Former Marine Karl Marlantes’s powerful in-country Vietnam war novel,
Matterhorn , has been awarded the 2011 William E. Colby Award by the Pritzker Military Library in Chicago.
The award is named for fomer CIA Director William E. Colby, who served as CIA station chief in Saigon from 1959-62, headed the Company’s Far East division from 1962-67, and directed the controversial Phoenix Program in Vietnam from 1968-71.
The $5, 000 award recognizes a first work of fiction or non-fiction that has made a significant contribution to the public’s understanding of intelligence operations, military history, or international affairs. It will be presented on October 22 at Chicago’s Palmer House Hotel at the Pritzker Military Library’s 2011 Liberty Gala.
You can read our review of Matterhorn in the May/June issue of The VVA Veteran .