SwiftVets.com

[Darkhorse18]

A couple of additional books for your reading: Navy Seals: Men with Green Faces written by Lt. Cmdr. Micheal J. Walsh and Five Years to Freedom Writtem by James N. Rowe. The neat thing about both of these is they take place in the same operational area the Skerry worked in. You'll also notice that a portion of Low Level Hell also takes place, his secoind tour, in the same areas. You really have to look at the names of some of the cities and villages close to realize it. Rowe was held in the U Minh Forest for the five years he never left South Vietnam and we jsut could not get a handle on the POW camps in that area.

[jalexson]

In addition to the above:

Bernard Fall's "The Two Vietnams" and "Last Reflections on a War" - Fall understood Vietnam better than anyone at the time. Unfortunately he died when the jeep he was riding in hit a mine in 1967.

Oberdorfer's "Tet" explains how the 1968 Tet offensive was a disaster for the Viet Cong everywhere except in the American media.

Col. Donovan's "Militarism U.S.A." explains how the military bureaucracy dealt with the war.
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"That awful power, the public opinion of a nation, is created in America by a horde of ignorant, self-complacent simpletons who failed at ditching and shoe making and fetched up in journalism on their way to the poor house."
-- Mark Twain

[Navy_Navy_Navy]

Seems I always have a running list of books that I need to order, lately - either from this thread or some other one.

I just got two orders from BooksAMillion this week and I haven't even finished the last order.

Here's my "homework:"

Escape in Iraq by Thomas Hamill; Paul Brown
Arrogance by Bernard Goldberg
Weekly Standard October 11, 2004
Weekly Standard November 8, 2004

Unholy Alliance by David Horowitz
How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must) by Ann H. Coulter
Useful Idiots by Mona Charen
Shadow War by Richard Miniter

Fields of Fire by James Webb
We Were Soldiers Once...and Young by Harold G. Moore
Five Years to Freedom by James N. Rowe
Why Didn't You Get Me Out? by Frank Anton; Tommy Denton
American Tragedy by David Kaiser
America in Vietnam by Guenter Lewy
Dereliction of Duty by H. R. McMaster
Vietnam: A History by Stanley Karnow

I hope I'll have a better working knowledge of what the hell happened over there when I'm done with them.

My husband asked me the other day if I wanted We Were Soldiers right then and I told him, "No you go ahead and take it on your trip with you, I can't get to it for a while." He said, "No, I already read it, I just wanted to see if you want it handy.

"And I'm gonna warn ya.... you're going to be awed.
You're going to be inspired.
You're going to be sickened.
And you're going to cry.....
and that's just me, so you better get a towel ready. Kleenex ain't gonna cut it."

The man knows me to the bone.

He's probably going to be interested in at least the novels and the POW books that I bought, too.

Now, someone recommended this book to me: They Marched into Sunlight? Anyone read it? What did you guys think?

The author, David Maraniss seems to have some pretty hard left politics and I'm wondering if he was capable of overcoming his anti-war bias enough to be objective in his coverage or if the battle he depicts becomes just a part of an anti-war screed.

One of his other titles is: "First In His Class : A Biography Of Bill Clinton," (oh, that's sure to be enlightening, hm?) and another is "Tell Newt to Shut Up : Prize-Winning Washington Post Journalists Reveal How Reality Gagged the Gingrich Revolution." (Just the title tells me that this author may not have all that much familiarity with the concept of "reality" that his title references.)

This friend of mine was involved in the Madison demonstrations at the University, there - the demonstrations that were written about in this book. At the same time, the book switches venues to a battlefield in Vietnam to tell the story of a particular battle and to Congress and the political machinations that drove so much of this war.

This person also seems to be in denial over how effectively the KGB was leading this "peace" movement in the United States - it WAS disguised rather well, wasn't it?

"Save our soldiers, bring the troops home, peace now, etc." It all sounded so flower-child dreamy, so noble, at first glance.

I wasn't but a young teenager at the time, but I was very idealistic - I'm having to face the fact that had I been a few years older, I would have been marching and demonstrating. I probably would have bought into the propaganda myself.

Knowing what I know now, I am not sure that I could handle the pain of knowing what I'd done, back then, however unknowingly.

I love this person. He's a very dear friend, so I want to go easy on him, but I imagine my next email to him is going to be as long as one of those books on my shelf.

Thanks for all the recommendations and keep them coming. I'll keep adding them to the list.
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~ Echo Juliet ~
Altering course to starboard - On Fire, Keep Clear
Navy woman, Navy wife, Navy mother

[Beatrice1000]

[USAFE5]

So much to read so little time....

My librarian is mad at me already.
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"The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I’m here to help." Ronald Reagan

[Mother]

I think you've got a good thing going. It wasn't until I saw the movie review here and the remark "no man left behind" that the bulb went on.
One plus one equals two. Remember I'm a child/education advocate.
Bush declared war on the democratic education establishment. The result was No Child Left Behind (first time in 13 years I'd seen many teachers earn their pay). If he didn't borrow that slogan from the 'brotherhood', leaving no wounded or dead products of the educational system behind, I'll eat my hat.

The democratic education establishment was, of course, pro Kerry. Until one day, a day that shall go down in infamy, when Mrs. John remarked that Laura never had a real job. I know for a fact that in and of itself this single remark about a teacher/librarian turned many votes away.

I have several posts about the education establishment in these forum discussions and the way many have used those positions to further the blue cause-how they grow little lefties. That being said, I found a post by "Shirley" on 10/10 that stated: "There was, of course, a serious side to this business. Several documented cases of blue-on-blue sustained air attacks on Navy Swifts and USCG cutters did in fact occur with horrific consequences to both the vessels and their crews." This remark gave me a little epiphany about how to move forward with all that has been accomplished.

Yes there is a serious side to this business. The 'several' documented cases of blue-on-blue sustained attacks did in fact occur with horrific consequences-but this time it was to the lefties themselves.

I've racked my brain to find a good positive way to move forward in the effort to stop the madness and the poor little wheels have been grinding, grinding. I think you're right on target with this list of recommended reading. I can imagine a gathering of authors on an educational tour sponsored by the NEA (haha) across America to promote "progressive", authoritative narrative histories of the Vietnam War and its long term effects on American life as endorsed by Vietnam Vets. The kickoff date could be, say, the National History Day Competition. Blue on Blue sustained attacks.

[Jack Hetherton, jr]

Admin, I guess I screwed up again. The previous posting I did should have been part of this post. Can you make the change.? Another execellent book is "After the Hero's Welcome", by Dorthy McDaniel. A POW Wife's Story of the Battle Against a New Enemy. JH

[d19thdoc]

EJ
My list, as far as I can tell not already mentioned. Some of these are my favorites because of personal connections I have to them, but they are still outstanding. Each is a personal story, rather than an historical overview, except perhaps for Herr's book - which is in a category all its own.

Dispatches by Michael Herr (pronounced "Hair"), is widely regarded as the best book to come out of the war by a journalist/participant. It gets into "steam of consciousness" style that was considered revolutinary for a journalist at the time, so it is equally as much a work of imagination as journalism.

Fortunate Son, by Lewis B. Puller, Jr. (Chesty's son), is more valuable for its depiction of the surpassing courage of a terribly wounded and didsabled Marine Platoon Leader. If you get it and read it, you might be so moved by it to want additional information. I will P.M. you my personal email address if you later want a copy of Puller's lengthy obituary from People Magazine. He ultimately committed suicide. There is also a C-Span Booknotes tape available of his one hour interview when the book first came out. It won the Pulitzer Prize for biography for 1991.

The Killing Zone, by Frederick Downs, is an unsentimental look at an Army platoon leader's tour in Vietnam in 1967-68. Downs also wrote several "return-to-Vietnam" books that are highly regarded. One about his own disability (he lost an arm in combat action) and the other about his original mission with Gen Vessey back to Vietnam in the 80's to set the ground work for normailzation of relations. I participated in a number of the events in the first book, and have official documents about them.

The Forgotten Hero of My Lai, the Hugh Thompson Story, by Trent Angers, is a fascinating inside look into the political manipulations which surrounded the My Lai massacre aftermath, and what was done with the three-man helicopter crew which intervened to save some of the civilians and ultmately stopped the massacre. I have some personal info also on one of the three, Glenn Andreotta, who was killed in action three weeks after My Lai. I know his family quite well. My own autographed copy I loaned out to a member of a therapy group at the local VA Vet Center, who had taken part in the clean-up operation at My Lai late in the day after it was over. He attended one session of the group and then moved to another town, taking my book with him. I hope he is still getting help.

Platoon Leader, by James McDonough, is a memoir similar to Down's book, but highly regarded in the Army. It was used as a text for infantry platoon leaders by the Army (may still be). It is also very simple, straightforward, apolitical and unsentimental. His unit, 4th Bn, 503rd Inf., 173rd Abn. Bde., moved into my unit's base came (LZ North English) when we moved out in 1969. They were nearly over-run Christmas of 1969 and took heavy casualties, but credited the "over-construction" my engineer outfit had done on the bunkers with saving many lives.
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For The Honor of the Fifty-Eight Thousand.
"He Can Lose, But He Can Not Hide"