It's Just a Social, Swing, and Latin Thing: A Guide to Social Dance

Customer Reviews:

It was a pleasure..........2002-05-07

This book is great for learning about the basics for the various dances. I was really impressed with the author's descriptions and lengthy explanations of how everything works together. I would recommend this book to anyone who would like to learn or improve their dancing. Cheers!!!

A very helpful manual..........2002-04-22

This a great book for beginner and intermediates alike. It clearly shows the different poses, and the instruction is well thought out and easy to follow. It was also interesting to see some of the history as well. The author clearly has a complete mastery of her subject material and this reflects in the book as well. I would say the book is geared more towards beginners but even intermediates can learn a lot from this book as well. Very well done!

Book Description

Pham Xuan An was a Vietnamese nationalist and member of Ho Chi Minh's army in the 1950s. Knowing that war with the United States was inevitable, the Party sent An to America to study journalism (for his cover) and observe its people and culture. He attended community college in California, worked for the Sacramento Bee and traveled across the country making friends.

Back in Saigon he worked as a reporter for Reuters and Time in the early 60s. He befriended numerous British and American journalists, including David Halberstam, Neil Sheehan and Stanley Karnow who came to regard him as a friend and trusted source. Meanwhile, he was providing intelligence to Hanoi; his early reports were so accurate that a general joked "we are now in the US war room." For twenty years An lived a lie and no one knew because he was so good at his day job, which was interwoven with his assignment in espionage.

Several years after the war, the new Vietnamese Communist government revealed that An had been one of its most effective spies. He was publicly awarded six medals and named a "Hero of the People's Army" – one of only two intelligence officers during the war ever promoted to the rank of General and Hero. But An's disaffection with the new government's treatment of their southern countrymen and his close friendships with Americans made him suspicious in the eyes of the Communist government. He was soon placed under housed arrest and to this day he is banned from leaving the country.

Customer Reviews:

You Cannot Have it Both Ways.......2007-10-01

I might not be as forgiving as some people, but I certainly would have felt betrayed by this man. He seeks to justify everything by stating that he felt the Americans did not belong in Vietnam. Maybe so. But what he did was so deceiful.To just look at the fact that he often helped those closest and known to him from suffering any harm, neglects the hundreds of thousands who died and were wounded as a result of his actions. To top it all off he sent his family to the US when the Communists came !! No doubt for a better life !!This fellow must have been of fairly limited intellect , or at least uneducated.And don't tell me was educated in the US - they let him do some courses... big deal! Did he really believe the Americans would attempt to rule Vietnam the way the French did ? Yes, they would take advantage of economic opportunities ( who does'nt), but what did he think they would have done if the South succeeded ? A good insight into blind nationalism and deceit by one of the most two faced people I have ever encountered. I still cannot understand his mindset.

the worst book to read! just a waste of time........2007-09-18

This book is nothing but full of communist propaganda. To most of the Vietnamese people, I say not including the 2% of the communist population, An is a betrayer. Don't waste your time being brain-washed by communist ideology.

Interesting, and Eerie!.......2007-09-09

Pham Xuan An was recruited by the Communist Party in Vietnam and sent to the U.S. in 1957 to learn journalism as a cover - long before the U.S. took a major role in the conflict. An quickly came to admire the U.S., did well in his studies (Orange Coast College) and internships, and was had several attractive offers for permanent work upon their completion. Yet, despite fear that he would be arrested by the South Vietnamese government upon returning to Vietnam, An returned, first reporting French troop actions, then also working for various government military figures (eg. teaching English to future VN spies; helping set up the Vietnamese spying service), and finally for various American publications - Time magazine in particular. Several times the CIA even tried to recruit An, with no success.

Early in his career An risked exposure to save the life of a Time reporter captured by the VietCong in Cambodia because he knew the reporter had saved a number of Vietnamese children's' lives from various Cambodian army massacres. This conflict between his spy role and friendship with Americans continued up to America's last day in Saigon when An helped a Vietnamese friend who had worked for the Americans escape. These actions, however, did not dull An's effectiveness - his insights and reports based on conversations and documents played key roles in VietCong/NVA tactics and strategy development. After the war ended, An was promoted to Maj. General, and collected his ten top-level medals.

An received no formal spy training - instead, he read a number of books by others who were past masters. Communications involving An were almost entirely one-way - towards nearby VietCong and much farther away NVA leaders in Hanoi. His methods were to use melted rice as invisible ink (revealed by pouring iodine over the paper), and secreting both the paper and film rolls in food materials handed off to a vendor.

An's career spanned 30 years - longer than any other spy. Consequently, after the war there was considerable suspicion by the communists that this was due to his having played both sides. He was even forbidden from leaving VN to attend a post-war correspondent's conference in NYC.

Some of the most impactful portions of "Perfect Spy" involved stories about eg. another VietCong spy who pushed the Vietnamese government to move peasants into more defensible self-contained villages. His rationale - he knew this would greatly upset the peasants and turn them against the government. An himself declared several times that the U.S.'s biggest failure was to develop a new cadre of leaders after Diem was deposed. It was also quite jarring to read details from the "other side" about so many areas that I had been to - Nha Trang, Siagon, Ban Me Thuot, Pleiku, Vung Tau, Khe Sanh.

My one wish is that "Perfect Spy" included more planning details from the VietCong and NVA side. Unfortunately, even the author (Larry Berman) sensed several times that An left much more unsaid than revealed.

Bottom Line: I was taken aback by An's working against the U.S. after having made so many friends here, how well the VietCong/NVA infiltrated U.S. planning, and how long ahead their thinking ran. The book also brings an eerie sense of wondering what is happening along these same lines now in Iraq.

Just another Communist propaganda book.......2007-07-23

It was a good read, but it just followed the line of typical Communist propaganda.

It is laughable for anyone to think An spied for his "country", that he was a "patriot", or a "nationalist" for that matter. An was a Communist through and through. Communist propaganda and the book want you to think that the Vietnam war was about fighting off foreign invaders/aggressors.

Make no mistake. An and his comrades fought for one sole purpose: put the entire country of Vietnam under Communism, and strip the Vietnamese people of freedom and basic human rights.

Hanoi successfully exploited the American involvement to justify their aggression in South Vietnam, and masked their communist proliferation campaign under a "patriotic" theme: war against foreign invaders.

It was Communist activities in South Vietnam that brought in US soldiers, and they made it looked like the American invasion of Vietnam that forced them to start the war to save the country.

An was lying when he implied that he didn't know how bad the Communists were when they took over the country. He fought for a regime that killed hundreds of thousands of innocent land-owners in North Vietnam in the late 50's during the bloody land reform campaign. He fought for a system with outdated economic (communism) theories that turned Vietnam into one of the poorest countries in the world. He fought for a totalitarian state that took away the people's basic freedom and human rights, where free-thinking was not allowed. If An had any doubt during his spying days, he just had to look to the iron curtains of the Soviet Union, China, North Korea, Cuba, East Germany, ... where the people were oppressed, and all would leave if they had a chance.

As well informed as he was, An surely must have known how brutal the Communists were, and still chose to be on their side. Instead of helping to promote freedom in Vietnam, he worked hard to crush it. If An was truly disillusioned after the war, then he was a fool to fight for a system that he knew nothing about.

I am shocked and appalled that many freedom-loving Americans failed to see this, and continued to think of An as a patriot, a nationalist, and that they would probably do the same if they were An. Naive Americans.

Also, the book repeatedly mentioned An's American acquaintances admired him for being a spy without injecting any pro-communist ideas onto them. Are you kidding? That's what he was supposed to do to keep his cover. To this day, many Americans still love this guy and be fooled by his deceiving charm, buying into his Communist propaganda line that he was just fighting foreign invaders to save his country. Naive Americans.

An was responsible for thousands of American and hundreds of thousands of South Vietnamese deaths during the war. After the war, tens (if not hundreds) of thousands more died in re-education camps, or during their escape journey from Vietnam.

Unification without freedom is worst than death. To this point, An helped kill his fellow Vietnamese and the country. He was a traitor!

A great read, a great man for his country and a sad commentary of our press corps.......2007-06-15

As a former Marine sniper with two straight years in the Vietnam War, the early part, I couldnt pass this book up. An, the spy, is the perfect spy and by the end of the book you can see he duped our press, his 'friends', not only in Vietnam during the war, but all the way to his recent death. He certainly played a central part in the demise of our strategy and as one soldier to another, my hat goes off to him. He was good at what he did and so were my fellow Marines and I. He fought for his country in his way and we in ours. An incredible man.

Now for my disdain. The author did an excellent job researching and writing this book. Except for his bias to continue to make the North Vietnamese out the good guys and us the bad. I understand they fought for 'their He continues to this day, forty years later for me, to herald the very pr' country and to get foreigners off their soil. But this author contuess corp that were hopefully duped by An, some probably not. They continues the US press corps position that the people in the south had no right to their way of wanting their country back. The author supports the media in their current dismantling of US efforts in Iraq. I do not believe we should have gone to Iraq, but now that we unraveled their lives, we owe it to them to see it to the end. Yet just as it outlined well in this excellent book, they are undermining US efforts to help a people who strive for freedom like the millions of South Vietnamese that are barely mentioned in this work.

This is an important work on the Vietnam War, which I have studied for my forty years since being there. It tells a compelling story of a proud warrior who did what he had to do for his country. He did it well. And it shows the dispicable US media, lead by Time magazine, and their work which ended up aiding our enemy at the time.

And then they proudly, according to the author, pull out all the stops to bring the son of this perfect spy, back to the US to educate him as we did his father. He continued perfect to the end and his great friends in the media still believe his line. We just never learn.

War Torn: Stories of War from the Women Reporters who Covered Vietnam

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a special perspective
A Different Look at Vietnam
Fantastic for a Newcomer to the Vietnam War
Fascinating stories of courage
Where was I?

War Torn: Stories of War from the Women Reporters who Covered Vietnam
Tad Bartimus , Tracy Wood , Kate Webb , Laura Palmer , Edith Lederer , and Jurate Kazickas
Manufacturer: Random House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0375506284
Release Date: 2002-08-20

Book Description

For the first time, nine women who made journalism history talk candidly about their professional and deeply personal experiences as young reporters who lived, worked, and loved surrounded by war. Their stories span a decade of America’s involvement in Vietnam, from the earliest days of the conflict until the last U.S. helicopters left Saigon in 1975.

They were gutsy risk-takers who saw firsthand what most Americans knew only from their morning newspapers or the evening news. Many had very particular reasons for going to Vietnam—some had to fight and plead to go—but others ended up there by accident. What happened to them was remarkable and important by any standard. Their lives became exciting beyond anything they had ever imagined, and the experience never left them. It was dangerous—one was wounded, and one was captured by the North Vietnamese—but the challenges they faced were uniquely rewarding.

They lived at full tilt, making an impact on all the people around them, from the orphan children in the streets to their fellow journalists and photographers to the soldiers they met and lived with in the field. They experienced anguish and heartbreak—and an abundance
of friendship and love. These stories not only introduce a remarkable group of individuals but give an entirely new perspective on the most controversial conflict in our history. Vietnam changed their lives forever. Here they tell about it with all the candor, commitment, and energy that characterized their courageous reporting during the war.

Customer Reviews:

a special perspective.......2005-11-29

A unique insight to the ravages of the wars of the mid 20th century from the viewpointss of a group of female corrrespondents who had to claw their way through the jungles
of the eastern asia and the media industry to get their views
across....highly recommended to gain an added persective of a
turbulant time in world history

A Different Look at Vietnam.......2002-10-20

The stories in War Torn are riveting and capture the will and determination of women journalists to have equal access to cover the war. But they also bring Saigon and Vietnam in the 60s and 70 alive to anyone too young to remember. I applaud these women for making the Vietnam war accessible to a generation who grew up after the war.
War Torn leave the reader happy and sad but thoroughly enchanted. For anyone who is a history buff, a traveler planning to visit Vietnam or simply a lover of great tales, I highly recommend this book.

Fantastic for a Newcomer to the Vietnam War.......2002-10-05

I don't know much about Vietnam, but I was drawn to the book by the sad and thoughtful face on the cover. My highest praise to these women. They brought the Vietnam war alive to someone who was not even born at its conclusion. The stories are beautiful, sad, funny and touching. My thanks to the authors for putting such a wonderful piece of writing and important part of history down on paper.

Fascinating stories of courage.......2002-09-05

WAR TORN is a brilliant and riveting collection of essays by the handful of smart and courageous women who actually went to the battlefields in Asia to report on the Vietnamese War. For everyone who served in the war or had loved ones who did, for those of us who lived through these events at home, and for younger readers who have no sense of this history, this compelling book reveals these critical years from a perspective most of us never knew existed. The stories of these nine brave women will capture your minds and break your heart a bit. A thorougly uplifting and informative book with stories you've never heard before.

Where was I?.......2002-09-02

" Having been born in the early forties, Vietnam was MY war. Unlike the women of WAR TORN, I busied myself with raising a family in the good, old, safe & sound USA. I cannot say enough about the impact this book had on me. These selfless, courageous, determined correspondents took me on a tour of a Vietnam that I never knew existed. Reading WAR TORN was truly an educational, eye-opening experience for me. They way these women express their adventures, insights, and emotions is absolutely glorious. This is a must read for people of all ages."

War Torn: The Personal Experiences of Women Reporters in the Vietnam War

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War Torn: The Personal Experiences of Women Reporters in the Vietnam War
Tad Bartimus , Denby Fawcett , Jurate Kazickas , Edith Lederer , and Ann Mariano
Manufacturer: Random House Trade Paperbacks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Vietnam War | Military | History | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0375757821
Release Date: 2004-08-10

Book Description

The First Casualty: From the Crimea to Vietnam : The War Correspondent As Hero, Propagandist, and Myth Maker (Harvest Book ; Hb 343)

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The victors don't just write the history, their propaganda..
Deconstructing journalism

The First Casualty: From the Crimea to Vietnam : The War Correspondent As Hero, Propagandist, and Myth Maker (Harvest Book ; Hb 343)
Phillip Knightley
Manufacturer: Harcourt
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0156311305

Customer Reviews:

The victors don't just write the history, their propaganda.........2002-04-27

I first read this book about ten years ago. It has been a seminal book for me. Until I read this book I somewhat dismissively accepted the adage "The winners write the history."
After reading "The First Casualty" I understood that in fact the propaganda of the victors _becomes_ history. I also highy reccommend "Manufacturing Consent", "A People's History of the United States", "The Myth of the Great War" and "Overlord".

Deconstructing journalism.......2000-03-21

Philip Knightly puts together an exciting and informative history of the war correspondent. Stripping away the romanticism that such an occupation attracted, Knightly shows the grimmer side of covering wars, from having dispatches censored to being a willing collaborator in a conflict. He concentrates from the American Civil War to the Falkland Conflict. In it, Knightly snipes at Hemingway for not reporting during the Spanish Civil War but keeping material for his books while admiring Martha Glehorn's coverage of the Vietnam war (which later got her expelled from the country).

For those interested in Media Ethics and journalism, Knightly's book is highly recomended.

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Vietnam North - A First Hand Report

Manufacturer: New World Paperbacks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000ANNF86

Product Description

A first hand account of North Vietnam during the Vietnam War.

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Vietnam: A Reporter's War
Hugh Lunn
Manufacturer: University of Queensland Pr (Australia)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0702220183

Book Description

This thought-provoking memoir by Australian journalist, who arrived in Vietnam in 1967 as a reporter for Reuters, records his experiences during his year-long tour-from crouching in paddy fields under fire from unseen machine guns and flying in helicopters through hails of tracers to the sudden savage Tet offensive in January 1968.

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Vietnam: A reporter's war

Manufacturer: Australian Broadcasting Commission
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

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ASIN: 064297473X

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Friendship saves him
Anson's coverage of the war in Vietnam and Cambodia.
Painfully honest account of life and death, Cambodia, 1970.

War News: A Young Reporter in Indochina
Robert Sam Anson
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Customer Reviews:

Friendship saves him.......2004-03-17

This is a very good account of what happened in Cambodia in 1970. The author worked for Time in Saigon, and was ousted to cover Laos and Cambodia because of his anti war views. A Vietnamese friend he worked with in Saigon was critical in his survival in Cambodia.
In Cambodia, he sees the massacre of Cambodians by the Vietnamese, and the massacre of Vietnamese by Cambodians. Vietnamese in Cambodia ran most of the businesses and had the skilled labor knowledge. Cambodians resented this.

Several reporters died covering the Cambodian fighting, including Sean Flynn, the son of Errol Flynn.
The author saved a bunch of Vietnamese from slaughter by the Cambodians.
Later, he was captured by the Cambodians and turned over to the North Vietnamese. The North Vietnamese checked his background to determine whether or not to shoot him.
Because of his friendship of a Vietnamese who also worked for Time, his life was spared.
In 1985 the author returned to Vietnam and visited his old Time friend. It turned out he was a Col in the North Vietnmaese army.
The Col explained that he was not killed while a captive as they were friends.
He also describes the battles with Time staff and his marriage.

Anson's coverage of the war in Vietnam and Cambodia........2002-07-05

I came close not to buying this book in a second hand book store. I read Anson's views on Richard Nixon, and found them not very objective, so when I saw this book about the Vietnam War I was not sure. The book is very readable, and Anson makes sure to detail his own weaknesses in the book, especially his rocky marriage and use of drugs and alcohol. He details his coverage of the war. Also details his views on the Cambodian government and their Vietnamese massacres. He is sypathetic to the NVA, even though several of his friends were killed by them. His personal stories are the best in detailing the corruption of Cambodian and South Vietnamese governments.

Painfully honest account of life and death, Cambodia, 1970........1999-10-25

A memoir detailing the experiences of an idealistic young war correspondent in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. Running the dangerous roads of 1970 Cambodia in pursuit of both news and personal fame, the author allows his readers a special insight into his soul. Anson's accounts of the deaths of his friends and colleagues, as well as the details of his own capture and detention by revolutionary forces, are remarkably vivid and painful to read, but at the same time filled with a special sense of black humor. No emotion, no matter how unflattering, is hidden from the reader. The author would certainly not be surprised to learn that the attitudes of US Embassy bureaucrats toward the death and disappearance of these same journalists was no different twenty years later than it was during the course of the war.

A Year in Hell: Memoir of an Army Foot Soldier Turned Reporter in Vietnam, 1965-1966

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A Year in Hell: Memoir of an Army Foot Soldier Turned Reporter in Vietnam, 1965-1966
Jr. Ray Pezzoli
Manufacturer: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 078642396X

Product Description

This memoir relates the authors experiences during his year-long tour of duty in the early days of American involvement in Vietnam. Serving in Bravo Company of the 1st Infantry Division, Ray Pezzoli provided protection for engineers constructing the deep water port in Cam Ranh Bay. From July 11, 1965, through June 22, 1966, he dealt with the ever-present threat of Viet Cong guerilla attacks, never knowing whether the Vietnamese natives he met might be friends or enemies. And as an Army reporter, he recorded some of his experiences in print and photographs. From guard duty to bathing practices, Pezzoli describes the daily life of soldiers with the keen eye of a journalist while also questioning the wisdom of extensive media involvement during wartime. Unique to his story is the dual perspective of infantryman and journalist; Pezzoli never forgot his military objective, and tallied at least 11 kills. The memoir provides a moving narrative not only of his service but of his culture shock on returning to America. An appendix provides additional information about Vietnam, including its history before and after American involvement. The authors photographs from the time are included.

It was a woman's job, too. (Books).(book on women military journalists)(Book Review): An article from: American Journalism Review

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It was a woman's job, too. (Books).(book on women military journalists)(Book Review): An article from: American Journalism Review
Carl Sessions Stepp
Manufacturer: University of Maryland
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Book Description

This digital document is an article from American Journalism Review, published by University of Maryland on November 1, 2002. The length of the article is 1055 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: It was a woman's job, too. (Books).(book on women military journalists)(Book Review)
Author: Carl Sessions Stepp
Publication: American Journalism Review (Refereed)
Date: November 1, 2002
Publisher: University of Maryland
Volume: 24 Issue: 9 Page: 62(1)

Article Type: Book Review

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