On November 21st, 1970, a rescue mission would be launched inside North Vietnam that would eventually gain status as being possibly the most incredible operation ever conducted during the Vietnam war.

The culmination of months of grueling planning and training, intensive coordination through military channels, extensive secrecy, and special operations wizardry would lead to the daring raid on the Son Tay POW camp just 20 short miles outside of Hanoi. So well prepared was the team that after the raid's accomplishment, no lives were lost and everyone returned safely after just 26 minutes on the ground. Everyone except U.S. POW's, that is, who were unfortunately not at the POW compound being that it had been abandoned only months previously. Information discovered as to why the Son Tay facility was empty would prove to be both revealing and disturbing to the raid planners and executers.

In assessing the aftermath of the mission itself, although deemed a failure by the mainstream media and squabbled over by Congress, the military, and intelligence agencies, positive aspects would eventually come to light to justify the raid a success after all. Unknown to many outside the purview of the POW's themselves, the raid was an eye opener to the North Vietnamese who now fully realized that America would defy the greatest of odds to repatriate their POW's and show them that they were not forgotten. The Son Tay rescue mission was a serious morale booster for our U.S. captives and also hastened their improved treatment from their North Vietnamese jailors.

Benjamin F. Schemmer has written a fascinating and in-depth study into one of the most sensational rescue missions ever accomplished in the history of warfare. Richly detailed and researched, included are photographs, maps, and appendixes with a multitude of statistics and operational facts. Whether just a casual reader or an avid fan of Vietnam era history, The Raid is an excellent book from start to finish. For those readers interested in the complete story of POW rescues in Vietnam, I would highly recommend the book "Code Name Bright Light: The Untold Story of POW Rescue Efforts During the Vietnam War" by George J. Veith.

The Son Tay Prison Raid was a good idea but was based on poor intelligence. Benjamin Schemmer did a good telling the story. It's too bad it doesn't have a happy ending.

Sam McGowan
Vietnam Veteran, author "The Cave"

Before reading this story, I simply had no idea that the raid on Son Tay had such a major impact. I found the story very emotional yet informative. The audio is a wonderful presentation.

Before this one, many other books provide the one-sided view from Washington by war historians, scholars and analysts (who did not know off-hand the combat and strategic position at the time nor the moral, spirit and willingness to fight by the young and heroic Special Branch Commandos). These books were based largely from declassified War Department MACV-SOG material since 1995, with few interviews with actual SB personnel. The sacrifice these Commandos made (in secrecy from 1956 to 1975) were not told the way it deserves in these books.

At Paris, in 1972, the Lost Commandos had been totally ignored by Henry Kissinger. Their American team members got released while the Vietnamese are kept 10 years or longer in prisons. Years later, these Commandos are betrayed again and cheated of the praise they deserve in many books by American writers.

Finally this is one of the two books (the other is by Ken Conboy and Dale Andrade) about the secret war waged by the CIA and Colonel Ngo The Linh's Special Branch. Mr. Tourison interviewed the Vietnamese side and have made great effort to provide a more complete and accurate account of success and failure of CIA & Special Branch and SOG & Coastal Security Service.

Many of these young SB Commanods died in North Vietnamese cruelest prisons. The rest spent between 15 to 22 years in hard-labor prisons until 1982.

Their stories are now finally told...

Before this one, many other books often provide one-sided view from Washington by war historians, scholars and analysts (who did not know off-hand the combat and strategic position at the time nor the moral, spirit and willingness to fight by these young, heroic and patriotic Special Branch Commandos). These books were based largely from declassified War Department MACV-SOG material since 1995, with few interviews with actual SB personnel. The sacrifice these Commandos made (in secrecy from 1956 to 1975) were not told the way it deserves in these books.
At Paris, in 1972, hundreds of these Commandos had been betrayed by Henry Kissinger and their American allied. The American team members got released while the Vietnamese are kept 10 years or longer in prisons. Years later, they are still cheated by many books that often lack the acknowledgement of their heroic sacrifice.

Finally this is one of the two books (the other is by Ken Conboy and Dale Andrade) about the secret war conducted by the CIA and Colonel Ngo The Linh's Bureau 45B (or Special Branch). Mr. Tourison interviewed many Vietnamese commandos & case officers and have made great effort to provide a more complete and accurate account of success and failure of CIA & Special Branch and SOG & Coastal Security Service.

Many of these Commandos died in North Vietnamese cruelest prisons, the rest spent between 15 to 22 years in hard-labor. Their stories are now finally told.

I highly recommend this book to everyone.

Thank you Mr. Tourison.

Before this one, many other books often provide one-sided view from Washington by war historians, scholars and analysts (who did not know off-hand the combat and strategic position at the time nor the moral, spirit and willingness to fight by these young, heroic and patriotic Special Branch Commandos). These books were based largely from declassified War Department MACV-SOG material since 1995, with few interviews with actual SB personnel. The sacrifice these Commandos made (in secrecy from 1956 to 1975) were not told the way it deserves in these books.

At Paris, in 1972, hundreds of these Commandos had been betrayed by Henry Kissinger and their American allied. The American team members got released while the Vietnamese are kept 10 years or longer in prisons. Years later, they are still cheated by many books that often lack the acknowledgement of their heroic sacrifice.

Finally this is one of the two books (the other is by Ken Conboy and Dale Andrade) about the secret war conducted by the CIA and Colonel Ngo The Linh's Bureau 45B (or Special Branch). Mr. Tourison interviewed many Vietnamese commandos & case officers and have made great effort to provide a more complete and accurate account of success and failure of CIA & Special Branch and SOG & Coastal Security Service.

Many of these Commandos died in North Vietnamese cruelest prisons, the rest spent between 15 to 22 years in hard-labor. Their stories are now finally told.

I highly recommend this book to everyone.

Thank you Mr. Tourison.

Rich with honesty. Historically relevant.

The narrative on this book was excellent. Trujillo gives a interesting view of how the Latino/Chicano community conducted themselves during times of savedry. Its bluntness of battle against an enemy that was covert and deadly. This book makes you visualize the rawness of pure inhumanity. Trujillo, in this book, brings to light the fine line between sanity and insanity.

This book is very much a modern day "Los De Abajo." Los De Abajo was the first book written about the Mexican Revolution, using the language of those who fought in the battles. In Soldados, Charley Trujillo also captures the language and feel of the Chicano soldier who survived Vietnam. From truck drivers to infantrymen, these voices tell stories that only Vietnam veterans can tell. Trujillo made a valiant attempt to let the sounds of the voices flow in their natural state, and he edited little, so the words sound as if they come from one who stands on a street corner, talking to whomever will listen. Read this book and get a whole new side of the Vietnam war. Read this book and see the committed, dedicated side of a community that has contributed to the creation of the United States for over two hundred years.

This dictionary is excellent. It is clear, concise, informative. The short introduction of Tagalog grammar made it user-friendly. It has been a vital tool for me, as a reference, when I am translating Tagalog utterances to English. This dictionary reflects the compiler's remarkable prudence with his work.

If you're going to purchase a Tagalog-English dictionary for travel, school..or just because you want to learn more about the language, BUY THIS ONE! This is truly the best Tagalog-English dictionary out there, and the price is just right. It not only serves as a dictionary, but it includes traditional folk songs, useful sayings/phrases..etc.

I have the classic Tagalog-English dictionaries: José V. PANGANIBAN's (1972), Vito C. SANTOS's (1978), Leo J. ENGLISH's (1986). Of course this dictionary cannot compare with them, but it is the best value for money. It even contains words that are not entered in the classics. It is umpteen notches above the other "small" dictionaries - most of them being worthless. I am so satisfied with Rubino's Tagalog-English-Tagalog dictionary that I'll buy a second copy to be used when travelling in the Philippines.

This book's focus on contemporary Vietnamese literary sources through the years makes it absolutely unique in the field. Its blend of straight history narrative and multiple-voice literature excerpts fleshes out Vietnamese society in a way that was sorely needed in the field. To those well-read in Asian studies: this book can almost be seen as a Vietnam analog to Patricia Ebrey's book "Chinese Civilization: A Sourcebook," which is a collection of contemporary Chinese sources through history.

The history is instructive and concise, with little excess prose. Jamieson writes in an eminently readable style, and focuses on the most interesting events in order to keep the reader from being bored. He does a pretty good job of giving both Northern and Southern Vietnamese viewpoints, although he does focus a little more than would be preferable on South Vietnam, especially in the later parts of the book. The twentieth century chapters do a better job than almost any book on the market in focusing on the Vietnamese, rather than on the multi-decade war in which they fought.

My only complaint is that the extended yin/yang analogy used to explain societal trends was not very helpful. On the whole, though, I'm really impressed.

I think this book is amazing! Jamieson accuately protrays Vietnam and Vietnamese culture through the eyes and views of the Vietnamese in a way never before written by a Westerner. He is articulate of the moods and feelings faceing the Vietnamese, well educated in the arts and literature of Vietnam, understands the importance to the core family structure, and scholarly in his research of what it means to be Vietnamese. I highly recommend this book if you want to understand the Vietnamese people who live in Vietnam, in the US, or anywhere...

This is a somewhat difficult book to understand, although it turns out to be a gem.

The author sets out to demonstrate that Vietnamese society, history, and culture from 1700 to 1990 revolve around the yin and yang system. While harmony derives from a balance between these two elements, an imbalance on the other hand results in revolution and war. The forces, which have been pulling the Vietnamese community apart since 1920, came to a head-on battle in 1945-50.

During the 1954-1975 war, the northern yang being stronger and more refined than the southern one led to a northern invasion and collapse of South Vietnam. The hegemony and repression of the north, however, caused a violent reaction of the southern yin during the post 1975 years: exodus of hundreds of thousands of boat people, and refusal of farmers to participate in the collectivization of the agriculture causing a decrease in productivity. Those who could not escape survived by peddling their belongings at flea markets, which over a period of time grew into a vibrant capitalistic system thanks in part to the money sent home by relatives abroad, especially in the U.S. A decade later, the southern economy rebounded while the northern counterpart floundered. This led to a reversal of the dogmatic northern policy and implementation of the "doi moi" policy in 1985.

The author also suggests that happiness and prosperity cannot come to Vietnam unless true freedom and basic human rights are respected.

The American Library Association has voted "Understanding Vietnam" the 1994 Outstanding Academic Book.

Making my move to Bangkok, this book has well equipped me for the transition, and has made me more excited and prepared. This book gives an endless supply of information on Bangkok, but doesn't stop there. It goes on to talk about culture, history, and other parts of Thailand, but keeping it relevant. This book is a must have if you are planning on learning, visiting or living in Bangkok! I only wished that this book had more pictures, but the author made up for it in his fun to read writing style.

This book will save you time, money, frustration, and give enjoyment and satisfaction. Bangkok is a huge city with many attractions and lots of traffic. This guide will tell you where you can go and what you can do based on *your* personal preferences. You can fit your accomadation, lifestyle, budget, culinary likes, night life play-time, and temples, into this guide, and most importantly, get there quickly and affordabley. All of the river taxi and Sky Train routes and stops are listed. Information on the arriving Metro is included as well. The maps are accurate. Plenty of cultural, visa, legal, medical and food information. Very pleasant areas outside of, but near Bangkok are noted. If you spend time in Bangkok, and only use the LP South East Asia or LP Thailand, you will miss many things that you may want to experience in Bangkok. The Bangkok city guide is worth picking up for those who have the country LP.

4 days in Bangkok and this book was right on the money with locations, reviews of sights and maps.

I would have given this book 5 stars, but Kregg makes me out to be more heroic than I really was. Fact is, I would have gone looking for the team if I had been told to, but I was happier than hell that I wasn't! There was a huge storm in the area that night and I had a really bad feeling about flying around in it trying to make radio contact with the team. Using my simple logic, if they were okay, they would still be okay in the morning when the storm passed. And if they weren't okay, increasing the body count by 5 wan't going to help either. Kregg, if you read this, please contact me.

As in all his books Kregg has done a super job on this book. I have read all the books that Kregg has written, and this one was right up there with the rest.

I learned alot from this book, Im sure you will to....thanks

During the height of the Vietnam war, I was a junior high/senior high school student and never really understood what was the purpose of the war. I have read many books since and have a fairly good understanding of the how's and why's of the war. However, reading Nixon's book was a real eye opener. He lucidates very well how the US got involved in Vietnam; the major mistakes the Kennedy and Johnson administrations made in running the war; the smear campaigns by the media against the Presidents and their policies; why Nixon bombed Vietnam in 1972 and mined Haiphong harbor; how the peace protestors played into Uncle Ho's hands. I was stunned to learn this information. Nixon was, by far, an exceptional and gifted statesman and writer. He even stated that the next threat to world peace and to the US will come from terrorism (this was written in 1985!). Nixon states that the "civilized world must develop a unified policy for dealing with terrorism" and that terrorists "may be deterred once they realize that by using terror they will spark the wrath of all nations that do not want to exist in a world riven by a tiny minority who have resorted to violence...." If you want to understand the current problems in Afghanistan with Al-Qaeda and O. bin Laden, Nixon's book has fascinating parallels from the Vietnam War to learn from. A book certainly worth reading!

I'm a student and this book was a required reading. Easily the best required reading I've ever had to do. I had never fully understood Vietnam. Why we were there, what we did while there and why we left. This book was an excellent asset in understanding Vietnam and I recommend it especially to students since it can be easily read in 2 to 3 days. :)

President Nixon's political problems notwithstanding, his was a serious intellect which was capable of getting to the heart of a subject. Starting with an enumeration of 22 conceptions about the war in Viet Nam, all of which,in print, seemed,not only plausible but were accepted by all too many people as true. As you read them you find yourself saying "no that's not right...sounds familiar but it's not right." Your vindication is at hand when the trap is sprung and the author declares all of the above is false. The book is a review of how events in the war played out politically and strategically, and how it was reported to the American people. Instead of being a self-serving recount of why I did the things I did, it is a well developed cronicle of events which elicits for those who lived through the period, tried to understand the period and most poignantly participated in the period, a feeling that... hey that's the way I remember it happening. It is a debunking of the self-serving myths propagated by the media. Contrary to the popular opinion forced upon us by the media, we had the war won in 1973, and with peace at hand Congress withdrew virtually all support, most importantly the threat of resumed air support for the Vietnamese ground troups should North Viet Nam not honor the peace treaty they signed. Regardless of your feelings about US participation in the Viet Nam War, Mr. Nixon's elucidation of the events will give many food for thought and revisit the question of where the responsibility for the tragedy belongs. Coincidentally, very shortly before writing this I watched an interview of General Schwartzkoff wherein he propounded the same view of our "loss" in Viet Nam as I remembered and as is described in NO MORE VIETNAMS. This should be on the mandatory reading list at our colleges.

One of the earliest (1986) accounts from the survivors of the Pol Pot regime, "The Stones Cry Out" seems to have set the style and standard for another more recent child's-eye perspective on the same era, "When Broken Glass Floats". The minute details of everyday life, not abstract poltical assessments, form the basis for our childhood memories. The author's account carries an unvarnished realism which draws the reader into her film-like image of daily life under threat of starvation and execution. This is probably as close as a reader can come to the truth of events in Cambodia during 1975-79. Oral histories such as "The Stones Cry Out" are perhaps the best way for survivors of human rights abuses to indict the perpetrators. Sadly, tribunals driven by international politics are unlikely to have the same impact as the simple testimony of a victimized child. Highly recommended reading for all those with an interest in human rights, Cambodia, and Southeast Asian culture.

Actualy I would rate this 4 and 1/2 stars.

Having read "First they killed my father" by Loung Ung It would be difficult for me to review this book with out comparing it to Loung Ung's memoir.

Both are essentially the same story, a young upper middle class girl living in Phnom Phen in april of 1975 when thier life, family and happiness are torn from them by the khmer rouge.

Many of thier experinces are similar as you might expect (long hours in forced labor, family deaths, witnessing murder ect..) but each has a unique story of thier own.

The writing styles also vary greatly and this is where Loung's "First they killed my Father is the better" book. Molyda tells her story in a very straight foward manner. Her discriptions of murder, torture and rotting corpses are alomost clinical in tone as if she is afaid to visit or express her real feelings at the time (and who could realy blame her) we are giving only hints about her family and life before April 17th 1975 (to be fair this may be in part to spare distant family members still in Cambodia from retalation)

In Loung's book however we are treated to two light hearted chapters discribing her life in Phnom Pehn before April 17th 1975 this gives the reader a chance to feel they realy know her, her brother's, sisters and parents thier strengths and weakness'.

Loung's memoir is far more emotional in tone and feeling leaving the reader almost gasping for air at points.

For those overly squimish that makes "The Stones Cry Out" the better of the two books. It is also the better of the two books if your sole interest is the surrounding history of the killing fields.

But for those just wishing to read a great emotional book "first They killed My father" is the better choice but I would highly recomend both to all.

I am a 12 year old reader, and this book was heart-breaking. It is so sad that something like this hapenned, and so many peoples' lives were destroyed. Molyda Szymusiak's story makes me realize how lucky I am to enjoy my freedoms.

The content of of Leigh Wade's book is exactly what the title says and this is not War and Peace. There is a lack of structure, particularly near the end where the final chapters seem tacked on and the writer seems to have run out of gas. Nonetheless, it is a quick and satisfying read and will have resonance with the thousands of combat soldiers who served in Vietnam. The former Special Forces soldier, Leigh Wade, tells an interesting and honest story which contrasts particularly well against the background of current military events. The state of affairs was much different in Vietnam than it is in theAfghanistan of today, but the Special Forces mission was pretty much the same. Wade tells his story with matter-of-fact honesty and cool authority. He doesn't take pains to embellish the story and readers will see that no embellishment is necessary. Tan-Phu is a story of quiet heroism.
Tan-Phu was a Mekong Delta outpost set up in South Vietnam in 1963. It housed a small Special Forces contingent, a Vietnamese civilian defense force, and a company of Vietnamese Rangers. The U.S. Special Forces missions was to enlist, train, and advise Vietnamese combatants in the war against the Viet Cong. As one reads the various accounts of actions and initiatives, one gets a good understanding of why the war was so problematic for the American soldier. Although the Mekong Delta would eventually become one of the safest places in the Vietnam, it was in the control of the Viet Cong in 1963. Tan-Phu was under attack just about every night in the "nightly haps", as the soldiers termed them. Mortar fire, probes of the perimeter, harrassing fire of machine gun or assault small arms. In the daytime, the soldiers would conduct "sweeps", forays into the jungle and rice paddies to locate, recon and kill the enemy. In one particularly grim battle account, the soldiers at Tan-Phu are hammered, with a large number of them killed and captured. The soldiers at Tan-Phu were nonchalant about it all, businesslike, with a sense of duty. For them, death was a routine, the by-product of the mission.
There's a particular sadness in this story of Tan Phu. In this story of a single encampment, one can see the ever-present tragedy of Vietnam, a war with sometimes murky objectives, a body-count war. Yet the common heroics and devotion to duty of the American soldier shines through and is a bright spot in this nuts and bolts account of what it was like by a man who was there again and again and again.

I enjoy Leigh Wade's writing style and had read one of his other books. This book is his account of his first tour in Vietnam as a junior commo sergeant in a remote A-Team. Lt. Nick Rowe was on this team, and Wade's account of the operation that lead to the capture of Rowe (author of Five Years to Freedom) and Cpt. Rocky Versace (who was awarded a CMH posthumously for his actions as a POW) is a good addition to the historical record. After reading this book I re-read the beginning of Five Years to Freedom. It is very enlightening to read the two first person accounts of the battle. Both were accurate and insightful, and the differing perspectives helped illustrate some of the chaos of battle and fog of war. This book is a good personal record of the war from a junior green beret's point of view, uncensored and unapologetic.

Leigh Wade proves that with American ingenuity, and old fashion guts, you can do a lot of damage while minimizing friendly casualties. He also shows the reader that regardless of your primary MOS - he was a commo man - while assigned to a Special Forces A-Team, you are going to fight and kill like a proven grunt, which he did well, and often. Reading Wade's story helps me put Vietnam in perspective. He tells it the way it happened to him, and there's plenty to get your attention. He - through his writings - makes me proud to be an American. Way to go, Leigh!