This is the second review I've written because the first one didn't take. I'll leave out the foul language this time. The first reviewer (Annand) did an excellent job providing details and a synopsis. I was prepared to write a full length book report but he handled it with much more insight. I didn't serve.



I did, however, go to the library one day and looked up the September 8, 1967 copy of the LA Times on microfiche. I was born that day. There was a section separate from the obituaries that listed the casualties from the Viet Nam war. There were around 50 casualties that day. I hadn't been looking for it but there it was. A little number I couldn't quite get over. This sparked my interest in the war and I can't quite explain why. Something about being able to see myself in that situation. WW II was too distant and in black and white. I don't see myself in the current war either. It's too stupid. I wouldn't have gone.



Vietnam was different and this book hammered that point home. I was looking for something non-partisan about the war and this book was completely perfect in that sense. No anti war carping. No flag waving. Just a ton, and I mean huge amount of research and interviews for this book. Naturally, there is politics involved but you won't be able to tell if Longley is left or right. He's neither as it concerns this book and he gives each side equal footing. I just wanted to learn about the war with no filters and I had read some of Longley's work before. When I found out he wrote a book about the Viet Nam war - I ordered it immediately knowing that he plays it as a historian should...right down the middle.



I do think this type of writing will make a comeback of sorts. Maybe when people put down there frantic, one-sided political books like the type Glenn Beck writes, people will come back to actual fact driven history. I think it's in this realm that Longley will become a very important and recognized writer.

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