Book Review: The Vietnam War

Book Review: 'The Vietnam War' edited by Ray Bonds

5 / 5 Stars

'The Vietnam War' first was published by Salamander Books in the UK in 1979; in the U.S., this version (248 pp) was published by Crown, also in 1979.

In 1988 an updated edition (264 pp) was released by Crown under the 'Military Press' imprint.

A revised, third edition was published in 1997 under the Salamander Books imprint.

I still remember going into Oakdale Mall Waldenbooks on a cool evening in May 1979 (in my hometown in upstate New York, May was a 'sketchy' month, weather-wise: you could get light snow at the beginning of the month, and at its end, sweltering temps) and seeing this book on a table in the back part of the store. 

I was astounded. Up till this time, books on the Vietnam War had been limited to novels and biographies, like A Rumor of War and Born on the Forth of July.  

Leave it to the Brits to do what they do so well: these heavily illustrated, tiny-font, multi-author military histories, exemplified by the Purnell's History of the Second World War, a series of 128 magazines first issued in 1966.

[ Indeed, it would be another two years before the U.S. publishing industry caught up, in the form of Setting the Stage, the first volume in Time Life Books' 25-volume juggernaut, The Vietnam Experience. ]

Needless to say, I grabbed a copy of The Vietnam War and avidly read it. At the time it was the best single-volume military history of the war.

And, I would argue, it retains that status even today.

For one thing, it features a full-color section, titled 'Weapons and warfare techniques used in Vietnam', that excels in presenting those aspects of the war. The diagrams and illustrations are top-notch.

Being mindful that the contents of first edition of The Vietnam War were written 40 years ago, all in all, they remain reasonably valid as historical accounts. Not surprisingly, for a multi-author compilation they vary a bit in quality. However, reflecting the fact that most of the contributors are professional historians, for the most part they avoid overindulgence in editorial judgments and political rhetoric, and stay focused on narratives at the strategic and tactical levels.

One understandable gap in the book's coverage is the experience of the war on the part of the Vietcong and the North Vietnamese forces; there is a chapter titled 'The development of the Communist armies', by Lt. Col. David Miller, that is informative on the topic despite the paucity of sources available from the Communist side back in the late 70s.

It is unfair to compare The Vietnam War with Max Hastings' recent (2018) book Vietnam: An Epic Tragedy, 1945 - 1975, for at 896 pp in length Hastings' book has the advantage of length and access to the bounty of sourcing that has accumulated since 1979. 

But Hastings' book has its own flaws alongside its merits, and for those unwilling to tackle such a hefty volume, The Vietnam War remains a very affordable alternative. I certainly believe that The Vietnam War is as good as, if not better than, the other one-volume histories of the war that were published in the early 80s, such as Stanley Karnow's Vietnam: A History (1983) and Michael MacLear's The Ten Thousand Day War (1981).

Summing, despite its age, The Vietnam War still serves as a very accessible history of the military aspects of the conflict. The fact that copies in good condition still can be had for very reasonable prices makes it worth picking up should you see it on the shelf of your favorite used bookstore.

The Tower King episodes 7 - 9

The Tower King
episodes 7 - 9
Alan Hebden (writer)
Jose Ortiz (artist)
Eagle (UK) 1982

episodes 1 - 3 are here.
episodes 4 - 6 are here.

Ill Bred by Charles Burns

'Ill Bred'
by Charles Burns
from Death Rattle Vol. 2 No. 1
October 1985

Charles Burns was already making a name for himself in the early 80s as the creator of the strip 'El Borbah' in Heavy Metal magazine. This memorable little tale appeared in 1985 in the comic book 'Death Rattle', which was an anthology of horror / sci-fi stories.

In the Land of Retinal Delights

'In the Land of Retinal Delights'
by Robert Williams
oil on canvas, 1968

Book Review: Sand in the Wind

Book Review: 'Sand in the Wind' by Robert Roth

3 / 5 Stars

‘Sand in the Wind’ first was published in hardcover in October 1973, making it one of the first novels about the American experience of the war to emerge in the 70s. This Pinnacle Books paperback version was released in August 1985; the artist responsible for the outstanding cover artwork is uncredited.

‘Sand’ was author Roth’s first novel; he served with the 5th Marines in Vietnam, and the book is based, to some extent, on his experience of the conflict.

At over 600 pages, ‘Sand’ is by no means a quick read, and trying to synopsize it is difficult as best. It’s set time-wise in 1967 and early 1968 (the Tet offensive and the battle of Khe Sanh are referenced in the closing chapters). Location-wise, ‘Sand’ is set in the I Corps region, and the Marine combat base in An Hoa. Also featuring prominently in the novel is the so-called ‘Arizona territory’ of I Corps, where the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army operated with varying degrees of impunity.

Without disclosing any spoilers, the novel centers on the adventures of two men serving with the Marines out of An Hoa: Lance Corporal and college graduate Mark Chalice, and Lieutenant David Kramer. There is of course a large cast of supporting characters, including the enlisted men, who  simultaneously hate and revere the ‘Crotch’, or Marine Corps.

Much of the narrative deals with the day-to-day struggles of the Marines to survive a war that bestows death and mutilation with a disturbingly arbitrary absence of logic. The book’s centerpiece is an extended operation by the Marines in the Arizona Territory, where the unit’s incompetent officers are as much a threat to one’s welfare as the VC and NVA. This section of the book is the best at communicating the gritty nature of the Marine war in the jungles of the northern regions of South Viet Nam: the reader gets a sense of what it means to exhaustedly tramp through jungle and rice paddies in 90 degree heat and suffocating humidity, too fatigued to be sufficiently watchful for the ubiquitous booby traps lacing the terrain, nor the VC snipers waiting and watching from impenetrable cover.

This part of the book is an understated but effective criticism of the tactics employed by US forces at this stage of the war, and articulates the causes of the growing resentment between the ‘lifers’ issuing the orders, and the conscripts carrying them out (resentments that would come to poison the American military in Vietnam before the end of the decade).

What keeps ‘Sand’ from becoming a great novel is the author’s insistence on regularly inserting passages intended to deal with the moral and psychological issues of the war. These are awkwardly written and burden, rather than enhance, the narrative:

Luck, something he had always thought about in terms of curses, now seemed to be promising what he could never have really hoped for – too much to be doubted. It all seemed no more than a matter of time, while time rushed him towards it. The impossibility of what was happening prevented him from doubting its culmination in that final impossibility.

Upon finishing the novel I observed that more than a few of its scenes, such as those involving boot camp at Paris Island, are portrayed in the 1987 Stanley Kubrick Film Full Metal Jacket, which in turn is based on ‘The Short -Timers’, a 1979 novel written by Gustave Hasford. This has raised questions as to what extent Hasford’s novel ‘borrowed’ content from Roth’s novel. Roth has not publicly commented on the issue, and Hasford – since deceased – obviously is in no position to comment for himself.

Summing up, while it has its weaknesses, ‘Sand in the Wind’ remains one of the more readable novels of the Vietnam War. If you are a fan of the literature of that conflict, then this novel is one that you will want to have on your bookshelf.

Judge Dredd in Beggar's Banquet

Judge Dredd in 'Beggar's Banquet'
Writers: John Wagner and Alan Grant
Art: John Higgins
2000 AD Prog 456 (February 8, 1986)

This was the very first Judge Dredd assignment for UK artist John Higgins, and he gave it his 'all', as they say. 

His intricate penmanship is remarkable, but also something of a liability; as Higgins relates in his autobiography Beyond Watchmen and Judge Dredd: The Art of John Higgins, taking so much care with the artwork meant that his output was limited, and, consequently, the income he earned as a comic book artist............!

Wagner and Grant's script has the perfect mix of cynicism and black humor.......things sorely lacking in any U.S. comic of the same decade.