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Reviews by Marc Leepson
The ghost of Gus Hasford haunts the
spooky, dark, and bloody Vietnam War graphic novel (aka
comic book) The Other Side (DC Comics, 144 pp.,
$12.99), written by Jason Aaron and drawn by Cameron Stewart.
The reason: Author Aaron has long been an acolyte of Hasford,
the iconoclastic, troubled former Marine best known for
his semi-autobiographical novel The Short-Timers (1979),
which was the basis for Stanley Kubrick’s
monumental Vietnam War film Full Metal Jacket. Hasford, who
died in 1993, wrote another excellent Vietnam novel, The
Phantom Blooper (1990). Both novels center on the off-beat
exploits of Hasford’s literary alter ego, Private Joker.
Aaron’s
admiration for Hasford began at an early age and stems from
a family connection: they are cousins. “Gus
was quite simply one of the finest writers to ever tackle
the Vietnam War in fiction,” Aaron, who runs the www.gustavhasford.com
website, told an interviewer last year. “Any scholar
worth their salt will tell you that The Short-Timers ranks
high on the list of the most important Vietnam War novels
ever written [and] The Phantom Blooper, which details Private
Joker’s eye-opening stint as a prisoner in a Viet Cong
village, is a work of equal intensity and importance.”
In
The Other Side, the American Marine co-protagonist,
Private Bill Everette, is from Alabama, Hasford’s home
state. He gets sent to Khe Sanh during the siege, where Hasford
spent time while a combat correspondent. Three characters
are named after Hasford’s former Marine buddies: Bernie
Bernston, Earl Gerheim, and Bob Bayer. “If it weren’t
for Gustav Hasford, this book would not exist,” Aaron
says in a remembrance of his cousin in the back of the book. “It
was because of Gus that I wrote The Other Side the way I
did.”
The Other Side tells two parallel stories: Everette’s
and that of a young NVA soldier. We are presented with an
in-depth and revealing portrait of the war from opposing
points of view. Both stories are grim and disturbing.
They
are filled with scene after scene of comic-book-style, in-your-face
depictions of murder and mayhem, as well as terrifying other-worldly
beings that haunt both men. It makes for an often-discomfiting
reading experience, living up to Aaron’s description
of the book as a “dark-toned
and horrific tale,” a “psychological horror story,
and an epic tragedy about America’s most haunting war.”
IN
BRIEF—VERY BRIEF
Since we started reviewing books in this newspaper in March
1986, our goal has been to review every book that deals with
the Vietnam War or Vietnam veterans. No other publication
does this; in part, that is why we are so inclusive. We are
happy to fill the void, especially at a time when the amount
of space given to book reviews has shrunk drastically in
magazines and newspapers. Sometimes—and this is one
of those times—the pile of books we need to get to
grows so high that in order to call them to the attention
of our readers in a timely manner, we must greatly truncate
our reviews to just a sentence or two. So, with apologies
to the authors and publishers, what follows are very brief
descriptions of 31 recently published nonfiction books that
deal with our war and with us, Vietnam veterans.
MILITARY
MATTERS
Stalkers and Shooters: A History of
Snipers (Berkley Caliber,
372 pp., $24.95), military historian and Navy SEAL expert
Kevin Dockery’s examination of American long-range
riflemen from the Revolution to Iraq. It includes a chapter
on the Vietnam War.
Why Marines Fight (Thomas Dunne Books,
302 pp., $24.95), a series of extensive interviews with Marine
veterans from World War II to Iraq by Korean War veteran
James Brady, best known for his popular Parade magazine column
and his memoir, The Coldest War.
The Son Tay Raid: American
POWs in Vietnam Were Not Forgotten (Texas A&M University
Press, 332 pp., $29.95), an account of the noted November
20, 1970, Vietnam War POW rescue mission by former Air Force
Special Ops Col. John Gargus, who helped plan it and flew
as a lead navigator for the strike force.
The Road to Freedom:
A History of the Ho Chi Minh Trail (Orchid Press [Thailand],
196 pp., $29.95) in which author Virginia Morris and photographer
Clive Hills trace the history of the famed NVA infiltration
route and offer many present-day photos and maps. For ordering
info, go to www.orchidpress.com
The Tet Offensive: A Concise
History (Columbia University Press, 272 pp., $29.50),
a history and an interpretation of the turning point of the
Vietnam War. Author James H. Willbanks, who directs the Military
History Department at the U.S. Army Command General Staff
College at Fort Leavenworth, argues that Tet ’68 was
a strategic victory for the Vietnamese communists.
Tet: The
Turning Point in the War (Johns Hopkins University Press,
385 pp., $21.95, paper), a reprint of former Washington Post
correspondent Don Oberdorfer’s well-received 1971
book, with a new preface by the author, who did not change
a word of the 36-year-old text in which he concludes that
Tet ’68 was a military defeat, but a “resounding” political
success for the other side.
The Big Red One: America’s
Legendary 1st Infantry Division from World War I to Desert
Storm (University Press of Kansas, 594 pp., $34.95),
a chronicle by Army veteran and author James Scott Wheeler
of the oldest continuously serving U.S. Army division, including
three chapters on the Big Red One’s
1965-70 deployment in the Vietnam War.
A Military Miscellany (Bantam,
208 pp., $15), a grab bag of facts, anecdotes, and stories
involving the American military, including tidbits on such
Vietnam War subjects as Hamburger Hill and My Lai, by Thomas
Ayres, a veteran newspaper reporter, columnist, and author.
The
Art of War: Sun Zi’s Military Methods (Columbia
University Press, 208 pp., $19.95), the latest English edition
of the famed ancient Chinese war text, translated by University
of Pennsylvania Chinese language and literature professor
Victor Mair, who claims that the often-quoted book was not
written, as is commonly believed, by Sun Wu.
Military Justice
in Vietnam: The Rule of Law in an American War (University
Press of Kansas, 256 pp., $34.95), a detailed analysis of
the workings of the military justice system as it played
out in Vietnam, by William Allison, a Weber State University
history professor who has taught at the Air War College.
After
the Massacre: Commemoration and Consolation in Ha My and
My Lai (University of California Press, 217 pp., $19.95,
paper; $50, hardcover), a look at how Vietnamese villagers
have coped with what happened at My Lai and Ha My, a village
near Danang where South Korean troops killed many unarmed
civilians, written by South Korean-born Heonik Kwon, a social
anthropologist at the University of Edinburgh.
Black Sailor,
White Navy: Racial Unrest in the Fleet During the Vietnam
War Era (New York University Press, 343 pp., $35). U.S.
Naval Historical Center historian John Darrell Sherwood’s
examines the racial situation in the Navy during the sixties
and seventies and the Navy’s attempts
to deal with it.
Vietnam’s Orange, White and Blue Agents
and Weapons of Mass Destruction (Corps Productions,
328 pp., $18.95), U.S. Army Vietnam War veteran and Agent
Orange activist Charles Kelley’s “fact-finding
book” about
the stew of toxic chemicals American fightingmen and women
were exposed to in Vietnam during the war.
MILITARY WOMEN
Women at War: Iraq, Afghanistan, and
Other Conflicts (Naval
Institute Press, 234 pp., $29.95), which looks at women in
the military and in civilian capacities, including during
the Vietnam War, co-written by retired Navy Captain James
E. Wise, Jr., and Scott Baron, an author and teacher who
served with the U.S. Army in the Vietnam War.
Women in the
Line of Fire: What You Should Know About Women in the Military (Seal
Press, 409 pp., $15.95, paper), a deeply researched and strongly
argued book by former Army Reserve officer Erin Solaro, who
believes that women should fully participate in all aspects
of military service, including combat.
Camp All-American,
Hanoi Jane, and The High-and-Tight: Gender, Folklore, and
Changing Military Culture (Beacon Press, 264 pp., $26, paper).
University of California at Irvine English professor Carol
Burke examines the “cult of masculinity” in
the military today, with references to past wars, including
the conflict in Vietnam.
MILITARY & POLITICAL ANALYSIS
The War Council: McGeorge Bundy, the
NSC, and Vietnam (Harvard
University Press, 320 pp., $49.95), an analysis of the role
that Bundy and the NSC had in making Vietnam War policy under
Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, written by University of
Victoria (in Canada) history professor Andrew Preston.
Debating
Vietnam: Fulbright, Stennis, and Their Senate Hearings
(Rowman and Littlefield, 199 pp., $24.95), a look at the
1966 and 1967 hearings held by Arkansas Sen. William Fulbright’s
Foreign Relations Committee and Mississippi Sen. John Stennis’s
Armed Services Committee that challenged the Johnson administration’s
Vietnam War policymaking, written by UNLV history professor Joseph A. Fry.
Ho
Chi Minh: From Revolutionary to Icon (Cambridge University
Press, 300 pp., $35), French historian Pierre Brocheaux’s
biography of the famed Vietnamese communist leader, replete
with many details of Ho’s personal life, translated
by Clair Duiker.
The OSS and Ho Chi Minh: Unexpected
Allies in the War Against Japan (University Press
of Kansas, 435 pp., $34.95). Author Dixee R. Bartholomew-Feis,
a Buena Vista University history professor, looks at one
intriguing aspect of Ho’s
life and times: when he worked hand-in-hand with American OSS agents during World
War II fighting the Japanese in Indochina.
The Cambodian Campaign: The 1970 Offensive
and America’s Vietnam War (University
Press of Kansas, 222 pp., $34.95), a look at the controversial American move
into Cambodia and an argument that the operation was a big military success,
written by former military history professor John M. Shaw, who has taught at
West Point and the U.S. Air Force Academy.
Blind Oracles: Intellectuals and War
from Kennan to Kissinger (Princeton University Press,
241 pp., $29.95, hardcover; $17.95, paper). University
of Pennsylvania history professor Bruce Kuklick examines
scholars-turned-government-bigwigs’ roles
in making American war policy, starting with George Kennan in World War II and
ending with Henry Kissinger, McGeorge Bundy, and Walt Rostow in the Vietnam War.
ATime
For Peace: The Legacy of the Vietnam War (Oxford University
Press, 252 pp., $30), in which the prominent historian
Robert D. Schulzinger of the University of Colorado examines
the political, social, and cultural ramifications of the
Vietnam War in this country. The author briefly mentions VVA and its lobbying
of Congress for the Vet Center program.
Cold War Mandarin: Ngo Dinh Diem and
the Origins of America’s War in Vietnam,
1950-1963 (Rowman and Littlefield, 207 pp., $21.95), a concise analysis
of the many defects and more than a few strengths of the first leader of the
Republic of South Vietnam by Boston College history professor Seth Jacobs.
Replacing
France: The Origins of American Intervention in Vietnam (University
Press of Kentucky, 378 pp., $45), an in-depth examination
and analysis of how and why the United States took over the
fight against Indochinese communism from France, focusing
on the 1954-59 period and the Diem regime, written by University
of San Diego history professor Kathryn C. Statler.
Vietnam’s
Forgotten Army: Heroism and Betrayal in the ARVN (New
York University Press, 338 pp., $35), a biography of two
accomplished ARVN officers (Pham Van Dinh and Tran Ngoc Hue)
that also looks at the minuses and plusses of our South Vietnamese
ally’s armed forces, written by University of Southern
Mississippi history professor Andrew Wiest.
MILITARY MEMOIRS
Corpsman Up! (BookSurge Publishing, 157 pp., $16.95,
paper), Charlie “Doc” Rose’s
recounting of his time as a Navy corpsman with the Fleet
Marine Force in Vietnam in 1966-67 and his emotional difficulties
since then.
I Can Still Hear Their Cries Even
in My Sleep: A Journey Into PTSD (Outskirts Press,
60 pp., $11.95, paper), a narrative dealing with the ramifications
of author E. Everett McFall’s 1966-67 tour of duty
as a medical corpsman with the U.S. Marines in Vietnam,
featuring poetry by the author and fellow Marine Jay E.
Keck.
Gun-totin’ Chaplain: A True Memoir (Airborne
Press, 301 pp., $14, paper). Jerry Autry, who retired after
29 years in the Army, offers a look at his 1968-69 Vietnam
War tour as a chaplain with the Army’s 101st Airborne
Division.
Red Clay on my Boots: Encounters with
Khe Sanh, 1968
to 2005 (Kirk House, 208 pp., $16, paper). Robert
J. Topmiller describes his time as a Navy corpsman in Vietnam
with the Marines during the Siege of Khe Sanh and his eleven
subsequent trips back to Vietnam.
The Only War We Had: A Platoon
Leader’s Journal of Vietnam (Texas A&M
University Press, 310 pp., $19.95), a reprint of Michael
Lee Lanning’s
well-received 1987 memoir based on the journal he kept from
April to October 1969 in Vietnam while serving with Charlie
Co., 2nd Battalion, 3rd Infantry of the 199th Light Infantry
Brigade.
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