The stories in War Torn are riveting and capture the will and determination of women journalists to have equal access to cover the war. But they also bring Saigon and Vietnam in the 60s and 70 alive to anyone too young to remember. I applaud these women for making the Vietnam war accessible to a generation who grew up after the war.
War Torn leave the reader happy and sad but thoroughly enchanted. For anyone who is a history buff, a traveler planning to visit Vietnam or simply a lover of great tales, I highly recommend this book.

I don't know much about Vietnam, but I was drawn to the book by the sad and thoughtful face on the cover. My highest praise to these women. They brought the Vietnam war alive to someone who was not even born at its conclusion. The stories are beautiful, sad, funny and touching. My thanks to the authors for putting such a wonderful piece of writing and important part of history down on paper.

WAR TORN is a brilliant and riveting collection of essays by the handful of smart and courageous women who actually went to the battlefields in Asia to report on the Vietnamese War. For everyone who served in the war or had loved ones who did, for those of us who lived through these events at home, and for younger readers who have no sense of this history, this compelling book reveals these critical years from a perspective most of us never knew existed. The stories of these nine brave women will capture your minds and break your heart a bit. A thorougly uplifting and informative book with stories you've never heard before.

This is an excellent book for two reasons: its lively writing and its emotional impact. Don Yost gives life to many of the underlying frustrations of serving in Vietnam that most other books and essays about Vietnam haven't even identified. It also provides a superbly realistic look at the war through the eyes of someone who understands and appreciates the depth of the potential sacrifice that each man must face when he's called to serve, especially in a war that's misunderstood my most people, and bitterly opposed by his own generation.
When it comes to first-person accounts of the Vietnam war, this book is like no other. It's an excellent work that should be on everyone's bookshelf.

I am not a reader, you'll never find a romance novel in my presence, but I do like war stories. This is anything but, it is a story of a man's love for his family written in a way that would move the most manly of men. It is more of an appology to all of those who he hurt during his healing than a war story but it's written in an entertaining, "laugh while you cry", "I can relate to that", matter of fact manner. It's a must read for anyone and everyone. I have passed it around to friends who have passed it to friends, my copy has been in more homes than me because everyone loves it and relates to it in one way or another.

I couldn't put it down! The word "Vietnam" has meant little more to me than buff actors with atitude, this book changed that. It's not a blood and gore or look what America did to me, story. It's an appology and a promise to get over it. Anyone could relate this to the struggles in their own lives and learn how to turn them into something wonderful. This is so wonderfully written that I was able to empathize with this man rather than just have sympathy for him. I have given this to both male and female friends, everyone agrees, it's wonderful.

An excellent and highly informative narrative of the nearly unknown world of the United States Navy's small craft fleet in Vietnam. A fine reminder to the sailors of today that individual heroism in a war fought with the machine gun and not missles is part of the recent naval tradition. If anyone can say they followed the path of John Paul Jones and went into harm's way, these sailors can, and LCDR Cutler has told their story well.

I was in the Naval Advisory Group at the same time as LCDR Cutler and I know where he's coming from. He did a great job of research. I'm really surprised at the volume of good factual info he managed to scrape up! BRAVO ZULU from an ex advisor at Rach Soi, Qui Nhon and Cam Ranh Bay.

As a modern day "River Rat," I started reading this book, while waiting to kick off that little invasion down in Panama, affectionately known as "Operation Just Cause" in Dec 1989, and managed to finish reading it in between "Brown Water & coastal Patrols." It's hard to put down once you start reading, and CDR Cutler does this small, sub-community of Navy Special Warfare Sailors justice (pretty unique thing to do for an officer). It's the roots & history of the U.S.N.'s "Brown Water Navy", the combat tactics and actions that are still in use to this date. I highly recommend this literature work to any person(s) that's interested in the Navy, and the and the personnel that forged the Brown Water Navy's history in the volatile rivers, canals and coast line of Viet Nam. A true reflection of courage, human spirit and dedication in the most adverse conditions. PBR= Proud, Brave & Reliable! Keep the Faith

"Combat Medic Vietnam" is a solid military story. Its 33 chapters are devoted to some 10 Army and Marine medics who served in Vietnam. While "CM" pulls no punches, neither does it belabor or drag the episodes out. Each episode, told in the first person "tells it like it was" and moves on. The result is a highly compact and readable tale with no gratuitous gore and suffering. To the credit of the men involved, there is also no trace of self-pity though the Lord knows they were well entitled on that score. The Afterward reveals what became of the 10 when they returned to "The World"- more power to them all! I enjoyed the Appendix, which encompasses a brief world history of military medics both U.S. and foreign. "CM" has 2 minor flaws common to military books: There are no maps and no glossary of Army/Marine/Navy acronyms or jargon. Their inclusion would have helped. Their exclusion does not detract from the larger story. "CM" represents yet another view, another observation post into the Vietnam War. Both "Combat Medic" and author Roberts earlier work, "One Shot-One Kill" are highly and earnestly recommended.

This is a great book. I couldn't put it down and read the whole thing from cover to cover. It covers the experiences of the medics in the Vietnam war. I know one of the medics featured in the book. His name is Doug Wean, and he is a heroic honorable person. If you want to get the inside story on the Vietnam war this is a book for you.

This book is on the "Recommended Reading List" of Vietnam Veterans of America, Chapter 295, Indianapolis, Indiana

I know that this sounds like hyperbole, but this book is so far above and beyond any other dive guide I have used that I cannot resist. The maps are works of art and acurate, to boot.

After reading this book, my dives at the Liberty, the Tulamben drop off and Batu Kelebit seemed like visits with old friends.

As a terrific bonus, you can even dive these sites with Wally Siagian (+62 363 41869, persistantly) as I did.

Best dive guide I've read about any location. Get this one if going to Bali.

This is an outstanding and reliable resource on diving in Bali. The author writes with clarity. It is an enjoyable read even if you can get out there as often as you'd like. Worth reading!

I had met the author about 10 years ago through a family relative. Did not know of his hair raising Viet Nam saga until after several months later. I received a signed copy from him and started reading late one night. I had to pry the book out of my hands at 3 am. I finished the book the next evening. It is the most riveting account I have ever read. A tremendous account of triumph over an impossible situation. By a grateful friend.

As a US Navy SEAL in the post-Viet Nam era, I had heard Dengler's name often mentioned as a pioneer in the development of survival, evasion, resistance and escape (SERE) training. I was fascinated by reading about Dengler's actual experiences; those same events and challenges that were so costly for him personally but that provided a cornerstone in the training of others who may one day face similar trials.

Having already heard this account of the horrors encountered by Dieter many years ago and once again last spring, the book is just as the author tells it in person, full of viciousness by his tormentors, the amazing trek through the jungle, and the brilliance of this prisoner's mind, despite the odds against him, in having studied his captors' environmental adaptation and using what he learned to enable his own against-all-odds fight to live. This man practised survival under all circumstances during his entire life and possessed an uncanny ability to recognize danger even before it materialized. Through his ingenuity he alone conquered the enemy and the elements and this makes for such a fascinating tale. It is survival at its purest and most admirable. A man and a mission never to be forgotten.

I am currently going to college and I took a course on the Vietnam crisis and war, and Even the Women Must Fight was one of the last books that we read. After reading books that focused mainly or even completely on the American experience in Vietnam, it was extrmely interesting to read about how the Vietnamese saw and dealt with the war. The thousands of civilians who added such strength to the North Vietnamese war effort were people who had been described in all of the sources we read as 'coolie' laborers--people conscripted by the govenment to do necessary work. To read the accounts of women who fought in the war, or risked their lives to maintain the Ho Chi Minh trail simply added a new dimension to my understanding of the Vietnamese side, and indeed of the entire war itself.

As a college student studying the America's war with Vietnam, I was struck by the determination and nationalism that the Vietnamese displayed in their battles against foreign occupation. Seeking to further my study and learn more about the perspectives of the Vietnamese I turned to Turner's book Even the Women Must Fight. The information that I found in the book I could not have found anywhere else. Turner's extensive interviews and personal memoirs from women who fought in the Viet Cong opened up a previously unreported accounts of what Vietnamese women accomplished in their war with America. These women's successes are truly amazing and much deserving of a book documenting their vital contributions.

Karen Turner's book is a well researched, interesting and compassionate discussion of women who made up the backbone of Viet Nam's fighting forces. She does not overwhelm the reader with intellectual theory and in doing so she brings us closer to a source of history ignored and overlooked for decades. It's difficult to write about and interview former soldiers who continue to suffer the effects of such enormous violence, but Turner does it with great insight and awareness. This is the perfect book for history students or university faculty who want to hear the voices of Viet Nam's strongest fighters.

Traditionally, four major East Asian languages have used Chinese characters for their writing systems: Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese, and, of course, Chinese. Wm. C. Hannas knows all of them, and in this book he uses that extensive knowledge to deliver a broadside against the Chinese characters' lack of efficiency as a writing system.

Anyone familiar with John DeFrancis' work on the Chinese language will recognize some of Hannas' arguments (DeFrancis writes the forward for this book and was clearly an inspiration for Hannas' work). But Hannas is more wide-ranging in his scholarship and goes further with his arguments.

The first part of the book introduces the four major languages that have used Chinese characters for their writing systems, introducing them in order of the frequency they presently use the characters. Thus, Chinese -- which is comprised entirely of characters -- is introduced first and Vietnamese -- which no longer uses any characters -- is introduced last. This part describes the history of each languages' writing system and is highly readable.

After the languages have been introduced, the second part of the book critiques the Chinese character-based writing system. This part varies between highly readable sections and some more abstruse sections that deal with linguistic, analytical, and even psychological arguments that require close readings by the layman who doesn't have an expertise or at least a strong interest in those areas. But these arguments are the meat of Hannas' book as he looks at what Chinese characters represent, reading and literacy in Chinese character-based scripts, and even whether those writing systems are really appropriate for East Asian languages as some people have argued.

The third and final part winds down with a look at why reform of the Chinese character-based writing system fails (as Hannas argues it does) as well as what the future is likely to hold for it. One chapter alone is dedicated to the effect computers are having on characters. I found this part the least plausible of the three and also somewhat repetitive as arguments made earlier were restated.

While I agree with most of Hannas' general arguments and found his book both highly interesting and entertaining, I also think he greatly overstates his case. Hannas seems to actually believe that characters are on their way out. The growth in education and wealth, as well as the general social vibrance found in so many of the societies which still use Chinese characters suggests, at the very least, that perhaps inefficiency in a writing system is simply not an important aspect to a well-functioning, modern society -- that whatever impact it has is more negligible than Hannas imagines.

But disagreements over some of its points shouldn't be a reason not to read this outstanding book. Hannas' scholarship, lucid writing, and forceful exposition will give anyone who has experience with any of the East Asian languages that use Chinese characters a wonderful read.

I found this book to be a well written and interesting look at the use of Chinese characters. It uncovers some of the commonly held misconceptions about the use of the characters. It does a very thorough job of examining the differences between them and phonetic alphabetic scripts. The book covers the use of characters in China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam. The view of Hannas is that the characters are "on their last leg". I have discussed this book with several of my Chinese, Japanese, and Korean friends and they all seem to disagree with Hannas and are not in favor of abolishing the use of the characters. Hannas claims that he is not writing from the point of view of a disgruntled Westerner, but sometimes this is hard to believe. The introduction by John DeFrancis states that Hannas is one of the few people (Western or Asian) to have mastered Chinese (several "dialects")Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese. I would highly recommend this book for anyone curious about East Asian languages. As an aside, I'm sure that an Asian could find plenty of things about English that do not make sense and should be changed!

This work is a highly polemical look at the writing systems of East Asian languages, specifically those that use Chinese characters. The author is out to demolish standard ideas about the use of Chinese characters in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese, and he does a thorough and persistent job of it. The book is accordingly much more exciting than a straightforward introduction to these writing systems could ever be. What is more, the author's insights are pretty well spot on, although not likely to endear him to those who entertain the myths that he sets out to demolish (which includes most speakers of these languages). Bold, refreshing, and definitely recommended.

A very well written book, "Counterpart" is an interesting personal memoir of life in Vietnam and the ravaging affects of war. The book ends with his departure and fresh start in the United States. Having worked in the power industry with Kiem Do and Julie Kane for a number of years in New Orleans, I'm glad he has finally published his long awaited memoirs.

As a "young" Vietnamese -American who did not participate in the war, I find the book entertaining and educating. This is a book every family, especially Vietnamese American, should own because it is so well written with a sincere heart and offers an accurate realistic view from an ex Navy commander from South Vietnam. The more I read the more I admire and respect him for sharing all his invaluable experiences to subtly teach the American public as well as Vietnamese- American young generation about the truth of a major period in American history - the Vietnam war. I now clearly understand what our heroic South Vietnamese soldiers went through. Mr. Do Kiem was successful in restoring well -deserved honor to our patriotic South Vietnamese soldiers. It peaks my interest and leaves me wanting more when I finish reading . This is truly an amazing account! Somehow, it brought back to memory a poem, learned many years ago in high school, belonged to our national hero Dang Dung in his noble fight against the Ming dynasty's fiendish invasion in Vietnam in 1400's.

Revenge is not yet fulfilled, my lord! and hair already turned white. Too many times whetted my precious sword, under the shining moon light!

Dong Nhac

Some books about the Vietnam War are basically worthless, filled with "blasting machine gun fire" stories similar to Rambo, etc.

However, this book is refreshingly different. Officer Kiem Do reveals a story unheard by most Americans. Not only did he battle the communists, he constantly fought government corruption and bureaucratic interference from his (our) side.

This is a must read for anyone interested in Naval history.

I just came back from a livaboard dive trip to southern Thailand. The boat I was on had a copy of this book and almost every place I went was well described. I'm ording a copy for myself to better document my past dives, and plan my future ones. I really appreciated having the book with me. The only thing missing was a map of each dive site.

As a novice diver, I found this guide amazingly easy to read. Sites are rated on a 5 star system for both diving and snorkeling separately. Information on approach and typical conditions are given. Typical things that will be seen are also given. Icons for quick reference on each site such as approach by boat or shore, skill level, and other information make finding suitable dive sites a cinch.

For the diver or tourist who is contemplating a visit to Thailands reefs this book is an absolute gem. Ideal for divers and snorkellers of all standards, it is well presented and extremely informative. The number and quality of the sites reviewed is very good and it must be noted that the information concerning other divers needs ie. accomodation, equipment hire, dive companies, photography and medical arrangements is equally commendable. A reference book that I can guarantee will be well thumbed for a good few years.