One of those rare books that really gives the reader a feel for the mass confusion of combat and how the little things can win or lose a fight. Makes one wonder why the 196th didn't get more recognition for their performance--lot of good soldiers.

Humphries is extrememly qualified to document the day-to-day action in the Que Son and Hiep Duc valleys of northern I Corps. He has researched the official files to glean the fine details of the units involved in fierce action against the Viet Cong and NVA.

Adding to this scholarly research, Humphries has first hand accounts of the men that fought it out with a persistent and fierce enemy. Their stories tell of the cost that was paid in the effort to secure the South Vietnamese countryside.

A special treat is the numerous maps and sketches that show the movements of the opposing forces. Paired with the gripping descriptions of those who were there, THROUGH THE VALLEY fulfills the need for the truthful telling of the sacrifices made by American soldiers in this costly war.

Every soldier that fought in Vietnam should have his story told. Humphries helps complete this necessary effort. This book is a must read.

Candor and truth imbued with wonderfully woven metaphors tells a story yet tackled about the most critical years of the Vietnam war; 1967 and 1968. Well researched and documented by those who were there is the manner in which Colonel Humphries has preserved, immortality, a part of the Vietnam War that has long been forgotten.

Gut wrenchingly honest and soul penetratingly provocative this true story chronicles events validated by over 50 soldiers interviewed that were there with Captain Humphries about an intensely controlled territory of the formidable North Vietnamese Army. A soldier's story about soldiers; what they are confronted with and how they overcome it in combat. This important book addresses all battle field conditions from survival, to being captured to being wounded.

For me, a fellow soldier, the journey into the thought process of a battlefield commander at company level was mesmerizing, insightful and validating of the importance of good leadership at the working level. Humphries describes countless situations were the commander made the ultimate difference of life or death.

In his low key, metaphorically enriched writing style, Colonel Humphries unfolds the situation on the battlefield on both sides; enemy and friendly. He adds to that a smattering of thought processes and decision-making at all levels of command from Private to the Colonel and grippingly tells it, 'like it is'.

His unique approach of weaving survival in with accomplishing the mission captivates the reader. Closeness to his men and a few select officers dominate his leadership style. This is a lesson for senior commanders to think about their commands because the subordinate will execute the command with vigor. They have the fate of the men in their hands.

In the eye of the enemy Humphries battlefield tactics were calculated and dynamic allowing the company to accomplish the mission. From a ground pounder's view, the foot soldier is seen at his craft, surviving and charging ahead as directed.

There were no drugs or liquor or fooling around, probably because these fighting men had no time. Their concern was fighting for their very survival. There has been little written about this critical battle-ground. I submit for the same reason; there was no time.

Well done, Colonel Humphries, lets see more books with your witting descriptive story weaving. I'm sure there is more for you to tell the world about soldiers. Thanks for a job well done.

This book's focus on contemporary Vietnamese literary sources through the years makes it absolutely unique in the field. Its blend of straight history narrative and multiple-voice literature excerpts fleshes out Vietnamese society in a way that was sorely needed in the field. To those well-read in Asian studies: this book can almost be seen as a Vietnam analog to Patricia Ebrey's book "Chinese Civilization: A Sourcebook," which is a collection of contemporary Chinese sources through history.

The history is instructive and concise, with little excess prose. Jamieson writes in an eminently readable style, and focuses on the most interesting events in order to keep the reader from being bored. He does a pretty good job of giving both Northern and Southern Vietnamese viewpoints, although he does focus a little more than would be preferable on South Vietnam, especially in the later parts of the book. The twentieth century chapters do a better job than almost any book on the market in focusing on the Vietnamese, rather than on the multi-decade war in which they fought.

My only complaint is that the extended yin/yang analogy used to explain societal trends was not very helpful. On the whole, though, I'm really impressed.

I think this book is amazing! Jamieson accuately protrays Vietnam and Vietnamese culture through the eyes and views of the Vietnamese in a way never before written by a Westerner. He is articulate of the moods and feelings faceing the Vietnamese, well educated in the arts and literature of Vietnam, understands the importance to the core family structure, and scholarly in his research of what it means to be Vietnamese. I highly recommend this book if you want to understand the Vietnamese people who live in Vietnam, in the US, or anywhere...

This is a somewhat difficult book to understand, although it turns out to be a gem.

The author sets out to demonstrate that Vietnamese society, history, and culture from 1700 to 1990 revolve around the yin and yang system. While harmony derives from a balance between these two elements, an imbalance on the other hand results in revolution and war. The forces, which have been pulling the Vietnamese community apart since 1920, came to a head-on battle in 1945-50.

During the 1954-1975 war, the northern yang being stronger and more refined than the southern one led to a northern invasion and collapse of South Vietnam. The hegemony and repression of the north, however, caused a violent reaction of the southern yin during the post 1975 years: exodus of hundreds of thousands of boat people, and refusal of farmers to participate in the collectivization of the agriculture causing a decrease in productivity. Those who could not escape survived by peddling their belongings at flea markets, which over a period of time grew into a vibrant capitalistic system thanks in part to the money sent home by relatives abroad, especially in the U.S. A decade later, the southern economy rebounded while the northern counterpart floundered. This led to a reversal of the dogmatic northern policy and implementation of the "doi moi" policy in 1985.

The author also suggests that happiness and prosperity cannot come to Vietnam unless true freedom and basic human rights are respected.

The American Library Association has voted "Understanding Vietnam" the 1994 Outstanding Academic Book.

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.

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.

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.

I borrowed this book from our local library, thinking it was just any other book. When I read the book, I enjoyed reading the adventures. Later on, I was surprised to discover that all the adventures were true. People could learn a lot from this book, not only about where the author lives but lessons in life, as well. After I returned the book, I decided to read it again, and this time, I borrowed both of the author's books. I've really enjoyed these books and think that children would benefit from reading these books, too. I hope that the author writes some more books about his memories.

The author is the young child in this story. He described his relationship with two of the family buffaloes. One water buffalo name was Water Jug. The other buffalo's name was Tank. Water Jug died of old age. After Water Jug died Ngoung[the young child in the story]and his fater went looking for buffalo. The found a great young bull. Ngoung and the buffalo played alot. One day a war spread over their country. A bullet hit Tank and one hour after the war Tank died.

As an elementary school teacher who loves children's literature, I try to read all the Bluebonnet books every year. This was one of the best. I really learned about life in a Vietnamese village from the perspective of a young boy. Even without learning this background, the book is a great story for all children and adults who love animals.

I have never read a book that i could not put down,i bought this book yesterday 1/10/03 and just finished it now 1/11/03. My heart goes out to those American Soldiers who were in this battle and how brave and galently they fought,i had never heard of this battle until i saw the movie,i wanted to find out the facts as to what happened in the battle.This book told me everything down to the last detail.This is a book everyone should read to see what its really like in battle.That battle and bravery our soldiers will stay with me forever.

I recommend this honest and very straight forward book to all who care to know more about the Vietnam conflict. As a kid who was born in the 1960's, my appreciation of the soldiers who fought and gave their lives has been limited to the various movies and stories of the era.

The authors of this book have done an incredible job gathering information from their fellow soldiers (and in some cases those soldiers families) in order to convey and portray what can only be described as an incredibly poignant account of their experiences.

I know that this will be a story I will one day recommend that my own children read in an effort to improve their understanding of the sacrafices such brave people have made for the sake of our continued freedom.

I wasn't quite old enough to fight in Vietnam, but after reading this book and listening to this tape, it's as though I had been there. The book was absolutely gripping and the tape ... well ... for those of you who saw the recent movie, Joseph L. Galloway is the on-scene reporter. His rough, unpolished voice is PERFECT for this tape. It's Hal Moore's story recounted by the reporter who flew into battle with him. A priceless, classic combination. I've worn out the tape already ... time to reorder. (Hint: Make sure you get the Galloway edition. The CD has a slick Hollywood-type doing the narration. It's not the same.)

Xin Loi, Viet Nam: Memoir Of The War Over Viet Nam is the personal testimony of Al Sever, a Vietnam veteran who served thirty-one months as a crew member on various military helicopters during the Viet Nam conflict. Absolute, graphic, unvarnished truth of what it was like to survive day by day in a war-torn land far away from home fills the pages of this gut-wrenching, honest, and open account. Xin Loi, Viet Nam is a very highly recommended addition to the growing library of Viet Nam War era personal memoirs, participant biographies, and military histories.

Anyone who fought in Vietnam will love this book, anyone who didn't (which has to be the vast majority of us alive today) NEEDS to read this first hand account of a soldier's day to day life in country.

Speaking of a childhood friend who lost his legs after only eight days there, Sever writes of those sent home early, "Their war was finished quickly and while their bodies were torn, their souls had not been scarred. They had missed the day after day mind numbing fear and brutality of guerrilla warfare that worked as a dull rasp to slowly wear away frivilous civilian emotions and fraudulent morals until nothing was left but harsh truth....Only new guys wondered why so many guys smiled during a firefight."

Xin Loi Vietnam is a riveting, first-hand account of a war we never committed to and the terrible toll that took on the guys who served in it.

Al Sever's Xin Loi Vietnam is a book you won't put down. It has the ring of truth and the sting of reality.

For those of us who have experienced conflict with an opposing force. You know how hard it is to relate that experience to someone who wasn't there. So, you just keep your past to yourself. After all it was a long time ago, and no one really cares anyway.
Besides, most of the best war stories have already been told by people who weren't even there. They all seem to remember the gorey details of ambushes and attacks, and they all will admit to being scared, and how they survived by the grace of god and a fighting spirit they didn't know they possessed. These heroes can still smell the odor of burning flesh and remember with graphic detail the missing body parts of their best friends. What they can not ever seem to remember; was the unit they were assigned to, or the fire support base they lived in, let alone what Corps area they were fighting in.

Al Severs book Xin Loi, Viet Nam gives all those "wanna bees" a true and graphic experience of what it was really like in a real unit, with real people, at real places during his tours in Viet Nam.
And for all the real people out there who want to read how somebody else did the same things you did. You'll find this book very moving as you will identify with every page in the book. The author didn't invent the tactics but he relays them through words in a clear and familiar way that you will identify with and remember.
If you weren't there, then this is the last book you will ever have to read about relationships, thoughts and feelings from somebody who has experienced daily combat for much longer than he had to, but not long enough to quell the pure excitement of yearning for one more mission with a team that did not understand the meaning of quit.

Bob Brandt did a masterful job of saving, sorting and presenting data as well as remembering so many facts that most of us have long since forgotten.

The book is a keeper, and supports the efforts and brave acts of the many unsung participants at the outset of this strange venture of our country into a truly foreign land.

It is quite evident that Gen Brandt did considerable research into the events that took place during that time period. Some people might question the facts as presented about some of the operations or events, however, I think the book speaks for itself. The author did an outstanding job depicting how the Company functioned in that environment and how the officers and enlisted men endured the stress and strain of life away from home and family. The humorous side depicted in the book is probly as accurate as can be remembered and certainly contributed to the over all high moral of the organization. The book is well written and a pleasure to read.

As one of the men that is very proud and honored to have been mentioned in Thunderbird Lounge, I am absolutely amazed at General Brandt's accuracy and detail. His sentimental chronicle of our personal experiences with the 33rd transportation Company is inspiring and emotional. Moreover, I am sure that this work will be intrinsic to future scholars who realize the historical significance of this unit with respect to both the Vietnam War and Army Aviation, and recognize the value of General Brandt's personal accounts. The scope of General Brandt's work is such that I am completely satisfied that the mission that we accomplished and the sacrifices we made are fully appreciated and realistically portrayed. He has told the story of real men at the beginning of a savage war with the compassion and thoughtfulness of one who was there.

I came across this book, in a stand of penny-novels, in a 24/7 convenience shop, sometime round-about 1990.

It impressed me deeply.

Like Spencer, I am a Catholic.

Reviewers elsewhere have said that it should be required reading for junior officers.

I think that it should be mandatory reading for popes, cardinals,bishops and all of the rest of the catholic corporate executives - who stayed home, who avoided the reality of it all.

The wrong catholics got sent to see and experience the horror and the evil, - and to understand how they'd been betrayed by the sky-pilots.

These things should have been experienced by those at the very top of the Church heirarchy; not just those at the very bottom.

Spencer makes it quite clear that this betrayal is what has driven him to write a book, to share his experience, to try to educate those who saw nothing of it, and who simply dismiss what one tries to say - and who just roll along to church on Sunday as if it all never happened.

As if no women and kids were ever napalmed , no soldier ever had his body blown apart - or, if they did happen to be, then that had nothing whatsoever to do with rolling along to church on Sunday.

Ernie Spencer is one of the best Company Commanders the USMC has had. Macho Man is a trip through the worst of the war in Vietnam conucted by an a fine writer who is able to capture the ordinary life of a grunt, combat and the tensions that war places on young men. This no self congratulatory memoir. This comes from the heart. A ride with the "Macho Man" is a unique and penetrating experience.

For every individual boomer who always wondered what it would have been like over there, read this book. It will take you step by step as if you, yourself were there. It is fascinating and well written. In fact, I don't believe I've read books in fractions that cover every facet of what happened to the 26th Marines MEU. What their thoughts were, how they felt, and how isolated we really were.

Forget the high-budget, action-packed, grenade-fuelled war movies.

If you want to really know what the Vietnam War was like, you need to get hold of a copy of Jack Stoddard's 'What are they going to do? Send me to Vietnam?'

Stoddard arrived in 'the 'Nam' in 1968, a 22-year-old career soldier in his first war role.

Thirty years later he was impelled to write this book after his young son asked him what the war was really like.

Stoddard took on a difficult task - how can you relate the fear, the courage, the comradeship, the desperate times, the deaths in mere words?

But Stoddard completes his task admirably.

What's so refreshing about 'What are they going to do? Send me to Vietnam?' is the fact it makes no judgements. There's no political wrangling, no debate over the rights and wrongs of the war.

This is a soldier's tale - straight from the horse's mouth.

Written in a pleasant and easy style, this book takes us through Stoddard's life in the 'Nam.

From his first day as a tanker when he was attacked by vicious jungle vines, to his life as a special combat soldier - entering dangerous areas to 'sniff out' the enemy.

He talks about his own personal battles - from the humorous incident when he suffers from haemorrhoids to the heart-wrenching descriptions of the death of close friends.

He chats about his fellow soldiers - and the camaraderie and genuine love that built up around them in the most inhospitable of conditions.

And he talks of the effect the war had on his life. How thirty years later he was drawn to the grave of dead friend, how he talked to the families of soldiers who were killed in combat, and how he misses the friendships and purpose a war situation brings.

It seems wrong to call this an entertaining book - but it is.

At times it's hard to believe what you are reading is fact, not fiction.

I also found it a hard book to put down. It's more a collection of stories than a formulated record but even so, Stoddard possesses a rare gift, in that he draws the reader in and won't let them go.

It's obvious he wrote this book as a kind of 'letting go' of his own memories - a burial of the past - but this is not a criticism, it merely makes the book even more readable.

Finally a book that tells about the war without some overblown heroics. The story of one man and the close bonds that form with the people you relie on to survive. The days of boredom interrupted by moments of hell.

All Vietnam Veterans experienced the same war, but from a different perspective. Here is what I am talking about. As a helicopter pilot, I remember watching the Grunts and Tankers on the ground sitting on their tracks and thinking, "God!, am I glad I don't have to live like those poor bastards with all the dust, mud, bugs, heat and mines on the ground looking for the VC and Charlie." Little did I suspect that the Grunts and Tankers on the ground were saying, "God, I'm glad I am not one of those poor bastards who flys one of those frail little choppers, and have my as shot off by the VC as I fly around exposed in the sky!" You see what I mean? Perspective is very important.

So, do yourself a favor, whether you are a veteran or not. Pick up Jack Stoddard's book and read it. You will find easy reading with compact and colorfully graphic short stories which will amaze you. And, the stories will remind you that war, especially the unpopular Vietnam War, was fought by real men, just like you.