About Face
The Odyssey of an American Warrior
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5.0 • 5 Ratings
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- $29.99
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- $29.99
Publisher Description
Called “everything a war memoir could possibly be” by The New York Times, this all-time classic of the military memoir genre now includes a new forward from bestselling author and retired Navy SEAL Jocko Willink.
Whether he was fifteen years old or forty, David Hackworth devoted his life to the US Army and quickly became a living legend. However, he appeared on TV in 1971 to decry the doomed war effort in Vietnam.
From Korea to Berlin and the Cuban missile crisis to Vietnam, Hackworth’s story is that of an exemplary patriot, played against the backdrop of the changing fortunes of America and the US military. This memoir is the stunning indictment of the Pentagon’s fundamental misunderstanding of the Vietnam conflict and of the bureaucracy of self-interest that fueled the war. With About Face, Hackworth has written what many Vietnam veterans have called the most important book of their generation and presents a vivid and powerful portrait of patriotism.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A battle-scarred veteran of Korea, Hackworth served successive tours in Vietnam, becoming increasingly alarmed by declining standards in the Army and the dead-end policy in Southeast Asia. Matters came to a head during a 1971 television interview in which he criticized Army leadership, training and tactics in the field. For this the colonel was shamefully hounded into premature retirement, a potential Army superstar who was suddenly perceived as a dangerous renegade, according to this memoir written with freelancer Sherman. The engrossing autobiography of a fierce and fiercely outspoken warrior, it is also an inside account of the demoralization of a once-proud army during a period when ``no one could afford to tell the truth, make an error, or admit to ignorance.'' The colonel makes sweeping condemnations in this passionate, profane, sometimes intemperate book (admirers of military historian S.L.A. Marshall will cringe at Hackworth's savage attack). In the end he calls the army ``this rotten whore I'd been in love with for twenty years.'' Photos. Military Book Club main selection; author tour.
