Charles, I want to thank for writing this book. For years I lived with the memories, questioning what had happened. I was in Company D, and on Jan 3,1968 they did use a flame thrower, the guy just missed me. I became a WIA just days before the end of your book and I was able to relate my experience during this time. Again, Thank You, it really helped.

I was the 2-12 Cav S-2 from January 2000 to July 2001, this book is everything a staff officer should and must read. I came upon the book because it was about my unit, it has been deliberately overlooked by army professional reading lists. Mr. Krohn's account highlights the unfathomable value of honesty and integrity in our profession; the lack thereof causes lives. An excellent read, a heart-wrenching story even today for those who were not there. "Those who do not study the past are doomed to repeat it." Thank you Mr. Krohn.

Charles Krohn has presented a well researched book that sheds new light on a complicated battle, the fighting for Hue City during Tet. His book is a valuable addition to history because it specifically deals with a regularly overlooked topic: the 2/12 Cavalry's involvement in the battle for Hue and it's fight against the NVA headquarters there. He was there. In addition, he touches upon the battalion's earlier fighting in the Que Son Valley.

One man's story sandwiched into a lot of facts/astute observation. Since I was only 11 at the time, it filled in a good number of gaps. Yes, cooks cover their mistakes with spices, doctors with earth, and the CIA with lots of duct tape tape, boundings, and gag orders. And, worse, they never learn fully, blundering again and again (just a guess). Such is life and the public's general willingness, in my life opinion, and this book fills a very important niche in that.

This book can be a little hard to grind through, and that give it 'only' 4 stars, as the reading public demands to be favorably entertained -- so a more difficult book by a small margin will be mostly preaching to the choir (the already converted or few read-a-holics as well I guess in this case).

When this book was originally published in the late 1970s, it caused a firestorm of controversy due to its savage critique of the conduct of both the CIA and military advisory units within Vietnam. Written by a career CIA officer who resigned in disgust over the ways in which American policy both undermined and betrayed the very purposes we were supposed to be in Vietnam to promote, the book quickly became an international best-seller. Frank Snepp was the chief strategy analyst for the Central Intelligence Agency in Saigon, and from his unique vantage point was able to discern most of policy discussions regarding the American approach to the ongoing conduct of the war assistance being provided to the South Vietnamese. What he discovered alarmed and surprised him, for the authorities were making plans to allow the fall of the Saigon regime even while reassuring their Vietnamese clients they would support them to the very end.

As the title of the book indicates, the most salient characteristic of the American policy was to withdraw our forces in such a way as to allow a sufficient amount of time to go by before the North Vietnamese forces made a final fatal thrust into the south to take over, so that America would save face by not directly involved in the action resulting in the losing of the decade-long war. Instead, according to this strategy, there was to be a so-called "decent interval" of time separating the associated events of American withdrawal on the one hand, and the final campaign by the NVA (North Vietnamese Army) forces, on the other. Snepp was outraged by the treachery involved in such a strategy, and argued strenuously against thus, which would leave hundreds if not thousand of ardent and loyal South Vietnamese operatives at extreme risk, for they would be caught unaware when the final critical days came that the American forces would not come to their rescue.

Snepp was even more surprised when he discovered that this strategy was not either the result of a local CIA operative such as the station chief, nor that of the CIA itself at the Langley, Virginia headquarters, but rather that it appeared to emanate from the highest levels of the executive branch of the government, from the office of Henry Kissinger and the office of the National Security Advisor to the President. This meant, of course, that it was a deliberate betrayal of the South Vietnamese by the American Government with full knowledge of the savage consequences this action would have for most of those who had worked so closely with the Americans for so long. For Snepp, this was treachery of the lowest and most unforgivable sort, a policy that served to punish our friends and reward our enemies, all done in the name of political expediency.

Of course, in order to be effective, this strategy must remain secret, for having such information made public would expose both the Executive branch and the CIA for the craven treachery they were conspiring to commit. Thus, the press releases associated with the rapidly accomplished American withdrawal of troop, material and advisors were spun to give the public the impression that all of this was part of the so-called successful "Vietnamization" of the war, under which the ARVN (Army of the Republic of Vietnam) was increasingly shouldering the exclusive burden for conduct of the war against the NVA. What both the CIA and the U.S. Army command authority hoped for was a campaign in which the ARVN performed well enough to make the eventual NVA victory appear to be more gradual than it was feared it might be.

Of course, after the hasty American withdrawal, the NVA rapidly pressed their advantage and the ARVN collapsed so rapidly that no such "decent interval" was realized. Instead, the campaign took a disastrous turn, and the final result was a panic for the American loyalists now trapped in Saigon with little hope of rescue. The rest, as they say, is the stuff of history. Yet the facts laid out by Snepp in this book show just how treacherous, cynical, and self-concerned the actions of the American authorities were toward their South Vietnamese clients. In the end, we failed the loyal citizens of South Vietnam by largely abandoning them in the time of their greatest need. Left to choose between doing the honorable thing and doing what was expedient, we chose to beat feet. This is a wonderful book and a mind-boggling reading experience

The author captured the dismay and controversy of the age i.e. the overwhelming desire to help everybody but not being able to. As an Air Force Security Policeman I was a guard on a C-130 as we loaded refugees up at Da Nang and Ton Sun Knut. On another assignment I had sniper duty on off loading refugees due to intelligence fears that refugees might be used as cover for an assualt.

This book was alright, a good description of Vietnam for those that have never been and want to know what is about over there. I studied in Hanoi for four months during college and it was a real trip back for me while reading this, especially when the author speaks of her visit to Hanoi. I stayed in Bach Khoa while I was there and lived in that very neighborhood for four months and it made me very nostaligic. However, the author tended to irritate me at times with what I saw as an attitude towards the culture and traditionalism of the northern region. Frankly, I didn't like this book as much as I thought I would...but then again I'm very biased when it comes to Vietnam since the country means a lot to me...

As a child of the Vietnam era, I've long been curious to find out what became of the people that populated the Time magazine of my youth. Shillue brings up to date with a personal look at the lives and times of the Vietnamese. It is reassuring to hear about the resiliency of the Cambodian people and I was glad to see that Shillue's first-hand accounts bring us right into the lives of those we left behind. I particularly liked when she compared contemporary Americans to their counterparts in Asia.

Excellent Read! In the early 1990s I was an American businessman living in Vietnam and this well written book takes me back to the country and a time which I still miss every day.

It reminds Americans that Vietnam is a place and not a war.

If anyone wishes to see and feel Vietnam and Cambodia as they are today this is THE book to read. I look forward to Ms Shillue's next book.

This book is nothing more than a glorified korean-english dictionary. It was a bit disappointing since I was expecting more of a textbook-like style.

This book can't be used like a dictionary or a textbook in the traditional sense. The secret to learning Korean is learning how to think in Korean. This book gives some really good common vocabulary by their Chinese (and some pure Korean) roots. It's great for learning Chinese roots as well as associated words. I've never seen a book like this and highly recommend it. It's a great vocabulary builder.

But it is for people who are serious about learning Korean and won't do a casual studier any good. Also, unless you already have a solid grasp on grammar and the language, this book needs to be used in conjunction with other resources.

this book is different from most other books so dont expect it to meet all of your demands if you are not deeply dedicated to learn such a remarkable and different language.

... the tape set for this book is poorly conceived - you will be hard pressed to learn Thai from it. There is no repetition of phrases, there is no vocabulary building, there is merely a narrator reading the Thai translations quickly (no guidance is provided by saying things slowly so the listener can learn the intricacies of Thai tonal pronunciation).

Thai for Lovers - Is a simple & clever little manual for both speakers of Thai and English! It is both Unique, Concise and "To The Point!" in matters involving amorous interpersonal relationships crossing cultural lines.

My only comment to authors "Nit" and Jack Ajee, would be to improve upon their "winner" by increasing it's dialogue content and eliminating the illustrations, in favor of "downsizing" Thai for Lovers into a shirt pocket-sized, handier version.

I give the authors a generous five stars -- for having the "hang" to finally publish something based on "reality!" rather than "Political Correctness" -- Bravo! "Nit & Jack"

Capt. "Archie" Hall, (a.k.a. "Nicolas Merriweather")
Author -- "Apsara Jet"

I found this book to be very helpful and also a lot of fun. It looks like Ajaan Benjawan is singlehandedly causing a revolution in the number and quality of books available to the Thai student. After all, if you work through all five of her books and study well, you may well be ready to just move on to stuff which is entirely Thai and made by and for Thai people. (My current teacher just gave me a copy of the collected short stories of Kukrit Pramoj, and I might even be able to read it!)

Rumor says that a dictionary is coming, in time for Christmas! I wonder what will be next!

First of all, I 'd like to say Thank you to Canadian Maple Leaf for your excellent commenting job on that Communist. I praise you for having by far such a good knowledge of Viet Nam history. You're the few Westerners who truly know what you're talking about when it comes to South-East Asia.
Ironically, the person who knows the most about Viet Nam is not Vietnamese and the person who lives in Vietnam doesn't know anything about the country he lives in.
The Communists in Viet Nam either have put our intellectuals, scientists, religious and political leaders (others than Communists) in jail or Re-education camps or chased them off from the country.
The Communists, much like Hitler did for Germany, have vowed to clean Viet Nam from all its cultural values and history by burning books and tearing down monuments and re-write Viet Nam history according to them.
So you can only expect so much when it comes to logical arguments or even good knowledge of history or political subjects when talking to one of them.
This is just to give you all a perspective of what is happening.

Well... enough of the political side. Back to the book.

It is an awesome book people! Read it if you'd like to learn more about Viet Nam History. A great job by the author in putting together so much details and researches. Many Foreigners as much as Vietnamese will learn a lot from this book.
Viet Nam has 4,000 years of history; much of it has been lost during the last 50 years, mainly because of the war and cleansing by the Communists.
This book compiled a great deal of information for people like me who'd like to start piecing together the "whole picture". Because I would have not been allowed to do so in Viet Nam.

Thanks.

I don't think one needs to engage in chest-thumping nationalism to praise Taylor's work. The book is a beautiful example of solid scholarship. Taylor uses both Chinese and Vietnamese primary sources and compares them to give a more realistic picture behind the nationalist myths that Vietnamese schoolchildren (both North and South) have been taught for decades. Taylor also draws upon a large body of secondary sources in Chinese, Vietnamese, French, English, and Japanese. I doubt that there is ANY scholarship on this period of Vietnamese history in either Vietnamese or English that is of a higher quality than this. A work of lucid writing founded on excellent research.

this book will let the world knows who were the true one that came up with such inventions instead of the Chinese as previously thought.

The book was recommended to me, and I bought it. It struck me as just another anti-war, anti-warrior plaint from the academic left. I don't recognize any of the Vietnam veterans I know in this book, nor do I recognize the Vietnam that I traveled through as a reporter in 1964. Shucks, I'm not even sure that I recognize the nation that the Vietnam vets supposedly returned to! Hugely disappointed, I sent it back, and I am glad to report that Amazon.com gamely refunded my money. Thank you, Amazon.com, and bad cess to you, Myra MacPherson. -- Dan Ford

This gripping generational saga remains as fresh and moving as "Hey Jude." In an astounding feat of reporting, Myra Macpherson takes us from the priviledged sanctuaries of middle-class college students to the bloody battlefields where poor blacks and whites faced the terror of massed North Vietnamese Army divisons. Today's post-draft generation of college students would do well to read how lucky they are, how their forebears faced the agony of having to choose between fighting in a loathsome war or fleeing to Canada. In one scene as alarming as it was when it was written nearly 25 years ago, one young man facing conscription cuts off his trigger finger with a kitchen knife.rather than go to Vietnam. Macpherson's real triumph of reporting, however, is in finding two brothers who served in Vietnam -- one now a United States senator -- who come home from the war with distinctly different opinions on whether it was worth fighting. This, of course, serves as a metaphor for the entire generation. If you think the 60s were all about flower children and free love, you will be shocked, and moved, by this engrossing book.

Joseph Heller, author of Catch 22, said of "Long Time Passing: Vietnam and the Haunted Generation" "There has been no better body of war literature that I know of." Arnold R. Isaacs, noted autority on Vietnam, author of "Vietnam Shadows" writes "Any approach to the subject of Vietnam's aftermath must begin with Myra MacPherson's ground breaking book. Her book, among the first to break the long national silence on the war, remains one of the most moving and important works on the Vietnam bookshelf."
This new edition features a vital and topical new introduction that links the Vietnam Veteran Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)experience with today's civilian trauma following 9/11. It also connects Vietnam with present foreign affairs and military policies, including the war on terrorism in Afghanistan.
Yesterday's foot soldiers in Vietnam who are now leaders in the military and politics also reflect on Vietnam and provide new insight, as do those who were youthful leaders in the anti-war movement.
This brilliant examination of the generation is must reading, not only for those who lived through the war, but especially for a younger generation who can learn about--and learn from--the past.

I teach Thai international students English for academic purposes (TOEFL). When I first purchased this book long ago i attempted to use the phrases with Thai people. I have found many mistakes and misprounciations. My Thai students and instructors in Thailand have pointed out that many phrases in this book are too long and do not reflect the tonal and voice reflections. This would make it possible for a person to say: You are my dog, instead of: You are my friend. For the money, I would say this is the best book for the english speaking beginner or casual traveler. But beware the information is not always accurate and leaves much to be desired in in correct pronounciation.

After reading through this phrasebook, I've but two main observations. First is the positive. The tone markers are incredibly easy to understand, in fact, it is the best system I've seen so far. My only complaint is that there is absolutely no Thai scrpit in the book at all. So if you are having trouble pronouncing the word, your Thai friend/companion/etc. cannot simply read the Thai script and help you out. Other than that this is a nice phrasebook which has come in handy when I've used it in conjunction with other Thai language-learning materials.

I've used this phrasebook on several trips to Thailand and have found that it was good and easy to use. I disagree with your reviewer who said there were a lot of mistakes in it. I think possibly he didn't understand the pronunciation system, which is actually very easy to use. I haven't found any mistakes in it, and everything I've seen in it is correct according to a short Thai course I took. In fact, I think this book is the easiest to use if you're trying to get correct pronunciation and tones. I would recommend it to anyone going to Thailand or studying Thai.

This book should not be read by anyone, it simply rehashes every old myth about Vietnam. Read "Vietnam: The Neccessary War" or "The Defeat of the Vietcong and North Vietnamese Army" to get the truth and not his liberal axe-grinding ... that has passed for history for over 25 years.

Let me give you an idea of the discussion in this powerful and well-written book on the Vietnam war by Prof. Dr. Marilyn Young.

In 1954, the French had to withdrawl and the Genevea accords were signed. This called for Ho Chi Minh and his group to withdrawl to the North of the country and the French puppet Bao Dai's government to be in control of the South. A provisional line separated North and South Vietnam, to be completely eliminated when elections for the reunification of the country took place in July 1956. The Americans then moved from supplying arms to the French to taking over the whole effort to crush independent nationalism in Vietnam.

The U.S., she shows, understood that the Viet Minh would win any free and fair election and that Ho Chi Minh was more of a nationalist than a communist. Therefore, it was necessary to set up a permanent separate nation in South Vietnam, under the dictatorship of Ngo Dinh Diem, who launched a campaign of slaughter and terror against his opponents, leftist or otherwise. In an endnote she quotes Diem's former chief of staff as saying that had the Diem regime confined the police state terror and torture to only communists or communist sympathizers, one could symphathize with them for such persons inherently deserved such treatment. But his terror spread to other political parties, people who simply did not like his government and those resisting extortion by government officials. Despite being constantly slobbered over as a great humanitarian statesman in the U.S. media and among American liberals, conservaties in South Vietnam were beginning to openly oppose his regime, worrying U.S. officials about his regime's stability.

Finally in 1959, Hanoi authorized the Viet Minh in the South to resist in self-defense the terror of Diem's government. A couple thousand North Vietnamese, most of them natives of the South, began infiltrating the country. In 1960 the National Liberation Front (NLF) was formed amongst many South Vietnamese dissidents led by the former Viet Minh ("viet cong" in U.S. propaganda).

Diem's biggest problem from the U.S. perspective was that he had begun negotiations with North Vietnam on the withdrawl of U.S. troops from South Vietnam and agreeing to allow for the NLf to join South Vietnamese policial life and disucss possible reunification of the country in the future. This was a real horror to U.S. officials as comes up many times in the documents the author quotes.

In any case Diem was overthrown and killed on November 1'st 1963 in a U.S. backed coup. The problem was that the U.S. had trouble finding any military officer that was not intent on continuing Diem's efforts to reach agreement with the NLF and North Vietnam. They installed a series of military dicatatorships over the next few years until they finally found one sufficiently pliable represented by Ky and Thieu.

The U.S. extended its bombing to North Vietnam, then launched an all out invasion of South Vietnam, accelerating its program of mass murder. Some of the more interesting documents quoted in this book come from the Rand corporation. The infamous "strategic hamlet" program is examined in the village of Duc Lap in one document. Another notes that villages in militarily contested areas often felt hostility towards both the GVN (South Vietnamese government)and the NLF but hostiliy towards the NLF tended to be based on the U.S.-GVN bombing that its presences in villages caused, excess taxation, and sometimes military defeat. Anger towards the NLF was based more on despair than hatred. On the other hand hositlity towards the government of South Vietnam was based on a "a more basic hostility resulting from GVN aims and behavior..." Another document spoke of increased support for the NLF resulting from the massive defoliation program launched by the U.S., allegedly to deny food sources to the NLF which it did not do but greatly devastated peasant farmers. This exacerbated the feeling that the U.S/ GVN were "at best minimally concerned with the peasant's welfare."

The author quotes the elite political scientist Samuel Huntington who was deeply impressed by the massive refugee exodus to the cities caused by the American terror bombing of the countryside. It was good because it was the only way to deprive the Vietcong of its supporters, the people of rural South Vietnam for the Viet cong was a powerful organization which could not be separated from its "constituency" so long as the constintuency continued to exist.

The author goes on to discuss the domestic aspects of the Vietnam war as well as the mass murder operations conducted in Laos and Cambodia. She notes that the U.S., as in South Vietnam, avoided opportunities to make peace by backing the forming of  a coalition government with the left wing insurtgents there as proposed by the dictator Prince Siahnouk. Siahnouk had been overthrown in early 1970 because he was vehemently opposed to the U.S. bombing his country despite U.S. claims that he supported it. When the U.S. bombing reached its horrific peak in 1973, Cambodia's infrastructure and moderate and progressive  civil society were just about completely destroyed, leaving the harshest and most brutal elements, in this case the Khmer Rouge, previously a very fringe wacko group of the insurgency, to take power.

Thieu's regime fell in 1975. The author notes that in his final pathetic words in power, he attacked Kissinger for allegedly selling out South Vietnam in the January 1973 peace agreement though the author notes that Thieu continued to attack and seize territory held by the NLF, continuing the war as if there had been no peace agreement with U.S. support. The U.S. gave him all the military aid in the world but Thieu was opposed by virtually all sectors of South Vietnamese society and he could arrest and kill tens of thousands of people and steal every election but the fundamental illegitamacy of his regime could not be hid.

Young details the war well, so that a reader who does not know anything about Vietnam will finish the book having a good idea of the issues that drove the war and the questions that are still asked about it today. History buffs should find this book informative and journalists will enjoy Young's inclusion of the press in her story. I particularly enjoyed Young's examination of events in Cambodia and the perfidy of President Richard Nixon. However, while I agree with Young's inclusion of material that serves to call into question America's actions during the war, I think that her bias as an author against the war was a little too obvious. As an academic, I guess she is entitled to argue against the war rather than simply presenting the facts on both sides, but at points the book reads more like an editoriral rather than an article you would find in the news section of your local newspaper. Nevertheless, the book is chock full of facts, good observations and is clearly written. It certainly gets my reccomendation.

Donald Simons' "I Refuse" is a personal memoir of one man's attempt to declare himself a conscientious objector during the Vietnam War, and the consequences of his decision. One of the signs of excellent narrative writing is the ability to keep the reader turning the pages, and Simons manages this admirably well, building up and dramatizing each step of his confrontation with the local draft board and his subsequent trial. In doing so, he demonstrates a kind of courage different from that normally associated with war - the courage of conviction.

One of the strongpoints of the book is that the author never tries to convince the reader that his beliefs are absolutely right. He merely presents his story as if to say "I felt this way, I found myself in this situation, and this is what I decided to do." Even those who disagree with his decision can still understand and sympathize with his plight. The focus remains on the human reactions to the circumstances, and the effect on him and his family.

The author does a good job of describing the historical circumstances of the era, firmly rooting his personal story into a greater context. The excellent preface also gives a short history of coscientious objectors and the consequences they have faced, providing a more detailed historical backdrop to the scenes described in the book. For those interested in the Vietnam War era, this book represents a forgotten piece of the puzzle.

A relation of one man's struggle to declare himself a conscientious objector to the Vietnam war, "I Refuse" is a compelling and unique reflection on a turbulent era. The sign of a good narrative writer is the ability to keep the reader turning the pages, and Simons does this admirably well, building up and dramatizing each step in his confrontation with the local draft board and his subsequent trial. In doing so, the author illustrates a different kind of courage than that normally associated with war - moral courage.

One of the strengths of Mr. Simons' excellent memoir is that at no point in time does he attempt to persuade the reader that his beliefs about war are absolutely true. Rather, he presents his story by essentially saying, "This is how I felt, this is the situation I was in, and this is what I decided to do." Even those who completely disagree with his viewpoint can still sympathize with his predicament. This lack of ideological preaching allows the reader to focus in on the human side of the equation: how the events impact him and his family.

The author also does an excellent job of detailing the history of the era and rooting his story in this history, showing how his life becomes intertwined with events outside his control. The excellent preface gives a history of conscientious objectors and provides additional background, placing Simons' very personal narrative within a historical context. For anyone interested in the Vietnam draft era, this book provides an often neglected piece of the puzzle.

Although now a decade old, Donald Simons' I Refuse continues to be instructive for our times. This is a nonfiction account of a Vietnam War objector's experiences as he faced the prospect of being drafted into a war he found morally indefensible. His problem was doubly complicated by the fact that his home state of West Virginia, unlike other states, didn't recognize philosophical conscientious objection. The book is fascinating as Simons wrestles with tough moral decisions that have a direct impact on his life. He is no armchair philosopher pondering otherworldly concerns, but a person driven by his conscience, even when the personal consequences are life-changing. I Refuse is a page-turner that grips the reader intellectually and emotionally, and I strongly recommend it.