Col. Fitz-Enz's account of his time in Vietnam is a very entertaining look at a seldom-explored profession within the Army- that of a communications officer. While the Colonel started out as a photographer -not your typical career field for the army, but certainly a good one -his experience as first a platoon leader then company commander gives us a small look at what it was like back then; funny how some things have yet to change. His book is not set in a strict chronological order, but you get a feeling of how events transpired and their effect on his career. I highly recommend this book for those who have been or are contemplating careers as Signal officers.

As a Signal Corps Lieutenant, I read this book out of both interest and a desire to learn more about the Signal Corps' role in Vietnam. I was not disappointed. Fitz-Enz is witty, descriptive, and full of lessons and vignettes. Fitz-Enz focuses mainly on his days as a Lieutenant and Captain, and any officer of any branch of the Army can learn a great deal about creative leadership. I commend this book to any company grade officer who wants to learn about Vietnam from a different perspective, and urge you not to shy away from it if you are not a Signaleer yourself...you will be pleasantly surprised. Col Fitz-Enz: Write more!

A compelling read that I couldn't put down. He ranges back and forth across the soldiers, generals, his family and his personal reactions to his field experiences during two tours in combat and several other interesting general staff assignments. We feel the humanness of the army, the frustrations and the triumphs of soldiers and officers trying to do their jobs. His narrative cruises through his career with a smooth flow of technical challenges and human issues written in a straightforward, nontechnical style. A great little book. I hope Fitz writes more.

The book provides are very thorough accout aobut the tactics employed during the war and the battles that resulted. The level of detail is tremendous and the book is well written. However, I was hoping for a more thorough examination of the sociological effects of the war, particularly here in the US. Maybe there is another book that I can read for this.

Being 22 years old, I wasn't even born when the Vietnam war was going on. Nevertheless, something about it has always captured my interest, and I try to read several books a year regarding various aspects of Vietnam. I did not feel that my historical knowledge of the subject was up to par, so I purchased this book with hopes of filling in the gaps. I'd say it performs nicely. It gives an excellent overall review of the war and everything leading up to it. I'd recommend it to anyone wanting to refresh themselves on the general history of America's involvement in the Vietnam war. I have since purchased other books focusing on more specific aspects of the war, but this book has served as a nice launchpad from which I formed a general understanding of Vietnam.

It is a rare book that can effectively summarize a long war and a longer historical process in a short space, yet this book does so with gem-like clarity. It is also extraordinarily evenhanded--a great accomplishment given the depth of feeling surrounding the war. The text weaves various perspectives into the narrative so well that I always felt unimpeded by bias and appreciative of its broad objectivity. The author keeps the larger focus on the main political and military issues which shaped the war yet always includes enough detail to give a strong sense of what was taking place both in policy circles and on the ground. The author has cleary mastered a great deal of material and keeps to the facts, yet through it I was deeply moved. I think there is a subtle tone to the book of compassion for human tragedy that makes it not just highly readable but important to all of us who struggle to understand human events, and particularly this war.

This book tells the story of American ethnic cleansing against the Cherokee nation through an admirable combination of primary documents and the editors' analyses. Perdue and Green begin with a short but sophisticated history of the Cherokee from their first interaction with Europeans to their expulsion from the region where Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Alabama meet. We are then directed through a variety of documents commenting on several important themes: the "civilizing" of the Cherokee (i.e. their adoption of European culture), Georgia's leading role in pressuring the Cherokee off their land and pushing the federal government to remove them by force, the national debate between promoters and opponents of expulsion, the debate within the Cherokee nation, and a brief look at the deportation itself.

Hearing the voices of those who framed the debate and the Cherokee themselves allows the reader to appreciate exactly how complicated the situation really was. Pro-removal Americans make racist judgments of the Cherokee but cast their arguments in humanitarian rhetoric. Pro-emigration Cherokee harshly criticize the Cherokee leadership as corrupt and disdain traditional Cherokee culture. American defenders and the Cherokee leadership deploy legal and moral arguments in a futile effort to forestall American violence.

Yet the situation was even more complex than the editors convey. They ignore the very real class divisions within Cherokee society: the land- and slave-owning elite afraid of losing their property in the expulsion; the "middle class", resentful of elite privilege and hoping to seize leadership after emigration by betraying the nation and negotiating a sham treaty with the Americans; and the less Europeanized majority simply seeking to avoid forced deportation from their homes. Perdue and Green also ignore the larger political situation in the United States, namely the struggle between pro-Jackson Democrats and the emerging Whig opposition that resulted in a surprisingly close 102-97 House vote on the issue (try to imagine a vote that close over the latest example of government violence in pursuit of resources, the coming Iraq war). Particularly disappointing is a lack of any internal documents from the Jackson administration that might give insight into the motivations of the ethnic cleansers themselves.

Despite these deficiencies (and despite the editors' insistence on "modernizing" capitalization and punctuation), the book provides a good overview of the US-Cherokee conflict and a taste of what it's like to work with primary sources. It opens our eyes to how some of the most prominent Americans could embrace ethnic cleansing and revives the voices of those Americans and Cherokee who stood up against imperialism even when there was no hope of victory.

I read this book as part of my Native American History class and I truly enjoy this book. "Cherokee Removal" brings its readers, chronologically to the inevitable "Trail of Tears" where the government brought in troops and forced the Cherokees into stockades where they walked to Oklahoma, in terrible conditions, insufficient food, and a lot of the Cherokees died during the journey.

This books gave its readers access to primary documents, such as treaties, and letters written by Cherokees themselves, and it presents both views, from Euro-Americans who supported removal, who opposed removal and likewise for the Cherokees. By examining the primary documents, we can gain insights into how leaders like Andrew Jackson thought of the removal as a crucial step for Cherokees "survival".

The state of Georgia, defying the Supreme Court's rulling in Worcester v Georgia, in favor of the Cherokees, brought in troops, seize the Cherokee's printing press, etc.

By reading this book, one can't help but feel that greed, ethoncentricity can bring people to be blinded by their own prejudice and make mistakes that bring such tragic consequences.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn about the Cherokee Removal as other native american tribes suffered basically the same.

Theda Purdue is generally recognized as the pre-eminent Cherokee authority, but Ms Purdue lets the people who lived the events tell the story of the The Cherokee Removal. She, along with Michael Green, who is really more of a Creek Indian expert, uses contemporary letters, essays, and editorials to draw the reader into the plight of the Cherokee.

For example, in a chapter on United States Policy she uses Lewis Cass' justification of removal, and Andrew Jackson's State of the Union address to illustrate what the mind of the leaders of our country were like at the time of this great tragedy.

Perdue begins the book with a twenty-plus page introduction that tells the story of their civilization from the first man and woman to the removal from the Cherokee Nation in 1838.

When Purdue does interject her own opinion, it is well thought out and objective. After a discussion of the terms "Half Breed" and "Quadroon," she states "The concern with blood quantum reflected racist nineteenth-century thinking that linked ancestry and culture." Well said, and on the money...just like this book.

I found this book an exceptionally good read. Bacon takes us on a ride through the hot and crazy world of Jakarta in a way which is both informative and entertaining; summing up with great humour what he rightly describes as a "complex problem". Not only does he cover enough practical information to leave even the most unforwarned visitor feeling fully prepared, but he goes to great pains to explain the nature of 'Indonesian-ness' - and how to avoid the inevitable 'clash of culture' that foreign visitors might expect. As well as covering broader areas such as History, Politics and Culture with clarity and sensitivity, the author peppers the book throughout with the kind of detail and annecdote which brings the book alive. Bacon really hits the mark with this one.

Having lived in Jakarta for 18 months,reading Mr Bacons book took me straight back to the city that's ' in danger of imploding.'Straight back to the smells,the noises and the heat.The infomation and incredible insight that is packed into this book is quite amazing. I think it's difficult to understand quite how accurate this book iis until you've actually lived there. Really humourously written little stories had me chukling all the way through.I reckon , even if you are not about to move to Jakarta or even visit the place ,its well worth reading.

If there's just one book to put in your rucksack on your travels to Jakarta, this is the one. It's obvious that the author not only knows his stuff, but loves Jakarta too! A winner!

Readers should be aware that this book was published in 1991, with a different title, "Indonesia's Forgotten War: The Hidden History of East Timor". The only differences are an updated chronology and one new chapter about recents events since 1998. The 1990s are not carefully treated.

Professor Taylor in this book presents a pretty thorough history of East Timor. He lays emphasis on the development of its indiginous culture particularly the kinship system which helped it survive Portugese rule and the barbaric Indonesian occupation. He examines the efforts of foreign powers particularly the United States and Australia and even Portugal (at least until the early 80's) to support Indonesia taking over East Timor, the United States taking the lead in replenishing Indonesia with advanced weapons when it ran into trouble as before its "encirclement and annihilation" campaigns of the late 70's.

He examines the East Timorese indigenous culture including the kinship system which is deeply ingrained in the society and helped it survive Portugese rule and (just barely) Indonesian rule; up until 1990 the major Indonesian military campaigns (Persuatan, the dreadful Fence of Legs, etc.), the World Bank funded forced sterilization of Timorese women, some of the major massacres, the ideology of Fretilin, the "resettlement villages," the economic activities of companies like P.T. Denok in East Timor, the visits of foreign journalists and delegations of politicians, the apologetics for the Indonesian regime by the Catholic Relief services.

I think that his rather long introduction about the September 1999 incident and the chronicles of events during the 90's in the timeline at the end of the book serve as more than adequate updates. However I think he is rather too soft on the role (or lack there of) of the Western powers during the 1999 crises. Those countries continued to have normal military and diplomatic relations with Indonesia up until about two weeks into the crises when East Timor was basically destroyed and its population driven from their homes, when they finally engaged in minimally serious gestures, temporarily suspendeding military relations with Indonesia and agreed to a peackeeping force which was probably not needed under the pressure of Australian public opinion. Very little effort was made to conduct war crimes trials or investigations or help the country seriously rebuild from the years of destruction and occupation which America and its allies were in large part responsible for. There's alot more that can be said about this but the criticisms of Indonesia by U.S. leaders in the months leading up to the crises which Taylor lays great stress on are completely worthless.

In anycase a minor flaw; this is a very good introduction to East Timor, if slightly dry here and there with small print.

John Taylor simply sets the standard, with this new and comprehensive text, on a subject in which he has long been an authority. The book is tremendously comprehensive, approaching a variety of issues relating to East Timor's past and recent history as well as the present. It offers analyses, always well substantiated, and without giving excessive space to the author's own subjective views. It is well written and easy-to-read. All in all, it is a book that should be read by anyone studying this topic, whether a beginner or expert.

I'm proud to be able to say that I my unit supported the 1st and 5th Marines in this historic battle.

The battle would make a great movie. I would love to see Stephen Speilberg tell this story on film.

The book was outstanding, I loved it

Like a Time Machine, Fire in the Streets catapulted me 31 years back into the battle for Hue City. Eric Hammel's account is a historical, vividly accurate account of what every Marine would surely describe as their time in hell. It certainly was mine. Mr. Hammel's research enabled me to know the why's and the where's of my unit's activities, and gave me a much broader understanding of what the grunt Marine accomplished in the month long house to house fight. This is an excellent book!

Dennis Freed, Lima 3/5 WIA 2/24/68 - Hue City

I was one of those corporals that Eric Hammel mentions on page 303 who served as a platoon commander of Bravo 1/5. Mr. Hammel has meticulously constructed a book that is an enjoyable read and an important one for everyone who wants to understand what it was like to participate at the front line. It is, I believe, an important body of information in the history of the war in Viet Nam.

Hue was a unique battle in Viet Nam and "Fire in the Streets" is the best, most informative, most complete, and, from what I know, the most accurate description of the events before, during and after the event. I say this from the perspective of someone who not only lived the battle but has read every book on the subject that I can find. I think any student of this war can better understand the grunt's perspective of Hue and Viet Nam after reading this book.

I need to point out, however, that Lance Corporal Paul Cheatwood (page 286) was a mortarman with Bravo Company, not Charlie. I was his squad leader at the time of the ambush described. I had passed through the ambush when the machine gun opened up and I was forced to take cover between a dead pig and a concrete wall about 24 inches high. Everytime I moved I could hear bullets thudding into the pig and bouncing off the concrete. I had taken bullet fragments in my hand and one of my associates, for reasons that escape me, popped a CS (tear gas) canister upwind. I was considerably distressed by my situation and not coming up with a plan when I heard Cheatwood yell, "I see them!" He stood up firing his M-16. When it ran out of ammo he picked up another M-16 and walked deliberatly toward the ambush firing into the soldiers there. When the second M-16 ran out of ammo he pulled two grenades off his vest and threw them into the building. When they exploded he leaned in with a .45 and made certain that they had gone on to their reward.

Further, and more incredibly, Cheatwood didn't lead a patrol, as outlined on page 289. As the rest of us dragged the wounded to safety he gathered up all of the hand grenades he could carry and went BY HIMSELF, on his own initiative, behind enemy lines and personally inflicted some serious damage on the NVA. His courageous actions and self-sacrifice bought us enough time to get our act together.

The ambush put us in a very precarious position and, had the enemy counterattacked, we would easily have been overrun. I believe they didn't because of Cheatwood's one-man assault. Several of us put Cheatwood in for a Congressional Medal of Honor and I am, to this day, chagrined that he did not get it. Paul Cheatwood suffered permanent, grievous disabilities from the injuries that he suffered that day. I personally believe that he was denied the Medal of Honor because he was an enlisted man recommended by enlisted men. He deserves everything the Medal of Honor represents and it is a great shame that he did not get it.

One way or the other, the men of Bravo 1/5 owe Cheatwood a great deal.

However, this is about "Fire in the Streets." I am personally grateful to Eric Hammel for his book. It provides a level of recognition and dignity to those of us who fought in Hue and I urge anyone who is reading this to read the book. It's complete, its well done, and its important.

Mark Mead (former sergeant, USMC Bravo 1/5) soltura@hotmail.com

This is a very succint but adequate history of Cambodia, which started some 2,000 years ago with the Funan empire (1st to 6th centuries AD) and reached its peak with the Khmer empire (9th to 13th centuries AD) and its famous Angkor monuments. From then on, it was a steep downward slide into oblivion.

One just has to wonder how such a brilliant civilization could have disappeared even from the minds and memory of its own people. A Frenchman, Henri Mouhot, rediscovered the Angkor complex in 1860.

Chandler presents a rather complete picture of the long history of Cambodia in about 250 pages. He's concise--what a blessing from a historian. He highlights the most important AND the most interesting details about each period in Cambodian history, and avoids the common problem of banality that many history books have. It's truly a good read, and an easy one, too. It's written in a very clear style--another of its strong points.

In sum, I am supplementing this book with one that deals exclusively with Cambodian history in the last 30 years, but for the "big picture," "A History of Cambodia" is The One. I couldn't be more impressed.

Those who are fascinated with Cambodia, the Khmer language and the Cambodian people treasure the work of David Chandler. Clear and logical presentation are to be taken for granted. The author has for years set the standard toward which the next generation of Asia scholars strive. Even more rare than his impressive intellect is David Chandler's collegial approach to his subjects and his fellow researchers.

This book was my first in-depth introduction into the intricacies of the Viet Nam War. I feel like I've only scratched the surface of this monolithic subject.

In the final chapter, Mr. Bui lists the main reasons why the war was so unmanageable and why the US (and coincidentally S. Viet Nam) eventually lost it. The reason listed last (the problems resulting from US intervention) is the focus of his book.

"The South Vietnamese people, and especially the South Vietnamese leaders, myself among them, bear the ultimate responsibility for the fate of their nation, and to be honest, they have much to regret and much to be ashamed of. But it is also true that the war's cast of characters operated within a matrix of larger forces that stood outside the common human inadequacies and failings. And it was these forces that shaped the landscape on which we all moved."

"First...was the obduracy of France, which in the late forties insisted on retaining control of its former colony rather than conceding independence in good time to a people who hungered for it. Second was the ideological obsession of Vietnam's Communists. Not content with fighting to slough off a dying colonialism, they relentlessly sought to impose on the Vietnamese people their dogma of class warfare and proletarian dictatorship. Finally came the massive intervention by the United States, inserting into our struggle for independence and freedom its own overpowering dynamic. These three forces combined to distort the basic nature of Vietnam's emergence from colonialism, ensuring that the struggle would be more complex and bloodier than that of so many other colonies which achieved nationhood during mid-century."

In this book, you definitely will get a S. Vietnamese diplomat's point of view. I was hoping for more on the common man's outlook, the characteristics of the Vietnamese people themselves, and the demographics of the country, but it is not provided at all in this tome. I think this would have done a lot to make the actions of the S. Vietnamese government understandable, if not excusable.

Also, another weakness of the book is that Mr. Bui is always quick to point out American missteps, but rarely expounds on S. Vietnamese imperfections. For example, he writes that one huge problem was corruption. But he never fully elaborates on the nature of this corruption.

The story is easy to read except for when you start to get towards the end. The reason being that no more new insights will be given, and you already know what the disastrous outcome will be.

"In the Jaws of History" is most valuable for Bui Diem's account of his early years in the North, when the "great dilemma in the lives for all nationalists was coming to a head". Nationalists saw collaboration with the French as "repugnant", but then so was "giving the nation ... over to a future ruled by Ho Chi Minh, Vo Nguyen Giap, and the Indochinese Communist Party" who were then murdering nationalist leaders in Hanoi and along the Red River. Giap's role in the purge of the nationalist Dai Viet and VNQDD needs to be kept in mind by those who tend to accept as fact the popular communist myths woven around its leadership figures. "In the Jaws of History" is perhaps best read along with Bui Tin's memoirs "Following Ho Chi Minh: The Memoirs of a North Vietnamese Colonel".

This book offers a compelling and fascinating read. The perspective is one we don't see in most of our histories of the Vietnam conflict: the view of a South Vietnam nationalist who tries to save his nation from the Communists. The absence of bitterness, the appraisals of both the weakness and strength of his South Vietnamese compatriots, his views on the American intervention: all are fascinating.

Overall, this is one of the best books I have ever read about the conflict: it's right up there with Stanley Karnow's well-regarded book.

I bought this book a few months ago. I have found it to be very clear and well organized. I'm enjoying learing Sanskrit very much. I also bought Coulson's book and I am a bit confused as to the differences in the devanagari scripts used in the books. Both claim to be teaching Classical Sanskrit so I don't understand why there are such huge variations. I've tried to find explanation for this on the Internet and other places, but I can't seem to find one.

This was an excellent introductory book on Sanskrit. It was obviously written by someone experienced in teaching Sanskrit, and sensitive to student input. It was easy to follow and repetitive enough to give the beginning student a certain sense of mastery as each new piece of information would build on the last. I highly recommend it for any beginning student who may have found the Colson text entirely too overwhelming and confusing.

Originally I had picked up Coulson's intro sanskrit book. I found it very difficult to understand, and as a result I gave up on learning Sanskrit. When I received Engenes book, I felt releived and motivated because it was so clear and simple. When your learning a new language, it is important to keep things simple and to work in baby steps. Engens book is simple and clear!

Stan Sesser adds a great deal to the dialogue on S.E. Asian issues and experiences with this book. His first hand experiences and excellent research is evident in this well written and thought out book. What a shame it is out of print!

This is a fascinating book covering lands and peoples that get little notice in the West. Stan Sesser does not give us a touristy travelogue, but heavy-duty investigative reporting into the darker sides of these little known countries of Southeast Asia. His five long essays in this book cover Singapore, a bizarre construct of communist capitalism; Laos, a country that remains friendly and resilient even after a few centuries of being used violently as a pawn by larger empires; Cambodia, a land of strange politics where the genocidal Khmer Rouge have been welcomed as possible saviors into the modern regime; Burma, a potentially prosperous nation managed with horrific incompetence by paranoid and xenophobic hardliners; and finally Borneo (specifically the portion of that island controlled by Malaysia), which offers a chilling lesson in environmental devastation. It would have been nice to see similar coverage of Vietnam and Thailand, but there are only so many places Sesser can cover so strongly in one book. Sesser's main theme in his coverage is indeed charm vs. cruelty, as in these nations he has encountered some of the friendliest peoples and cultures in the world, which are being oppressed by the world's harshest regimes. While there have been many political developments since this book was written, especially in Cambodia, Sesser still offers many valuable lessons in the histories and social dynamics of these nations. Instead of a happy tourist diary of scenery and monuments, we get both the light and the dark of Southeast Asia in the most informative and enlightening ways.

Sesser's book was extremely helpful to me while I was living in the Far EAst in the late 90's. His essay on Singapore - discussing "the fear that even the best-educated Singaporeans live under" in their own country, accorded very well with my own observations. This book makes a wonderful corrective to the memoirs of Singapore's leader, Harry Lee Kuan Yew, and a great companion to Christopher Lingle's Singapore's Authoritarin Capitalism, Ian Buruma's essay, "The Nanny State of Asia" (in his book, The Missionary and the Libertine) and Francis Seow's A Prisoner in Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore (...).

The other essays include a distressing one on the destruction of the rainforests of Borneo by Malaysian government officials in Sarawk - local officials use their five year appointments to loot the place, the fear of poverty in them overriding any environmental concerns, which (sadly, sadly) seemed a very western - ie, foreign - concern after reading this.

The Burma chapter is perhaps the most sobering of all - here the whole sad history of Burma's ruthless, inept, corrupt post-independence rule is laid out for the reader; Burma was ironically far more prosperous under British rule, when it known as "the rice bowl of Asia" (ie, it exported rice to the region) than under so-called independance. How very sad. Sesser's book is very informative and will be of great interest to anyone planning to vist/live in the region, or simply visit from the armchair.