Gary
Anderson, a retired Marine Corps colonel, offers a review in the Washington Times of what I believe is
the best novel to come out of the Vietnam War, James Webb’s Fields of Fire.
“Fields of Fire” is the finest piece of literature to come out of
the Vietnam War, and it has been republished on the 40th anniversary of the
original. This will give a whole new generation of readers a chance to
understand the reality of Vietnam
vice the caricatures that have been portrayed since the fall of Saigon in 1975.
“Fields of Fire” launched the
very successful literary career of its author, James
Webb, who has gone on to write a number of other
best-sellers. Along the way he has also served as a Reagan administration
official — most notably as secretary of the Navy — and as a Democratic senator
from Virginia.
Vietnam
was an infantryman’s war, and Mr.
Webb (seen in the below photos) describes the day-to-day
experience of a Marine Corps infantry platoon in graphic and gritty
detail. It is not a fun book to read, nor is it meant to be. The soldiers and
Marines who comprised the bulk of our Vietnam infantry were thrown into some of
the nastiest conditions ever experienced by American warriors.
Small
platoons and companies spent weeks at a time in the bush fighting the Viet Cong
insurgents and North Vietnamese regulars. Their only communication with the
rest of the world during these sweeps was occasional helicopter resupply to
bring in more ammo, food and mail as well as to evacuate the dead and wounded —
of which there were many. It was not unusual for an infantry platoon to suffer
over 100 percent casualties in the course of a “grunts” tour. Although the
characters in the novel are Marines, Army infantry veterans of the Vietnam War
will be reminded of their own experiences.
The book seems real because it
is. It is a novelized version of Mr.
Webb’s tour in Vietnam.
The book’s characters are real people with fictional names. The Marines are a
mix of ghetto kids, hillbillies and lower-middle, middle-class youngsters whose
parents could not afford to get them into college and the accompanying student
draft deferment. Most did not want to be there, but they got very good at what
they did.
… Mr.
Webb was one of the most highly decorated Marine
Corps officers to come
out of Vietnam. The fact that the survivors of his platoon — and
later his company — remain close to him is a tribute to his leadership skills.
This reissue of the book will introduce a new generation of military personnel
and their civilian masters to the reality of a war that we don’t want to repeat.
You can
read the rest of the review via the below link:
You can
read also read my Washington Times piece on the Vietnam War via the below link:
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