"A Bright Shining Lie" is a brilliant, if flawed, masterpiece. Journalist Neil Sheehan first made a name for himself as a reporter in part thanks to the enigmatic American Hero, John Paul Vann. Vann's story is both fascinating and tragic. His military career was seemingly derailed by his attempts to tell the truth about the war during the advisor period (1962-64), but in fact it was his personal indiscretions that did him in. The book was the work of a lifetime for Sheehan (taking him many years to complete) and it shows. The only problem is that Vann's later career in Vietnam as a civilian advisor (1967-1972) gets the short shrift. Sheehan uses Vann's combat death in 1972 as a metaphor for American involvement in Vietnam. But in fact, by 1972 Vann truly believed that the South Vietnamese were winning the war and had they not been abandoned by their American allies, they might have. Nevertheless, this is a vital book for anyone who wants to understand America's lost war.

A Bright Shining Lie is a true story about a man named John Paul Vann and America's involvement in Vietnam. The author, Neil Sheehan, was a war correspondent for the United States Press International and the New York Times. His book in 1989 was the winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. The book starts out at Lt. Col. John Paul Vann's funeral in 1972, ten years after he arrived in Saigon, after a helicopter crash back in Vietnam. His story shows America's failures and disillusionment in Southeast Asia. In 1954, the French were defeated, Vietnam then was divided by Ho Chi Minh's Communist North and the Southern regime of Ngo Dinh Diem. Vann had an opportunity to go to Vietnam and he took it right away because he wanted to fight his way up the ranks. When he arrived he was teamed up with South Vietnam's Colonel Cao. Right away Vann notices the corruption of the South Vietnamese regime and their incompetence in fighting the Communists. Sheehan shows this throughout the book with many examples of what the South Vietnamese did. Colonel Cao was shone taking pictures of his men pretending to be dead VC's (Viet Cong) to impress the higher officials and to show that we were winning the war. The South Vietnamese army did not know what they were doing and lost many battles. As Sheehan graphically describes the battles, the Viet Cong are winning them, but that is covered up by South Vietnam and America portraying them as being the supreme force. Vann secretly told reporters how the war was a waste and Neil Sheehan was one of these reporters. The peasants in Vietnam were caught in the middle between the North and the South. We gave the peasants guns then they were seen used by the Viet Cong in battle. Sheehan noted that the corrupt South Vietnamese did not care for the peasants and carpet-bombed their villages because of known Viet Cong inhabitants. This whole book is based on Vann's telling the self-deceiving illusions of the American military and civilian bureaucracy. Vann was sent back to the United States after the army found out about his meetings with reporters. America hid the truth throughout the whole war. He then resigned, but could not stand not be in on the action. Sheehan said, "The war satisfied him so completely that he could no longer look at it as something separate from himself" (745). Later Vann was able to get a position as a civilian aid and went back to Vietnam in 1965. This is when Sheehan depicts another corrupt South Vietnamese soldier. Colonel Dinh, he resisted America's help in the war. He killed his own soldiers, did not want to help the villagers in any way and destroyed their villages. Vann's main goal was to stop this and gain the villagers trust. He ran pacification programs, mobilized allies among South Vietnamese forces, coordinated America's support and had many theories on how to turn the war around. Sheehan also wrote detailed descriptions of John Vann's family and the struggle he had with it during the war. From this the reader is able figure out why Vann always cheats on his wife. His mother, Myrtle was like this and it was a hard subject for John to talk about. In Vietnam Sheehan tells about two secret lovers of Vann. He could not control his sexual compulsion. His military career was almost ruined years earlier because of his affair with a babysitter. Sheehan writes a lot about Vann's character flaw. His wife divorces him later because of this. He was able to get all of this information with interviews of many people while his time in Vietnam as a correspondent. Vann wanted things to be done his way, he wanted to win. Sheehan said, "He was not supposed to accept defeat" (269). Sheehan talks about Westmoreland, the Commanding General in Vietnam and how he believed that the Viet Cong would not attack Saigon during "Tet" the Chinese New Year in 1968. Vann believed that they would and they did. Vann helped lead the fight against the VC and they were successful. Vann took a position in the South Vietnamese army. He served as general in command of the Central Highland Regime. President Nixon had ordered U.S. combat troops out of Vietnam in June of 1972. The U.S. said it was the South Vietnamese war and they are giving them more control. Sheehan in the story points out that the South Vietnamese had little interest in the war in the first place. Vann in 1972 had his coordinates in Kontum carpet-bombed by B-52's to try to wipe out the second, the third and the fifth divisions of North Vietnam. This was a big risk Vann was willing to take, because of the corrupt Dinh who changed orders and they were forced to retreat into a mine field as VC's advanced forward. Sheehan points out that Vann had a different outlook on the war. He was concerned now about his fighting and not the peasant revolution. Earlier he was bothered that, "...the United States could generate an astonishing reaction from the peasantry once corruption was eliminated and the American millions were getting down to the poor instead of being siphoned into the feeding trough of the Saigon hogs" (539). John Paul Vann soon died in a helicopter crash during a rain storm, ten years after he first arrived in South Vietnam. The biography by Neil Sheehan was very detailed about the war the way John Paul Vann experienced it. First as an Army Colonel and later a civilian pacification leader. Sheehan's book clearly shows the corruption of the South Vietnamese regime, their incompetence to fight Ho Chi Minh's Communists and their brutal alienation of their own people. Vann was able to bring these secrets out to reporters like Neil Sheehan to inform the public of what was going on in South Asia. This brings up the question that what if the military and government leaders had listened to Vann's earlier assessments of the weakness of the South Vietnamese military and the Diem regime? What would have been different? This book was very well written and brings much of the war right out into the light. If the reader does not have much knowledge of the war in Vietnam, this is the book to read. Vann personified our good intentions, our courage, our arrogance and are folly in the war. There is one shortcoming of the book. The book ends after Vann's death in a helicopter crash. The reader is left there wanting to know more about the events in Vietnam after his death.

Neil Sheehan's book on the experience of John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam is one of the handful of essential readings on that era.

We follow the life of Vann in Vietnam and through his life see the American involvement from a unique perspective. Both as an officer and later a government official Vann was actively engaged and dedicated to the Amercican cause. The contrast between a superpowers strategy and the story of one man's involvement is wonderfully done. Biography, diplomatic history and war intertwine. The story documents the leadership's willingness to believe what they wanted to hear, Vann's attempts to illuminate the realities in the field to them and his struggle to implement what he considered the correct actions.

Sheehan is an excellent writer and weaves a narrative that is informative, exciting and sometimes opinionated. His bio of John Paul Vann serves as the vehicle to expose the hopes and failures of the American involvement.

An excellent telling of an American tragedy, well deserving of the Pulitzer. Highly recommended.

I really enjoyed the book A Blessing Over Ashes because it was a different kind of book that I normally would not read. The book was very informative and I learned a lot about Cambodia that I never knew before. People should read this book if they like to read about other countries, or if they like to read true stories. A Blessing Over Ashes is the story of a Cambodian boy trying to escape his war torn country. He eventually finds his way to America to live with a family that treats him like their own son. I was fasinated reading about the journey that Soeuth the main charactor had to endure ub order to finally get to America. How the Fifield family accepts Soeuth into their family is inspirational. To me, this book represented a mix of a series of journey and a survival. Soeuth has to survive in a country engulfed in hatred and war. His escape took immense courage and I admired Soeuth for his determination. I hope others will consider reading A Blessing Over Ashes so that they, too, may experience the sheer determation and courage of a young Cambodian boy who will inspire them as he did me.

A blessing over ashes is about the history of Cambodia, and many people's lifestyles being interrupted by the warring of the Angka soldiers, and, more specifically, about the life of one Cambodian, and his journey out of Cambodia, to America, and eventually, back to his native homeland. Now hearing that general statement about some content of the book, here are some feelings about the story I had when I read it. . . . .......

I was sickened and almost horrified when reading some of the senseless things that went on in Cambodia when Seouth was there. However, with this serious sense of relation came a serious sense of compation. Seouth was very brave and never gave up. I felt sad for him and his family, as well as every other Cambodian who was tortured, killed or pillaged at all. The fact that this could happen was mind boggling. His survival, he knows, depends souly on himself, as a refugee, an outsider, now in America. He works harder than most "natives" of America could ever think of, and spends his measly earnings on his family and relatives. This fact alone made me feel that Seouth had a lot of love in his heart, and a lot of support for his family and people's culture.

Billl " RALPHY " Clinton

A remarkable story of a boy's life in Cambodia and journey to America. "A Blessing Over Ashes" is a touching story of two brothers struggling to get through teenage years together. Soeuth --the refugee--has had to escape the Khmer Rouge and the war that was going on in his country. He lost his family in the war, and thought they were dead. Soeuth came to America not knowing his last name or real age. Adam, the author and oldest son in the family, becomes friends with Soeuth and share the struggles of being in high school and the struggles they meet in life.

Its a book worth buying and reading. A great read for all ages and a sad story about growing up in life and all the joys that come with it. It is a book that is well worth taking the time to read!

John Laurence was a CBS-TV journalist during the Vietnam War. Now, thirty years later, he has pulled together all his recollections, notes and collected data in this in-depth tome, fully 841 pages long. Its physical weight alone meant that it was too heavy for me to carry around, and so I kept it at my bedside, reading only a few pages at a time each night and taking more than six months to finally finish it. This gave me a chance to fully digest the impact of the thousands of details that make up his story, bringing me right into the heart of the action, and sharing his experience of the conflict as he was living it.

In 1968, during the Tet Offensive in the city of Hue, amidst the bombing and destruction, he found an abandoned kitten with a feisty personality. To him, this symbolized the strong will of the North Vietnamese enemies. He adopted the kitten who then shows up sporadically during the long narrative, always getting into trouble, attacking other cats and generally being a nuisance. The author came to love this cat however, and the reader can sense the author's humanity in the way he cared for his pet.

The book is filled with hundreds of direct quotes from the men in the field, descriptions of day-to-day life in a war zone, the challenges of filming the war "up close" and getting the film to CBS on time for broadcast, the camaraderie and competition among the journalists, the physical discomfort of life in the field, compassion for the horrors experienced by both the soldiers and the Vietnamese people and the sharpened senses of knowing your life is always in danger. There were several incidents of conflict between the journalists and military brass and an incident captured on film when some soldiers made their own choices rather than accept an unwise command. There were also descriptions of drug and alcohol use, both among the men and the journalists, and some wild plane rides. Underlying all this, the question of "why" was always there.

I felt I was right there with Mr. Laurence, throughout the book - observing the carnage and meeting the people, enjoying brief respites from the violence, and, most of all, bringing the story to the people back home as a witness to his times. I learned facts in this book. And felt emotion. But, most of all, it made me think, and that is where the strength of this writing lies. I give this book an extremely high recommendation. It's a slow read. But definitely worthwhile.

Book Review: "The Cat from Hue: a Vietnam War Story" by John Laurence.

Reading a book like this and knowing the 8 ½ years it took to finish makes one appreciate the words more. A very well written book with no details left out. It is one of the good reading books about Vietnam.

Part I is about Hue in 1968. His first-hand experience with the Marines as they tried to retake the city of Hue. It was during this street-fighting that the cat was found, later to return to Saigon with him and finally back to the United States. The cat named Meo then took control of whatever place it found itself in.

As journalists they were not tied down and were able to leave the battle area and return to Saigon to complete putting together the story and get it sent back to the States to be shown on the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite. He spent time with all of the units of the military while they went about the duties of accomplishing the assigned mission. Many times they humped it with the grunts and lived as they did in that foreign country so far away. Returning to Saigon for R & R between assignments to regain their senses Jack writes about things that the grunts never were able to see, the relaxing times in Saigon.

Part II starts after a chance encounter with a member of the advance party of the 1st Cavalry Division and he is able to see for the first time An Khe, which would become the first home of the 1st Cavalry Division. The101st Airborne Division was providing security and conducting operations in the area around An Khe while the 1st Cavalry Division moved in. He covered operations by the 101st Airborne Division then moved up north to cover the Marine units. A short visit to some Air Force units including a ride during a support mission in those famed A-1E's that were the workhorse for close-in support.

With the attack on the Plei Me Special Forces camp in progress, the battle of Ia Drang was beginning. A trip to the Special Forces Camp and then, as luck would have it, he was back in Saigon to file that story when the battle fought by the 3d Brigade of the 1st Cavalry Division unfolded, with results that would be talked about and discussed for years to come.

Operation Masher and later called White Wing where many battles were fought receives some coverage as do battles after that, but then as with the Military when your tour is over you return to the States. At this time, May, 1966 Jack does not realize it but he will return to Vietnam to cover a much greater story.

In part III, he writes about working in the States and describes some of the stories covered, easy reading but not stories about Vietnam. Returning to Vietnam in August, 1967, he covers many battles and encounters by many units, in May 1968 he again returned to the United States and writes about his life after returning the second time, this time with the Cat named Meo.

During this stay in New York the talk of returning to Vietnam again starts, to result in the planning of a return trip in 1970 to do a feature story on one group of troopers and their daily life in the bush. Many days and nights and also the few times they were able to get out of the bush is described in easy reading detail in Part IV.

Part IV is set in March, 1970. Returning to Vietnam, he describes the events that lead to Charlie Company, 2d Battalion 7th Cavalry, where until censorship was imposed by higher headquarters Jack and his team spent the days and nights following in the footsteps of a Charlie Company squad lead by Sgt Lyman (Gene) Dunnuck. The series started and coverage of some of it being shown nightly on CBS News. Then as happened so many times in Vietnam, a change of company commanders, which leads to the censorship. But, as Jack describes the continued daily miracle that has followed him throughout his time in Vietnam, it happened again and he found himself with Charlie Company to cover their first assault into Cambodia. A final return to Charlie Company to wrap up the coverage and put an ending on the story was arranged. Jack made one last visit to the 11th ACR and then after a short stay in the 377th Air Force hospital in Saigon, he returned with all the haunting memories of three tours covering Vietnam.

Many years have passed since June of 1970 and the final result 8 ½ years of much hard work has produced 850 pages, a history of the War in Vietnam through the eyes of a CBS correspondent. Reading these pages provides the reader with an accurate account of the daily lives of combat units and their first-hand reflections as they counted remaining days till they returned to the United States. Humor is in these pages and a change of writing to bring the reader out of the pages that much of the time brings tears and memories.

Of all of the names mentioned throughout the book early research into finding out what has happened to the men of Charlie Company and what they are doing now has found that Sgt Lyman (Gene) Dunnuck passed away a few years ago.

Jack Laurence now lives in rural England with a tribe of cats but Meo is no longer with him having used up his nine lives and joined the fight elsewhere.

At long last, more than 25 years after the shooting stopped, legendary television war-correspondent John Laurence has written what might be called the last, final "bookend" volume to a stunning but uneven cascade of post-WWII, post-Korea war reports, starting with David Halberstam's "The Making of a Quagmire." Laurence's massive undertaking -- 848 pages --goes from the innocence and wildness of the 60s generation through the eventual horror of a nation and its leaders, to a re-thinking of imperialism and democracy in the 21st Century. "The Cat From Hue" -- and there really IS a cat from Hue -- conveys America's learning process and its consequences, examined by one of the architects of "the living-room war." Whether you've read all of "the Vietnam books," or none of them, "The Cat From Hue" delivers what the publisher calls "enlightened non-fiction," complete with foolish and fatal anecdotes, revelations of reporters perfecting their craft, and finding the truth, in the field and in the Alice-in-Wonderland world of "the military media." Laurence's carefully-kept notes and recordings provide a factual underpinning for a style that rivals Hammett, Forsythe and even Graham Greene in the depth, swagger and surprise of its findings.

I thoroughly enjoyed Le Ly Hayslip's account of her Vietnam War experience. Hayslip presents her story in a way that does not invoke sympathy from the reader; the story instead represents a call for action from the reader. Hayslip story is the heroic journey of a Vietnamese girl, and she effectively presents the numerous dimensions of the war in ways that relate to both Americans and Vietnamese Americans. I recommend Hayslip's novel to anyone wishing to learn more about this war and specifically any student of American history or culture. This story has the ability to bridge the gaps opened by the Vietnam War that have yet to be closed.

I read this book because it was assigned for an English class. Half way through the book, I hated it because it was too brutal and unsettling for somebody who knew nothing about the Vietnam War. It's hard to believe how anyone could have experienced, and yet endured all that Le Ly went through. I didn't appreciate reading about the gory and cruel details that she experienced, but after reading half way through the book, I couldn't put it down either. In the end, I really learned something about the war that most of the younger generations today never learned.. and even if we did, it was probably from the grotesquely portrayed account by Hollywood films.

This is a good book, and I have learned something truly valuable. I will never think of Vietnam war or Veterans day the same way I did before I read this book.

"Le Ly Hayslip had always been in-between south and north, east and west, peace and war, Vietnam and America. It has been her life and fate to be in-between Heaven and Earth." When Heaven and Earth Changed Places is a story of a woman from a small village in Vietnam called Ky La. The author, Le Ly Hayslip, is just another victim of the Vietnam War. The brutality of the war created separation in her family, destruction of an individual, and distrust among formerly warm-hearted neighbors. She was born the youngest of six children in a close-knit Buddhist family. Throughout her childhood, the peace breaks into pieces due to the war. Le Ly, as a little girl, serves the Viet Cong fighters, and she is honored for courageously surviving tortures in prison when captured by the government. The book focuses on the individual¡¯s emotional and physical outcomes caused by the war. If one wants to know the reality of what the effects of the war are, this book is definitely recommended. As an Asian, I was attracted to the story of the life of this Vietnamese woman. As I read, I found there was something very extraordinary about her life that stirred my emotions. To the public, this story is well known through the movie, "Heaven and Earth." As the movie was enjoyed by numerous moviegoers, the book will be appreciated by people of all ages, especially those who are interested in the Vietnam War.

For most Americans, the evacuation of Saigon in April 1975 marked the end of the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War at the price of over 58,000 dead servicemen and women. For a few hundred sailors, airmen, and Marines however, it ended two weeks later, with 41 more men giving their lives during heavy fighting not with North Vietnamese soldiers, but with Cambodian Khmer Rouge.

In The Last Battle, author Ray Wetterhahn tells the story of the seizing of the U.S. merchant ship S.S. Mayaguez in international waters off the coast of Cambodia by Khmer Rouge forces, and the U.S. military operation conducted to rescue the 40 civilian crew members. This operation was hailed as a victory for the presidential administration, a victory by the Khmer Rouge, a failure by troops in the action, and a debacle in leadership and command and control by military officers who participated.

As the story of this rescue operation unfolds, Wetterhahn describes in startling detail the mindset of President Gerald Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, operational commanders, pilots and crews, Marines on Koh Tang Island, the crew of the Mayaguez, and the Khmer Rouge soldiers. A retired officer and Vietnam veteran with service in both the Navy and Air Force, he begins the story on the beaches of Koh Tang, where U.S. military members of Joint Task Force - Full Accounting (JTF-FA) are searching for the remains of 18 men killed during the rescue operation over twenty years before. While researching a story on JTF-FA and their recovery efforts, Wetterhahn discovers that three Marines may have been left alive on Koh Tang during the operation. Over the next five years, Wetterhahn's travels take him from the jungles of Koh Tang and Cambodia to the backwoods of West Virginia, where he tracks down the commanders, the troops, the politicians, and even the Khmer Rouge commander on Koh Tang. Shockingly, he confirms the worst fears of the Marine Commanders in 1975: a three-man machine gun team was left alive on Koh Tang, captured, imprisoned, and subsequently executed.

With the ending of America's involvement in the Vietnam War falling during the Ford presidential administration, a resounding victory and show of force was needed to prove to Americans that the administration was well equipped to handle any crisis. The Johnson administration failed to act when a similar event happened in 1968 as the North Koreans seized the USS Pueblo, and were criticized by the American media during the eleven months of the crew's captivity, and interrogation, prior to their release. President Ford would not let this happen on his watch.

The advanced communications capabilities available in 1975 allowed President Ford, with Secretary Kissinger close at hand, to control nearly the entire operation from the comfort of the Oval Office. Breaking every rule of leadership and command and control, and him being a former Naval Officer, Ford and his staff began directing naval and air forces, and U.S. Marines toward Cambodia and Thailand. Not to be surpassed in poor leadership decisions, the Marine Corps chose as its ground combat element 2d Battalion, 9th Marine Regiment, a newly reported unit to Okinawa, instead of 1st Battalion, 9th Marine Regiment, which was nearing completion of a one-year rotation and was fully trained and acclimatized to the South Pacific. Extension of a unit past its 12-month mark required extensive administrative efforts, and would not be approved by Headquarers, Marine Corps.

In the 48 hours following the seizure of the Mayaguez, reports from pilots, imagery analysis, and diplomatic information began pouring in to Ford. Critical information was summarized ad reduced to little value and a key item was lost in the shuffle: a pilot saw numerous Caucasian men being transported to the Cambodian mainland in a trawler from Koh Tang Island.

Wetterhahn's interviews of military commanders and soldiers reveal that the Marines received no imagery of Koh Tang island prior to the mission, radio frequencies were not exchanged between air and naval forces, and the mission commander attempted to direct the entire mission, to include forward air control, on one tactical radio frequency. When the Air Force helicopters attempted to land the first Marines on the beaches, they landed directly in the line of fire of entrenched machine guns and within rocket range. Three helicopters were shot down in the first 40 minutes.

Just three hours after the first Marines hit the beach of Koh Tang, Cambodia released the Mayaguez crew from where they were held on the mainland. As the celebration and press conferences begin in Washington, Ford orders the cessation of operations in Cambodia. The battle raged on for nine more hours before the Marines could be extracted. Two hours later, it was determined three Marines were unaccounted for. When Wetterhahn asked former President Ford if he was ever told that three Marines were left behind, he replied, "Not to my best recollection."

Wetterhahn's investigative reporting is unparalleled, as he doggedly sought to find the truth behind the missing three Marines and what really happened on Koh Tang. Previous books have been written regarding the Mayaguez Incident, but The Last Battle encapsulates all aspects of the operation and lets the reader see the chaos of war and the results of poor leadership, at every level. While this story is titled The Last Battle, only through respect for the men who gave their lives attacking an island with no value and no prisoners, should it not be named The Last Blunder.

Surely the real Last Battle was the personal struggle Major Wetterhahn faced in getting to the facts, including some horrible truths, so long hidden behind the Mayaguez incident.

As a Vietnam-era veteran, I never would have thought I could read about the Khmer Rouge's role in the war without the bile rising in my throat, but Wetterhahn has done a masterful job of rising above the politics and loyalties of the day to show soldiers of both sides mired in the literal and figurative muck of battle, and particularly the political muck of the Vietnam War that this book so adeptly summarizes.

Expertly edited, I have only one beef with The Last Battle. In his closing comments, Wetterhahn contrasts the efforts expended on behalf of the ficitional Private Ryan (Saving Private Ryan) to the fact that no one went back for our abandonded Marines. That's not true, Ralph. You went back and back and dug and dug until you found them. Thank you!

Colonel Wetterhahn has done a valuable service for the families of all those Americans, civilian and military, who went missing in Cambodia. The nitty-gritty battle details will naturally cause argument among those who had the honor of participating in the battle, but the description of the battle just sets the stage for the final act, the withdrawal without all hands accounted for and the strangely unexplained failure to cordon the isolated island until the fate of those left behind could be established without doubt. That live Marine prisoners could possibly have been allowed to be moved off the island seems shocking. Much of the information in "The Last Battle" will come as a surprise even to those Americans who thought they understood the Mayaguez "incident" and the action on Koh Tang. These same waters off the Cambodian coast claimed American lives several times during the Khmer Rouge era. The newly-published book "The Eagle Mutiny" by Linnett and Loiederman tells the story of mutiny aboard an American munitions ship during 1970 which culminated in the death of one of the mutineers (Clyde McKay) and another US Army deserter (Larry Humphrey) at the hands of the Khmer Rouge. Khmer Rouge naval forces under the command of Meah Muth, the son-in-law of Ta Mok, went on to capture four Americans (James William Clark, Lance Macnamara, Michael Scott Deeds, and Christopher Delance) and five other Westerners off the Cambodian coast during 1978 and sent them to be tortured and executed at the infamous Tuol Sleng prison in Phnom Penh. Meah Muth and Ta Mok as well as KR executioner-in-chief Duch (who has admitted killing the Americans at Tuol Sleng and claims to have disposed of the bodies on the personal order of Nuon Chea) have just this week been named as top candidates for an international tribunal on other crimes against humanity. Perhaps then these stories, like the aftermath of most wars, never really come to a full conclusion. What is certain is that Colonel Wetterhahn has once again performed beyond the call of duty. His efforts should serve as an example to all those involved in what the nation proclaims to be the search for "the fullest possible accounting", and hopefully those that disagree with the author's conclusions on the fate of the lost machinegun team will be motivated to travel to Cambodia and investigate for themselves. Action trumps argument.

I'm not a vet; I have no real personal connection with Vietnam or the war. Nor was any required to experience Dispatches. It's as much a poem about the condition of men at war, any men, any war, as it is the story of Herr's year as a war correspondent. It's not a history of the war; you won't find a handy map and glossary in the back. (If you honestly don't know what words like di di, zip, grunt, 16, and DMZ mean, I suggest you bone up on your history before trying this.) However, if you're even mildly knowledgeable, there's nothing to prevent you from feeling the full impact of the language here. And what language! If I ever manage to write anything half so eloquent, so beautiful, and so horrifying in my life, I'll be content to shut the laptop and walk away without writing another word.

Herr describes, in brief and sometimes disjointed vignettes, his experience as a war correspondent: the fear of death, the love of the machinery, the media-driven fantasies, the ambivalence of the troops towards the correspondents, and the correspondents' ambivalence about the troops, the misery of Khe Sanh, the frustrated schemes of the bureacracy, the myth and the reality of the drug-taking, foul-talking, anti-establishment reporters who supposedly "lost us the war".

I've probably been overstating this, but I love this book.

It is not the content the distinguishes Michael Herr's "Dispatches," it is the delivery. Herr is an excellent reporter who risked life and limb to cover the Vietnam War. The book is his account of what he saw there. What he saw was young American soldiers, far from home fighting a war few of them understood against an frustratingly elusive enemy. If this sounds like the subject matter for many Vietnam books, it is. But Herr's writing is so evocative ans so powerful that many of his descriptions will stay with you for a long time after you've put it down. Along with Phillip Caputo's "A Rumor of War," and Fredrick Downs's "The Killing Zone," this is one of the best personal accounts of the Vietnam War available.

A warts-and-all account of the Vietnam War. Possibly the best book on this subject in the last thirty years, Michael Herr gives us an objective look into the horror of combat without looking through the eyes of rose-tainted patriotism. He invokes the dread and chaos of the battlefield and weighs out the whims of human behaviour, bravery and insanity, meekness and humanity, without the judgement or condemnation that might be meted out by a loftier author.

Herr's use of brutal imagery absorbed me into his savage surroundings. From the soldier who can't stop drooling as a result of a particularly dreadful gun battle, to the scenes of the dead, American and Vietnamese, adult and infant, on eclectic battlefields and village streets.

The characters are real people in a situation that most of them neither like nor understand. They are young men who invoke the same shortcomings we all have. But they are a step above the common reader. They are professional soldiers and act that way despite their misgivings. They push past the boundaries of fear and into the realms of heroism or insanity or death. Everyone that he introduces is individual. There are no carbon copy soldiers here. They are funny or musical or religious or delusional, whatever their idiosyncrasy may be. I felt as though I was being introduced to people I knew throughout the book.

Most books on the topic of war that I have read tend to stay with one platoon. Herr constantly shifts places and battalions and makes the reader feel as though he/she is part of something bigger. There is no single climax in the book. An honest reflection of that war perhaps. Each chapter is as horrific and exhilarating as the next.

The length of it, in particular, displays an author who wants to show us the bare bones: no hyperbolic descriptions that eventually desensitise us to the events, no ivory-tower pensive soliloquies to the tragedy of war. Michael Herr gives us the facts and trusts the reader's intelligence to decide.

This is a very interesting book that can be read on and off. Obviously it says a lot about how Singapore developed over the past 30-odd years. Indeed, just go to Kuala Lumpur or Jakarta and you can see Singapore's achievement - much of it due to Lee Kuan Yew.

In a way, it would be nice to applaud LKY, but his conceit is so great that's just not possible. He has a ludicrously inflated view of himself, not least as a world statesman sought after by other leaders for advice. He doesn't have a solitary ounce of humility. He dwells on trivialities too much, while his response to criticism - including that from the media and opponents - shows he's incapable of dealing with it, except through twisted legal or authoritarian means.

One achievement he forgets to mention is that Singapore has achieved the seemingly impossible: it's made Chinese people lose their entrepreneurial spirit.

I haven't got there yet, but the gist of last page will be something like:

"And when the final curtain comes down and I depart from the Garden City up into the even greater Garden City in the neverworld above - the one with an even taller hotel, bigger fountain of wealth and busier container port - I hope I'm remembered as a humble man who knew his strengths - many - and recognised his weaknesses - none whatsoever.

I've had a happy life, apart from the last ten years with that imposter Mr Goh in charge. Who does he think he is? He is but a caretaker manager, to use that old British footballing term (ah, England... that green and pleasant land, where name-dropping meant something and I was regular and welcome guest at the highest tables [Top Table: "Lee Kwan who?"]), keeping the hot seat hot for my son.

And when I say "hot," I mean "warm." If I hear a word about those good-looking bodyguards who go jogging in the dewy dawn with my boy, I'll be onto my lawyers immediately. And by strange coincidence, just as my son is clearly the most able and uniquely qualified candidate to be PM, so the judge at court will have not doubt worked at my law firm. Aaargh... I already feel more damages on the way.

I leave as my legacy a few words of compassion for my foes - "rot in hell" - and a new shopping mall for my friends - one that's close to where they're building an MRT station and some property I own. Farewell."

There are two parts to this book.

First part is about development of Singapore - social, economic and political. The second part deals with foreign relations.

As an Indian, I truly admire Singapore. From what it was in 1965 to what it is today, is an educating experience. Awesome to most third world nations - fighting poverty, population growth and other social maladies.

Lee Kwan Yew had a clear vision, set himself clear goals. Above all, what led to his success is his execution skills.

Rule of law certainly helped. What I adore is the team he surrounded with to create such laws and ensure its implementation regardless of obstacles.

Singapore is a wealthy society today. Secure economically and politically.

In my observation, he had 3 primary principles towards building a nation
a) Rule of Law
b) creating a fair society (not welfare society)
c) Expenses less than income (as simple as that)

All his domestic policies were based on above principles.

I like the way he treated hawkers in Singapore's streetwalks. While ensuring cleanliness of Singapore, he provided alternative solutions so that hawkers continued their business for livelihood in a better environment. Contrast this to Maharashtra government's (Indian state) efforts in cleaning and sprucing up Mumbai's Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus area. Vendors keep coming back.

Singaporeans enjoy high savings rate, because of CPF. A guaranteed security for its citizens when they retire. Contrast this to America's 401k. When Enron collapsed, savings of many employees evaporated even as executives pocketed millions in bonus pays!

Although Singapore is a free market economy, its philosophy concerning workers and employees are caring and genuine, unlike in the United States.

Singapore is an epitome of benign dictator ship, democracy, capitalism and socialism co-existing for the general welfare of the nation.

Lee's book is a revelation for all countries of the world. The three primary principles can act as a catalyst is resolving problems.

Mr. Yew has been critisized for arrogance, for violating civil liberties and for creating a society that borders closely on a 'Brave New World'. During his tenure Singapore severed its ties with Malaysia. He locked heads with Indonesia. He also exported Singapores expertise to other countries like Pakistan and Sti Lanka. This book chronocles this journey. From 1965-2000. Most interesting is Yews insights into the countries around his. His meetings with asian leaders and the discriptions enclosed are indespensible. Mr. Yew talks with candor and directness about the role of democracy and capitalism in the world. He critisizes his neighboors, like India, who persued state-planning.

FOr those the critisize Mr. Yew one has only to look at the standard of living in Singapore and the standard of living in the neighbooring countries to see the disasters of communism and socialism. SIngapore is one of the cleanest and richest countries in Asia. Why? Because its leader spent time helping the people build themselves up then waisting his time making polemical speeches about development and non-aligned status.

This book is a gripping read and puts you strongly on LKY's side in the battle for freeing Singapore from the grips of the colonial British, the communists and finally the Malaysians. Very eye-opening for those Westerners who can't understand how this society came to be both so modern and remain so authoritarian. Full of personal honesty and insight.

LKY is one of the most amazing statespersons this century and is certainly one with incredible political skill - Singapore couldn't be half the country it is today without him. To have coexisted with communists in his party for 10 years and to still have kept his integrity took an inordinate amount of personal character - a strength which has served Singapore enormously well.

However, one complaint I have is that Mr. Lee does not provide a lot of personal insight into what drove him in the battle for Singapore - nowhere in the book does he talk about how or why his love for a free Singapore became so strong, and there is not a lot of insight into the source of his own strengths (of which there are many) and weaknesses (of which he has a few). He seems to have picked up views early on which have never lessened, even as times have changed - for example, he admits that he learned the importance of strong penalties for crimes from his experiences during the Japanese occupation in World War II, yet 50 years on Singapore is the country in the world with the highest number of executions per capita, even more than China - is it really still as important for the country to be as authoritarian now as the Japanese were in wartime?

Also, although Mr. Lee owns up to his mistakes along the way quite openly, he doesn't provide his personal motives behind his long struggle, his feelings for his actions and friends, even when he was clearly overcame as in his breakdown during his independence press conference in August 1965, and the reasons why he was so much more perceptive and successful than other leaders. I hope to see more introspection in the second volume. A wonderful read, nonetheless.

"Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew is one of the brightest, ablest men I have ever met. The Singapore Story is a must read for people interested in a true Asian success story. From this book we also learn a lot about the thinking of one of this century's truly visionary statesmen." -- George Bush

A comment by George Bush caught my eyes about this book. It is no doubt a great book and a must read for all races...

Lee Kuan Yew is one of the most misunderstood leaders in the world. "Helicopter" journalists, on 3 day visits, without appreciation of local conditions think that all societies can be governed the same way. Even foreigners who reside in Singapore do not appreciate how each society can be very different beneath the veener of the skyscrapers in an urban society. Lee does not subscribe to "isms" but views society in the necessary harsh light of social Darwinism. All these are evident from his book. This is a very candid and critical look at a certain period of the Singapore history of which he was the main player, though not the only one, as he himself acknowledges in the book. The battles he fought againt (the colonialists, the chauvinists, the communalists, the communists), the qualities he personified (hard work, integrity, trust, discipline, courage, leadership, imagination)and the policies he pursued (free market, strong defence, meritocracy, social cohesion, clean government, emphasis on education) all have stood Singapore well and are now making it stand out in a region ravaged by economic turmoil. This book is therefore very important for politicians. It teaches that good government is hard work but that once entrusted with the people's will to govern, politicians must do away with easy and populist measures and govern with intelligence, integrity and imagination.

This massive work manages to convey both the broader sense of history that many other books lack and an excellent history of the war itself.UNderstanding the country's history is crucial to understanding the folly of our involvement there and the author carefully portrays both the roots of the country's nationalism and its long history of tragedy and conflict.Karnow also goes to great pains to remain objective about the war and for this reason this is the best factual account of the war itself. He does not have an axe to grind as do many of the book's successors. All other books must compare themselves to this one, and all historians of the war must read Karnow's book. However, Karnow's objectivity makes this book read like a textbook, it is difficult to plow through at times, though the work is well worth it. For pure histroy, read it, but if you are also interested in a more passionate account of the war, read A Bright Shining Lie or The Best and the Brightest. Those books will have you in tears by the end, this book will merely increase your knowledge of this seminal event.

As is related in the beginning of this book, Vietnam: A History is well read in Vietnam today--probablly due to the fact-based, unbiased, reporting style the author uses.

The book is split into two divisions. The first, containing a vast history of Vietnam, which can be laborious to get through, yet for history buffs, worth the effort. Second, the Vietnam War.

It is the second part of the book which will leave the readers awed by the ineptness and corruption of U.S. & South Vietnamese leadership--both military and political, especially at top levels--angry by the uninformedness of the American people, and shocked by the great cost in lives and property to two warring groups, whose involvement and happening was entirely preventable.

Probably no other person was, or is better qualified to write the Vietnam story than Stanley Karnow, who lived in Paris in the 1950's, as a U.S. foreign news correspondent during France's fight for dominance in Vietnam. He also interviewed numerous key participants. He dug into once classifed U.S. documents to reveal unknown information, and he researched and reported on the recollections of high-level polticians, dignataries, military leaders, and the soldiers, men, and women who fought on both sides.

An outstanding work!

I'd recommed reading "Paris in the Fifties" by the same author as a primer to this book.

"Vietnam: A History" is a masterfully written history of America's involvement in Vietnam - certainly one of the two best single-volume histories (along with "A Bright Shining Lie," by Neil Sheehan) of America's most regrettable war that I've read. Written by Stanley Karnow, a former Southeast Asian correspondent for "Time" and "Life" magazines, and "The Washington Post," this book is a comprehensive and fascinating look at the Vietnam war, from its underlying causes at the end of World War II, to the final takeover of South Vietnam by its Communist neighbor, North Vietnam, in April 1975.

Karnow delivers with crisp and precise prose an account of the Vietnam War which is both fair and objective. He analyzes the conflict from both the political and military standpoint, and is unsparing in his criticism of errors made by political and military leaders on all sides of the conflict. Three areas of this book were especially interesting to me: first, the author's account of the conflict between the French and Viet Minh, and how the French were defeated at Dienbienphu in 1954; second, how the U.S. government formulated its Vietnam policy under the Kennedy administration, and how that policy ultimately failed; and third, how Richard Nixon, upon becoming President in 1969, changed America's Vietnam policy and began the process of "Vietnamizing" the war. (Karnow's candid description of how the Kennedy administration initially supported South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem, then tacitly approved of the 1963 coup d'etat which resulted in Diem's murder is fascinating.)

"Vietnam: A History" is an essential book for the reader interested in gaining a good understanding of the war and its causes. Highly recommendable reading!

Giles Milton tells a good story. His central interest in travel writing and the history of exploration are clear from the start. Most of the book recounts stories of various expeditions, not just to the Far East but also to the Arctic, the Hudson basin and Manhattan. These are mildly linked by the competition between the Dutch and British for the spice trade.

However, the accounts of the central expeditions and the conflict over the island of Run, rely almost exclusively on British journals and diaries of the time. Thus the book reflects more the English reactions and prejudices of the time rather than giving an objective historical account. The natures of the two East India companies, the peoples of the Moluccas or the Dutch process of colonisation are sketched only very briefly. Instead life on board ship, the methods of Dutch torture and the banality of the factor's lives are given extensive treatment. While these are interesting, they do not particularly help explain the machinations which led to the Dutch control over the East Indies or the British revenge in taking Manhattan. The book's one-sided use of sources begins to get irritating by the end.

This is a very readable account of the battle for the spice islands . By the end of the sixteenth century two great powers were in decline ( Spain and Portugal ) , and two developing powers ( England and Holland ) , became involved in a series of skirmishes for the lucrative spice islands that had once been under the control of Spain and Portugal . What follows is an epic story that has just about everything in it ( trials and tribulations on the high seas , murder and intrigue , battles , disasterous voyages to discover the north east passage , cannibalism , exotic people and places , and finally treachery and torture ) .

The eponymous hero only makes a brief appearance towards the end of the book , but his heroic and ultimately tragic stand against the Dutch would have a profound effect on the British empire , and therefore the Western world . This is a book that entertains and enlightens in equal measure and is worth reading .

This was a great read...just the kind of history book that makes learning fun. Who would have thought that so much blood could be shed over what is today a relatively common spice -- nutmeg. During the 16th and 17th centuries, nutmeg was as valuable as gold and all the big players of Western Europe (Spain, Holland, and England) were eager to get in on the action. Eventually Spain dropped out of the race leaving England and Holland to wreak havoc upon each other and the natives of several South Pacific Islands. Milton's prose is wonderfully descriptive with a dash of dry, British humor in all the right places. Beware...this book is not for the soft-hearted as contains ample bloodshed and vivid torture scenes. The complete disregard that the Dutch and English had for the natives and the ecological balance of the islands can also be a bit shocking to the 21st century mind. But it is a worthwhile read nonetheless. The only thing I didn't understand was the title...Nathanial shows up towards the end of the book and although he's quite heroic, his is by no means the only story told.