No comments about Fighter Pilot: The Memoirs of Legendary Ace Robin Olds.

5 comments about A Rumor of War.

1. Wow. I was born in the summer of 1967. I have had Vietnam in my mind from my earliest memories and then my studies of history. If you have any interest whatsoever in your country, where we've been, what men endured over there, buy this book today. I can't do this book justice with my words. Just read it and find out for yourself.



2. It's been a few years since I read this book, but I still remember it vividly. This autobiographical rememberance of one man's service in Vietnam is quite memorable. Anyone who thinks the U.S. should be sending soldiers to fight in the Middle East and Asia should definitely read this book for perspective. One of the main things I got out of this book was that there are just some wars that not are winnable. When your enemy has so much more to lose, you can never defeat them. The North Vietnamese were fighting to unite a country. The Americans were fighting to divide a country. The war in Vietnam is one of the first modern wars where we learned as a country that our powerful military has limitations. Usually the goal in war is take territory and secure it. But when you are fighting an enemy who employs guerrila tactics, they don't care about taking territory. They care about only breaking your spirit and your willingness to fight. There's so many realizations that I came to reading this book and others on the Vietnam War. I could go on for days, but I would rather you spend your time reading this book instead of my thoughts!



3. this is quite simply one of the best war memoirs i've ever read. i would include it in the same last as tim o'brien's the things they carried. honest, powerfully written, looks into the depths of the human soul.



4. A Rumor of War is a good book. It's well written and easy to read. It's visceral, but not necessarily educational. It was probably much more significant when it was first published. The book provides a very clear look at Marines during the early days of the Vietnam War. It's autobiographical, written from Caputo's own experiences. The author's military training, life in Danang, and actions in the field are described in detail. His attitudes and opinions take a decided turn for the worse as the war drags on, wears him out, and wastes his brothers in arms. (Caputo comments on the appropriate usage of the term "waste" in his book.) The foot soldier, slogging through the paddy fields with sniper fire whining overhead, is put front and center. Historical development and the political situations in Washington and Vietnam are hardly mentioned. The environment is given a starring role: heat, humidity, monsoon rain, mud, insects, jungle trails, water-filled fox holes, cold wet nights, darkness, and nearly impenetrable elephant grass. Death is also given center stage... sudden, brutal, undesirable death... and its cousin, serious injury. Caputo dedicates his book to two of his fallen comrades. That's where his heart is. Good men, gone too soon, with loved ones left behind.



5. I have been to Vietnam twice in the last 14 months. Seventy percent of the population has no direct memory of U.S. soldiers fighting in their villages. Sometimes for the American traveler, unless he/she searches for the remnants of the war, it is hard to envision the violence, the bombing, the suffering....Caputo's book let's you pull back curtain of Vietnam today, allowing you to feel the stress he encountered from 65-75. It is frankly the best Vietnam book I have ever read.
   
   I have visited many of the major battle sites in Vietnam and Cambodia and museums and interviewed soldiers from both countries.

5 comments about Night of Thunder: A Bob Lee Swagger Novel (Bob Lee Swagger Novels).

1. Ok, this book wasn't as bad as everyone has made it out. Granted Bob Lee wasn't the baddass he is in all of his other books, except for the end, and it does drag but it does have some entertaining qualities. The action scenes are good and he is still a hell of a shot. Plus you get to see a more emotional side to Bob than in his usual novels. And unlike in his previous novels his wife is completely behind him on this. But I think the main problem I have with this book is that it just doesn't seem to read like Stephen Hunter. It's kinda like someone else wrote it and put his name on it. If your a fan of Stephen Hunter don't expect this too be like his usual stuff. And to those of you who have never read a book by Hunter please don't let this be the first or if it was I promise you he has much better one's. Such as Blacklight, Point of Impact, or Hot Springs.



2. This is a good read, i read this one after the 47th Samurai. Excellent development of the story line. I like the idea of the rugged individual, even with character flaws, striving forward to the end of his accepted task. The concept of personal honor flows throughout Mr. Hunter's novels. This is very much appreciated.



3. Book was entertaining but certainly not his best effort. Not as intense nor engrossing as his other books. Still a good read.



4. Like many of you Stephen Hunter has been one of my favorite authors for a long time!! But did anyone notice Bob Lee spoke differently and more than he ever had in any book. I know he was acting with the police department but even with Nick. Also, did anyone notice that Vern's last name was PYE, as in Jimmy PYE. Think there could have been more character development? I can't prove it but the overall tone of this book seems to be from an outline by Hunter given to as assistant to develop so it coulg get published. I know that is customary for some but expected more from Mr. Hunter. Yes I will buy his next book, used, and I hope it returns to the taut tone of the others.



5. The story is good and there is a fair amount of action, but you can tell that Bob Lee Swagger is showing his age. There's not as much action and shooting in this book as in previous Bob Lee books. Hunter does a good job of getting into the NASCAR culture around Bristol. Hunter's "bad guy" characters sometimes push the limit and this book pushes the envelop even more. This book is entertaining but not as exciting as Hunters previous books.

4 comments about The Man from Saigon: A Novel.

1. The Man From Saigon is one of the best books I've read this year. It made the fear, stench, and horror of the Viet Nam War come alive. Some of the battle scenes are the most riveting and terrifying I've come across in a long time. Sometimes I had to put the book down and rest before I could go on.The story was told from a different angle than most Viet Nam books and was totally unpredictable.I loved this book and recommend it for anyone that enjoys a real page turner and an honest account of war. Everyone, please read this book. You will not be disappointed and you'll never forget it!!!!



2. Among the wonders of America's Civil War literature was Stephen Crane's "Red Badge of Courage." The author never saw a battle. I am stunned by how vividly Marti Leimbach has captured the horrific detail of combat and social disruption in Southeast Asia during the 1960's. One might conclude that at some point in her career she served with the Rangers in Vietnam, and the Army Nursing Corp., and managed to squeeze in a couple of years as a war correspondent, all the while carousing in Saigon bars and working as a hyper-observant sociologist and jungle ecologist. The research she put into "The Man from Saigon" is absolutely astonishing! Ms. Leimbach teaches creative writing at Oxford University, and her students are fortunate indeed to study with such a gifted author.
   
   "The Man from Saigon" is the best novel I've read in years. From start to finish I couldn't set it down... and it is not a "quick read." I long ago lost interest in reliving the wars of Southeast Asia, and I'm not very attracted to love stories. I love outstanding writing, however, and I love this novel. The twists of plot, the realism, the complex characters, the attention to gritty detail, the frequent surprises of observation, the exploration of human emotions and behaviors, and above all the pure quality of craftsmanship, cover to cover. It is an adventure, a romance, a slice of histoty, a brilliant novel.



3. The Man From Saigon by Marti Leimbach is the story of Susan, an American news reporter on location in Saigon during the Vietnam War. Not previously a war-correspondent reporter, her editor feels it's time she went on location to get some real live action reporting under her belt. Arriving in Vietnam a bit green, she quickly befriends the locals and the military personnel and begins tagging along on dangerous missions, interviewing the wounded and the doctors and nurses in the field hospitals, and attaching herself to a Vietnamese photographer name Son. Life starts to become routine as she settles in to the daily task of reporting the news, and keeping alive from raining bullets and harsh environmental conditions. Susan soon meets and falls in love with another American TV reporter Marc, who although married brings them a war-time affair of tender moments and respite from the shell shock hell around them. Susan, for the most part as a rookie, adapts well and pulls her weight risking her life to find out the truths that she can report home with about the realities and horrors of this tragic war the United States got embroiled in.
   
   Just after two months, Susan and Son are out on a mission and during the skirmish of explosions and gunfire, find themselves at the mercy of three Vietcong men that will kidnap them and traipse them through the jungles heading back to their base. Under conditions of dehydration, sweltering heat, starvation, and being pushed to their endurance, Susan is barely able to stay alive. But something is amiss with her partner Son, and she learns there is more here that meets the eye when she realizes with horror that he is a spy for the Vietnamese.
   
   The writing for this novel is astoundingly good, Liembach shows polish and finesse. She is definitely an experienced author with great talent to command the language. The book started out with a lot of excitement and action making me think this was going to be an intense, edge of your seat thriller. But sadly the story begins quickly to lose the intensity that on the onset pulled me in. I felt the characters of Susan, Son and Marc were very lifeless, flat and without personalities that a reader might care about. Susan herself is quite a boring woman who just plods along with whatever happens without emotion, the two men are dry as a bone. Half way through I had to pull the plug on this novel that a lot of early reviewers are praising. The story mid point, rambles on of flashbacks for each person, and the current situation of Susan and Son missing, and Marc wondering what has happened to them, is presented so dryly, so matter of fact, I felt I didn't have sympathy or empathy for these three people in any way. The novel felt like a non-fiction documentary of the events of the Vietnam War being played out blow by blow slowly, and didnt feel like a fictional novel at all. Liembach does paint a vivid accurate picture of the details of this war, but without the ingredients for a good fictional story to accompany it with with endearing characters or exciting plot. Truly, I was so bored out of my mind I had to quit.



4. Susan Gifford, female war correspondent in Vietnam is taken prisoner, along with her Vietnamese photographer, Son. THE MAN FROM SAIGON by Marti Leimbach is a well written story that is not only descriptive of what it is like in the jungles of Vietnam, but also the hardships of that war. It is also a love story (Susan and her married lover, Marc). I found I couldn't put the book down as they struggled on their march through the jungle. Quite an impressive novel.

5 comments about The Things They Carried.

1. My husband ordered this book on his Kindle and loved it. I ended up purchasing a Kindle for myself and decided to read this book too. I loved it!!! It seems like each word is perfectly chosen . . . he's an awesome writer.



2. As a teenager, I was forced to read Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried. I was more interested in other things at the time, slogged my way through it, and passed the test. Now, many years later and hearing from others that this is a must read, I decided to give it another go. Only this time, I was left with a much more lasting and meaningful impression. First of all, O'Brien has a gift. The descriptions, the breathtaking prose...I haven't the words to express how exquisite these are. Let's just say that the Vietnam War movies don't do what this book does; There are simply not enough special effects! Our narrator, O'Brien, tells his story and that of Alpha Company's. Interwoven are themes of guilt, redemption, patriotism, loyalty, and love. I have not been to war, but one can imagine that the experience would be similar to the one O'Brien details. The book is not a single narrative, but rather a collection of stories, and this is what makes this book really work for me. Also, O'Brien isn't a hero in the traditional sense. He is a man whose fear of failure drives him. Again, this too feels authentic to me.
   
   So forget the psychedelic films, forget the anthems and folk songs- The Things They Carried is where an understanding of this era can be truly found.



3. This fabulous interwoven short story collection needs no Vine reviews to recommend it, because it has already established itself in the Western literary canon. Tim O'Brien is probably the greatest storyteller of his generation. His evocation of pathos, amusement, awe and horror in the reader is sometimes almost miraculous. His stories of Vietnam move beyond the war story genre and become stories of life itself, in all its joy and ugliness. O'Brien's stories will give you a "lit hangover" - meaning that you will be thinking of them long, long after closing the book, and pieces of them will come back to you when you least expect it. No wonder this book is highly recommended on most "must read" lists, and is an AP English Lit selection in many classrooms.



4. The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien is a collection of loosely related short stories. I'm not a big fan of short stories, because they often feel disjointed to me, but it works really well in this instance. The disjointedness is what I imagine soldiers feel when they're facing battle so far from home, so it made me feel closer to the characters.
   
   As always in a collection like this, some stories affected me more than others. My favorites were:
   
   * The Things They Carried - This is the first story in the book and it details what the soldiers carried in the field; from the equipment necessary to survive to the small, personal items that they can't live without.
   * Field Trip - In this story a soldier who survived the Vietnam War returns with his ten year old daughter and attempts to explain the war and his part in it to her.
   * Speaking of Courage - When a soldier returns to his hometown, he has trouble adjusting, in spite of the support of his family.
   * The Lives of the Dead - 30 years after the war, a soldier tries to come to term with deaths from his childhood and from the war.
   
   The Things They Carried is a very moving book and as I read it, I wondered why the world can't find a way to end wars. This is the kind of book that it's almost hard to say that I enjoyed - I think maybe saying it affected me is probably more accurate. This is a powerful book that moved me immensely. I want to leave you with one passage that really struck me:
   
   "He wished he could've explained some of this. How he had been braver than he ever thought possible, but how he had not been so brave as he wanted to be. The distinction was important."



5. For some reason I had never gotten around to reading THE THINGS THEY CARRIED. I've known about it, of course, for fifteen or so years and have long intended on reading it someday. I think most readers keep "The List" of all the books they fully intend to read at some point. For instance, I intend to read Thomas Mann's BUDDENBROOKS and Stendahl's THE RED AND THE BLACK, but you can't get to everything at once. But seeing this as an option in the Vine Program was sufficient to make the difference between reading it and not reading it.
   
   What a great book! In a way, the stories reminded me of the Jimmie Rodgers's line from "Frankie and Johnny": "This story has no moral." O'Brien doesn't try to draw any grand conclusions about war in general or Vietnam in particular. Instead, he tries in these interconnected and intertwined stories to stay honest to the experiences that he and his friends had in Vietnam. The stories he tells cross and crisscross with one another so that we continually re-encounter the major characters in slightly different contexts. O'Brien sketches each of the members of Alpha Company in exceptional detail, in ways that we get to the hearts of them as individuals. We don't learn everything about Kiowa or Azar or Lt. Cross or Rat Kiley, but we feel like we learn the most important things.
   
   I love the hybridity of the book. It is technically a collection of short stories, but the way they connect up to one another has the effect of a novel. It is a work of fiction, but it is clearly deeply rooted in O'Brien's own experiences, so that it at times feels like a memoir. The language is couched in prose, but at times with a delicacy and precision that it almost becomes prose poetry.
   
   I regret that I put off reading this book for so long. It is one of those books that not only deserves to be read but reread. It has now moved from the list of books that I want to read to the list of books taht I want to reread.

5 comments about The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Vietnam War (The Politically Incorrect Guides).

1. As a Viet Nam veteran I have read many books on that conflict, usually with raised eyebrows and a question like,"What the hell are they talking about?!" Most books seem to have been written by someone who has never seen war, or by someone who has but who has an overriding agenda that prevents them from recognizing the truth when they see it...or perhaps the truth just does not fit into their life. Mr. Jennings has avoided all of this. He tells it like it was, that it was a war that our military did win, definitively, in spite of inept leadership in our country at the highest levels. It is a war that seemed to reward traitors and nay-sayers and vilified true heroes. It is a war that still causes great anger in those of us who were there when we had to come home and face the incredible stupidity we had to face upon returning. It is a war that from a military and humanitarian point of view we can take pride in, just as we should hang our heads in shame at those many highly placed individuals in this country who profited from ridiculing our successes and glorying in our (theoretical) failures. This book is history finally written correctly. Thanks, Phil Jennings. And, by the way, don't go to Viet Nam in the near future...



2. Jennings writing is refreshingly easy to read and understand. More importantly, his "inside" perspective on the war, both from a regional historical standpoint, and explaining the "politics of the war", is quite revealing. Having lived through this period as a student, lucky enough to have the men and women of the armed services (including family members) fight this war for me/us, this book finally presents the details of their true success, rather than what has been portrayed in the press. This is of course also contrary to how many politicians have (and still) represented the true facts.
   
   I recommend buying a copy to give as a gift of thanks to every Viet Nam vet you know...and two copies for each doubter of the truth. ttok



3. I have read all of Jennings' work and always await his latest eagerly. This PIG is different and equally fantastic. I served as an artillery officer during the early years of the war. I taught trigonometry at Ft. Sill (no "war stories" here). As I look back I am amazed at how little we new about the decisions and motivations of the key players at the time. Jennings knows this subject as well as anyone and his insights are needed now that we are again looking for answers on the subject of politics and war.



4. I came to admire Phillip Jennings when I reviewed his "Nam-a-Rama" Nam-A-Rama and, later, his "Good-bye Mexico" Goodbye Mexico. We even exchanged a few emails. I found him to be as you would expect from his books. He is brilliant, funny, deeply in love with American, but doesn't have time or the inclination to take guff from anyone. I am not saying I know the author, but just that my email exchanges confirm what I suspected from the books. Since I knew he was a true veteran of the Vietnam War and a very talented writer, I was hoping someday we would get his take on the War. So, I was extremely delighted when I saw his name on this book. As I read it, I found that Jennings had surpassed my hopes. I had a friend who was with SOG in the 60s and everything he told me about his work there (and there was much he could not tell) absolutely agrees with this book.
   
   What is so politically incorrect about this book? Jennings demonstrates that America had won the war by 1973 and the only reason the South had to suffer defeat in 1975 was the liberals (mostly Democrats) in the U.S. Congress that cut off funding to support the South. They could do this because the sympathetic press was spinning the war as a defeat and unwinnable since the Tet Offensive in 1968, which was, by the way, a huge loss for the North.
   
   He also shows how America SUPPORTED the war. We have seen this phenomenon again and again, when decades after the fact everyone knows as fact something that was utterly untrue at the time. Jennings points out another interesting distortion of history. Many more people claim to be veterans of the Vietnam War than were ever there. This is also true of the VVAW that did the "Winter Soldier" investigation that John Kerry was involved with and made many false accusations against our soldiers. However, these lies and calumnies are still quoted as fact in far too many places. Jennings lays the problems with Cambodia, Laos, and other places at the feet of the North. Their aggression and violation of those nations' sovereignty led to the expansion of the War beyond Vietnam's boundaries.
   
   By reading this book you will learn why we were in Vietnam anyway, what JFK did there, how LBJ expanded it and what is limited war strategy cost us (and what it did not accomplish). Jennings also explains how we won the war and why it is still talked about as a loss in our society. He devotes a whole chapter the anti-War movement and corrects so many myths surrounding it. I can honestly and truthfully say that while I did not serve in Vietnam or in the military I was never part of the anti-War movement and would have gone had I been called to do so. In fact, I had a plan laid out my number did come up in the lottery. The final chapter deals with the myths surrounding the Vietnam Veterans and their reentering society.
   
   If you have read any of these guides before you will know that they also have lots of other cool things. Side boxes listing books to read that overthrow the popular distortions of the subject. There are others with great quotes, anecdotes and helpful facts you can use when discussing the War with your friends imprisoned in a conventional mindset. You will also get some clarity about the reality behind the reputations of people like Westmoreland, Colby, Abrams, McNamara, and others.
   
   Jennings also provides you with reading lists for the best books on the war (among the 300 or so in his library and he has read during his own study), the best movies on the War and mini-reviews of them, and a proper explanation of the Pentagon Papers. He exposes people like Peter Arnett and their phony reporting of the War, and he provides a really neat insight into the growth of the Vietnamese as immigrants within America. They number around 1.5 million, which, Jennings points out, makes them the 4th largest minority group in America.
   
   I hope everyone reads this book. Yet, I am sure that many will attack it without taking the time to read it. They clutch to the lefty agenda about the War and will not tolerate any facts disturbing their delusions. But you don't have to be one of them.
   
   Terrific and highly recommended.
   
   Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI



5. Phillip Jennings ignores the stereotypes and the "common knowledge" of Vietnam to tell the truth about that war. The most telling fact is that the North Vietnamese aggressors were defeated after Tet, having much of their combat strength obliterated in their all-out attack to take control of South Vietnam. He looks at the political machinations which took place inside our own government and the activist media involved in the war. This book is a real eye-opener and before your read the Time-Life series about the war (which was influenced by the activist media) read this book and see what other recommended books there are out there. The U.S. military men and women who served in Vietnam did their duty and many returned heroes... their story deserves better than the treatment it gets in the media and popular entertainment.

5 comments about JFK: The CIA, Vietnam, and the Plot to Assassinate John F. Kennedy.

1. Finally, those involved are getting old enough not to place concern about their own welfare above truth anymore.
   
   This book provides so many connections, such a depth of behind the scenes knowledge and inner workings of the specific programs operating at the time, you can't help but be bowled over.
   
   ***Note: Anyone interested in the Kennedy Assassination should realize that there is a "misinformation plant" in the Library Journal review department. Every honest book on the subject has been unconvincingly discredited by them, while they praise and try to steer you towards known flake CIA-financed writers such as Gerald Posner.
   
   It's rather common to hear of wrongdoing by the CIA. I saw a graph recently that showed American citizen's belief in their government plummetting after the Kennedy Assassination. Almost no one accepted the Warren Commission Report and such a cover up has casted doubt on our government ever since.
   
   This "High Cabal" as Churchill called them obviously doesn't start with the CIA, or the Federal Reserve. It predates Christianity, but it's quite simple. There are bums who seek handouts and never try to rise, and there are bums who gain a position over others but still yearn for that same handout, taking it by force, by skimming, whatever is neccessary to defeat justice, honor and civility. These are not great men and they will not be remembered like an Edison or a Ford. They are the most creative parasites on the planet, and the most deeply engrained.
   
   Currency control has changed EIGHT times since America's inception. The most vocal fighter against irrational banking was Andrew Jackson; not Kennedy or Lincoln (google "Jackson Bank Veto"). He fought and defeated in his time what has morphed into the Federal Reserve Bank. Before the Civil War, such bankers were buying politicians, planting press stories, steering elections, stealing freedoms, killing people--anything to assure a fascist cushion between themselves and existence.
   
   Do we ever hear anything bad about the Federal Reserve? In Jackson's time, they were entrenched 16 years deep and it was difficult to rout them out then. They did try to kill him. Now they are ninety years deep. They have owned many Presidents, they control the Justice and State Departments, and the CIA secretly furthers their agenda.
   
   Nothing happens at the Assassination Level without their approval. In today's world, America is struggling in recession (bankruptcy) mostly due to the $360 Billion we now pay to the Fed for their generous "Debt-Money" System, and that is an exponentially increasing burden. EVERY dollar in our country has interest being paid on it as if it were borrowed! Due to this, bankruptcy for America is a mathematical certainty. (Imagine if you had to pay interest not just on every dollar you owed, but on every dollar you made! America IS!)
   
   With changes in the laws, soon none of us will be permitted to walk away from our debts and start over--as if our hard economic times is our own personal fault.
   
   We are all about to become debt slaves, as they intend. If you want to have a chance at recovery, if you want your kids to have a chance at a decent future, join me and I'll give you the Moral Armor neccessary to beat down these parasites and restore America to what it was meant to be. They CAN be defeated, but not without YOUR empowerment. If you can't stand up or are afraid to, I'll show you how. Invest in yourself right now and let's save this ship!



2. In this volume, Colonel Fletcher Prouty captures both the secret history of the United States from 1945 to 1975 and the reasons behind the plot to kill President Kennedy. Herein, the courageous Colonel illustrates quite clearly that the clandestine history and the assassination plot were intrinsically linked.
   
   From the important information in this book, we learn that the war in Vietnam actually began on September 2, 1945, when Ho Chi Minh was established as the new leader of Vietnam by our OSS, the predecessor of the CIA, and the US Army. The United States was thoughtful enough to provide all the weapons, ammunition, and supplies necessary for Ho and Giap to pursue their war against the French, which culminated in the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu. Following that defeat, the CIA arranged for the transfer of 1.1 million "refugees" from the North of Vietnam to the South. These folks caused such disruption in the fragile agricultural economy of the South that their arrival ultimately drove the orginal residents to banditry in order that they might survive. These displaced bandits became what was later known as the Viet Cong. Hence, the CIA created the conditions necessary for a full scale war in Vietnam.
   
   On coming to office, Kennedy, a brilliant and studious man, came soon to understand the perfidy of the CIA. One of first his acts on realizing this was to fire CIA director Allen Dulles. Soon thereafter, he issued one the most important, and unknown, documents of US history, NSAM 263. Issued in October of 1963, this document called for 1,000 US military personnel to come home from Vietnam by that Christmas. The remainder were to be out of Vietnam by the end of 1965. Had John Kennedy lived, what Americans know as the war in Vietnam would never have happened.
   
   Prouty demonstrates herein that the powers that be ultimately made the decision that they could not allow Kennedy to live. He makes it clear that assassination researches who make a career of examining the details of the government's false cover story truly miss the point. What matters is not how the President was killed, but why. And the answer to that question is that the assassination was a coup d'etat, transferring control of the government of the United States to a power elite, which has been in control ever since. Hence, we have the strange silence of every succeeding President on the issue of the cover up of the Kennedy assassination.
   
   The book is well written and extraordinarily important. He would understand our nation and how it came to be in the condition that now obtains would be well advised to read carefully this terribly important book. God bless.



3. Prouty's autobiography is very revealing indeed.
   Of course, it contains controversial items (Would JFK have stopped the Vietnam War?). But, it is the general picture that counts, and here, the author is prophetic.
   Prouty presents his world view as follows: `The world is ruled by a power elite. The basic motivations are always the same. Money lays at the root ... the enormous amount spent on military matériel.'
   This elite wields its power partly and most importantly through invisible intelligence agencies. `The power of any agency allowed to operate in secrecy is boundless'.
   
   Nationally, JFK would probably be reelected in 1964, also via carefully directed investments, which should have influenced favorably the voting in heavily contested states. This reelection for another 4 years was very hard to swallow for a part of the power elite. JFK had promised to cut the defense budget and destroy one of its power bases (`split an intelligence agency into a thousand pieces and scatter it to the winds.')
   JFK's masterfully planned assassination was a coup d'état, not less than a total takeover of the US government. The cover-up of the assassination, which is still going on, shows the immense power of the culprits. They controlled the Warner Commission and could (can) force, until today, the media and Congress to pay lip service to them. Congress was never capable to launch an adequate investigation into the murder.
   
   Internationally, `the world's power elite benefited splendidly from the staggering sums involved in the Vietnam War.' The author's moving evocation of the fate of a pastoral Vietnamese village shows that `people's lives are valueless when they get in the way of elitist interests.' (Mark Curtis)
   The powerful show absolutely no respect for national sovereignty (e.g., Vietnam, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Afghanistan, Panama, Iraq, the Philippines, even Grenada), which is the principle on which `the family of nations exists, with its property rights and the rights of man.'
   
   At the end, Prouty is even prophetic: `the power elite utilizes all manner of plots to achieve their ambitious goal. That gamesmanship is called `Terrorism'.
   
   This book is a must read for all those wanting to understand the world we live in.



4. This is an excellent book.I personally own a harback edition that is autographed by Colonel Prouty to me. I am a firm believer in what he said and I believe that this sort of behavior still goes on today. War is money and it always will be. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the murder of President Kennedy.



5. In Oliver Stone's film "JFK" in the Mall Scene meeting between D.A. Jim Garrison (played by Kevin Costner) and "Man X" (played by Donald Sutherland), a flashback scene presented a nameplate from the desk of an Air Force military general speaking on the phone, and partialy showing his name as Maj/Gen. E.G. (unknown)?
   
   
   Who was Stone attempting to make reference to and cast aspersions upon Maj. General E.G. Lansdale?
   
   Does anybody know?? Will check back from time-to-time is see "IF" any comments are posted to my inquiry. Thanks!

5 comments about Valley of Death: The Tragedy at Dien Bien Phu That Led America into the Vietnam War.

1. A $19.25 Kindle price is an outrage. It is only $3.60 less than the hardcover price, yet there is way less cost involved than $3.60 in developing a physical hardcover book, printing it, shipping it to the retailer and then have the retailer ship it to you.
   
   I honestly think that Amazon has lost it's nerve in the face of the Ipad and has capitulated to the publishers who refuse to embrace the reality of change. Publishers - you can't put the genie back in the bottle! E-books are here and are NOT going away. There is nothing you can do to convince me to buy a hardcover book so the reasonable pricing of an electronic version is not going to make you lose a single hardcover sale. What it will make you lose is ANY sale to me. And that hurts everyone in the chain - including Amazon.



2. Valley Of Death, is a well written and striaght shooting book on DBP it fills in so many blanks and answers many questtions that Dr. Bernad Fall asked over 40 years ago. It will become a classic book about early Vietnam and the growth of the Vietminh and the fall of the French.
   
   Ken Schneider



3. For a pivotal battle that marked the end of France's colonial ambitions in Indochina and America's increasing involvement there, there's been surprisingly few books that focus on it exclusively. Most of the historiography on Dien Bien Phu has incorporated it into the larger framework of the overall efforts at Vietnamese liberation from even before the Second World War to the collapse of Saigon in 1975. Earlier books such as Henri Navarre's "Agonie de l'Indochine" (1958), Bernard Fall's Hell in a Very Small Place: The Siege of Dien Bien Phu (1985), Jules Roy's The Battle of Dienbienphu (2002), David Stone's DIEN BIEN PHU: (Battles in Focus) (2004) and Martin Windrow's The Last Valley: Dien Bien Phu and the French Defeat in Vietnam (also 2004) covered this pivotal battle to varying degrees of success, and each with their own particular perspective on it. While it would appear Morgan could have little to add, the reality is there is much that has been recently declassified or overlooked by previous researchers, especially within the French archives. As a veteran of the French army, Morgan has the potential to show bias, but adeptly avoids that. Morgan also debunks the theory that the French arrogantly blundered into selecting Dien Bien Phu as a defensive stand, leaving the hilly terrain around the area for the Vietminh to capture, reconstructing how implausible it was that the Vietminh could do what they did and how theoretically easy it should have been to supply the base via air support. Of course this was proven fatally wrong by the Vietminh, who disassembled and dragged artillery pieces into the mountains surrounding the area and then reassembled them, despite no roads in the area and with them being covered by dense jungle foliage. What emerges instead is a story of grim determination by both sides to hold on in the face of daunting challenges, dispelling the belief it was a mistake by the French, who were instead undone by the undaunted courage and willpower of the Vietminh.
   
   Morgan captures the unfolding drama as though we don't already know the outcome of events in a prose that is very engaging. The French quite simply could not have seen things unfolding the way they did; no one expected what happened, as the Vietminh accomplished the seemingly impossible. My major quibble is that Morgan's book is a bit Amero-centric, as it seeks more to explain how the U.S. was drawn into the Vietnamese conflict, rather than what it meant to the French. Morgan explores the pleas of the French for U.S. intervention and the discussion of possibly using atomic weaponry, which was ultimately rejected for obvious reasons. The debacle at Dien Bien Phu was followed two years later by the British and French intervention in the Suez Crisis, which effectively marked the end of both as Great Powers. It could be argued that Dien Bien Phu was the initial rupture or breaking point for Eisenhower's tolerance of continued European colonialism, yet Morgan doesn't make that point here. Suez is frequently pointed to as that break point along with increasing U.S. intervention in the late 1950s, displacing European powers. For the French, Dien Bien Phu was the beginning of the end of their empire, followed by decolonization and the war in Algeria. I would have liked "Valley of Death" had it given more of the "big picture" relevancy to France and global relations. While Morgan seeks to explain how the U.S. wound up in Vietnam, the result is too narrowly tailored when it could be used to explain things more broadly. As a result "Valley of Death" is micro-history, not macro-history. Enjoyable indeed, but it could have been so much more.



4. Ted Morgan has written an excellent book about the 1954 Battle of Dien Bien Phu. Actually, it starts in 1940 and takes about a third of the book just to get to the commencement of the battle because it covers the background on the French and Vietminh sides (and the American involvement too). Morgan is an excellent writer who can shift very easily from conferences at the Presidential/Foreign Ministry level to the viewpoint of troops in the field. The interplay between soldiers and politicians in France is fascinating and sometimes revolting if you believe, as I do, that it is obscene to send young men into battle unless you are serious about the war aims and prepared to see them through to the end. The details of the French involvement before the battle and the consequences of the defeat at DBP and how they played out afterward are thought-provoking and fascinating. The popular view is sometimes that the American vs. NVA/VC Battle of Khe Sanh in 1968 was just Dien Bien Phu Part II with the Americans substituting for the French; this book definitively shows why this was not so. Morgan has written another excellent book called "My Battle of Algiers" about his experience as a conscript in the French army during the equally unpopular Algerian war and his very mixed - to say the least - feelings about his military service there. He is uniquely qualified to write on these topics because he was born French (as Sanche de Gramont) but moved to America when young and has since become very Americanized. Anyone interested in what happened before the US got involved in Vietnam will like this book.



5. The dust jacket says, "...Ted Morgan has now written a rich and definitive account of the fateful battle....". It should read, ".....Ted Morgan has now collected info from a variety of already published literature, and repackaged it into book designed to sell on the DBP name without briging much new to the table...".
   
   This volume deals 95% with the political aspects of the French war in Indochina from 1940 to 1954, and the aftermath of DBP. He draws from here and there and simply repeats. The book is filled with quotes, some perhaps not heard directly before, but they bring nothing new. Since the book is sorely lacking in attribution -- the few bare "notes" in place of references showing only the bare minimum name of the resource and/or author -- the reader is forced to take it like a novel instead of something historically significant.
   
   The only area that I found to include details not readily available from other common sources, was the intimate conversational "quotes" that occured during the private Geneva negotiations. However, due to the above mentioned lack of attribution, who really knows..... Morgan attributes the research to his wife. She did an outstanding job and should have been credited as the author.

5 comments about I, Sniper: A Bob Lee Swagger Novel (Bob Lee Swagger Novels).

1. I had a hard time rating this item, I almost did not review it. I had read the first couple of Bob Lee Swagger books and I liked them okay, but I did not like them enough to keep going with the series. So I gave up. When this book came out, my brother-in-law told me it was great. I told him I had not kept up with the series and he said it did not matter, it can be a stand alone if you are not familiar with the other books, so I thought I would try again.
   Well, I'm sorry but this series is just not my cup of tea. It is so military, gun technical, I get kind of lost in the acronyms, is that the word? The initials, and guns and gun descriptions...I just can't get past it. So the story was decent but I think these books are for a particular audience, I love thrillers and spy novels, but just not these.I really struggled to get through it. If you are reading this review, and you like this particular genre, I would again like to stress my brother-in-law loved it, said it was one of Mr. Hunters best. I just was not sure how many stars to give it, since this is my review, not my brother-in-law's!



2. Stephen Hunter is an awesome writer, keeping the reader on the edge of their seat all the way through! Am adding this book to my large collection of his and other thrillers...



3. Four stars for the setup; six stars for the ending. I found the setup to be expertly done, but it is very technical and moves a tad slowly for my taste. The ending (which occupies approximately half of the book) is, on the other hand, one of the very best of all time. I don't say that lightly; the ending is really that good.
   
   The setup: a world-class sniper is killing 60's radicals with real world counterparts, among them, standins for Jane Fonda, William Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn. A perpetrator is found, but all evidence points to the fact that he was framed. Then, two world beaters are on the case--an FBI agent who also becomes framed in the course of the narrative and our old friend Bob Lee Swagger. Bob quickly deduces that the shootings masked the real purpose behind a specific set of killings and he also quickly deduces that the most likely perp (a dark string-puller behind the scenes) is a rich industrialist with the initials T.T. who was formerly married to the Jane Fonda standin.
   
   The conclusion: Bob confronts a set of blarney-talking, story-telling, waterboarding, sniping Irishmen and then goes for larger game--the person who has employed them. These confrontations involve spectacular headgames, con games and shootouts. They're violent and absolutely delicious. If you have a taste for vengeance and for justice triumphant, this is an absolute don't miss.
   
   The first half was a little slow and there was more information on rifles, cartridges, scopes, sighting equipment and sniper lore than I will need in a lifetime. The second half was transcendently entertaining. Bravo, Stephen. Bob Lee is back and he's very, very dangerous.



4. This was my first Bob Lee Swagger novel and I have to say that after reading this one I have no desire to read any others. The beginning is filled with technical gun talk, something I am not familiar with -- nor have any interest in -- that caused me to lose interest pretty quick. I persevered though nothing really happened until, literally, halfway through the book. The action was somewhat predictable and the ending laughably cheesy. I have rated this with three stars only because once the action finally started the book was hard to put down. For someone who enjoys the technical aspect of guns and is familiar with gun lingo this book would probably be more enjoyable but I was looking for a more straight-forward thriller and something less predictable.



5. Typical of the books featuring Robert E. Lee Swagger except that in this book Swagger is getting a lot older. The author includes a ridiculous shootout at the end because he seems to be overly fascinated by Westerns (he probably read too many Westerns in his youth).

5 comments about Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War.

1. "(Filling sandbags,) the small E-tool burned his blisters and sores. He watched the blood and pus from the jungle rot on his fingers and wrists smear in with the mud and rainwater. He paused occasionally to wipe his hands on his trousers, not even thinking that he had to sleep in them. Everything soon had the same greasy consistency anyway, mixing in with the urine that he couldn't quite cut off because he was so cold, the semen from his last wet dream, the cocoa he'd spilled the day before, the snot he rubbed off, the pus from his skin ulcers, the blood from the popped leaches, and the tears he wiped away so nobody would see that he was homesick." - A teenage Marine in the field, in MATTERHORN
   
   MATTERHORN is the phenomenal first-novel by Karl Marlantes about the experience of being a Marine infantryman in Vietnam. Even if you didn't know (from the book's back cover) that the author is a veteran of that conflict, you'd know from the very first page that he'd been there and experienced or witnessed all it had to offer: the mud, leeches, jungle rot, immersion foot, drenching rain, fog, mosquitoes, tigers, C-rations, dank hooches, weaponry, scout dogs, jungle marches, razor-sharp elephant grass, barbed wire, entrenchments, infantry assaults, mortar attacks, battlefield first-aid, perilous helicopter missions, racism, fraggings, exhaustion, supply failures, death of friends, horrific wounds, land mines, incompetent command leadership, ammunition shortages, dysentery, close-up and personal killing, terror, boredom, homesickness, short-timer sticks, and blood-lust. Also, the simple pleasures of a warm Coke or hot coffee on the front lines or a cold beer and cleansing shower in the relative relaxation of a rear staging area.
   
   The novel's hero is Second Lieutenant Waino Mellas, the boot commander of the First Platoon, Bravo Company, First Battalion, Twenty-Fourth Regiment, Fifth Marine Division. At the opening of the narrative, Bravo Company occupies Fire Support Base Matterhorn in the jungle highlands of northwest South Vietnam in the corner formed by the Demilitarized Zone and Laos.
   
   All of the combat action takes place on or around Matterhorn, a wretched hill of no inherent value except as a strategic position from which to engage and interdict the North Vietnamese Army. To battalion and regimental command, it's but a map coordinate. To the grunt Marines, it's a place where they're sent to die or be maimed.
   
   To Mellas, a Marine Reserve officer out of Princeton University, Matterhorn is the forge that will make him a combat leader. And, while he'll come to realize the futility of the conflict that was America's Vietnam imbroglio, he will also come to value the camaraderie, loyalty and true grit demonstrated by a group of young men - not much more than overgrown kids, really - in desperate circumstances far from home.
   
   Fiction writers can go their entire careers and not pen a novel as powerful as this debut work by Marlantes. At 566 pages, plus a 31-page Appendix that's a "Glossary of Weapons, Technical Terms, Slang, and Jargon", MATTERHORN was of intimidating size before I read the opening sentence. Before long, I resented having to put the book down. This is a tribute to the Vietnam veteran and the Marine Corps, and may be one of the most vivid and compelling literary renderings you'll read all year. And you will, or should, appreciate even more the young Americans in harm's way in the country's contemporary overseas conflicts.



2. This is a gritty tale from its beginning when a green 2nd Lieutenant gets his first assignment at a forward firebase not far from the DMZ. He has to work to earn the trust of seasoned veterans, deal with slackers, racial prejudices, jungle rot, and other challenges faced by marine officers on the ground during the Vietnam war. There are also glimpses into the politics of military hierarchies, and trying to work into and be accepted by that chain of command as an outsider (non-Naval Academy product).
   
   The story is written realistically, including a particularly unvarnished application of foul language, aspects of health, language, and military lingo.
   
   If you are a fan of military fiction, complete with a healthy dose of marine jargon and plenty of colorful language, then you'll probably like this Matterhorn.
   
   To be frank, the story lines were a bit too gritty and the language was too colorful for my tastes.
   
   3 stars.



3. Karl Marlantes' "Matterhorn" is destined to be a classic. This novel--Marlantes' first, which he spent 30 years writing--is not only a terrific piece of military writing, it's one of the best books (of any genre) I've ever read. "Matterhorn" is one of those rare books I actually hated to finish. The Matterhorn of this novel is a fictionalized hill just south of the DMZ in Vietnam and the story covers several months in the late 1960s in the midst of 22-year old Marine Lt Waino Mellas' 13-month tour and focuses primarily on the Platoon Mellas commands (as well as the larger Company and Battalion as a whole). Marlantes is a decorated Marine (Bronze Star, two Purple Hearts) and "Matterhorn" reads like a first-hand account of several harrowing months in the Vietnam jungle. It's riveting stuff and an incredibly fast and thoughtful read through 600+ pages.
   
   Lt Mellas' Company faces many daunting tasks in this novel to include the mountain jungle of central Vietnam, a determined foe in the NVA, the racial strife of the late 60s, monsoon rain, tigers, leeches, disease, trenchfoot, and all of this as teenagers or recent teens. Marlantes does a masterful job of describing the interactions between the officer corps and the enlisted troops. He also portrays the various motivations of each and the difficulty Mellas (and his fellow lieutenants) face in leading troops into battle based on orders they find dubious at best. Character development and interaction and the writing is terrific and Marlantes' description of the trials these Marines face is first-rate. "Matterhorn" easily rates on par with the best military fiction I have read (to include Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried", James Jones' "The Thin Red Line", or any of the war fiction Hemingway wrote). Very Highly Recommended and a must read for any fans of military writing.



4. This is an excellent story about the way it was a a grunt Marine during the Vietnam War. The descriptions of the terrible conditions, psychological pressures and the fear of what lies just ahead is just so different than today's War of Terrorism.
   
   Duplicitous senior officers commit the grunts to seemingly impossible tasks, yet the spirit of these Marines and their fear of getting one of their band of brothers killed because of their individual mistake or fears, cause them to continue on in the face of horrible devastation.
   
   This is the most realistic novel since James Webb's Fields of Fire. A great read that will keep you on the edge of your chair!



5. I found this novel nothing but rehashed drivel. Vietnam was a debacle of towering dimensions and this over simplifies it to the level of insult. I found it offensive.