The Soldiers' Story: An Illustrated Edition: Vietnam in Their Own Words - Hardcover

Steinman, Ron

9781577151081: The Soldiers' Story: An Illustrated Edition: Vietnam in Their Own Words

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1577151089 ISBN 13: 9781577151081

Publisher: Wellfleet Press, 2015

Veteran journalist Ron Steinman gathers candid reminiscences from seventy-six men (including Senator John McCain) who lived through the brutalities of combat in the Vietnam War. A Soldiers' Story provides a vivid and gripping oral history of the fear, fellowship, trauma and triumph of these Marine, Army, Air Force, and Navy veterans. Complete with maps and battlefield photographs, these indespensable first-hand accounts provide a unique front-line record of Vietnam - from its surreal horrors, to the comradeship and courage forged in battle.

From the jungles of Southeast Asia to life back in the United States as veterans of an unpopular war, A Soldiers' Story also includes complete and updated biographies of the brave men who are profiled. This is a book that goes beyond the military and political implications of Vietnam, to the truth of what the war cost - and who actually paid the price.

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Review:

For a visceral description of the Vietnam War, nothing can be more authentic than the voices of the men who fought it. Seventy-seven soldiers, from grunts to generals, recount their impressions of the war. Shocking details have embedded themselves in these men's minds. Their intensely personal descriptions, colored by terror and often an understated heroism, tell us what it was really like to fight in the streets and jungles of Southeast Asia.

The book's creator is Ron Steinman, NBC's Saigon Bureau Chief during the Tet Offensive. It comprises six sections: the Battle of the Ia Drang Valley, a large-scale ambush by North Vietnamese regulars in 1965; the siege of Khe Sanh; the Tet Offensive; the "Secret War" in Cambodia and Laos; the air war; and the fall of Saigon. By focusing on specific aspects of the conflict, Steinman gives the book a structure and provides opportunities to see events from several viewpoints, from helicopter pilots trying to find downed colleagues under heavy fire to the men being saved. A total honesty characterizes these interviews--men facing death had no time for anything else. Some exulted in the killing, but the greater impression is of qualities such as empathy and unquestioning loyalty to one's buddy. The extraordinary experiences recounted in The Soldiers' Story molded the rest of these men's lives, and they know it. The companion to the ABC television series, Vietnam: The Soldiers' Story, this oral history makes an extremely powerful and moving book. --John Stevenson

From the Publisher:

10 1.5-hour cassettes

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