This book was definately emotional and insightful. It's not one of a kind, but it comes with my reccomendation. It's full of great primary sources to get you inside the minds of the past.

'At (Mary Susannah Robbins') 25th class reunion at Harvard she attended a symposium, "Vietnam: The Choices We Made." After the event, she recalls, "In Harvard Square it seemed that the sidewalk was glass, that below lay the rubble of the Vietnam War on which American society was built, and that no one was looking down... So I would look down, I would not deny it any longer: I would look at the war and the antiwar movement, so inextricable."
Robbins assembled essays from 24 writers -- 19 men, five women... The authors include some of the best known opponents of the war -- Eugene McCarthy, Joan Baez, Daniel Berrigan, Howard Zinn, Martin Luther King Jr.-- and some of the less known....'
Colman McCarthy, The Washington Post

There is no other book quite like this one and its importance has only grown over the years. We need to listen to these voices for they mirror a huge number of American lives. One is grateful to have this sorrowful and wonderful record.
Gloria Emerson

This is not so much a novel as a script for the best action movie of the year! Mr. Houston, although obviously not a trained writer, has accomplished that rarest of feats, a memoir that captures the undivided attention of anyone who picks it up. The lack of formal writing experience is actually one of the most intriguing aspects of the book, which has multiple sub-plots simply due to the nature of a "stream-of-consciousness" work of this type. The military minutaie will fascinate any vet and contrasts so greatly with the innocence of his thoughts of first romance that the reader honestly feels he has stepped directly into the author's shoes, with all the hopes and fears of the situation he has found himself in as real to the reader as the printed word allows. I have passed my copy on to fellow vets, old hippies, soccer moms and my own adolescent children, all of which have reported being overwhelmed by the sense of "being there". Although a good editor could have polished a few rough spots in the narrative this once again is actually a reinforcement of the feeling of reality the book imparts. I fully recommend this book as a tour-de-force memoir and a must-have for any thorough collection of modern military history.

What a wonderfully articulated story this was. Gonzo meticulously paints the mental picture so we can all see the Vietnamese countryside w/high detail. You feel you're a part of the action & sharing in the camaraderie. Well done, McKilla Gorilla! I gotta try some of that armpit sauce!

Greetings. As the author of Anonymous: Honor Denied, I would like to take this time to thank you, the reader, first for taking the time to view my work. This work represents the deep, ingrained honor and respesct I have for all the military personel over the decades that have fought to keep our nation the best in the world. It is written from deep within me, and I hope that it shares what goes through an individual's mind while being thrust into any horrific event. Enjoy and thank you again. Sincerely, R. "Gonzo" Houston

I thought this was going to be a good book about Vietnam, but, now that I've read it, I can see that my hopes were too high. Did you ever read the beginning of a book and think to yourself, "it'll get going here shortly..."? Usually, when I feel that way, I read a respectable portion of the book and then decide whether to finish it or drop it. With this book, since it was so short, I finished it, but never stopped wondering when it would get going.

I think the author needed to either write a longer book and better develop the characters and story or pare his effort down to a smaller focus on maybe one character. As it is, he produced a not very well developed story populated by not very well developed characters. A formula for a forgettable book, in my opinion. I've read a number of excellent books about Vietnam, but I can't say I'd rate this as one of them. I really can't recommend it.

I was there (Ft. Dix Basic Trainee, 9/66-11/66) and Vietnam service (6/68-6/69). This is an excellent, well-written grunt's eye (i.e. worm's eye) of the American Army that fought in Vietnam, who they were, how they did (superbly), and how they fared afterward. A gem.

Had it not been for an English professor who gave me a battered old 1967 copy of this book, I might never have otherwise heard of it. At the time, it was out of print. I am very happy to see that it is back in print, for it belongs on the shelf with all the other great Vietnam War classics, like _Dispatches_, _A Rumor of War_, _Going After Cacciato_, etc. But whereas those books were published during the late 1970s, and look back at the war through the prism of the American "defeat," _M_ is one of the few good Vietnam books actually written during the war--and early in the war, too (before Tet). Stylistically, the book is in the vein of the non-fiction novel of Capote, Mailer, etc. and probably influenced Herr's writing of _Dispatches_. Sack used the real names of real soldiers in an infantry company called "Mike" (phonetic for "M")--see T. Chorba's review! He followed the company from basic training and AIT at Ft. Dix to its overseas tour in Vietnam.

Reviewers classify this as "reportage" but Sack's writing is rife with the kind of irony, wit, and irreverent humor you'd never find in conventional journalism. Sack pokes fun at army pedagogy, training films, windbag chaplains, inspections, and the ridiculously simplistic anticommunist propaganda of Vietnam era. On a more serious note, _M_ also deals with atrocities by U.S. troops at least a year before Seymour Hersh and the revelation of My Lai, and Sack's prescience regarding the issues and questions that such atrocities would raise in public discourse later on is truly remarkable.

This is "literary" and stylistically interesting writing about the Vietnam War. Essential reading for students of literature on the war, or even for anyone who's ever been in the army and gone through basic training.

One will be able to peruse this work in an hour or so. Gives good working knowledge of Vietnamese ettiquette and mind-set. Great to have on hand as a reminder of what Vietnamese clients or students will expect from you. Generally accurate. Made me long for the days that I was fortunate enough to teach English to the Vietnamese.

This is a quick, easy read for anyone who wants an introduction to Vietnamese culture, particularly business culture. The clip art in the book looks cheap and the authors could have used tone marks in the Vietnamese vocabulary section. (Vietnamese is a tonal language and using different tones changes the meaning of words.) But, overall it is a useful book for anyone planning a personal or business trip to Vietnam.

This is one of the two books I read in preparing for a 3 week stay in Vietnam. The content was right on the mark, and helpful for even this non-business traveler.

A nice novel that revolves around the history of Vietnam from 1925 to 1975. Anthony Grey spins a nice story that is hard to put down. His books have been quite popular in Asia with "Peking" being another one of his fine works. It's a shame his books haven't received as much attention as James Clavell's. A very enjoyable book that I need to re-read as it's now been years since I last read it. Hopefully, a movie director will find a way to put this on the big screen in the future.

Grey's tale of love and betrayal in Indochina is one of the best books I have read in a long time. It's almost seven years since I read it for the first time, but I still remember being transfixed by the atmosphere in this epic tale.

Saigon begins in the French colonial days of the early 1900s and explores the often cruel relationship between imperial master and servant. There then begins the rebellion and the central love affair between the Vietnamese and Americans that moves in parallel throughout the book until the French are expelled and then when the last American chopper lifts off for freedom. Grey's descripton of the final moments and the fight to board is breathtaking.

What makes this a truly memorable read is Grey's ability to carry a complex theme with a such light touch. Never do you feel bored or weary. Five Stars.

Historical fiction at its best. Grey presents Vietnams complex history and people simply and effectively. His work provides the reader with thorough knowledge of a land whose history is complex, passionate & explosive. His characters bring Vietnam alive through their intense feelings of anger, oppression, desire and tenacity. This book has love, hate, greed, betrayal, gluttony, violence...and will leave its reader with a deeper understanding of country whose spirit continues to reach far beyond its remote borders.

This is a somewhat tedious book that does not really break any new ground in its descripion of people's experiences with the events surrounding the fall of South Vietnam. The tediousness in the book comes from the fact that there is so much similarity in the experiences related: South Vietnam was worth fighting for, America let us down, it was hard to get out of Saigon, Thai pirates preyed on boat people, Americans who'd shed sweat or blood in Vietnam were terribly disappointed with how things turned out, etc. I would have appreciated some more diversity in people's experience (as Studs Terkel did in "The Good War" where we read not only about 18 year old combat soldiers, but also WW II draft dodgers, etc.). I also found myself getting weary of reading that America let the South Vietnamese down. ...

I've read a fair amount about Vietnam (Fire In the Lake, Karnow's Vietnam, Chickenhawk, etc.), all definitely worth reading, but this book ... the many stories and experiences, is the most memorable. It's rare to find a singular event remembered and retold from so many different perspectives. Well balanced and presented.

I shed many tears while reading this beautifully written collection of stories about the fall of Saigon. They are stories of tragedy inflicted by human beings upon each other. They are stories of human spirits surviving, triumphing over the most horrible situations. You will never be able to forget the people, the stories once you read the book. I highly recommend it.

If you're looking for a Vietnam War novel, but you don't want to wade in too deep, this is perfect lightweight fare. Think of it as a cross between Tom Clancy and Graham Greene (see Orrin's review of The Quiet American)--with the civil servant as superhero trying to navigate a moral cesspool. Bradley Lawrence Marshall is the blue blood, war hero, diplomat who is sent to Vietnam as the personal emissary of President Johnson, to find a way out. In country, he meets with real figures like General Westmoreland, who tries to convince him everything is copacetic. But he also meets folks like: his driver, Corporal Mead, a decent though violent American lad of ambiguous sexuality, who is sick of the war; Lacouture, a flamboyant, Guy Burgess-like, Frenchman who sells information to all sides and loves Mead; and the insidious CIA station chief, Wilson Abbot Lord, who lives to fight the Communists and, fearing that Marshall will end the war, plots to kill him. And it's all set against the backdrop of the Tet Offensive.

The whole premise, of Johnson and a bureaucrat secretly planning an exit strategy, doesn't withstand much scrutiny and the stereotypes and clichés run rampant. But taken on its own terms, as a sort of politico-military potboiler with only mild pretensions of addressing issues in any serious way, it succeeds pretty well. It's certainly a more diverting read than many of the more critically acclaimed novels of the war.

QUICK! Somebody grab Oliver Stone!! This book is the literary equivalent to Stone's Platoon, and on many levels superior! The characters are vivid. The scenery makes you feel like you're actually there, and the situations aren't so far fetched to make you doubt their plausibility. Peterson's biggest asset is his characterization. When a character is killed, you actually feel sorry for him. When two main characters are married, you feel tears of joy running down your face. The visualness makes you feel the action is unraveling on a big screen in front of you! Mr. Stone (or anybody in Hollywood, for that matter) had better hurry. I can see the film adaptation of this book becoming just as big a blockbuster as the book was a best seller!

A powerful, moving (and fast-moving) drama of the Vietnam War with well-drawn and motivated characters,a compelling historical context, and the pace of a thriller. Much more like War & Remembrance (Wouk) or Armageddon (Uris) than like the typical Vietnam War novel. I highly recommend it.

Adkins brings out the strenghts and weaknesses of our military at that time and shows how this, but for the bravery of the rangers , could have been a catastrophe. One glaring error, on p284 the casualties listed on the calivigny raid are improper.Slater and Lannon are correctly named however the third casualty was not Sebastian Greiner but Philip S. Grenier. I can assure you of this since I am his father. Sure wish I could correct the error or at least contact the Publisher or author. Mr. Jean A. Grenier

"We blew them away," a senior White House advisor remarked regarding the overwhelming success of the invasion of Grenada in late 1983. For the first time in history, a democratic nation had crushed a Marxist regime-and did so with few casualties. To the untrained eye, it seemed that the U.S. military had operated flawlessly in defeating the communists in Grenada. However, the British Major Mark Adkin, Commanding Officer of the Caribbean Peace-keeping Force (CPF), contests that theory and counters in his book Urgent Fury that the U.S. armed forces came extremely close to a major political defeat. Adkin asserts that American forces were never in jeopardy of losing the battle for Grenada. However, he believes that the U.S. military command had committed major flaws in the planning and carrying out of Operation Urgent Fury. These leaders narrowly escaped insurmountable American deaths through luck and through the battlefield intuition of lower grade officers.
Adkin's main assertion is that the invasion of Grenada was not the staunching success that the military and the Reagan Administration heralded. Adkin draws out several major accounts of compromised military objectives and traces all of these back to poor planning on a senior officer's part. From the initial invasion on October 25 to the "all-clear" in December, the military units involved were sent out on poorly planned and uncoordinated missions that nearly cost America numerous casualties. Fortunately the U.S. had on its side overwhelming superiority and availability of American fire support to bail out our forces from near defeat.
The invasion of Grenada was divided into two major sections. The first was the U.S. Marine landing in the northern division of the island. The second assault was in the southern portion of the island and was composed of elements from the Navy SEALS, U.S. Army Rangers, Delta Force, and the 82nd Airborne-the Army's elite paratroop division.
It is in the second assault which Adkin details most in the book. This is because of the fact that it was in the southern portion of the island most of the major complications happened. Adkin has a major bias against the special operations units in the southern assault because he is a member of the British elite and the British and American forces tend to have a friendly rivalry. Adkin's main contention against the American elite units is due to the fact that he was the commander of the third assaulting force on Grenada, the British led CPF. Adkin personally witnessed the planning and carrying out of the invasion of Grenada. Therefore, in Urgent Fury he illustrates just how close America came to shipping home hundreds of body bags.
There are three reoccurring themes in Urgent Fury which show the ineffective leadership of the planners and senior commanders. The first contention the author has is the lack of military intelligence involved in planning the island invasion. The military had not topographical maps of the island and was forced to use outdated British touring maps to plan the invasion. Also, the nature and location of the enemy forces were almost completely unknown to the invading forces. This lack of knowledge resulted in the shooting down of several choppers by Cuban anti-aircraft guns and caused Delta Force to abort two missions. The helicopters simply could not drop the units off in the middle of a firefight.
The second problem was the lack of a fully integrated, interoperable communications system. Unlike the fighting elements which were organized to conduct operations independent of one another, communications systems were not allowed such freedom. Adkin believes that communications was to have been the glue that would tie together the operation of the four independent United States military service elements. Unfortunately, communications support failed in meeting certain aspects of that mission. It cannot be said that communications capability itself was abundant. The author cites several dilemmas in the shortages of communications, but the most compelling is the account of the SEAL assault upon the Governor-General's mansion in which the units were pinned down against an overwhelming force heavy machine guns. Hovering above the men fighting were two large gunships which they were unable to contact through the radio. They were forced to use a telephone in the mansion to call their commander at Fort Bragg, N.C. to gain radio access to the gunships. Adkin points out that the fact that these units could not communicate one-to-one could have caused more casualties from enemy and friendly fire.
However, the most shocking and dangerous part of the mission was the fact that the invasion force lacked precise data on the location of the American medical students they were to rescue. Adkin notes that attack planners did not realize that more than a thousand American medical students were spread out over three locations instead of merely at the True Blue campus in the southern tip of the island. When the Rangers counted the students they realized that there were more than four hundred missing. Fortunately for our sake, Adkin asserts, the Marxist forces did not bother with these students. If the enemy had chosen to use the students as human shields, the battle would have been much bloodier on both the military and civilian sides.
The book raises no real objections to the author validity. Adkin fought in Grenada as a commander and gives first hand account. Furthermore, he also uses primary sources from actual after action reports to support his claims on the fallacies of the senior American command. This book has raised doubts on the quality of leadership involved in the Grenada invasion, but does so logically and with thoroughly grounded contextual evidence. The book challenges our perception as to whether we should believe that superior technology always guarantees battlefield success.
In Grenada, American forces had a five to one ratio in manpower and an overwhelming firepower advantage over the Marxists and yet there were multiple opportunities for disaster. We just were lucky. Adkin believes that we cannot trust luck to guide us in future conflicts. In war, the commanders need to be aware of the potential cost of their actions. He believes that there is no excuse for unsound decisions as they are placing men's lives at risk. There is no replacement for real military leadership.

This is THE book to learn what happened on Grenada in 1983. This battle overlooked today marked the turning point in the Cold War. This was the first American military victory since the Vietnam War and sent a signal to the Soviets that communist expansion would cease under the Reagen administration. Major Adkin's book covers all of this, and points out the fight centered on the 10,000 foot strategic runway at Point Salines which as proven by the vast quantities of arms captured was the transfer point to all of Latin America for violence.

The book shows how the New Jewel Movement collapsed due to personal jealousies and assassinations leading to a swift U.S. plan to invade, which while not perfect, was necessary rather than delay in order to secure American medical students held hostage from harm. Reading the details he lays out of the U.S. Army Rangers parachuting in under 500 feet--under Cuban anti-aircraft guns---to seize the Point Salines airfield is exilherating and well wriitten, and busts open the Hollywood myths foisted by movies like "Heartbreak Ridge" that marines did the fighting and rescuing when their assignments to the north were uncontested, and without any Americans to be rescued. Adkin shows how the PRA and Cubans were dug in on the beaches waiting for a water landing when The Rangers, then the 82d Airborne Division came from the sky, catching them by surprise. Follow on operations had the Rangers rescuing U.S. medical students using mc and U.S. Army helicopters and the 82d Airborne Division fighting against stiff resistance before fanning out to secure the southern half of the island.

The book doesn't flinch however from tactical details and how things could have been done better. He has maps and drawings of where the actions took place that drive his points home, as well as photographs, to include mc helicopters that were shot down, and the leaders and rivals in the New Jewel movement. Readers will enjoy small points like the Ranger officer who used a signal mirrror t! o mark a Cuban recoilless rifle gun in a building for destruction by a TOW missile.

The point derived from this awesome book is that U.S. forces must be ready to conduct no-notice operations and to be able to come from unexpected directions like parachuting from the AIR as well as conventional sea directions. This book is a must-read for anyone in the military today or who has any interest in modern tactical affairs.

AIRBORNE!!

Mike Sparks 1st Tactical Studies Group (A)

In the book Welcome to Vietnam it tells a story of a real war there are five main characters. The first Michael Jennings, he thought that the war was just a far away place were people were killing each other for reasons that weren't very clear. Until he met the rest of the guys in Echo Company. Then there is Snoopy, he knew the only way to live through the nightmare was to laugh at it. He was the one who made his friends laugh and like a class clown. Then there is SGT. HANSON just wanted to get his guys out alive. He was one of those people who would die for his country. FINNECAN was mad that the Red Sox finally won the pennant, he had to be in Vietnam. Now the last one is J.D., he could only think of his girl back home. Her name was Emily They would write letters to each other durig war. Lots of guys get transfer to war and they were one of those people. They never thought that war would be so crul and fierce. The saw people being slotterd and getting shot all over their body. You know how war could be, well they tell you every thing.They get into helicopters and go to the dreadful war.
What I liked about this book was the action and the real facts. They also described have the country of Vietnam. They also described all of the ones getting killed and how they would beg for forgiveness.
I didnot like how they would leave clif hangers because I would want to read more and more. I would like there to be more action but less killing.
My favorite part of the book is when they arrived at Vietnam and heard gunshots and they all ran for cover. I thought that was the best part because they all thought they were going to die.

The echo company series is the best series I have ever read, and believe me, I have read many. When my library stopped carrying them I was very upset. I finally have the 1st book and am looking for the others. I am asking people to join forces and get these books back in print! Please email me if you would like to help. mafia2@most-wanted.com

this is a great book series. it shows how life in the veitnam war was. i recomend this book to anyone out there who likes books based on real facts.

This collection of essays about the Pol Pot Regime is an invaluable resource for a student of that period. It is not a very good historical overview (read Chandler's book for that), but it provides several excellent sources for analyses of specific sides of the DK regime. Particularly interesting (for me, anyway) were the chapters on the intellectual origins of the Khmer Rouge, a topic that is often mentioned but rarely explored with the depth found here.

Kenneth Quinn, one of the contributors, finished an appointment as US ambassador to Cambodia in July 1999.

The nine essays which comprise Jackson's book offer a chillingly descriptive account of the Khmer Rouge and the destruction they brought to Cambodian society. Even if you are a Cambodia "novice" (as I am) you will still find this book easy to understand and chock-full of valuable information. The 250 pages of actual text in this book were so well written and "user-friendly" that I was able to read it all in one sitting.

A balanced, objective account of the Cambodian revolution that provides a global picture of the extraordinary and horrifying events that took place in this small country between 1975 and 1978. Fascinating essays are included on topics as diverse as the Khmer Rouge economy, ideology, and power structure, as well as the social and psychological makeup of Cambodia, the intellectual origins of the Khmer Rouge, and the pattern and scope of the almost unbelievable violence perpetrated by the revolutionary army and government. This book is refreshingly thorough and unemotional. The authors allow the facts to speak for themselves. The only drawback is the often leaden writing of Timothy Carney, a contributor of two essays. A selection of photographs is also included.