" A Viet Cong Memoir" is an intriguing historical account of the "other side" of the Vietnam War. Mr. Truong was a member of the National Liberation Front, as opposed to an actual military guerilla. The media always referred to the NLF as "the political arm of the Viet Cong". That always struck me as a dark, typical Vietnam type mystery. With "VCM", the NLF has a human face to go with the mystery. Right from the outset, any Vietnam vet as myself must take a story told by a VC with several grains of salt! Mr. Troung is beyond a doubt engaging in a bit of revisionist history, painting the indigenous (Southern) Vietnamese NLF in a fairer light than the more taciturn, hard core Communist Northern invaders. (...) A decent awareness of the conflict is needed to fully appreciate the book. With all these constraints aside, "VCM" rates as 5 star history. This should be required reading for serious students of the War, almost on a par with Bernard Fall's epic "Street Without Joy". The reasons are many: Troung is an excellent writer, both at once engagingly formal yet abidingly down to earth. Well educated, well connected and intelligent, he was involved with the NLF from the early 1950s-the French era of the War. The reader senses Troung's commitment to Ho Chi Minh's cause right from the time he meets "Uncle Ho" as a student in Paris. I believe that he believed in Ho's aphorisms- "liberty sweet liberty", "victory great victory", etc. Since Troung was not a jungle guerilla, the military side of the conflict is not emphasized here. Four major aspects of the War are mentioned; these are the book's strengths. 1) The reader will understand how the nation of South Vietnam ran and eventually disintegrated. The author paints a grim picture of a string of venal, petty and authoritative Saigon regimes. Troung came from an upper class Southern family and was well placed to report accurately.He even does time in a dank Saigon prison. Typical for Vietnam, his wife springs him with a bribe! 2) For a foreigner, the author had an excellent (!) grasp of the American political scene. The Vietnamese must have seen the U.S. letting the War slip away long before we did. 3) "VCM" is the only place I have read a fair, balanced and nuanced version of the back room deals at the 5-year debacle known as "The Paris Peace Talks". There was actually an ebb and flow, a system of sorts. Did Henry Kissinger blink? Was he outfoxed? Or, as the author seems to suggest, were he and Nixon just out of maneuvering room? 4) Critically, Troung takes pains to paint the South Vietnam oriented NLF as a kinder, gentler "third way" between the real bad guys (the Saigon regimes and their American cronies) and the hard core Marxists from Hanoi. The NLF wanted to set up a quasi-independent government in Saigon that would allow for the obvious differences between the 2 Vietnams. The infighting was intense and the "good guys", if that's what they really were, got stiffed good and hard. I chose to take Troung at his word; other readers may disagree. As a finale, "VCM" offers a rare, poignant, and touching chapter on the refugees known as the "boat people". I used to think that "Vietnam" consisted of that remote, little dusty Engineer camp I lived in for a year. Then I started reading other folk's far (!) more earthy accounts of RVN. 30 years after coming home, I continue to be ASTOUNDED by how many stories and sides there are to this foggy and mysterious place. "VCM" makes some sense out of the mystery. Then again, this being Vietnam, it may deepen it! Night always did fall quickly over there.

"A Viet Cong Memoir" by Truong Nhu Tang (Former Minister of Justice) offers some rare glimpses into the Vietnam War. I haven't finished reading the book just yet, but did scan the last chapter to read the punch line. Truong Nhu Tang, fed up with the mismanagement of Vietnam, he 'lost the faith' and became disavowed, and fled to Paris, France in 1978. Albert Pham Nooc Thao, a close friend of the author and fellow Communist, was Chief of Security for South Vietnams armed forces when Diem was in power. Albert worked hard to institute programs in Vietnam to anger the civilians and make them more prone to blame the government and join the NLF. He also bird dogged and acted as Diem's bloodhound to locate officers and officials who didn't support Diem. What a Trojan Horse! I wonder how many other high ranking RVN officials also were on the other side, using their positions to spy, bring charges of corruption on the RVN gov't, get rid of competent officers and officials by McCarthyism (accusing them of being communists) and cause general confusion?

I read this book when it was first published and have used it as a reference as both a student and teacher of the Vietnam Conflict for many years. Before having traveled to Vietnam, this was one of the first sources I'd encountered that put a human face on a former enemy that other texts and media reports had failed to provide. The text gives the reader an excellent view of one man's perspective in the National Liberation Front and shows its readers an outlook rarely seen from an American political sentiment. Of particular interest to me were the author's personal accounts of espionage during the war and the physical and emotional affect American fire power had on the Vietnamese combatants.

With all due respect to Peter Caldwell, I think this book has a lot of value for all Americans, including Vietnam veterans. There are some photos which are propaganda, but they are labelled as such and as the author explains they are part of a larger story. All wars come with propaganda, even our own present war in Afghanistan (remember the US Special Forces soldiers riding horses with the Northern Alliance guys?) The other photos in this handsome book are stunning, especially a very wide panorama of a terribly defoliated Ho Chi Minh Trail. Very touching portraits elsewhere as well as dramatic battle scenes, in addition to the brief histories of the Vietnamese war photographers (in their own words) make this a very valuable and important book. There is something inside for everyone, just dig a little deeper past your first reaction...

This is a tough book to sum up in a few words, since many people will use their background to judge it. If you felt we should have won the war, you will hate it. I was forced to serve in VietNam and I found the pictures very interesting. More than just the US era in VietNam, the photos go back to WWII. There are pictures of the Ho Chi Mih trail which vividly show the difficulty in shutting off that supply line. There are pictures of what the US now calls 'collateral damage' from the bombing in the North. There are some propaganga photos, but they are so stated. But far and away there are photos showing the everyday life of those involved in combat, and for that it is a very valuable book. It is a documentation from the other side. Considering how our drill instructors were wont to describe the other side as a bunch of pj'ed peasants, the quality of the photos is first rate. I can not begin to imagine the conditions under which many of the photos were taken, let alone survived to be developed. If you have an open mind about the war, you will enjoy the book. If you already have decided about the war and felt we were suppsoed to have won 'if only....', then I am sure there are lots of gung ho war movies and books for sale on Amazon.com that will better suit your mindset.

As a former Marine Corps combat photographer and recipient of the Purple Heart and Bronze Star with Combat "V," (I Corps, Khe Sahn, Con Thein, Dong Ha, Vietnam), Peter Caldwell missed the point about the book. The book was not produced to glorify the NVA or the politics (which enough has been written), but simply to add another piece to a broad visual mozaic. Dr. Caldwell would certainly be hard pressed to attend the International Assn of Combat Photographers. Its membership include former Nazi photographers. In our world as combat photographers, then as now, our role was to document war, to present images however controversal or appealing, to the public. Sometimes these images can be bitter medicine for both sides...just like the images of My Lai.

Tim Page did an excellent job compiling a visual treasure of the North Vietnamese photographers. And as a former combat photographer, I was stunned to view their work. Other distinguished photographers and correspondents like Larry Burrows, Bernard Falls, Henry Huet, Sean Flynn, Dana Stone -- to name a few who I had the pleasure to meet and work with and all were killed in Southeast Asia, they would hold this book in high regard. After all, as combat correspondents we did not judge but observed. And that's what this book is all about.

SSgt. F. Lee
Combat Photographer ('66-67)

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As a non-Vietnamese speaking Vietnamese-American born at the end of the war (and ambitions to get involved in business in Vietnam in the future) this course has been a savior.

It's the best you can buy for learning the Vietnamese language. Other Vietnamese language 'courses' found on Amazon aren't even in the same league with this one. Before getting this I ordered Language/30's Vietnamese and Vocabulearn's Vietnamese. In comparison these ones are jokes (the readers who gave them good reviews obviously haven't seen this course).

One caveat however. For this text to be useful the accompanying CD set also needs to be ordered. Unfortunately, I'm lead to believe this text is endangered of being put out of print because the publisher (Tuttle Publishing) doesn't even make the CD set anymore. To get the CD set (7 CD's for $135) you have to mail the author directly (Tuttle's number is given in the back of the book. Call them, they'll give you the author's address). Fortunately the author's very quick to mail the CD set- it took 3 business days to get from Cambridge, Mass. to Santa Clara, CA.

If you are interested in learning the Vietnamese language buy this text (with the intention of later buying the CD set). This course deserves to thrive and become the standard for learning the Vietnamese language. It should be the "Elementary Chinese" (a standard Chinese learning text) for the Vietnamese language.

Although the other reviews complain of complexity, it is utterly necessary to learn the pronunciation. As far as the book focusing on the northern dialect, it is quite simple to change a few nuances to suit to a speaker of the southern dialect. I have studied Vietnamese for over four years, and owe my near-fluency to this book, and this book alone. There is simply no other learning material on the market today that is as thorough as this book, and the accompanying audio products. Keep in mind, however, that special attention needs to be paid to the pronunciation guide, and listening to the audio course and the pronunciation of the speakers. This aspect of the course is completely invaluable. The nature of the Vietnamese language is it's tonal characteristics; without them, a person trying to speak the language will not be understood. This book will definitely help you master the tones, so you may begin practicing the drills and learning the vocabulary. It is an indispensable course for those who truly want to learn the language.

So far, this is the best book I have seen teaching the Vietnamese language. The first section deals with a highly comprehensive description of the sounds and syllable structure (based on Hanoi dialect). The description includes charts with IPA (the International Phonetic Alphabet used by linguists) and linguistic terminology. Don't let this frighten you, because it explains what it means. The lessons, which are themed, are arranged in an easy-to-follow format: Dialogues, Vocabulary, Grammar Notes, Drills, and Excercises. There are also boxes which show you how to formulate sentences. This is definitely for serious students of Vietnamese. Also, since Vietnamese is a tonal language (like Mandarin and Swedish) it helps if you obtain the CD. The CD will also greatly help out in the pronunciation section of the book. Good Luck!

I actually looked forward to receiving this book. As English is my native tongue, and I had studied French/Japanese at school, I was looking for an easy book that would teach me the hindi alphabet and provide me with some easily referenceable vocabulary. Whilst this book provides some assistance on both, I didn't find the layout to be very useful. I would have also preferred more attention on how to write the characters.

I'd still recommend this book, but a little more visual assistance (the book is a bit dry, as it is predominantly textual) would have enhanced my learning speed, as well as more romanization of hindi words, especially for beginners such as myself.

I have been learning hindi for the past two years, and I have been using many books in the process, including Snell and Weightman, an older book by Misra and Fairbanks, another book by Surendra Gambhir, and this one by Bhatia. For those starting from scratch, this book is the best option.

Snell and Weightman move way too fast and you quickly find yourself in way over your head (unless you already have a background in hindi). I found this Bhatia's romanization excellent because it emphasized the difference between english and hindi sounds, and most importantly, Bhatia was consistent throughout (though hopefully some of the typos towards the end will be fixed in a future edition). His pronounciation introduction is also the best I've seen as far as emphasizing and drilling Hindi vocal nuances. The pacing of the book is very comfortable for the complete beginner.

Bhatia also does not take anything for granted. A lot of important questions left unanswered by other books are treated thoroughly in this text (like the compound use of "lena", "jaana", and "dena"; the frequent ommision of the "a" sound in the middle of words; and the fact that words like "mahal" and "kahana" are pronounced "mehel" and "kehena"; just to name a few...) You are really able to digest everything as you go along. Bhatia's word list and grammatical summary in the back are god-sends, and his mnemonics like "nerd nouns" and "laal adjectives" are clever and effective. He also puts his lessons in a cultural perspective that is crucial for using your hindi socially.

One criticism I would make is the lack of emphasis on the devanagri script. If you use this book, you should really take the initiative and learn the script. It will help you as you progress to more advanced books.

It seems like the few who gave this book a bad wrap are educators who are used to hindi being taught in a certain way. I think the things that make this book different also make it the best.

My recommendation is start out with this book, then go through Snell and Weightman, using the early lessons as review, then go through Surendra Gambhir's pricey but excellent "Spoken Hindi" set. All these books have their lessons on cassette. I transferred all the lessons to CD, which made my studying much more efficient. Also get McGregor's beautiful Hindi-English Dictionary which will be a cozy campanion throughout. If you can even find the Misra and Fairbanks book, don't bother. It is quite antiquated and impractical, and the tapes are a nightmare. Happy studying!

An excellent book for beginners, like the title implies, it is mainly a course in Colloqial Hindi, and almost omits the Devanagari syllbary entirely. There is only one chapter on it, but that chapter is very helpful all the same. The tape that comes with the book is a necessary element; it is integrated with the exercises in the book quite nicely, so make sure you get the cassette as well. The romanisation scheme is weird, but it's not too difficult. As an introduction to spoken Hindi, this can't be beat. For a better knowledge of the Devanagari syllabary, I would recommend Snell's "Teach Yourself Hindi".

I forced myself to read this book after I had exhausted the supply of Hillerman's Navajo mysteries. I was completely caught up in Moon Matthias' search for his niece and for himself. Mr. Hillerman subtly blended suspense with his usual attention to characters' integrity and his obvious respect for varied religious traditions. I was very satisfied with this story.

I do like Tony Hillerman and I was initially quite surprised by Finding Moon because it is set in so different a world from the Jim Chee/Joe Leaphorn stories. Hillerman's Southeast Asia at the end of the Vietnam era is evocative and detailed--just as one feels that one has entered Indian Country, one feel that one has landed, like Moon Mathias, in a completely disorienting new place here.

Moon Mathias is a character who grows up in the course of this novel. It is a wonderful, unusual coming of age novel, with a characters who doesn't trust his own resourcefulness or ability to commit to situations or people. I was very impressed, Unlike Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn, who have strong internal value systems tht help them to make decisions, Moon Mathias has not been forced to think through what he really believes, and this story takes hima long way on that journey of self-discovery.

Hillerman seems to have had a deep need to write Finding Moon--the same way he seems to have HAD to write such books as Dancehall of the Dead or The Dark Wind. And yet its neither a mystery, nor set in the Southwest, and there's not a Navajo in sight. But Hillerman seems to have dedicated it to several fellow soldiers, and says he's used some of them in the book. I think there's a story there, that he's telling somehow in the book--an utterly private story those friends can read and that the rest of us can only guess. There's that great Hillerman ability to describe action in the outdoors (remember how Fly on the Wall came alive in the stalking sequences, outdoors?) And both major and minor characters go through changes and development. How can something so different in setting, character, and plot be so much the same in the feeling it gives you? Because when Hillerman's got the passion, his superb craftsmanship lets it shine through.

This book literally changed my life. After reading this book I joined the ROTC program and was later commissioned an Ordnance Officer in the Army. 4 of the most valuable years of my life. I too visited the wall and located Tyrone Hisey's name, and feel an odd sense of reverence when I pass through Mansfield, OH. It would start to sound silly if I wrote much more about the power this book brings with it...but I will recommend another book, also written with professional assistance: "Fly for Your Life" by Robert Stanford Tuck with Larry Forrester. These books are the most powerful I have read on air war, or any other subject for that matter.

One of the greatest story's I have read in a long time. I laughed with him, and cried with him. By the end of the book I felt like I knew him personally, and if I saw him on the street I would say "Hi" as if we were old fiends and talk a while. side note: whoever gave the one star rating there... I think you may want to check the black wall for Tyrone Hysey, its there.

This book was recommended to me by a friend who served with Marvicsin. I read every book (fact and fiction) I can get my hands on concerning VietNam. This now rates as the finest I've read so far. The jargon is a reflection of the time, the war and the age of Maverick during his experience. The expressions he uses in a pinch are hilarious. He moves us through his military experience from young and dumb to the jaded thinking many vets developed in a war that nearly destroyed this country and did destroy many a good soldier in its wake. Also read-"We Were Soldiers Once...and Young" "Easy Target" and for novels on the subject, Colonel Leonard Scott wrote some fine ones.

An "explorer" does not an author make, and this is certainly the case here. I was very disappointed in this book. The trip was certainly full of excitement, terror and sheer surprise on all the participants' parts, but what we mostly read about is the author's lame exploration into her suddenly having a natural life experience(the sudden and inexplicable onslaught of menopause at age 40 in the middle of a tropical jungle).

She did not develope the characters on the trip, including herself, so that when something happened to any one of them it was a predictable yawn. I would love to read about this trip written by anyone of the others that were along for the ride of their lives - someone a little less shallow, a little more involved with the group, a lot less whiney. This author was the person that one will find on organized trips, and the one you spend time trying to avoid.

Granted, she lost her luggage, but her personality type would be the one to have lost her luggage! If it wasn't centered around her, it wasn't worth a mention. I nearly threw the book down when she finally gets ahold of some foot powder (of which there was a very limited supply), and she proceeds to slather it on so generously that the person generous enough to offer it to her had to tell her to stop wasting it! At another point, her flashlight dead in the water due to battery failure, she finally begs some batteries, (again, in short supply), and proceeds to read in her tent with the thing lit! Absolutely clueless on what it takes to think ahead! Drove me nuts. I kept asking myself, what has she contributed to the group? Answer? You read it and see if you can figure it out.

I had intended to read a chapter or two of this book and ended up reading it in one sitting. It really was an interesting trip, and the descriptions of life in the rain forest are just amazing. The author slips in a fair amount of history of the earlier explorers and travel writers in the area but mostly manages to interleave things enough to keep the pace up.

I almost didn't buy the book after reading some of the earlier reviews so I think I'd better address some of their points. There are maybe two pages about the hot flashes (out of 256) and a few mentions -- basically along the line of mentioning her spider bites, bee bites, foot rot, hot flashes, bad back, etc. It's really no big deal, and this is coming from a 30 year old "basic guy".

I do think a responsible tour company would have stopped her from going on the trip after the airline lost her luggage instead of assuming she could borrow everything, but then again I think a responsible tour company would have brought a radio (duh) and had some plans as to what would have happened if, say, somebody had broken a leg. This trip could have turned into a real disaster. And while the author was often wasting resources, so was the whole group. They really didn't realize what a mess they were in until they were in deep over their heads.

The whole interaction between the tour company (operating without a clue) the guides (competent but following the company line because they need the money) and the tourists (didn't ask the right questions before leaving or during the trip) is pretty fascinating. It's a real argument for independent travel. . . but not to the rain forest!

I've bought this book as a gift for at least five other people and will probably buy more in the future.
Ms. Johnston uses the white-water rafting trip from hell as a metaphor for her voyage into menopause, lost youth, and self-discovery.
Don't miss it!

David Lamb's "Vietnam, Now" provides a balanced perspective on modern Vietnam. Lamb first worked as a UPI reporter in South Vietnam in 1968. He returned in 1997 as a correspondent for the Los Angeles Times and lived in Hanoi with his wife for four years.

Other recent books about modern Vietnam (such as Robert Templer's "Shadows and Wind" and Henry Kamm's "Dragon Ascending") seem to put a negative spin on everything in Vietnam. However, in "Vietnam, Now" David Lamb chooses to take a more realistic and slightly optimistic view.

In his stories of life in Vietnam, he acknowledges the poverty of the people and corruption and stubbornness of the ruling old guard. However, he puts things in perspective.

As is the case in most books on Vietnam, a lot of stories are related to the American War: US veterans return to Vietnam for closure; North Vietnam war memorials are in good shape and the South Vietnam war memorials aren't; one son fought in the north and one in the south.

It's easy to see why some people have written negative reviews about this book. Some persons who have sacrificed and lost much in this country cannot acknowledge that anything good can exist in Vietnam while the communists are in charge.

Still, I recommend this book as a balanced perspective of modern Vietnam. If you do want another opinion of the country, I recommend Templer's "Shadows and Wind." Or, better yet, read both these books and then visit Vietnam the country and judge for yourself.

I think this book was really good. In this book Mr. Lamb showed the other side of the story about Vietnam. He showed what they think about the whole war, and what they think about American people. By Mr. Lamb's words, the book showed that Hanoi is a beautiful city in Vietnam, and that Vietnamese people are not mad at Americans for what happend, they say that they are people just like us. I do recommend this book, because it's nice to know what the other side thinks about the war.

I visited Vietnam with my wife in 1999 to adopt a daughter, and my wife visited there again last year to adopt our second daughter. Lamb's book accurately reflects most of what I have learned about Vietnam, including the amazing Vietnamese people, and the seeming disconnect between their daily lives and their government. I can't guarantee that every word is accurate; it is a complex country that is changing is many ways. But I do think you will learn more about Viet Nam from this book than from any other I have read. And it will prepare you well for the visit I hope you make someday.

This was, in many ways, a painful book to read. I was in elementary school at a school for missionary children in northern Japan when I read in my Weekly Reader that Nguyen Cao Ky had become the new prime minister of South Vietnam. I remember the news gave me a sense of hopefulness about the war, which we were kept informed of by the Far East Network (armed forces radio) and the Voice of America. I can also remember my feeling of confusion when I read that Theiu had replaced Ky as Vietnam's leader.

Without belaboring the point, I have long been frustrated by the American handling of the war, which, I believe developed out of our abdication in Korea. I don't want to spend time talking about that, because it is a tired and painful subject. Suffice it to say that this book confirmed my feelings, but added some new insight.

For example, this book adds some insight into the resentment that many Vietnamese nationals felt toward the French, whose colonialism was largely exploitive, and financed by the Americans in amounts that Everett Dirksen would call "Real Money." In addition to that, I did not know, until I read this book, that Westmoreland was fully informed of the North Vietnamese intention to stage a major invasion during Tet, but decided to keep this from the South Vietnamese army! This appalling mismanagement of the crisis produced a disastrous and completely unnecessary problem for the Cao Ky, but it was a challenge that the South Vietnamese met and overcame. While Tet had a demoralizing effect on the American public, it was actually a victory for South Vietnam, and a major defeat for the North Vietnamese.

The book also addresses some more familiar themes, such as the legendary ineptitude of McNamara, but the most poignant event in this book is Nguyen Cao Ky's impulsive decision to abdicate leadership in favor of Thieu. Nobody (including Nguyen Cao Ky himself) knows why he did this. Perhaps it really was a selfless act of a patriot who had no interest in promoting himself, and was just trying to do what was best for his country. Or, perhaps, he had become bored with the monotony of leadership, and decided to abandon his responsibility, just as he discarded his wives, one after another, when he got tired of them.

To his credit, Nguyen Cao Ky takes full responsibility for his fateful decision. And it would not be fair to say that he abandoned his country completely, because he was always ready to serve, and to lead when the chips were down. In that sense, we must give credit where credit is due, and call him a patriot. But this is small comfort for the painful realization that the war effort was doomed by his decision, although I am still not sure if I believe that it was more significant than the moral exhaustion of the American culture, which rendered the Americans all but impotent to save Vietnam.

Read this book. Nguyen Cao Ky is a very good storyteller, and a man of adventure who liked to live on the edge. You will almost certainly come away better informed about the first war the Americans lost. It is a sad story, but one which can have a certain measure of redeeming value if we are able to learn from our mistakes, and adapt to the very different place that east Asia has become.

This is a must-read book for those who want to understand that period of history when the United States
became mired in the Vietnamese quagmire. It is an easy read, despite some obvious spelling and grammatical errors,
and it is a unique look into the life of one of the most colorful players in the Byzantine game of Vietnamese politics
of that era.

Westerners, usually from the media but also others as well, often describe Nguyen Cao Ky as flamboyant,
when they are not using other words such as "swell-headed" or "shallow". He lives up to his reputation
in this book, and some of the stories that he tells, from his courtship of a young woman in the seaside town of Nha Trang
to his dealings with American generals and politicians, are indeed fascinating, even if some anecdotes are not
sufficiently detailed. The book is rather thin for this genre, but there is no presumption that it is scholarly,
or that it should be pored over by academicians in search of another explanation as to why the most powerful country in the world
could not overcome the Communist violent takeover of South Vietnam. Rather, it presents the point of view of a man
who at a young age came to lead his young nation in its darkest moments.

History is not kind to losers, and we in America have a tendency to think that the good guys usually win. But once
in a while, those who were defeated have a decent story to tell, and Ky is trying to do that with his book. He explains
the dilemma of Vietnamese patriots who wanted to fight against the French but could not swallow Communist
ideology, even at the cost of a twenty-year civil war. He is most clear-sighted when he points out that a good majority
of the South Vietnamese leadership consisted of French-trained men who took greed, religious, and regional rivalries to
extremes, even at the detriment of their struggling nation. He also asks some interesting questions that beg for answers from
those who had a hand in conducting the war in this country: at the start of the 1968 Tet offensive, why did US forces
not come to the help of their South Vietnamese allies until the morning after? Why did the US wait until 1968 to begin
giving more modern weapons to the same allies, while the Communist soldiers from the North had the best from Soviet and Chinese arsenals?

At the end of the book, Ky pleads for the Vietnamese diaspora, which numbers some 3 million people living outside of their
native country, to forgive and forget because the old Communist hard-liners in Hanoi are disappearing through natural attrition.
He wants the younger generations to go to Vietnam to help their counterparts inside the country rebuild it. But as a man who has
traveled widely throughout the world since the fall of Saigon, it is telling that Ky himself has not found the time to go back to the country of his birth.

How could it be anything else being written by one of the players. I think Cao Ky Nguyen confirmed many truths and it was important for that to come from a South Vietnamese leader. All that you need to do is keep in mind that he is trying to portray himself in a more favorable light than he deserves as he was just as politically immature as the rest of the inept leaders he comments on.

The American lessons from Vietnam in essence are the old sayings that you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink, and that if you want something done right do it yourself. When you put Nguyen's rationalizations in a more accurate perspective, he makes this clear.

I found Eyewitness Travel Guide for Thailand very informative, and easy to read. It had tons of pictures, facts, FYIs, and did I mention pictures? Like Eyewitness I agree that a picture is worth a thousand words. I also bought Lonely Planet's Travel Guide for Thailand, but liked Eyewitness' much better. Lonely Planet's Travel Guide had a more standard layout for the abundant amount of facts, but was limited on the pictures. The phrase at the bottom of Eyewitness' book holds true, "The Guides That Show You What Others Only Tell You."

If you are looking for a Thailand travel book, this is it. The many beautiful pictures and the well written articles on every aspect of Thai culture are invaluable for the traveller or the person who simply dreams of exotic locales. Definitely a must purchase!

Truly a wonderful travel guide. This is a must have for your adventures in Amazing Thailand. This book gives you all the information you need, when you pack for your vacation this will be the only travel reference you will need to take with you. A valuable tool in exploring Bangkok and the surronding regions. The maps inside helped us get back to our hotel on more than one occasion, a definate life saver and an essential necessity.