To Bear Any Burden: The Vietnam War and Its Aftermath in the Words of Americans and Southeast Asians (Vietnam War Era Classics Series) [Library Binding]

Al Santoli (Author), Al Santoli (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 22, 1999 | Series: Vietnam War Era Classics Series

"To Bear Any Burden is necessary to understand the most significant aspect of the Indochina wars: the human one." —Tran Van Dinh, author of Blue Dragon White Tiger: A Tet Story

"At least this reader would like to spend hours if not days talking to each of the people within these pages." —Jack Reynolds, Network Correspondent, NBC

"... remarkable insight into the human aspect of the war." —Library Journal

The 48 American and Asian veterans, refugees, and officials who speak in this book come from widely divergent backgrounds. In their narratives we hear them reliving crucial moments in the preparation, execution, and aftermath of war. It is a riveting, eyewitness account of the war and also reclaims from this tragic continuum larger patterns of courage and dedication.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Santoli (Everything We Had spent three years traveling in the U.S., Europe and Asia, recording the oral histories collected here. His 48 eloquent subjects include officials, diplomats and soldiers from both sides; their testimony is "indispensable," PW commented.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Like his earlier best-selling Everything We Had (1983), Santoli's 1985 volume presents the Vietnam War in the voices of those who fought it. Interviews with 48 participants, including American and Vietnamese soldiers, teachers, refugees, politicos, etc., provide remarkable insight into the human aspect of the war.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Library Binding: 374 pages
• Publisher: Indiana University Press (June 22, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0253335434
• ISBN-13: 978-0253335432
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,408,981 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A "must-read" classic of America's involvement in SE Asia, April 5, 1999

By 

JMDelVecchio([e-mail])--author of T... (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: To Bear Any Burden: The Vietnam War and Its Aftermath in the Words of Americans and Southeast Asians (Vietnam War Era Classics Series) (Paperback)

I first read To Bear Any Burden when it was originally released in 1985. This has been a 'must-read' classic of American involvement in Southeast Asia since it was published. For it, Santoli interviewed, in depth, 47 individuals representative of that involvement from 1945 into the 1980s--Americans, Viet-Namese (communists and anti-communists), Cambodians and Laotians. The book is so artfully compiled as to flow like a single narration; yet the 'cast of characters' are separate in time, space, culture and social rank--an entire spectrum from ambassadors to villagers, soldiers to politicians, in one volume. No ones education about the Viet-Nam War is complete unless they've read this book.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb! Riveting!, August 12, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: To Bear Any Burden: The Vietnam War and Its Aftermath in the Words of Americans and Southeast Asians (Vietnam War Era Classics Series) (Library Binding)

Al Santoli's book, To Bear Any Burden, is a narrative of stories told by 47 Americans, Vietnamese (both North and South), and Cambodians regarding their experiences before the US involvement, during the US war, and the war's aftermath (after the departure of US troops). Each tale (from two to 10 pages in length) is riveting in itself. The book moves in relative chronilogical order beginning in 1954 and concludes with the present (circa 1985). Each tale is successfully interwoven with the next story such that there is a cohesiveness and a logical flow to the story telling timeline.

Some of the stories are quite stunning: from the description of US soldiers being called baby-killers and spat on after they returned to the US [difficult to comprehend in this patriotic post 9/11 world] to the horror stories of the Communist regimes in Cambodia and in North/South Vietnam after the fall of Saigon [after reading theses stories, one should question why the US would want to establish ties to Vietnam].

This "straight from the hip" narrative is recommended to anyone wishing to learn more about the scenes from a participant's point of view.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars First rate war stories on Vietnam, September 16, 2005

By 

David Tay "< K.L. >" (Malaysia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: To Bear Any Burden: The Vietnam War and Its Aftermath in the Words of Americans and Southeast Asians (Vietnam War Era Classics Series) (Paperback)

This book reviews the aftermath of the Vietnam-U.S. war in a down to earth tone and it's impact on the people who's involvement in the war are explained in detail.Personally i like this book because of its content which voiced out the real opinion of the one involved in the war no matter whether they're the allies or enemies.It's a great book to those who wants to know more about the Vietnam war and its aftermath.