I KNEW This Book Would Sting Me . . . .

What did you love best about Hue 1968?

Joe Barrett is a top shelf narrator, particularly with this genre of literature.

Who was your favorite character and why?

General Westmoreland I suppose only because he was such a common thread in this well crafted tapestry, and while I was in country 1966, Chesty Westy was my commander. I am happy that his faults and lies were portrayed as well as his grand image.

Which scene was your favorite?

The early morning breakout to the hills, being one of the three options the torn up and surrounded battalion came up with for ex-filtration. The men "Would rather die trying to live" instead of waiting to be over run.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

As much as I could, yes.

Any additional comments?

. . . . and yet I clicked on play anyway. I was in 3rd Corps, Republic of South Vietnam for Tet 1966, assigned along with 11 other American pilots, crew chiefs, radio men and advisers to ARVN forces at Duc Hoa, Southeast of Siagon. The night sky lit up with tracers and my first reaction was that we were being over run. Not so, I was told by Captain Tompkins. It was Tet and this was their fireworks celebration. We lived in a pagoda next to a PSP air strip. Capt. Tompkins made me sleep on the top bunk with a flak jacket on. Tet 1968 became the talk of the base at Ft Stewart Georgia where I was assigned as a flight instructor. Then, I was still a believer and could not distinguish lies from fact.I want to say that I am angry in my old age because of the lack of moral values by LBJ and his posse in the 60's and 70's but it is something else. Hindsight makes me sorrowful over their misleading our country and the families of the 58,000+ that sacrificed their lives so that I could purchase a bag of frozen prawns at Costco labeled "Product of Vietnam". You have heard the debate about "Blood for Oil"? Well my war was evidently "Blood for Shrimp"!

My mother was a gifted artist when I left for MACV and she never painted again. I am told she spent the year on the sofa chewing ice cubes while watching the news. She even wrote the President asking why her son was fighting in that conflict.So even though I was an Army officer and pilot who lived in relative security while not involved in operations, the story lines here rang true as I handled many radio calls for medivac, air support, artillery and resupply. Until this week, I was naive as to the horrific battle at Hue, thinking that the battle of Ia Drang Valley in November of 1965 when I had been in country just 4 months was as bad as it got. It would be wrong to say that I enjoyed the book, however it did rivet my attention for 3 days and recalled many memories that had lain un-visited for decades.

I did not know many Marines over there as I was Army. However, I "knew" many of the characters in this book. The author took great care to be graphic . . . . to fill a reader's consciousness with the feel, sight, touch, sounds and smells of close quarter battle. I am sure Mr. Bowden took some "literary license" in portraying many of these Marines thoughts and feelings, but they did ring true for the most part. I have mixed feelings about the scene where the Vietnamese woman came to a dirty and battle weary squad of Marines wishing to trade sex for C rations. I suppose it happened, but I never heard of anything quite like that. In its own way, it was tender, and a damn sight better that men just forcing themselves on civilian women.

So if this is what you want, if you are curious as to why so many who came back from this "conflict" only to discover they can never quite get all the way back, then this book is for you. For me, I probably will not open it again. It was well done for sure, and I did learn a lot from it that I had not previously internalized about our . . . . my involvement in Vietnam. I believe Daniel Ellsberg was heroic in his actions and saved tens of thousands of lives. I believe General Westmoreland was the reverse of Andersen's "The Emperor's New Clothes". Rather than the crowd wanting to exclaim "Look, the Emperor has no clothes", it could have been said of Westmoreland, "Look, the uniform has no general".

64 people found this helpful

Amazing.

You know the second part of Full Metal Jacket? That was the battle of Hue. Dark humor, an NFL turned USMC infantry commander (and was interviewed for a tv report), personal accounts from both sides, DARK HUMOR that made me laugh out loud, and some true accounts of the demons that still haunt the veterans. Ever present is the famous USMC ability to be resourceful with what they have.

Legit book.

8 people found this helpful

Beware of men w/ theories that explain everything.

“Beware of men with theories that explain everything.”
― Mark Bowden, Hue 1968: A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam

I told my kids the other day that they were both indirect results of Vietnam. My wife's father, now dead, had a draft number of one, so enlisted so that he would have a better chance of chosing HOW he would enter the Vietnam War. He came in at the end of Vietnam and became a professional soldier and officer (green-to-gold). The Army trained him with helicopters and tanks, and he retired a decade ago as a Colonel. My own father, concerned too with the draft, enlisted in the Navy. He also made a career of the military and we met my wife's family when our families were both stationed in Izmir, Turkey in the late 80s and early 90s. I doubt very much if either of our fathers would have become officers and made careers out of the military without Vietnam. It is weird to think of the imacts of Vietnam 50 years+ after the fact.

The Battle of Huế was fought 50 years ago in Jan/Feb of 1968 as part of the Tet Offensive. It was the biggest, bloodiest, and most pivitol single battle of the Vietnam War. Both sides claim success and both claims can probably be easily criticized. It was the turning point for the US in both our perception of the War. Bowden captures, through exensive interviews and research, the claustrophobia, filth, and horror of door-to-door combat. If anyone walks away from this with less stature, it is probably General Westmoreland who went to his grave over-estimating those NVA soldiers killed, and underestimating US casualties, and ignoring the civilians killed. One of the sharpest, deadliest quotes of the book summarizes my feelings about General Westmoreland:

“Never had a general so effectively willed away the facts.”

I have brothers who fought in both Afghanistan and Iraq. Everyday, I wish we paid closer attention to Vietnam so we would have avoided getting ourselves into another protracted war in a country most of our citizens know little about. Understanding Vietnam (and understanding what got us and kept us there) requires knowing DETAILS. Bowden helps to uncover aspects of this war I knew about, but at a granular level I appreciated. If this book did anything else, it made me start planning a trip to Vietnam. I'd love to see Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang, and of course -- Huế.

16 people found this helpful

Hue 68. Moving and balanced

Bowden captures the battle from both sides fairly. Heroism, criminalism, professionalism and amateurism are on dislpay. Like Thucididies, a great story and a warning to decision makers.

5 people found this helpful

Hue 1968: A horrid, yet true and factual account

Great narration. Truth can be sickening at times, yet we must be open to these events. only thru factual accounts is there hope of non-repitition.
Along with countless other vets, I too struggle as to reasoning for our participation in this conflict.

5 people found this helpful

Great book

Probably the best book on Vietnam I've listened to. It described to overall brutality of the war. I highly recommend it.

5 people found this helpful

Excellent history

A compelling, thoroughly researched account of the bitterness battle of the Vietnam war told from the viewpoint of those who fought on both sides.

9 people found this helpful

Terrible narration

Terrible voice. Boring voice. Hard to focus on story. Please rerecord this book with a better narrator

13 people found this helpful

Excellent story of an important battle

Detailed, blow by blow account from multiple perspectives (US military, NVA, ARVN, Vietnamese civilian, journalist, political) of a landmark battle of the Vietnam war but was, at the time, overlooked by many stakeholders. Just like Blackhawk Down, the author gives enough information to introduce you to the individuals so you can attach yourself to them but it doesn't become the story of this one guy or that one guy. The performance took a while to get used to. The reader seems to be using almost a loud whispering technique for much of it. I will give him credit for impersonation. Great LBJ and not bad on Cronkite either.

3 people found this helpful

Unbiased, complete, excellently told but LONG

Very impressed with the completeness of this book. It is always, from what I can tell, dang near neutral. It is however a bit of a drag. I’ve had this book for over a year and half and just finished it because sometimes I would just get tired of it and stop listening. It’s really long and could have been shorter. Just how many images of some getting run over by a tank do we need? Or of dead civilians executed by the NVA? It just ground on and on. However, it is a wonderfully done narrative. It’s hard to a book based on a battle and weave it into a story. Bowden here succeeds though, he weaves the different characters into the timeline of events perfectly. It just was so dang long. I felt it could have been a few hours shorter and not lost anything.

2 people found this helpful