I've read 'Chickenhawk', and 'Into the Green' and various other books by Vietnam Vets. This ranks up amongst the best. It is well written (which many aren't) and I believe it is probably autobiographical. It really describes well the day to day grind and general misery of a typical grunt in the field,moving across the complete range of emotion, from watching his buddies getting shot to pieces, to watching his own body gradually disintegrate from the ravages of jungle rot, and eventually..........well just read it!!

Okay , I bought this one , and got grabbed by the story of this soldier trying to survive in the 'Nam , and gets bullied off of a Chieu Hoi . It's sorta become my bible , and I carry it around with me everywhere I go .

Philip Knightly puts together an exciting and informative history of the war correspondent. Stripping away the romanticism that such an occupation attracted, Knightly shows the grimmer side of covering wars, from having dispatches censored to being a willing collaborator in a conflict. He concentrates from the American Civil War to the Falkland Conflict. In it, Knightly snipes at Hemingway for not reporting during the Spanish Civil War but keeping material for his books while admiring Martha Glehorn's coverage of the Vietnam war (which later got her expelled from the country).

For those interested in Media Ethics and journalism, Knightly's book is highly recomended.

I first read this book about ten years ago. It has been a seminal book for me. Until I read this book I somewhat dismissively accepted the adage "The winners write the history."
After reading "The First Casualty" I understood that in fact the propaganda of the victors _becomes_ history. I also highy reccommend "Manufacturing Consent", "A People's History of the United States", "The Myth of the Great War" and "Overlord".

This is a book which appeals on many different levels -- an interesting military and social history of South Vietnam following the pullout of US forces up to its final defeat, a compelling study of the oil business (which particularly resonates today with oil prices rising) and an insightful study of business management in crisis situations. The problem with the book is its title; it sure doesn't shout "read me!".

I was most struck by the character of the author. Louis Wesseling has a gift for honest self-reflection and impartial observation which, when combined with hindsight, make him a compelling writer. Fortunately for his readers he was in a unique position to deploy these considerable attributes. Wesseling ran Shell Oil's operations in Saigon and if ever an economy and a war effort was totally dependent on oil it was South Vietnam's. His description of how Shell operated in these circumstances describes in very real terms how fundamentally economic and military policy are intertwined. His position as chief executive of a company so central to the economic and military well-being of the South also gave him access to everyone who was anyone, and his pithy, sympathetic summations of the major characters of that period are excellent. These are particularly poignant with respect to Graham Martin, the last US Ambassador to South Vietnam.

It is the author's character strengths which make this book a far richer reading experience than I had expected (my initial expectations having been set by that woeful title). Whereas I had bought this out of interest in Vietnam and the Vietnam War, I discovered a book with far broader appeal. Wesseling has an uncanny ability to sum up the essence of a situation, scene or even a country in just a few short lines, and this permits him to cover a wide variety of topics with substance -- from running a business in a war zone to how the US oil companies so quickly forsook US interests and allies in order to keep favor with OPEC during the 1973 oil embargo.

My strong advice to the book's publisher is to change the title and promote it a bit; it is deserving of a much broader readership!

BOOK DEALS IN EXTRAORDINARY FRANK WAY WITH THE OVERRIDING INFLUENCE OF BUSINESS- IN THIS CASE OIL- ON THE OUTCOME OF WAR. IT TELLS THE INTIMATE STORY OF THE LAST YEARS OF THE VIETNAM WAR. BUT ITS CONCLUSIONS CAN EQUALLY APPLY TO OTHER ARMED CONFLICTS OF OUR TIME, FROM THE GULF WAR TO KOSOVO.A VERY PERSONAL, RIVETING AND NOT AT ALL SELF-SERVING EYE WITNESS ACCOUNT BY AN EX-USAF OFFICER AND EX SHELL PRESIDENT IN VIETNAM MOVING IN THE HIGHEST GOVERNMENT CIRCLES IN SAIGON BEFORE ITS FALL. IT EXPLAINS THE INEVITABLE CORRUPTION AND THE MOTIVES OF MANY FASCINATING CHARACTERS FIGHTING FOR SURVIVAL IN SAIGON AT THE TIME.

This is a book from the fire team, squad and platoon viewpoint of vicious fighting and death. The book covers events in 1967 of fighting in the hills surrounding the Khe Sanh airbase. The author provides a brief overview of how the Marines got into the Khe Sanh area at the insistence of General Westmoreland, MACV Commander. And the problems that move caused for the Marines fighting a long way from their support in difficult terrain. Most of the book provides in great detail the actions by individuals, NCOs and junior officers of their terrible hardships and blood shed in those hills and jungle. The author also covers the serious problems the Marines had with their M16 rifles which had just been introduced into the field prior to the Hill Fights. Thirty-six years later the M16 works a lot better in combat, but in 1967 it failed our Marines in the hills. The appendix provides a short bio of the key individuals mentioned and what happened to them after the fighting in their later years.

Edward F Murphy delivers his finest book yet about a battle that has long been over shadowed by the siege of Khe Sanh. I've waited for this book to come out a long time and I wasn't disappointed. His writing style is sharper and more intimate than his already great previous works. He is now on the level of Keith William Nolan. Edward F Murphy has now written some of the finest books on the Vietnam war.
The Hill Fights starts off with a bang and masterfully chronicles some of the heaviest fighting in the Vietnam war.
Khe Sanh was a special forces base until NVA activity in the area heated up. Westmoreland doesn't want the base to fall like the Ashau valley base did in 1966 so Marines get the call to go and prop up the base. Marines arrived at Khe Sanh Combat base and slowly take over. The infiltrating NVA intially lay low and the Marines had little luck in pinpointing them. The spring of 1967 turns deadly as the NVA decides to take a stand. On Hill 861 the entrenched NVA ambush a platoon of Marines. Low on ammo and in harsh terrain the Marines fight hard. Sadly the Marines are commited piecemeal and suffer heavy casulties before taking Hill 861. The Marines suffered 24 KIA, 46 WIA, and 8 MIA taking this hill that over looked the Khe Sanh combat base. Battalions of Marines arrived as reinforcements and they set out clearing the NVA out of the area. Hills 881 South and 881 North were assaulted next. Brutal combat takes place as the NVA holds it's own against the elite Marines. Finally the Marines superior firepower, training, and will to win allows the brave Marines to defeat the NVA. After 12 days of battle 168 Marines and Navy corpsman were KIA, 443 were wounded. 2 Marines were also MIA. The NVA lost 824 dead & 551 probably killed. Finally the hills fights were over and those that were there would never forget. One of the problems that hindered the Marines was the M16 which jammed much too frequently. Much blood was shed by dead and wounded Marines before the weapon would be fixed. The Khe Sanh area would grow relatively quiet until the well documented 77 day siege the following year.
The Hill Fights was one of the biggest battles in the Vietnam war and now can no longer be overlooked by history. This is a fine book and a must have for those into the Vietnam war or for those curious as to what it was like.

This is the book I looking forward to read. Tony, an uncle, told me about the book and I could not wait to read it!
This is an insight of a soldier who took part in war far from home and had to do things that is not always right but as soldier he had to obey orders. It is a compelling book that I could not put down till I finished it!
A point I would like to see rectified is why Tony denied his South African background and up bringing? He was born and brought up in South Africa till he left to join WWII. We are all proud of his achievements in his adopted country but would like to see his conection with South Africa not forgotten.

Anthony Blondell became involved with the Montagnards of South Vietnam in the early 1960s when he was part of the U.S. Army Special Forces Airborne unit stationed there. Honor And Sacrifice: The Montagnards Of Ba Cat, Vietnam is Blondell's personal and compelling narrative of those times and that place within the larger context of the Viet Nam war. Honor And Sacrifice is a welcome and much appreciated contribution to American military history in general, and the growing library of Viet Nam military memoirs in particular.

"The lone traveller is the most dependent of all, because he has need of everybody and no one has need of him."

So notes Carsten Jensen in I HAVE SEEN THE WORLD BEGIN, his narrative account of his journey of discovery through China, Cambodia and Vietnam during the early 90s.

Jensen begins his travelogue in Beijing, but quickly moves on to Shanghai, from which he travels by boat up the Yangtse River, then by rail and bus, into southeastern China near the border of Myanmar (Burma). A constant thread is the state of the country and its inhabitants, individually and collectively, post-Tiananmen Square.

Then it's on to Cambodia, a country yet to recover from the cruel self-immolation imposed by Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge minions. As Jensen writes about this "biblical Judgement Day":

"... when the gates of Paradise were opened, it was only to reveal yet another graveyard. ... It was the humbled, the abased and the desperate who were raised on high, not to put an end to despair, but to extend it to everyone."

And lastly, Vietnam, with which the author is obviously entranced, and the reader with him. Much of Carsten's enthrallment is with the country's women - Tam, Kim and Scent of Spring in particular. It's with the first that he has a physical relationship. And it's Tam who states in the most eloquent manner I've ever encountered the worst thing about not being able to conceive a child:

"You can't pass on the eyes of the one you love to posterity. Like the stars they will be put out, instead of living on in a new face."

Whether Jensen is describing China's Tiger Leap Gorge, Shanghai's New Year fireworks celebration, Cambodia's Angkor Wat, Phnom Penh's horrific Security Prison 21, Vietnam's Hanoi ("like a wood with streets"), the royal tombs at Hue, or Dien Bien Phu, the graveyard of French colonialism in Southeast Asia, his magnificent prose transports you there.

I was tempted to award I HAVE SEEN THE WORLD BEGIN five stars, but am prevented from doing so by what I consider to be a significant omission. There's no photo section. What were the publisher and the author thinking?

Having finished the book, I now want to visit Vietnam, a country I really had no desire to visit before. If a travel essay can accomplish this for any destination, it's very good indeed.

The title of this book, I Have Seen the World Begin, got my curiosity. The Danish journalist Carsten Jensen travelled from Russia south in Asia, through China, Cambodia, Vietnam and Hong Kong, and memories from these travels are collected in this huge book. And there are not only memories. Jensen has an open eye and tries to explain what he sees, and make it part of a bigger context, our world.

Jensen travels alone, but he meets local people on his way. And he is not afraid of making contact. Many of these people are there for us to meet through the book. I Have Seen the World Begin is not a romantic story. Here we meet all the dirt of poverty, all the dust of the landscape, all the evilness in people, though we also meet the beauty of the women in Vietnam, the charm of a poor guide in a small village in China, the greatness of a landscape. Travelling might be boring and depressing, or it might give new dimensions to your life. Jensen has experienced both.

And where does the world begin according to Carsten Jensen? It began for him in the birth of his child. The world is alive, the world is a place which will go on living inspite all odds

Britt Arnhild Lindland

Recently, I had the honor of meeting David at a Book Signing of Vietnam Era helicopter Pilots. David is as delightful and faithful man as his writing. Prior to meeting him, I had purchased his book and read it advidly. He writes a completely different Vietnam Novel whereby he mixes his faith experience and combat experience with a moving story of the devotion that people can have towards each other in the world of combat. While this is fiction, I have spoken with him at great length and know his work reflects his own faith journey and personal morays. Keeping the action moving, David manages to also convey more important things than a simple "shoot em up" novel would attempt. I highly recommend this to people who are interested how men of faith struggled in the "apparently Godless" world of war. This is anovel that you can feel very comfortable in allowing your children to read.

Bruce E. Carlson M. Div. author of "Red Bird Down."

This is fantastic little pocket carryall book for cycling San Juan, Gulf and Vancouver Islands. Small, 3-D maps, elevation gain, mileage. They just dont make them anymore,

I could not find it to buy in USA since they are out of print, so I checked out of Library. Now I have found it on-line...

A book called Rethinking Camelot by Noam Chomsky introduced me to the importance of this book. While the United States had suffered a number of defeats in countries in which we had chosen not to fight (China being gigantic compared to France), most of the people involved in maintaining American policy on Vietnam had accepted the idea that a way could be found to win in Vietnam. John M. Newman considered the importance of that idea "like going to church" for the people whose actions would be based entirely on the strength of such convictions. My father (who was not mentioned in the book being reviewed) was a minister who had been ordained during World War II, possibly a good excuse for not actually fighting in that war, but not good enough to convince me that God would always give us perpetual peace out of the goodness of His heart for having saved the world from the domination of anyone who actually wanted to rule here. Chomsky's book was based on the premise that American policy was the desire to win in Vietnam, an aim which Kennedy couldn't have deserted until this country had extracted the last full measure of devotion from everyone concerned. In the present, it should be much easier to admit the tendency to waffle, as all things have been twisted into a psychotic multiplicity in which our deepest desires take part in the constant attack on the facts. As much as those like Chomsky, who believe that Americans should maintain a certain level of belief in policy, might differ, I am inclined to think that some real dirt can be dug up on this issue, and this book shows what the official record looks like when its secrecy has been stripped away.

As one who has both read Newman's book and as one who served in Vietnam myself, (1970) I can only say I feel a deep sense of betrayal by my own Government, that I have served so well in two wars in a military capacity and as a Civil Servant in a civilian capacity. The document's that Newman publishes in his book were classified "Top Secret" at the time of Kennedy's Assassination. Thanks to the "Freedom of Information" act, that is no longer the case and we can now see the behind the scenes moves that led the US deeper and deeper into Vietnam. We can also see Kennedy's efforts to reverse course before it became too late.

My grandmother who is now dead and millions of other Americans never saw JFK's NSAM - 263 classified Top Secret. Nor did I. That NSAM was quietly shelved by Lyndon Johnson two days after Kennedy's Assassination and his own NSAM implimented. NSAM - 273 freezing everyone in place. Today, thanks to Newman's book we can now see who was the real culprit responsible for America's slide into Vietnam. And it certainly wasn't that awful Roman Catholic President (in the eyes of anti-Kennedy bigots) in the White House, John F. Kennedy.

Instead the REAL culprit was Lyndon Baines Johnson and THAT is how History will eventually record it. Hats off to John M. Newman for bringing these Document's into public view for future generations to "learn" from. That is IF, people are now willing to learn.

William P. Urban

Sgt US Army
PO2 US Navy

In all the years of the American War in Viet-Nam there was only one Brigade officially known as the "Jungle Warriors" that distinction belonged to the young men of the 11th light Infantry Brigade of the Americal Infantry Division (23rd Inf. Div.)
Units of this brigade are more imfamously known for the My Lai Massacre. Subsequentially,the 11th brigade unofficially became known as "The Butcher Brigade."
Sergeant Briscoe didn't meantion the fact that Colin Powell who at that time was Major Powell was the executive officer of the 11th light infantry brigade.
Bobby Briscoe's book is by no means fiction ...it is as real as it gets. It should be made into a movie.
I was there with Briscoe as a medic in the 3rd bn 1st Infantry and knew him and some of his subjects and subject matter rather well. If you were in Viet Nam or your life has somehow been affected by a Viet Nam veteran ... this is a "Must Have Book!"

i read this book and it jumps out at you,you cannot put this down.you feel the pain and the joy's of these incredibly brave men! it's painful to think of all the guy's who didn't make it,and the loved one's of these men.i have never felt so much,cried so much,or felt connected to history until this book.God Bless the men of this book,it should become a movie!T.Parker