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Title: Everything We Had: An Oral History of the Vietnam War by Al Santoli ISBN: 0-345-32279-7 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 12 March, 1985 Format: Mass Market Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.05 (19 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: A powerful book, in spite of errors
Comment: There are actually two false war stories in this book, those of Thomas Bird ("Ia Drang") and Mike Beamon ("The Green-Faced Frogmen"). Mr. Bird apologized to the author after the book's publication. He did serve in Vietnam, not in combat, and the POW story is a complete fabrication. Mr. Beamon did not even serve in the US military, never mind the SEALS or Vietnam. At the time the book came out, 1981, it was difficult to get veterans to discuss the war at all, never mind insist they verify their stories. Mr. Santoli, who I knew personally, was as disappointed as any of his critics that he had been taken in by these accounts. Still "Everything We Had"is a monumental work, from the days before the Vietnam Wall. Then the popular culture wanted nothing more to dismiss the war completely and held the men who fought there in contempt as losers or criminals. The feelings of Santoli's real contributors are still a compelling read today, twenty years later.
Rating: 5
Summary: classic book on first-person vietnam
Comment: I wanted to address this book because I read certain accounts within that book several times because they were interesting. Al Santoli has assembled a number of thought-provoking and detailed accounts straight from the veterans' mouths. The book allows the reader to learn a lot about personal courage, fear, and a kind of wisdom about the war that you would not realize unless, like the veterans, you were there. I do not proclaim that every account in the books is infallible and completely factual, but I will say that every account has something to it other than a certain dismissal as a bold-faced tall tale out of the mouth of a charlatan. The Mike Beamon chapter is probably the most compelling chapter, next to the P.O.W. account. Certain blow-hard right-wing writers have, in many cases, exposed those fake veterans and self-presenters of the CMH. But in the case of this chapter, whether this is truly this man's name or not, I do believe there is much more to this account. You cannot make up a story like that, and I do not believe Mr. Santoli got duped. Understand that they work on this book was probably completed during the mid-seventies to early eighties. The programs and missions that this individual is talking about were not disclosed to the public and were not part of popular movies and t.v. shows about the military, like they are nowdays. This individual was privileged to information that the normal soldier was not, and he exposes a lot of mind-blowing information. Everything one reads is not neccessarily believable, but in this case a good portion of this chapter cannot be discounted and dismissed. Whether his name is Mike Beamon or whether he teaches women's studies at some college is unknown for sure, but rest assured that may very well be exactly what he wants.
Rating: 4
Summary: Very Unique Summation of Vietnam
Comment: This book takes a very unique approach to narrating the history of the Vietnam war. It allows individuals to tell their stories of their experience, but does so in chronilogical order. So what you get first is a story about welcoming Americans to the war i.e. getting off the plane to see a corpse fall out of the bag...welcome to nam and what you get last is a get out of Saigon before it falls story. The stories are varied, covering special ops and grunt units to hospital and airforce views. Some stories are very short while some linger on, but all of them have heart and truly show a side not usually seen with the battle histories.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and believe anyone with any interest in America's involvement in Vietnam would also. It is very cheap and is a quick read and will improve your knowledge of history...all three great qualities!
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Title: Nam: The Vietnam War in the Words of the Men and Women Who Fought There by Mark Baker ISBN: 0815411227 Publisher: Cooper Square Press Pub. Date: May, 2001 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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Title: Desert Exile: The Uprooting of a Japanese-American Family by Yoshiko Uchida ISBN: 0295961902 Publisher: University of Washington Press Pub. Date: October, 1984 List Price(USD): $12.89 |
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Title: Bloods: An Oral History of the Vietnam War by Black Veterans by Wallace Terry ISBN: 0345311973 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 12 July, 1985 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression by Studs Terkel ISBN: 1565846567 Publisher: New Press Pub. Date: November, 2000 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Coming of Age in Mississippi by Anne Moody ISBN: 0440314887 Publisher: Laure Leaf Pub. Date: 04 January, 1992 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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