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A Bad Attitude: A novel from the Vietnam War

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Want to learn a lot of the small nuances of the Vietnam War that will never make the history books? Do yourself a favor and pick up Dennis Mansker's "Bad Attitude". This is a 621 page "story" that was so lucidly written in such concise language that it was a pleasure to read despite its length. Mansker touches on unique subjects and issues concerning the Vietnam War rarely found elsewhere. There is an expression Mansker claimed all soldiers used when talked to condescendingly by a superior officer. Fragging: Why U.S. Soldiers Assaulted Their Officers in Vietnam (Modern Southeast Asia) When ordered to burn feces as punishment, Mansker writes the famous retort: "You think I give a rat's ass? What are you going to do, draft me and send me to Vietnam?" Another symbol, unique to the Vietnam War, that Mansker mentions was the peace sign. Similarly to W.W. II where the "Kilroy sign" made it everywhere you looked, there were peace signs that graced helmets and walls everywhere you looked.

Another issue Mansker brings up is the subject of "fraqging". This occurs to a character named "Sgt. Bragg" in "Bad Attitudes", and the book details exactly why this happens. Although "fragging" was more commonly used as a term to define friendly fire in Vietnam, in this case it's meaning was to assassinate an unpopular officer of one's own fighting unit (often by means of a fragmentation grenade, hence the term). A hand grenade was most often used because it would not leave any fingerprints, and because a ballistics test could not be done to match a bullet with a firearm. Usually, the grenade would be thrown into the officer's tent while he slept. A fragging victim could also be killed by intentionally friendly fire during combat. In "Bad Attitude's" case, Sgt. Bragg's death would be blamed on the enemy, and due to the dead man's unpopularity, the killer would assume that no one would contradict the story. Very few history books like to tarnish America's view of our troops, especially when it comes to killing our own men. However, there were reasons for fragging in Vietnam. Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character It most often involved the murder of a commanding officer, or a senior N.C.O. who was viewed as unpopular, harsh, incompetent or overzealous, especially in a war that was already lost.

Many soldiers were not overly keen to go into harm's way, and preferred leaders with a similar sense of self-preservation. "Bad Attitude's" story took place after the "Tet Offensive" of 1968, where a scale-down of troops as well as the U.S. turning the brunt of the war over to the South Vietnamese (called "Vietnamization") was the direction the U.S. war effort had taken. If a C.O. was incompetent (Sgt. Braqgg's character embodies this!) fragging the officer was considered a means to the end of self preservation for the men serving under him. Fragging might also occur if a commander freely took on dangerous or suicidal missions, especially if he was seeking glory for himself. Soldiering On in a Dying War: The True Story of the Firebase Pace Incidents and the Vietnam Drawdown (Modern War Studies) The whole concept of fragging served to warn junior officers to avoid the ire of their enlisted men through recklessness, cowardice, or lack of leadership. Junior officers could in turn arrange the murder of senior officers when finding them incompetent, or wasting their lives needlessly. As in the attack on "Hamburger Hill" and "Operation Ripcord", underground G.I. newspapers sometimes listed bounties offered by units for the fragging of unpopular commanding officers. The Forgotten Hero of My Lai: The Hugh Thompson Story After the My Lai Massacre, soldiers serving under Lt. William J. Calley Jr. disliked him so much that they considered fragging him. From 1965 to 1973, there were documented cases of at least 230 U.S. officers killed by their own troops, and over 1,400 other officer's deaths could not be explained. Another subject Mansker covers, which cannot be done now with the current situation in the war with Iraq, is that during the Vietnam war, if a youth fell into legal trouble, a judge would offer the offender as a diversion the choice to go to Vietnam or jail. This happens to Mansker's protagonist, Farnsworth Smith. Mansker's story is so realistic when describing the sights and sounds of Vietnam, anyone that was there will pick up on it immediately.

Mansker describes Farnsworth Smith's arrival in Vietnam on a commercial airplane as follows: "We drop too quickly from a safe, high altitude. The plane glides over little villages scattered among neatly patterned rice paddies. we're close enough to see people in fields wearing black pajamas and straw cones for hats. They look like Viet Cong you see on television, and I wonder why they just don't blast us out of the sky. Then we're down with a quick thump on the concrete runway of Bien Hoa air base. It's the middle of the morning in Vietnam and I'm completely disorientated. I'm still on West Coast time and tired from not sleeping. Somewhere we've lost a whole day because of the so-called International Date Line. As soon as the plane stops, a couple of ground crew flyboys push a rolling ramp up to the door and I'm the first one off. What Are They Going To Do, Send Me To Vietnam? I stop short when I run up against a wall of heat, humidity, and a lush rotten jungle smell, mixed with a nasty combination of urine and burning garbage, all topped off with the slight bouquet of disinfectant. The guy behind me gasps, gurgles "airborne" and prods me in the back. A dark line of blue busses waits for us at the edge of the runway and we are hurried onto them. There's no glass in the windows, but they are all covered with a thick mesh of heavy wire, like a miniature cyclone fence. "What's this" a guy behind me asks. "This looks like a prison bus." "It's not to keep us in." somebody else says. "It's to keep them out." "Huh?" "You know, grenades, satchel charges, stuff like that." Welcome to Vietnam.

I have read a multitude of stories by other vets, all virtually identical to this book's story of a G.I's first impression of South Vietnam. Other taboo historical subjects Mansker writes about are the venereal disease problem in Vietnam. Mansker writes that new GI.s' are warned as such: "We are given a welcome briefing by a bored captain. He drones about duty, honor, country, and tells us not to have sex with any Vietnamese women while we're here. He say's they've all got a strain of clap that's incurable. If you get it, you have to go live on an island in the South China Sea and no one will hear from you again." The Saigon Zoo: Vietnam's Other War: Sex, Drugs, Rock 'n Roll On the insect problem of Vietnam, Mansker asserts: "Bugs are fluttering around the three naked light bulbs. About a million bugs. White casually picks up an olive drab aerosol can and blasts the center of the cloud of bugs circling the closet light. As far as I can tell it has no effect. The bugs seem to like it." On the sounds of Vietnam: "I edge my way out of the hooch and make a short tour of the company area. Then I sit on a sandbagged wall and smoke cigarettes until chow call. The rest of the day is quiet. Except for the constant clatter of helicopters overhead, jets landing and taking off at the air base which seems like it's ten feet away, the muffled blast of distant artillery, and the complaint-filled jabbering of a little monkey on a chain that one of the company cooks has staked out next to our hooch."

Mansker's description of the indigenous Vietnamese that work on the base is classic. He writes: "Groups of Vietnamese men and women gather there, stand around and jabber, and then climb onto the ancient smoky buses or the scooter-taxi's and leave, off to their jobs, I guess. It strikes me as odd that these people can go about their regular lives in the midst of the war. At night, probably half of these people are the war." Down South: One Tour in Vietnam Another subject Mansker hits on is the military industrial complex and how the Vietnam War was an economic exploitation for some companies. Mansker writes: "What do you know about Brown and Root?" "They're Everywhere. Their insidious goal is to eventually build up and pave over all of Vietnam. They're the ones who are really in charge of the war. The only reason we're here is to keep the Vietnamese off guard while they go about their nefarious schemes and suck money out of Uncle Sugar." The Halliburton Agenda: The Politics of Oil and Money "Brown and Root" is really an American engineering and construction company, a private military contractor and a subsidiary of Haliburton. This company has had many contracts from the U.S. military during the Vietnam War, as well as today involving Iraq. It also built 85% of the infrastructure needed by the Army during 1965-1973.

During the height of the war resistance movement of the 1960's, Brown and Root was derisively known as "Burn and Loot" by protestors and soldiers. Another rare fact Manksker wrote about in "Bad Attitude" which you'll never find in any history book is the existence of a narrow dirt alley in Saigon called "Soul Alley." This was a 200 yard back street located one mile from U.S. military headquarters for Vietnam. It was home to between 300 to 500 Black A.W.O.L.'s and deserters. They would escape arrest by using forged ID cards and mixing with an even greater number of G.I.'s who were still on active duty but preferred to spend nights there, away from the drabness of their barracks. You could find "mama-sans peddling Winston cigarettes and Gillette Foam shaving cream, prostitutes, heroin for sale, and Vietnamese children bouncing from their mother's hips that had unmistakably Afro-Asian features. Many of the G.I's that were AWOL would rather be back home in the U.S. , but couldn't leave Vietnam without facing arrest, drug detoxification from heroin habits or court martial. Some black G.I's had Vietnamese wives and children that they didn't want to leave. An excellent account of the racial situation in Vietnam was documented in Wallace Terry's book "Bloods." Bloods: Black Veterans of the Vietnam War: An Oral History Finally, Mansker refers to the racial tensions of Black and White G.I's and the unfortunate 1968 riot at Long Binh Jail.

Long Binh Jail was a former U.S. Army Prison used during the Vietnam War. It was the last stop for many of the army's most notorious offenders during their tour. The infamous horror stories of the L.B.J. made it so feared that American soldiers preferred to face the Viet Cong rather than be sent there. This overcrowded penitentiary, with predominately black inmates, confined soldiers whose offenses ran the gamut from drug possession, insubordination, assault, fragging, rape and murder. On the night of August 29th, 1968 racial tensions erupted into one of the worst prison riots in American penal history. Long Binh Jail: An Oral History of Vietnam's Notorious U.S. Military Prison When prisoners violently seized control of the compound, armed U.S. troops struck back. Inmates set buildings on fire, burning the mess hall, barber shop, latrine, administration and finance buildings, About 200 inmates were involved in destroying the camp. The rioters beat white inmates and attacked guards. Despite the violence, only 4 inmates escaped L.B.J. and one fatality occurred. The riot finally ended September 7th, 1968, leaving 52 inmates and 63 M.P.'s injured. This incident, along with many others in "Bad Attitude" reveal a disturbing aspect of the Vietnam War that is very seldom discussed nor written about. There are other issues discussed in "Bad Attitudes", such as absurdities and contradictions in the military, Vietnamese racism towards Afro American G.I's,drug abuse, "anti-Semiticism", "dapping" and those that illegally profited from the "Black Market." 365 Days In conclusion, this is a textbook of everything you can't get from the typical Vietnam nonfictional war story jammed into 621 pages. In America's longest war, where 58,209 Americans lost their lives, 153,303 were wounded, over 230,000 A.R.V.N. were killed, 300,000 were wounded, and between 2 to 4 million civilians died, this is an indispensable "primer" on what happened during the Vietnam war that is very hard to find. A very worthwhile read

"A bad Attitude" is a real page-turner. If this book gets any kind of publicity at all, and is read by a few influential reviewers, it has the possibility of being listed in the top twenty books about the Vietnam War. "A Bad Attitude" is a work of fiction. Or is it? I guess the hallmark of really good fiction is when the reader finishes the work and isn't really sure if what he has just read is fiction, a true story or somewhere in between. Dennis Mansker is the real thing. He served as a company clerk with two truck companies from the 48th Group during 68/69 and is a member of the Army Transportation Assn. Vietnam. The main character in the book is Spec. 4 Farnsworth. Farnsworth is the new company clerk of the 345th Trans, 6th Battalion, 48th Group. The 345th is truck company. Don't expect a lot of convoy action in this book. Farnsworth only makes a few convoys as a shotgun and then only as punishment by the evil First Sgt. Bragg. However, the language and dialog is authentic and if you are a Vietnam vet, it will take you back to Vietnam. You will need to dust off your old pigeon Vietnamese/English/G.I.language skills to follow the
conversations. You bic G.I. Dennis makes no attempt to explain the gag lines to the uninitiated reader. This is a book for Vietnam vets by a Vietnam vet and if you didn't serve; your not going to understand all the "short" jokes and Dennis isn't going to explain them to you. You just had to be there. From my perspective, that's good news. "A Bad Attitude" is not watered down by pages of explanations to non-vets, which hamper many Vietnam books. "A Bad Attitude" has many of the same elements as Catch 22. This is a serious book at 635 pages.

Mr.Mansker has provided the reading world with a fine murder mystery based on a familiar problem of the era. ...I could all but smell the dust during his descriptive and accurate tales that he provides. Brovo Dennis, and thanks for writing our story.

This book is very funny - The dialogue will make you wish there was more. But the serious side, about the race riots in the Long Binh Jail is good, and the portrayal of racism is also riveting.

As a psuedo-intellectual, if I had had to go to Vietnam, this would probably be my story too. So we have Farnsworth to tell it. It's about the company clerk who gets in over his head - he would have been like "Radar" on MASH, except it wasn't like that in Vietnam.

Years after Dennis Manskers experience in Vietnam, he is still pleasing readers online at his blog One Pissed Off Veteran (opovet on blogspot).
The reality of life tends to slap some of us around: some fall down, some stand tall. Mr. Mansker stands tall as he relates his wartime experience to the reader with his dry wit, slightly sentimental heart and bright honesty that makes this book very different from others whose authors shared the era. This is not a criticism of others, but a note that 'A Bad Attitude' can be approached with a middle of the road point of view and a warning that those who do so will most likely grab firmly ahold of the vine that is swinging to the left as it goes by.

I spent the last half of the 60's safe in the Navy on the other side of the world from Vietnam but, having lost a lot of friends there, I have read a lot of fiction and non-fiction about the war in an effort to better understand it. This is one of the best. It gives you a great understanding of the life in the "rear" and the people that populated it, from the best to the worst. Anyone interested in the war or just looking for a great read will be very happy with this book.

Going to War you expect your life to be in Mortal Danger; but not from the chain of command. Not your typical war story. A murder mystery in a place where normal rules of conduct do not apply. Authentic G.I. dialogue in a real place, once upon a time. Friction between the ranks and between the races with a well developed range of suspects with understandable motives. If a crime, then one of revenge? self preservation? or a more noble motive. An excellent suspense tale of good men in a bad situation.

I have read many books about the war in Vietnam, both fiction and non-fiction. I put this novel at the top of my list of books about that subject. As I read Dennis Mansker's book, I was transported back into a time and a place of my youth. I found myself laughing, and even sweating a little, while I shook my head at the absurdities of army life in that faraway land.
The novel is so well written that the characters virtually jump off the page. I was involved with the story from the first page to the last.
This is a must read book for anyone who is interested in a time and a culture that no longer exists. Congratulations to Mr. Mansker for getting it absolutely right. Whether you are a Vietnam vet or simply someone who enjoys a thought provoking page turner, get this book! You will not be sorry.
Randy Mixter - author of Letters From Long Binh

Just wanted to say how much I enjoyed the book. Once I started I could not stop reading. I was in RVN 06/66-67