As an Anthropology student at the Australian National University, Taylor spent two years in South Vietnam (92-94), then returned to this country in 95, 98, and 99. Faced with a unique southern identity, he decided to define the "idea of the South".

North and South Vietnam despite decades of postwar communist control are two completely different countries from the political, social, economical, and even musical aspects. In the first decade after the 1975 fall of Saigon, the communists controlled everything down to the toothpaste the Vietnamese used. Faced with poverty and income loss, southerners began to peddle their cherished belongings to the black market in order to survive. While goods in state stores were scarce, everything was available on the black market. Goods and money sent home from overseas Vietnamese swelled this illicit economy. As a result, the southern economy rebounded. A southern reformist, Nguyen Van Linh spearheaded the doi moi (renovation) policy officially moving the country to free market economy. The "modern" South thus replaced the "backward" North.

This unique southern free enterprise spirit did not sit well with Hanoi, which did everything to undermine it and ironically to profit from it at the same time. "Corruption, abuses of power, and administrative incompetence" became the hallmarks of communist Vietnam. However, the free southern spirit traced back to the pionering spirit of the South Vietnamese who settled in the Mekong delta some four centuries ago, lives on. If Saigon lost the war in 1975, it won the peace a decade later. Despite acknowledging past "errors", the communists still refused to release their grip on power.

The author is to be congratulated for his most interesting study and his keen observations of the South Vietnamese mind.

While many Americans have their opinions about the Vietnam War, few have taken the time to examine the forces at play in this event as thoroughly and insightfully as Professor Lomperis has in this book. The true genius of "From People's War to People's Rule" lies in his exploration of the war, not as a single isolated chapter in American history, but as a link in an ongoing chain of insurgencies that plagued the tumultuous political terrain of the Cold War. By looking at revolutions and other Cold War insurrections in countries such as China, Greece and Peru, Dr. Lomperis sheds a clear, luminous ray of light on the poltical forces at play, not only in Vietnam, but in the world that surrounded Vietnam. Amidst a sea of confused and conflicting views about Vietnam, this book offers what most Americans can barely imagine - a clear, comprehensive view of a tenuous time that manages to strike a chord of truth among a mass of misinformation. For anyone interested in sorting out the lessons of Vietnam, this book is a must-read.

This is a very good read for military historians, and anyone interested in the history of guerrilla warfare. It is also a very good read for anyone interested in El Salvador and Latin America.

Just as _Death Ground_ brings _On Infantry_ to the present so _Getting It Right_ brings _The American Way of War_ to the present. It covers the 3 secrets of successful armies: practice, practice, practice and how the US Military did it, mainly the Army.

BT SUBJ: REVIEW If this is the book of G.I.'s in WW2, commenting on their episodes of European/Sino warfare, then this is a book to be read to children over the age of 15. For greater impact, (Vet's of WWII), give this to your children's children as a "going away gift" pre-post-humously It's a common user language and expletives are soundly felt as a human-beings reading the rites of a "'last man- of a lost unit", behind enemy lines", signal... I can't go on, but I desire to read the book, "G.I. Diary", once more, so I won't have to launch some kids into another war... Thanks for the opportunity to write my review this review.

BT

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Wood is an impressively written novel that vividly evokes a fictional yet highly realistic memory of a Marine who served in combat in Vietnan. Offer the reader a compellingly dark, gritty, no-holds-barred view of a truly hellish war, and the toll it took on human life and decency, Goodbye Vietnam belongs on the shelf along side such seminal and memorable works at Joseph L. Heller's "Catch 22" and Norman Mailer's "The Naked and the Dead".

I am surprised no one else has written a review of this book. It is an excellent book, used in many school districts as multicultural, narrative literature. THis book can be teamed with Sadako and/or the Magic Crane to show examples of the belief that cranes bring good luck. It can even be tied in with an origami lesson on folding paper cranes.

This is the seminal (perhaps the only) historical work dealing with the experience of NZ soldiers in Viet Nam. Dr. Deborah Challinor, an historian and sometime lecturer at the University of Waikato in New Zealand, knows her subject and writes fluently. Based upon hours of interviews with veterans, the book does an excellent job of covering the topic.

Interesting to the US viewer is the consensus among the NZ veterans that emerges from the interviews: the US soldiers were great guys, but poorly equipped (by training and life experience) to deal with jungle combat. Reasons? Many were conscripts, and many were city men completely unable to deal with the realities of the Viet Nam environment. The Australians, while not considered nearly as agreeable as the Americans, were predominantly professional soldiers, and so their training and backgrounds had better prepared them for the environment.

This book was actually on the NZ bestseller list for a time. However, its print run was minuscule by American standards, due to New Zealand's small population (approximately 4 million). It deserves a reprint, as scholars of the Viet Nam war will find it invaluable.

One of the least known aspects of the Vietnam War was the National Liberation Front's foreign policy during its struggle against the American and South Vietnamese governments during the Vietnam War (1960-1975). Now, Bob Brigham has remedied this deficiency with his cogent, well-crafted volume detailing the NLF's careful dance between the world's major powers as they struggled for independence. Bob Brigham, one of the lst American scholars to effectively utilize Vietnamese sources in Hanoi, presents a full and convincing picture of how the NLF skillfully crafted an approach to world opinion that won them support and aid during the war. One of the best new works on the war and really fills a void for those of us who teach.

The concept that the Gulf War never occured is preposterous. I was an Attlerry Scout with F/2/2 USMC and can personally vouch for the following facts: A) the conflict happened and was contested. B)There were instagators imported from less Arabic countries to punish the local citizens. My service in SouthWestAsia was one of the most fulfilling experiences in my life.