by Philip Caputo
A very good book. This is not a history of the grand strategy or politics behind the war but a personal memoir of one man's experiences in Vietnam, explaining the reasons why men march off to war, while also showing the cruelty and barbarism that seemingly normal people descend to in war.
Early Caputo, a mid-1970's memoir of his time as a marine in the early part of U.S. military involvement in Vietnam. I wasn't aware of Caputo's legal difficulties and was riveted. Read it with Swofford's Jarhead and Kidder's My Detachment.
First serious war book I've read but I enjoyed it for the most part. It taught me a lot about Vietnam that I didn't know before.
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