Letters from Vietnam
Voices of War
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- $5.99
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
“No heroes, everyone did their part, and everyone was scared to death.”
They are the words of soldier Mark W. Harms in 1968, summing up his combat experience during the Vietnam War. His stunning letter home is just one of hundreds featured in this unforgettable collection, Letters from Vietnam. In these affecting pages are the unadorned voices of men and women who fought–and, in some cases, fell–in America’s most controversial war. They bring new insights and imagery to a conflict that still haunts our hearts, consciences, and the conduct of our foreign policy.
Here are the early days of the fight, when adopting a kitten, finding gold in a stream, or helping a local woman give birth were moments of beauty amid the brutality . . . shattering first-person accounts of firefights, ambushes, and bombings (“I know I will never be the same Joe.”–Marine Joe Pais) . . . and thoughtful, pained reflections on the purpose and progress of the entire Southeastern Asian cause (“All these lies about how we’re winning and what a great job we’re doing . . . It’s just not the same as WWII or the Korean War.” –Lt. John S. Taylor.)
Here, too, are letters as vivid as scenes from a film–Brenda Rodgers’s description of her wedding to a soldier on the steps of Saigon City Hall . . . Airman First Class Frank Pilson’s recollection of President Johnson’s ceremonial dinner with the troops (“He looks tired and worn out–his is not an easy job”) . . . and, perhaps most poignant, Emil Spadafora’s beseeching of his mother to help him adopt an orphan who is a village’s only survivor (“This boy has nothing, and his future holds nothing for him over here.”)
From fervent patriotism to awakening opposition, Letters from Vietnam captures the unmistakable echoes of this earlier era, as well as timeless expressions of hope, horror, fear, and faith.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this second collection of letters from Vietnam, Adler presents more candid accounts by soldiers and support personnel of their wartime experiences: soldiers reflect on their brushes with the Viet Cong, and nurses chronicle the daily effort to cope with war's physical and psychological tolls. Helicopter pilot James Michener muses to his parents:"How odd and unpredictable are individual men's destinies. One dies. One lives. A third observes each and writes about both." Chief Warrant Officer Anthony De Angelis recounts to his wife a recent firefight and asks her to forgive him for losing the St. Christopher charm she had given him, while career army officer James Lincoln describes slogging through rice paddies yoked with a new M-60 with the Vietnamese company he advises. USAID worker Brenda Rodgers describes her Saigon nuptials to Major Hal Rodgers in a mock wedding announcement to her family, and five Red Cross women recount their daily routine in a too brief, stream of consciousness laundry list, which ranges from the mundane activities of rolling their hair and unpacking medical supplies to the sobering meditation of"walking past our bunker and hoping we'd never have to use it." South Vietnamese civilians and allies also appear in the letters, praised by their American colleagues for their persistence and endurance during the decade-long conflict. Major Nguyen-Tien-Sung writes to the mother of his American counterpart extolling her son's efforts to help an orphaned Vietnamese boy. He thanks her for her vicarious help in the struggle, and adds"Please pray God to shorten this war, Madam." This intimate peek at a controversial conflict is an insightful read for anyone interested in the collective memory of American intervention in Vietnam.
