Patriots: The Vietnam War Remembered From All Sides

By Christian Appy. Viking, 2003. ISBN 0-670-03214-X.

The war in Vietnam ended a quarter of a century ago, but memories of it still are vivid today. Author Christian Appy examines the war and its impact through the recollections of 131 American and Vietnamese contributors to this provocative oral history.

Patriots is an ambitious work exploring the experiences of both friends and enemies in “our longest and most divisive foreign war.” Appy is a history professor who has taught at Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. This is his third book; he also wrote Working Class War: American Combat Soldiers and Vietnam (University of North Carolina Press, 1993).

Patriots covers the history of the Vietnam War from 1945 to 1975 and includes sections on commanders, war heroes, families, politics, racism, POWs, student activism, Watergate, and the Paris peace talks. 

Appy collected interviews of 350 people over many years—soldiers, politicians, civilians, journalists, diplomats, antiwar and pro-war activists, students, a Playboy playmate, a stewardess, and a draft-dodger. Several of the contributors are prominent figures, such as Alexander Haig, Daniel Ellsberg, and Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap.

Seth Tillman, an aide to Sen. J. William Fulbright, tells savvy political anecdotes about the senator and President Lyndon Johnson. He also says Congress could have ended the war at any time, if it had wanted to. Ellsberg explains his reasons for releasing the Pentagon Papers, and the conscientious objector son of Gen. S.L.A. Marshall describes his painful estrangement from his famous father.

Other interviews include a war resister sent to prison for draft evasion, a U.S. Army adviser who loved his three tours in Vietnam, an American pilot tortured for years as a POW, Viet Cong and North Vietnamese soldiers who boast of victory, and two brothers—one a Marine in Vietnam, the other a draft dodger who fled to Canada.

This is a controversial book, expressing strong feelings about the Vietnam War, and sure to produce equally strong reactions.

John Paul Jones: Sailor, Hero, Father of the American Navy

By Evan Thomas. Simon & Schuster, 2003. ISBN 0-7432-0583-9.

Capt. John Paul Jones is a much-admired American naval hero. In 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt declared: “Every officer in our navy should know by heart the deeds of John Paul Jones.”

Jones (1747–1792) was a clever and courageous naval officer whose daring exploits cheered the Americans and infuriated the British during the American Revolution. However, for all his courage in battle and skill in shiphandling, Jones was a man whose overwhelming ego, arrogance, and desire for glory and recognition made him many enemies and reduced him to loneliness and ruin, according to author Evan Thomas.

Thomas, an assistant managing editor at Newsweek magazine, has written four other books, including two biographies, a book about the early days of the CIA, and another about U.S. foreign policy.

John Paul Jones is Thomas’ well-researched and smartly presented biography of the man considered the father of the U.S. Navy. Thomas portrays a remarkable officer whose boldness, vision, and wartime success were limited only by personal flaws, which ultimately drove him into the mercenary service of Catherine the Great of Russia. Thomas presents both sides of Jones: the audacious, decisive naval commander and the brooding man given to self-pity, paranoia, and bitterness over real and perceived slights.

Thomas successfully balances the heroics, myths, and exaggerations with the reality of the less savory but equally important aspects of Jones’ life. As Thomas relates, Jones, whose real name was John Paul, was the son of a Scottish gardener. He spent much of his life trying to become an aristocrat, an unrealistic goal for one without money or title. He repeatedly designed fake family coats of arms for a nonexistent lineage; President John Adams said Jones was “leprous with vanity.”

Jones was a good sailor who learned his profession aboard merchant ships and also served aboard a slave ship. After killing a mutineer in the Caribbean in 1773, John Paul fled to America, attaching the last name Jones to help disguise his identity. When the American Revolution broke out, Jones found his niche as an officer in the fledgling and inefficient American navy.

Thomas describes Jones’ many sea battles, pursuits, and raids on the British homeland, revealing Jones’ talents for deception, tactics, strategy and bravery in combat. Thomas provides a riveting account of the famous sea battle between Jones’ Bonhomme Richard and the British warship Serapis in 1779 (where Jones probably did not say, “I have not yet begun to fight!”), as well as other equally stunning but less well-known battles with British ships Solebay and Drake.

Thomas colorfully describes Jones’ constant bickering with Congress over seniority, his many mistresses and love affairs, and his indifference to his crews that resulted in near mutiny on every one of the ships he commanded. 

Throughout this superb biography, Thomas details American history as well, with anecdotes about great men and great events. Statesmen, naval heroes, cowards, traitors, and profiteers are the men around Jones, and some of them use him badly. 

John Paul Jones is a complex figure, and this is a scholarly, detailed, and entertaining biography of a hero with huge appetites for both action and reward. Sadly, he found plenty of one and little of the other.

— Reviews by William D. Bushnell

Member Books

FICTION

Apprentice Warrior: Born for Flight. By Col. William W. Whitson, USA-Ret.
As war clouds loom in Europe during the summer of 1912, David Harrison enters the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. The major thread of the story traces his effort to make sense out of his passion for flight, his extraordinary intuition, the ideals of West Point, and a prospective career in the Army. A secondary theme is the development of the airplane as a weapon. During the summer of 1915, one year before his graduation, the two themes become entangled when David is sent to London to discover what air combat is all about. Suddenly, everything he believes about himself and his future is challenged one July afternoon when he witnesses death in the skies of France.
Cogent Publishing, 3 Miller Road, Putnam Valley, NY 10579. (845) 528-7617. Cogentpub@sol.com. ISBN 0925776-10-6. 299 pp. $19.95 plus postage.

Santa’s Secret. By Maj. Ben R. Games, USAR-Ret., and Mrs. Helen Games.
This story evolved because of the lost letters to Santa Claus that were written by the children of the Turks and Caicos Islands. The letters were lost for 20 years, and you can imagine how aghast everyone was at the North Pole when the letters were finally discovered. This book is a thrilling adventure that reveals the true meaning of gift giving. Included are some of the real letters written by the children.
Xlibris Corporation, 436 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106. (888) 795-4274. www.xlibris.com. ISBN 1-4010-9163-6. 28 pp. $13.99 plus postage.

A Cry in the Wilderness. By Marie Guay and Maj. R. L. Cook, USAF-Ret.
John the Baptist: desert madman or prophet of God? John is charismatic and controversial. A rugged looking Nazarite, his hair and beard have never been cut and he wears a goat hair tunic. He speaks with authority. His dais is a rocky knoll. Annans, the dethroned Chief Priest knows a secret from John’s past. How and to whom he preaches and baptizes till his death at Macchaerus, Herod’s stronghold in the desert comes with many surprises.
Trafford Publishing, Suite 6E, 2333 Government Street, Victoria, BC, Canada V8T 4P4. (888) 232-4444. www.trafford.com. ISBN 155395212-X. 348 pp. $24.50 plus postage.

Secret Players. By Capt. Carl Nelson, USN-Ret.
This work of fiction opens with a tale of gripping terror, then chronicles the lives of two veterans who faced each other during World War II. Set in America and Japan, the finale shakes the reader in light of the terrorist attacks in our own country on 9/11.
New Century Press, 1055 Bay Boulevard, Suite C, Chula Vista, CA 91911. (619) 476-7400. www.newcentury.press.com. ISBN 1-890035-32-7. 328 pp. $16.95 plus postage.

Rogue Warrior: Violence of Action. By Cmdr. Richard Marcinko, USN-Ret.
Back from self-imposed exile, the Rogue Warrior enters a whole new phase of his amazing career. The threat this time is from domestic terrorists intent on a holy war–military insiders gone bad—and they possess suitcase-sized nuclear weapons. The battle takes the Rogue Warrior to the extremes of hard-core action with the survival of his country at stake.
Pocket Books, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, NY, NY 10020. (212) 698-2812. www.SimonSays.com. ISBN 0-7434-2276-7. 291 pp. $7.99 plus postage.

NON-FICTION

Fast Track To Manhood. By Col. Thomas P. Griffin, USAF-Ret.
Fifty-five years after World War II, a B-24 Aircraft Commander who flew 30 missions against heavily defended targets throughout Hitler’s Europe relates the story of his “Fast Track to Manhood” as a bomber pilot and prisoner of war.
Trafford Publishing, Suite 6E, 2333 Government Street, Victoria, BC, V8T 4P4, Canada. (888) 232-4444. www.trafford.com. ISBN 1-4120-0647-3. 274 pp. $30.00 plus postage.

United States Army At War: 9/11 Through Iraq. By Lt. Col. F. Clifton Berry Jr., USA-Ret.
The more than 200 color photographs in this book show the total Army in action. The exclusive photography by photojournalist Dennis Steele and official images by Department of Defense and United States Army photographers highlights the men and women of the active Army, Army National Guard, and U.S. Army Reserve, plus civilian employees, contractors, and families.
Naval Institute Press, 291 Wood Road, Annapolis, MD 21402. (800) 233-8764. www.navalinstitute.org. ISBN 1-59114-063-3. 192 pp. $34.95 plus postage.

Arizona’s War Town: Flagstaff, Navajo Ordnance Depot, and World War II. By Lt. Col. John S. Westerlund, USA-Ret.
In 1942 the Army built Navajo Ordnance Depot just west of Flagstaff, creating a boomtown overnight. Navajo and Hopi laborers came, as did African-American soldiers along with sailors and Marines, and even enemy POWs. The unprecedented social, cultural, military, and economic forces illustrate the impact of the war on community development in the West.
University of Arizona Press, 355 S. Euclid, Suite 103, Tucson, AZ 85719. (520) 621-441. www.uapress.arizona.edu. ISBN 0-8165-2262-6. 280 pp. $39.95 plus postage.

The Brooklyn Football Dodgers: The Other “Bums.” By Maj. Roger A. Godin, USAF-Ret.
The Brooklyn Football Dodgers have long been forgotten. However, the teams that played under the Dodger name in the national Football League and All-American Conference are brought to life in this comprehensive history. Particular emphasis is placed on the Dodgers’ two best years, 1940 and 1941.
St. Johann Press, 315 Schraalenburgh road, Haworth, NJ 07641. (201) 387-1529. rgodin@wild.com. ISBN 1-878282-29-8. 422 pp. $29.95 plus postage.

MEMOIRS

I Never Liked Those C-130’s Anyway…:Memories of Twenty Years in the U.S. Coast Guard. By Lt. Cmdr. Malcolm Smith, USCG-Ret., with J. Wilfred Cahill.
The Coast Guard’s most colorful aviator, Malcolm Smith, recounts his career and rise from ordinary swabby to legendary search and rescue helicopter pilot. Humor abounds through 20 years of escapades.
Trafford Publishing, Suite 6E, Government Street, Victoria, BC, V8T 4P4, Canada. (888) 232-4444. www.trafford.com. ISBN 141200407-1. 207 pp. $21.95 plus postage.

Pigtails and Inkwells. By Lt. Cmdr. John W. Hamlett, USN-Ret.
Tucked away in the far southwest corner of Houston, Texas, is a storybook community of memories called West University Place. This book is a collection of stories that the author told to his own children and to his school children of how life really was for him while growing in this community during the war years of the 1940s.
1st Books Library, 2595 Vernal Pike, Bloomington, IN 47404. (800) 839-8640. www.1stbooks.com. ISBN 1-4107-4616-X. 83 pp. $21.00 plus postage.