonizing detail from a political / intelligence officer viewpoint already.
The end effect of all this is that the book is hopelessly and awfully boring. My personal view is that historical accounts have a duty to educate the reader by being interesting enough that the facts stick. This is fluffy enough that it couldn't be used as a referrence book, and terrible enough that I beg everyone out there to stick well clear of it.
A Whitewashed General History of the Vietnam War.......2001-01-28
Lieutenant General Davidson (ret.) does a great job summarizing and analyzing the French war in IndoChina from 1946-1954, but fails miserably with the US campaign of 1965-1967 of which he was a part (as USMACV J-2, senior US intelligence officer in Vietnam). The author is a major apologist for General Westmoreland. Also, too much of the book centers on Washington politics rather than operational matters (which is a shame, he could have shed much light on the intelligence picture in the crucial 1967-8 campaigns). Davidson ignores the crucial Battle of Ap Bac in 1963, the Son Tay Raid, My Lai massacre and the participation of allies (ROK, Australia). The Crucial Tet campaign is glossed over - he never mentions the bloody Battle for Hue. The author is far too political and seems intent to present a white-washed "history". Maps are somewhat crude but plentiful and accurate.
A detailed analysis of the war(s) in Vietnam.......2000-03-27
The book opens with an in-depth description of the little known historical figure who directed the Vietnam wars for 30 years--North Vietnamese Senior General Vo Nguyen Giap. In Giap's background and personality we first see the seeds of determination that led ultimately to the defeat of three major armies: the French, the Americans, and the Army of South Vietnam.
The wars are presented from a factual, and thoroughly researched, perspective. Davidson analyses both sides of each major strategy, and each key battle. A reader wanting to know what really took place in the Vietnam wars (ours and theirs), from a military perspective, will find the answers here. And the answers are sometimes surprising when compared to the newspaper and televison accounts which were published at that time.
The most complete and detailed accounts of Vietnam 1946-75........1999-04-14
This work encompasses all that Vietnam was - the political struggle, the military entanglement, and the general idea of how Vietnam was a gaping sinkhole.
Book Description
"Jeremy M. Devine shows off an encyclopedic knowledge of Vietnam War films in [this book]. The author, a motion picture industry executive, fills this excellent book with detailed summaries of Vietnam films, from the obscure to the best known.
"Devine tells his tale chronologically. In addition to his detailed plot summaries, he offers brief analyses, focusing on how the various films relate to historical events at the time they were released. He also connects these events to issues such as the draft, the antiwar movement, POWs, and veterans' readjustment problems. The two appendices, which list Vietnam films alphabetically and chronologically, are valuable resources.... [A] wide-ranging, inclusive, and insightful book."
—
VVA Veteran
Originally issued in hardcover in 1995 by McFarland and Company, Inc., this book is now available in paperback for a wider public and classroom audience.
Customer Reviews:
Very informative, Devine demostrates superior knowledge........1999-08-14
Upon reading this book for a class assignment, I was not very interested in the topic. However, after reading this informative masterpiece my interest in the vietnam era grew. I found this book to be very well written, and it fully shows the diversity in films made about the war.
if you want the complete history this has it all outstanding.......1999-08-14
A complete guide to an era of turmoil. Nobody realized the amount written on this subject. This book brings it all together and discusses the individual movies.
OUTSTANDING DETAIL AND COMPLETE HISTORY.......1999-07-13
A COMPLETE BOOK, giving full detail of the most popular films produced on the vietnam era. It also gives great detail on films almost forgotten or even unheard of. This is an important book in our history, it points out facts that might be missed otherwise.
Book Description
Twayne's United States Authors Series presents concise critical introductions to great writers and their works.
Devoted to critical interpretation and discussion of an author's work, each study takes account of major literary trends and important scholarly contributions and provides new critical insights with an original point of view. An Authors Series volume addresses readers ranging from advanced high school students to university professors. The book suggests to the informed reader new ways of considering a writer's work. A reader new to the work under examination will, after reading the Authors Series, be compelled to turn to the originals, bringing to the reading a basic knowledge and fresh critical perspectives.
Each volume features:
- A critical, interpretive study and explication of the author's works
- A brief biography of the author
- An accessible chronology outlining the life, work, and relevant historical background of the author
- Aids for further study -- complete notes and references, a selected annotated bibliography and an index
- A readable style presented in a manageable length
Customer Reviews:
a goldmine.......1999-07-17
If you are looking for info on O'Brien's life AND novels, this book is for you. It may be the single most important source for my Masters Thesis!
Average customer rating:
|
Vietnam The War In The Air
Rene J. Francillon
Manufacturer: Gramercy
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Vietnam War
| Military
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| World
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Vietnam
| Asia
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Southeast Asia
| Asia
| History
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0517629763
Release Date: 1988-09-27 |
Books:
- Too Big for Diapers (Too Big Board Books)
- U.S. Grant: The Making of a General, 1861-1863 (The American Crisis Series)
- Under Fire
- Under Two Flags: The American Navy in the Civil War (Bluejacket Books)
- Wizard 6: A Combat Psychiatrist in Vietnam (Texas a & M University Military History Series)
- 1921: The Great Novel of the Irish Civil War (Irish Century)
- A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
- A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
- A military history of the western world: Vol. II:from the defeat of the Spanish Armada to the Battle of Waterloo
- Agincourt: Henry V and the Battle That Made England
Books Index
Books Home
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A Trauma Artist: Tim O'Brien and the Fiction of Vietnam
United States Authors Series - Tim O'Brien (United States Authors Series)
Going After Cacciato
The Things They Carried
