Robin Moore tries to disguise the colonial war in Vietnam in the familiar guise of a crusade defending "American Values" against godless and brutal communism. But I prefer Rudyard Kipling's well crafted "Plain Tales From the Hills" and Bernard Fall's careful reportage when discussing colonial warfare. ( )

These are some amazing stories about Vietnam-era US Army Special Forces ("Green Berets") by an embedded reporter. It's hard to tell how much of this is accurate -- it was fictionalized for operational security reasons (among other reasons), but I believe it is widely perceived to be plausible/representative of that early stage of the conflict. I'm much more familiar personally with modern SF (2005-2010 or so), and this is pretty much another world from what "white" SF did in Iraq/Afghanistan, but that's because in those conflicts they were not really being used for their doctrinal mission, were kept on a short leash, and all the secret squirrel stuff was by definition done by JSOC.

The crazy thing (which could never happen today) is that the author went through Airborne/Jump School and SF training, and got very close to the action on various missions (to the level of carrying extra ammunition for others, but not generally a weapon.) At the time, SF wasn't directly fighting, just advising, so it is a little more understandable, but wow, times have changed.

Essentially, life at small bases, working with indigenous forces, struggles with the Republic of Vietnam government, interactions with CIA ("Combined Studies Group"), and some dirty tricks with agents (recruiting people who had personally been harmed by the communists, and operations across borders). Most of the stories are riveting while also being sad, and overall the whole thing is much sadder once you realize this was the early escalation phase of an ultimately doomed conflict.

A few of the stories seemed completely plausible -- details about how Vietnamese Government forces failed in the field, and politics between SF ODA and the conventional army. There was some weird fantasy stuff about running massive guerrilla operations with undercover networks and armies raised seems unlikely to have happened at that stage in the war. ( )

I love this book. I first read it many years ago in high school and it's stuck with me ever since, so when I saw it in a used bookstore, I bought it and reread it and I'm glad I did. The Green Berets is journalistic nonfiction being marketed as fiction to protect the identity and locations of the people and places involved. Since this book was published in 1965, the north Vietnamese could have read it and done some damage with it if it named actual people or locations. Since it was published in 1965, you can guess that it's about American military "advisers," not actual servicemen as the war hadn't started yet. But it had, secretly. This book has stories on green berets in Laos with local militias they've recruited and trained hitting the Viet Cong and the NVA (Viet Minh, as they're referred to here). This book shows real life heroes in action, in harm's way, far from safety, doing a lot of damage to Uncle Ho. Makes one wonder if Special Forces had been allowed to keeping fighting the war their way how differently things might have gone. There's a sweet, but sad, love story in the book. There are some humorous moments. I think one thing that really has stuck with me over the years is the fact that this book started my disrespect for the South Vietnamese military, which was full of crooked pansies who wouldn't fight at night, wouldn't get up early in the morning to march, wouldn't land their helicopters in "hot"" DZs, demanded to be in charge but when the fighting started, would run away and let the Americans do it. This surprised me, but as I've read dozens and dozens of books on the Vietnam war over the years, this fact is told over and over again. Yet I've never understood why. The northern Vietnamese army was tough as nails, to be feared, would charge into machine gun fire without thinking. The south Vietnamese army was a bunch of pussies. Why? They were supposed to be fighting to save their country. Didn't they care? I have read accounts where some of them said let the Americans do it, we won't. That's a sick attitude. Frankly, it was a civil war and the US had no business being there. I'm glad the country's reunified, even if it is communist. It's just a shame that so many had to die. However, the book is not for the squeamish. There are accounts of Viet Cong atrocities that turn your stomach. But that's war and it happened, so it had to be reported. I'm sure Moore could have made his book twice as big with all of the stories he collected while he was over there serving in the field himself, and I sometimes wonder why he chose the ones he did, but they're all good. By the way, before the green berets let him tour with them, they made him become, essentially a green beret. He had to go to jump school, get scuba training, jungle warfare training, all of it. He earned his beret. Great book. Strongly recommended. ( )

I read this book thinking it would have some exciting stories. The author does alright at the storytelling. In the first portion of the book, the author states he has used factual events but changed names, so I conclude the events did occur in a manner close to the story as presented.

The overriding impressions I get from the book is the admission of all the immoral acts done by both American soldiers and the American government. Examples explained in the book are rampant and casual use of extreme torture by all sides, abandonment of allies working behind enemy lines when convenient as opposed to never leaving buddies behind, destruction of cities rather than strictly military targets in the first week of a conflict, assination from countries the U.S. denied being in, battles engaged in from countries the government denied Americans were in, paying outlaws to kill, establishing whorehouses, showing children gruesome pictures of their buchered parents in hopes of winning cooperation with U.S. opeations, planning on killing thousands of pounds of people just to use the weight of the bodies for tamping down explosives so less explosives will be needed to blow up a bridge, throw-away temporary wives, and the list goes on and on.

I'm no longer proud of the Green Berets. I recommend this book for those who believe without question, statements issued by our government, our military, and our state department. ( )

DEN