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Vietnam Memoirs-Part 1: My Experiences as a Marine Platoon Leader

By Don Bonsper

This simple, honest book by Don Bonsper takes readers on his journey as he assumes command of a Marine infantry platoon in Vietnam. Starting with his arrival in June, 1967, until his reassignment to the Marine Advisory Unit in November, 1967, the reader will experience Vietnam at the platoon and company levels. This book is not full of glorified stories about combat. Rather it is the author’s best recollection of the day to day reality of living in combat. His story is not unique or special, but it is honest and real.

Vietnam Memoirs-Part 2: My Experiences as an Advisor with the Vietnamese Marine Corps

By Don Bonsper

This second book by Don Bonsper picks up where Part 1 left off: Don’s assignment to the Marine Advisory Unit in Saigon. His journey as an advisor starts with his assignment as the assistant advisor with the 2nd Battalion, Vietnamese Marne Corps (VNMC). He initially serves in the III Combat Tactical Zone (CTZ) near Saigon and then moves to CTZ IV in the Mekong River Delta. Now the reader can see the challenges of working with the military forces of another country. Don leaves Vietnam for 6 days of Rest and Relaxation with his wife, Pam, in Hawaii only to have South Vietnam explode with the Tet Offensive in January 1968. Don’s return to Vietnam quickly puts him back in harm’s way as he and the battalion work with the Mobile Riverine Force. When the senior advisor of the 2nd Battalion completes his tour of duty, Captain Bonsper becomes the only senior advisor with the rank of captain among the six VNMC battalions. He finishes his tour with the largest battle of his time in Vietnam. Similar to Part 1, this book is not full of glorified stories about combat. Rather it is the author’s best recollection of the day to day reality of working and living as an advisor with an elite unit of the Vietnamese military forces. His story is shared by hundreds of other US military officers who also served as advisors during the long war.

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Tales of an Ugly Angel

By Gary Doss

As a young man in Oklahoma, Gary Doss had plans for his future –plans that included a budding interest in mechanics. Then one day in November 1965, his Uncle Same offered him an opportunity to become a United States Marine with a career in aviation. He visualized himself working on an airplane - and leapt at the chance.

So began Gary’s long association - not with fixed-wing aircraft, but with helicopters. During his tour of duty in Vietnam, Gary was a member of the famed “Ugly Angel” squadron. These noisy, oily old Sikorsky choppers carried Marines into battle and extracted them when necessary. As a door gunner and mechanic, Gary focused on this special aircraft - and on the many missions into and out of harm’s way.
Gary is still passionate about helicopters - especially a particular one - YL-37.

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Tell Me A War Story

By Major George E. Kinback, Jr.

This manuscript is a compilation of individual stories from my experiences as an Army Aviator and instructor pilot during the period from 1956 to 1973. The venues are Central and South America, Korea, USA, Japan and Vietnam. Each story is introduced by a first person cliffhanger of a few paragraphs in italics followed by a more detailed story.

ISBN: 1419648276

They Answered the Call: Latinos in the Vietnam War

By Gil Dominguez

Latinos have fought in every conflict in which the United States has been involved, from the American Revolution to Operation Iraqi Freedom. Regardless of whether they were inductees or volunteers, Latino soldiers, airmen and Marines served with great distinction and bravery, compiling a record of courage unmatched by any other ethnic or racial group in the United States. They earned thirty-nine Medals of Honor -- fourteen of those for service in Vietnam.

Yet the American public is largely unaware of the sacrifices made by Latino citizens, mainly because of the lack of writings on the subject. This book is an attempt to fill the void in the literature dealing with the role of Hispanics in war; in this case, America's longest and most unpopular conflict. The author interviewed twenty-one warriors who candidly relate their experiences in combat and share their feelings about the war and what it means to be a Latino Vietnam vet.

They Answered the Call: Latinos in the Vietnam War is available online at major booksellers, including publishamerica.com, Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com. The author also has copies available.
Order your book from
Gil Dominguez
1610 Rain Song
San Antonio, Texas 78258.

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Through Smoked Glass

By E. W. "Erny" Richardson

Glimpses of a Life Before, During and After Vietnam

This collection is about memories, those bits and pieces of things we experience, directly and indirectly, then store away... they are the raw material of dreams. The poems of this collection tell a story of a Vietnam veteran's life. They represent life events of more than 45 years. Don't be surprised if you see something familiar...the fabric of memory and of dreams is universal.

Erny Richardson also maintains a quarterly journal dedicated to all veterans, "Distant Echoes."

ISBN: 0595240658

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Thunder in the Night: A Sailor's Perspective on Vietnam

By Raymond S. Kopp

When May 1972 came around, the war in Vietnam was supposed to be winding down. But for a the crew of the USS Newport News and other select units of the US Navy it was just beginning. Penetrating deep into heavily defended North Vietnamese waters the young sailors and marines experienced war like they never thought they would. The crew spent long nights maneuvering the ships, stealthily into enemy territory, surprising the opposition and devastating them with awesome firepower. In raid after raid the men were overwhelmed with the reality of the destruction they visited upon their adversary, a well-trained, well-supplied military-industrial regime intent on defending it's resources at all cost. As the war trudged on, however, they found themselves both targets of enemy fire and subjects of inner-psychological warfare.

ISBN: 189245128X

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Tim O'Brien

If you're not a Tim O'Brien fan, you may be soon. Check out the O'Brien Home Page for details on his many "Best Sellers."

This is an off-site link, so don't forget to come "Back."

The beautiful story of how the author met and fell in love with an Army nurse and all the problems they encountered to be together and get married during war time. John was a helicoptor pilot shot down SEVEN times during his tour of Viet Nam and received several decorations.

Emeral City Publications
30528 Mountain Loop Highway
Granite Falls, Washington 98252

A Joni Bour Book Review

To Nam And Back

By Randall Juge

Pilots live by a code of honor. They assist other pilots and help the troops in the battlefields. They ride into battle, strike the enemy, and ride out. Like the knights of old, the helicopter pilots of the Vietnam War were the Templars. Their steed—the helicopter—wore the armor that was little more than a shell of aluminum-magnesium that had an affinity for fire and burned like a sparkler once ignited. The war left an impression on every soldier who served in Nam. It is only now that these veterans are willing to share their memories with others. Time has healed some. And some soldiers can even find some humor when recalling the terrifying events of the war that forever tainted their youth. This book is one helicopter pilot’s memories of being in flight during combat. He was one of many, who went from a civilian, to a soldier, and then back to civilian life. The author uses humor to lighten his story and the hearts of his readers, and it works.

# ISBN: 1595263160

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A Joni Bour Book Review

To Waltz with a White Horse

By Ron Shepherd

This is a story by a disabled Vietnam Veteran of an army Sergeant who comes back to the states with one less leg and a bad drug habit. It tells of his successes and failures and is an adventure in reading from front to back.

ISBN 0-9769455-2-5

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The Twenty-five Year Century: A South Vietnamese General Remembers the Indochina War to the Fall of Saigon"

by Lam Quang Thi

For General Lam Quang Thi, the twentieth century had only twenty-five years: from 1950 to 1975, during which the Republic of Vietnam and its Army grew up and collapsed with the fall of Saigon. This is the story of those twenty-five years. General Thi fought in the Indochina War as a battery commander on the side of the French.

When Viet Minh aggression began after the Geneva Accords, he served in the nascent Vietnamese National Army, and his career covers this army's entire lifespan. He was deputy commander of the 7th Infantry Division, and in 1965 he assumed command of the 9th Infantry Division. In 1966, at the age of thirty-three, he became one of the youngest generals in the Vietnamese Army. He participated in the Tet Offensive before being removed from the front lines for political reasons.

When North Vietnam launched the 1972 Great Offensive, he was brought back to the field and eventually promoted to commander of an Army Corps Task Force along the Demilitarized Zone. With the fall of Saigon, he left Vietnam and emigrated to the United States.

Like his tactics during battle, General Thi pulls no punches in his denunciation of the various regimes of the Republic, and complacency and arrogance toward Vietnam in the policies of both France and the United States. Without lapsing into bitterness, this is finally a tribute to the soldiers who fell on behalf of a good cause.

Order 1-800-826-8911

ISBN 1-57441-143-8

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20th Century Anthology

By Brian Wizard

Five novels, a video documentary, and an eleven-song music CD, accompanied by a signed and numbered Certificate of Authenticity.

Includes the "Will He Make It" Saga -- three of the novels and the amazing "Thunderhawk" video documentary, which is composed of actual combat footage found in the first novel, "Permission to Kill." This Saga was an official contender for the 1999 Pultizer Prize in Letters and is now a Nobel contender in Literature.

To order, access: http://www.brianwizard.com/

E-mail: books@brianwizard.com

The Twins Platoon: An Epic Story of Young Marines at War in Vietnam

By Christy Sauro

In the evening of June 28, 1967, 150 young Americans were sworn into the Marine Corps as part of the pre-game ceremonies of a Minnesota Twins baseball game. Before the end of the fourth inning these volunteers were being hustled on to buses, on their way to boot camp. It was a journey that would take them from a boyhood of baseball in the American heartland to manhood on the killing fields of Vietnam. Christy Sauro was one of the Twins Platoon, and in this book he tells what it was likeâ€"from the pomp and ceremony of induction to the all-too-real initiation by fire that would shortly follow: in mere months, he and most of the Twins Platoon were on the ground in Vietnam and promptly faced with some of the toughest fighting of the war, the Siege of Khe Sanh and the Tet Offensive, including the brutal Battle for Hue. From baseball to boot camp to brutal combat, his is a firsthand story of American life being lived at the limits and changed forever.

ISBN: 0760323879

VIETNAMERICA:
The War Comes Home

By Thomas Bass

Find out what it is like to be a child of the Vietnam War through the eyes of that generation, now coming of age. Visit the Vietnamerica Home Page for an excellent presentation, and don't forget to come "Back."

ISBN: 1-56947-050-2

Known Retail Price: $25 (hardback)

Immediate Orders: 1-800-631-8571

Internet Orders: Can be ordered on-line from a variety of sites, including www.amazon.com/

You can contact Thomas Bass via e-mail.

Viet Nam at Peace

By Philip Jones Griffiths

Viet Nam At Peace is the monumental chronicle of a country struggling to emerge from the apocalyptic destruction of war, a destruction so seismic that it was thought vainly by many to be the end of all contemporary imperial aggression. It is Tolstoyan in its reach and emotional responses.

Philip Jones Griffiths, the author of Vietnam Inc. and Agent Orange: "Collateral Damage" in Viet Nam, has visited Viet Nam 25 times since the end of the war. The first Westerner to travel by road from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City after the war, and later the Ho Chi Minh trail, he has amassed an unparalleled photographic record of the post-war transformation of the country.

From the first days of terrible hardships, as the joys of victory were quickly tempered by the reality of the extent of the destruction wreaked by the war, and the crippling effects of the US embargo, he has recorded an uncomfortably comprehensive view of the aftermath of war. This is not simply a record of shattered landscapes; it is also a record of the shattered hearts and minds, culture and hopes.

ISBN: 1-904563-38-4

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Vietnam Generation, Inc.

Vietnam: No Regrets

By J. Richard Watkins

This is a grunt's eye view of the real war that took place in the jungles and the rice paddies of Vietnam - not about some guy's imaged adventures in Saigon. This is about the guys who went out for weeks at a time humping their equipment across the land in the heat and the rain. It is about the 10 percent of those who served in this war who saw combat and experienced warfare weekly.

The author takes us out on patrol with him as a "newbie" and his first ambush. The mission was successful but they killed two children and an old man in the process. It takes its toll on our young soldier. Even this many years removed from that accident of fate, he truly feels some spiritual and emotional pain. Even though he did not personally fire a round, he knows he was part of the team. From this story, near the beginning of his book, we realize that there is more to this man's story than just details of events that he writes about.

There is a subtle emotional thread that runs throughout this book that makes Watkins very human and vulnerable. It is an honest portrayal of what life was like out in the field for the combat soldiers.

ISBN-10: 1593303033

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Vietnam Remembered: My Journey

By Kenneth R. Taylor

This is a book about a promise I made to a friend who did not make it home from Vietnam.
I promised I would find his family and tell them what happened.
It took me 33 years to keep that promise.

ISBN: 1-4243-09166

Vietnam Veterans Since the War :
The Politics of PTSD, Agent Orange, and the National Memorial

By Wilbur J Scott

War is hell, and the return to civilian life afterwards can be a minefield as well, especially for veterans of a "bad war." Soldiers coming home from Vietnam faced unique challenges as veterans of a controversial war whose divisiveness permeated every step of the re-entry and readjustment process. In his balanced and highly readable account, Vietnam Veterans since the War, sociologist Wilbur J. Scott tells the story of how the veterans and their allies organized to articulate their concerns and to win concessions from a reluctant Congress, federal agencies, and courts.

Scott draws on published records, hours of personal interviews with veterans, and his experience as an infantry platoon leader in Vietnam to explore the major social movements among his fellow veterans in the crucial years from 1967 to 1990, including the antiwar movement, the successful effort to win recognition of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) by the American Psychiatric Association, the establishment of veterans' outreach centers, the controversy over the defoliant Agent Orange and its long-term effects, and the struggle to create the National Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. His new afterword brings the story up to date and demonstrates that while the United States' involvement in Vietnam continues to be controversial, many of the tensions engendered by the war have been overcome.

ISBN: 0-8061-3597-2

Vietnam Vignettes - Tales of an Infantryman

By Lee Basnar

In vivid prose, Vietnam Vignettes discloses the author's innermost feelings about his experiences as an advisor and an infantry commander in Vietnam in the late sixties and early seventies.

Writing with the clarity of a seasoned journalist and with the insight of a soldier who came up through the ranks, Lee Basnar describes the war's horrific impact on Vietnamese peasants, and details his soldiers' daily struggle to survive. He presents a new perspective on what it meant to be an infantryman in the longest war in our nation's history.

From searching for missing soldiers upon taking command of Charlie Company to leading his troops in a night combat air assault to rescue a beleaguered platoon, the author immerses the reader in each scene. He explains why a top-secret operation in North Vietnam drowned four of his soldiers. He skillfully conveys tension, fear, and courage as his infantrymen engage in a series of firefights across the coastal plain and in the jungled mountains west of Chu Lai.

This collection of tales goes far beyond the mines, booby traps, snipers, and spider holes that his soldiers encountered almost daily. The author decries the unreasonable rules of engagement regarding the use of indirect fire when enemy bullets wounded his warriors in open rice paddies. He voices his thoughts about a staff officer who tragically diverted helicopters to the wrong landing zone - helicopters that transported Charlie Company during one of its many combat air assaults.

While a truck convoy that he commanded delivered artillery pieces to the isolated Tra Bong firebase, Captain Lee Basnar rode above the column in a helicopter. When rocket - propelled grenades slammed into the convoy during the return trip to Chu Lai, the infantry officer and his pilot each earned a Distinguished Flying Cross for evacuating wounded soldiers while under intense enemy fire.

Vietnam Vignettes tells of the war's impact on the children who greeted the infantry company during some of its operations in villages near LZ Stinson. It portrays the beauty and the ugliness of Vietnam, the monsoons, the heat, the endless nights , the rattle of machine guns, the tracers lashing the darkness, the misery and the humor, and the tough life of an infantryman in Charlie Company.

The author's respect and admiration for his soldiers who fought well despite the lack of backing from many citizens at home is evident throughout the book.

Vietnam Vignettes is a tribute to all infantrymen who fought in Vietnam, to those who supported them on the battlefield, and to the Americans who welcomed the warriors home.

ISBN: 1591135125

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The Vietnam War For Dummies

by Ronald B. Frankum and Stephen F. Maxner

Frankum and Maxner, a Vietnam veteran, are no dummies. The co-authors, who are affiliated with Texas Tech University's Vietnam Center and Archive, do a worthy job of piling on the statistics and providing interpretations of virtually every aspect of the war.

ISBN: 0764554808