This novel recounts a few days of riverine operations by an infantry brigade of the "Lionheads" division in Vietnam -- and the dilemmas confronting its leaders when they are ordered to execute an operation they apprehend will needlessly cost lives. Written in 1972 by then-Major Josiah Bunting (a Rhodes Scholar who is now the superintendent of the Virginia Military Institute), this novel's narrative line and style have a fidelity and closeness to the time unmatched by later Vietnam war novels. The brilliant opening chapter -- portraying a division briefing to a gathering of lords, knights, and attendants -- is worth the price of the book. "The Lionheads" regularly appears on reading lists for armed forces officers deliberating the ethics of leadership. Anyone studying the Vietnam war may profitably compare this book, with its strong moral viewpoint, to the portrayals and judgments about the war in other fiction and non-fiction accounts of the war

I really enjoyed this cookbook. The recipes taste very authentic and are easy enough to prepare for the home cook. Have you ever sat down with a friend in her kitchen and copied down a family recipe off of a well worn index card or watched as a relative chopped and stirred while you made a mental note of the ingredients and preparation method so you could repeat it and pass down the recipe to your family? The recipes in this cookbook are those kinds of recipes - I really feel like I got a chance to peek into (and copy) Mrs. Tran's personal recipe box. If you enjoy "community cookbook" style recipes - ones that are actually used in homes as opposed to restaurants, then you will probably also enjoy this cookbook. There are no pictures, but I do not think that is a drawback. The recipes are homey, delicious, and less daunting than those often found in a more typical cookbook.

This book offers a great perspective on how Robert McNamara's decisions affected the lives of five ordinary people who consequently find themselves in unordinary situations. I think these stories, in conjunction with other historical texts, masterfully articulate some of the features of the clouded tapestry that we call Vietnam.

This complete and heavily illustrated account of the military development of the role of long range soldiers,equipment and tactics was the best I have seen on this subject. The review of the efforts and trials of various hardware items and the reported outcome from the field were included. Nearly every variant of gun, scope and night vision device was detailed in selection, trials, users choices in which worked best. The exhaustive review of telescopic sights and mounts was highly appreciated. Anyone reading this book will have a high appreciation for those involved in the sniping sciences and arts during the war.

This is the best and only book about Vietnam War movies written while the war was still going on (i.e., before Apocalypse Now, Rambo II, etc.) As such, it is a unique view of how we Americans actually saw the war at the time, without the benefit of 20/20 hindsight. More importantly, this book is a lot of fun to read, thanks to the author's unique sense of humor.

This new book on the American-Vietnam War, writes Robert J. Topmiller, "contains few American heroes but focuses instead on the enormous sacrifices of Vietnamese Buddhists to halt the conflict." In the end, the conflict caused 58,000 American and 3 million South and North Vietnamese deaths.

"The Lotus Unleashed: The Buddhist Peace Movement in South Vietnam, 1964-1966" marks the culmination of one historian's decade-long endeavor to tell the story of America's longest war from the perspective of those South Vietnamese Buddhists "who risked everything for peace." The author, an alumnus of Central Washington University, is a Vietnam War veteran and a history professor at Eastern Kentucky University.

Topmiller asserts that America's defeat in Vietnam ultimately resulted from the illegitimacy and unpopularity of successive South Vietnamese governments, which aside from being dictatorial were dependent on and subservient to a warring foreign power, the United States. Above all, he writes, most South Vietnamese wanted peace and independence.

Examination of the Buddhist Peace Movement, Topmiller argues, typifies both "the ambiguity felt by Vietnamese over the American [Cold War] crusade" and "America's frustration over its inability to influence events in South Vietnam." The Buddhists, who hoped to establish peace and democracy and to eradicate poverty and injustice, represented the most significant non-communist group that challenged the South Vietnamese government.

The Buddhist Movement's first defining moment came in June 1963 when an elderly monk protested his government's religious persecution by setting himself on fire. Photographs of the self-immolation and the government's repression of Buddhist protesters galvanized American and world opinion against South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem, who was assassinated in a November coup.

As Topmiller emphasizes, the toppling of Diem did not work in favor of the Buddhists' drive for peace and nationalism. Instead, it created a political power vacuum filled by South Vietnamese generals, who permitted increased American intervention and an expansion of the war against communist North Vietnam. Washington secretly opposed the Buddhist objective of a populist government because it risked instability and possible cooperation with local communists, and at best, such a course would lead to a "neutralist" approach to the Cold War.

The United States found it increasingly difficult to maintain stability in South Vietnam, a country plagued by interest group factionalism and regional divisions.

Topmiller illustrates this vividly by reconstructing the 1966 Buddhist Crisis in Danang, where U.S. Marines attempted to prevent fighting between their military ally, the South Vietnamese Marines and Air Force, and Buddhist and student protesters, who were aided by dissident South Vietnamese army units. At one point, South Vietnamese fighter planes "accidentally" strafed and injured eight U.S. marines in Danang. A livid U.S. Marine general ordered American fighters to fly over the Vietnamese planes to forestall further strafing. Upset with this adverse action, the South Vietnamese launched additional planes to fly over the American jets. This retaliation only caused more U.S. planes to take to the air. Finally, "after more stern warnings" from the Americans, the Vietnamese Air Force "backed down."

Nevertheless, by the end of 1966, the U.S-backed government in South Vietnam forcefully subjugated the Buddhist Peace Movement. Topmiller suggests that the Buddhist Crisis may have represented a missed of opportunity for peace and a chance for the United States to avoid a humiliating and tragic defeat.

His well-written narrative and nuanced understanding of South Vietnamese and American motives and actions are the result of painstaking research in the United States and Vietnam, including interviews and correspondence with key actors.

With the United States at war in the Middle East, Topmiller's book serves to remind us of the challenges and pitfalls of American involvement in far-flung conflicts.

After having read nearly fifteen first person accounts of the particular hell that was Vietnam, Mr. Clodfelter's personal account resonates with a rare combination of humanity and machismo. The author's laconic recountings of the horrors he witnessed, described in a style reminiscent of Poe, mix humor with the raw trauma of soldiers exploded, maimed, while infusing his dire tale with the conscience of one who observes men reduced to the desperate behaviors resulting from post-traumatic stress disorder. Mr. Clodfelter's experience of war is a riveting account of the fears generated by nighttime combat, fusillades of AK-47 automatic weapons fire, the yammering cacaphony of LMGs blistering the air, unseen booby traps made from artillery rounds, and the extreme physical privations of immersion foot, jungle rot, dysentery, dehydration, scorpions, fire ants, spiders, eight inch biting centipedes, rats the size of cats, poisonous snakes, mosquito bites, malaria, leeches, elephant grass, to name but a few of the natural dangers the infantryman faced for thirteen months. Mr. Clodfelter's tale of betrayed ideals proceeds inexorably from the patriotic spirit of his youth to his ultimate disillusionment with the debacle which claimed 58,000 men. His writing style is exciting, weaving powerful metaphors into his tale that resemble an Edgar Allen Poe literary flourish. Mad Minutes And Vietnam Months is one of the most powerful books about the Vietnam War that I have read, and I recommend it with the highest accolade.

I don't know if Jeffrey Record had the then-impending, now underway, war against Iraq in mind when he wrote this important book, but I don't think he could have made this any more timely if he had. From politicians to talk radio, the metaphors of "appeasement" and "avoiding another Vietnam" loom large in the debate over Iraq. I would suggest that this title be made required reading for anyone who dares send those metaphors into battle.

Record argues that Munich and Vietnam have been the dominant historical memes in White Houses deciding whether or not to employ American power around the world. For better or worse, what various Presidents and their advisors have taken to be "the lessons of Munich" and/or "the lessons of Vietnam" have been important, sometimes deciding, factors. Not surprisingly, Record finds that those "lessons" have often been misinterpreted and mis-applied by our political leaders, many times with serious consequences.

While this book is especially useful for anyone in, or who fancies themselves someday being in, a position of political influence, Record's work is also valuable reading for the rest of us. That's because he also analyzes how those same historical memes have been used by Presidents and their spokesmen to justify particular courses of action to the American people. It's important that we be able to recognize when that's being done, and equipped to decide whether the metaphor is valid. This title is a very useful tool in that process.

Duff Cooper, a British politician and contemporary of Winston Churchill, once wrote that one of the problems with democracy is that too few democratic leaders read history. The corollary of that, Record might argue, is that even the ones who have read history are apt to misinterpret it, or color their interpretations to justify actions they have already decided are desirable. An attractive metaphor can exert powerful force on decision-makers. Few things are more seductive ... or potentially more dangerous. Jeffrey Record is to be commended for helping the reader see though the seductiveness and apply the cold light of logical thought.

This book provides an excellent (if not definitive) look at Maoist Insurgency since Vietnam, including the insurgencies in Peru (Shining Path), Sri Lanka (LTTE), and others. It is likely of the most value to scholars and academics, however any serious student of insurgency and guerrilla warfare would benefit from it.

There is no better history of a sniper account ever wrote. The man did everything but invent the art of sniping. The man has done more for the Marine Corps sniper school and in turn for the Army than anyone. This book is an account of the history of the greatest sniper ever. It takes you through every hunt, stalk, and kill with such detail it makes you feel as though you are laying next to him as his spotter. The book goes over how the sniper rifles for Vietnam came about, and also the things that became basic sniper training that he invented out in the field. It takes you over some of his most famous hunts and shots and finishes with his grand final hunt days before he was due to leave Vietnam. It goes over some accounts of some of the famous NVA snipers that were in the same field as he was, just not as lucky to return home. Once you pick up the book you will not want to put it down as your interest grows in the book, just as the price on his head grew in Vietnam by the NVA. The only disappointment of the whole book is the end, and the fact that you run out of book to read about this great man. The man is a hero, and should have won the Medal of Honor for the amount of lives he saved with his "93 confirmed kills".