Customer Reviews

The Cat from Hue: A Vietnam War Story

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4 star:		(3)
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1 star:		(3)

 

 

I served in the 101st Airborne Division, 3rd Brigade, 173rd Av Attack from 67-73. I served two tours of combat including the Cambodia campaign. I do agree with John on every account, I have no arguments, Yes there was a monster present, and situations got seriously out of hand. But this book is so much more than that, a comprehensive write that is right on the money. This book is the most factual record that I have witnessed on the public market, read this and you will be truly enlightened of this part of the war in Viet Nam.
I'd like to mention a book that is relative to this, and speaks of more conflict to come, a must read, SB 1 or God by Maddox

When all is said and done, Jack Laurence will be recognized as certainly the best television reporter to cover the Viet Nam war, if not one of the best reporters, period.

Yet I was prepared to be highly skeptical as I opened this book. As a CBS reporter who came to Viet Nam about a year after Jack Laurence left I had grave misgivings about how he and some of my colleagues had covered the war.

Although I still disagree with some of Jack's views, I find this to be a simply superb book, one that should be read by all Americans who have an interest in that war, and especially by those who are curious about the TV networks covered it.

This book is searingly honest and precise, so honest, in fact, that it will open up Jack to criticism from many who believe that "the press lost the war."

As a personal memoir, it is as good or better than such books as Michael Herr's "Despatches," Phil Caputo's "Rumor of War," and Jon Swain's "River of Time."

Because it has a much broader scope than those books, it may some day may be ranked among the very best books to come out of Vietnam.

As a Jack Laurence tells you in his opening author's note he and his ultra-cool cameraman -- Keith Kay -- recorded either on sound tape or on film tracks much of the dialog you read in the book. Jack also reconstructs from his notes much other dialog that is simply riveting. As one who also worked with some of the same people, I can say their voices as you hear them in this book are exactly as they spoke.

The voices of the Marines, soldiers, pilots, officers and grunts you hear in this book are absolutely authentic.

The detail is astonishing. If you want to know who it REALLY was like in Viet Nam, read this book. It is better than even the rave review it got from the New York Times, and the encomiums it has received from some of the famous names on the flyleaf. Read it. You'll find it hard to put down.

Peter Collins
Reporter, Viet Nam
20 June 1971 -- 29 April 1975

Having spent two years in Vietnam as a sailor aboard a warship, I often spent time watching the war at a distance. Occasionaly we had to fight but it was usually artillary duels up north and then lunch. I never understood the war or why we were there or why men fight wars at all. I was usually at odds with superiors over the ethics of war but did my job nonetheless. For years I have searched the book shelves for a kindred spirit who could bring the experience to life and hold it at arms length long enough to examine it . Finally this book appears from nowhere and captures the esscense of young men in horrible situations. The most delicious aspect of the book is how bazzar incidents become common place. ( I once watched ten men die while I safely ate a sandwich and I was the only witness and I also finished the sandwich). Mr. Laurence has written a classic. He honors us all with his painfull discriptions of that debacle. It is also the first book that I have read that weaves the story of the Vietnamese people's desperate situation with our own. His honesty about the war and his own motives and reactions are a crucial ingredient. Read it. It is a jewel.

Book Review: "The Cat from Hue: a Vietnam War Story" by John Laurence.

Reading a book like this and knowing the 8 ½ years it took to finish makes one appreciate the words more. A very well written book with no details left out. It is one of the good reading books about Vietnam.

Part I is about Hue in 1968. His first-hand experience with the Marines as they tried to retake the city of Hue. It was during this street-fighting that the cat was found, later to return to Saigon with him and finally back to the United States. The cat named Meo then took control of whatever place it found itself in.

As journalists they were not tied down and were able to leave the battle area and return to Saigon to complete putting together the story and get it sent back to the States to be shown on the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite. He spent time with all of the units of the military while they went about the duties of accomplishing the assigned mission. Many times they humped it with the grunts and lived as they did in that foreign country so far away. Returning to Saigon for R & R between assignments to regain their senses Jack writes about things that the grunts never were able to see, the relaxing times in Saigon.

Part II starts after a chance encounter with a member of the advance party of the 1st Cavalry Division and he is able to see for the first time An Khe, which would become the first home of the 1st Cavalry Division. The101st Airborne Division was providing security and conducting operations in the area around An Khe while the 1st Cavalry Division moved in. He covered operations by the 101st Airborne Division then moved up north to cover the Marine units. A short visit to some Air Force units including a ride during a support mission in those famed A-1E's that were the workhorse for close-in support.

With the attack on the Plei Me Special Forces camp in progress, the battle of Ia Drang was beginning. A trip to the Special Forces Camp and then, as luck would have it, he was back in Saigon to file that story when the battle fought by the 3d Brigade of the 1st Cavalry Division unfolded, with results that would be talked about and discussed for years to come.

Operation Masher and later called White Wing where many battles were fought receives some coverage as do battles after that, but then as with the Military when your tour is over you return to the States. At this time, May, 1966 Jack does not realize it but he will return to Vietnam to cover a much greater story.

In part III, he writes about working in the States and describes some of the stories covered, easy reading but not stories about Vietnam. Returning to Vietnam in August, 1967, he covers many battles and encounters by many units, in May 1968 he again returned to the United States and writes about his life after returning the second time, this time with the Cat named Meo.

During this stay in New York the talk of returning to Vietnam again starts, to result in the planning of a return trip in 1970 to do a feature story on one group of troopers and their daily life in the bush. Many days and nights and also the few times they were able to get out of the bush is described in easy reading detail in Part IV.

Part IV is set in March, 1970. Returning to Vietnam, he describes the events that lead to Charlie Company, 2d Battalion 7th Cavalry, where until censorship was imposed by higher headquarters Jack and his team spent the days and nights following in the footsteps of a Charlie Company squad lead by Sgt Lyman (Gene) Dunnuck. The series started and coverage of some of it being shown nightly on CBS News. Then as happened so many times in Vietnam, a change of company commanders, which leads to the censorship. But, as Jack describes the continued daily miracle that has followed him throughout his time in Vietnam, it happened again and he found himself with Charlie Company to cover their first assault into Cambodia. A final return to Charlie Company to wrap up the coverage and put an ending on the story was arranged. Jack made one last visit to the 11th ACR and then after a short stay in the 377th Air Force hospital in Saigon, he returned with all the haunting memories of three tours covering Vietnam.

Many years have passed since June of 1970 and the final result 8 ½ years of much hard work has produced 850 pages, a history of the War in Vietnam through the eyes of a CBS correspondent. Reading these pages provides the reader with an accurate account of the daily lives of combat units and their first-hand reflections as they counted remaining days till they returned to the United States. Humor is in these pages and a change of writing to bring the reader out of the pages that much of the time brings tears and memories.

Of all of the names mentioned throughout the book early research into finding out what has happened to the men of Charlie Company and what they are doing now has found that Sgt Lyman (Gene) Dunnuck passed away a few years ago.

Jack Laurence now lives in rural England with a tribe of cats but Meo is no longer with him having used up his nine lives and joined the fight elsewhere.

This book is a bit daunting to start reading since it is 850 pages and much of it is an account of war on the ground in Vietnam. But I found as I read that it is a tour de force and much is of high drama, taking one into the grunt world that Laurence lived in as a TV journalist (CBS) where the viewpoint is quite different from that of a print journalist. While Meo, the cat the book is named for, occupies only about 50 pages of the book, those pages are a delight to read, even tho one figures Laurence is exaggerating a bit in describing the tough cat which he found in Hue and his behavior. This book is powerful and is rightly ranked with Dispatches, by Michael Herr, which I read with appreciation on July 6, 1999, as a great Vietnam book. However the best book still that I have read on the war in Vietnam is We Were Soldiers Once...And Young, by Harold G. Moore and Joe Galloway. But this book belongs on the same shelf of great books about Vietnam.

I have read a number of books on the Vietnam "experience" written by journalists and/or military. Each book, on its own merit, has presented truths and experiences that were unique to each author. As a radioman on a task force flag aircraft carrier from 1969 through1972, I spent a great deal of time reading about air strikes, KIA's, MIA's, battles and all sorts of other details as presented from a purely high level military point of view. I wondered about life on the ground, and wondered what "in-country" was like.

As I served my tours, I saw the war change and of course at the time attitudes at home changed. I didn't understand it much then, and now 30+ years later, I find myself trying to understand the truth of what was going on at the time.

When I left the service in 1973, I saw old friends who had served in the Army, Marines and Navy at various times from 1964 until the conclusion. We had all been changed by the experience at some level.

John Laurence, in his book "The Cat From Hue" records changes in himself, those he worked with, and those he accompanied into battle in amazing detail. His record of changes, and the circumstances that brought them about, is something we can all learn from, whether we were fighting the war in the field, protesting, or simply catching it on the news.

The physical size of the book (845 pages) was a bit daunting to me at first. Simply stated it is the story of a young man who went to Vietnam to gather truths and tried to share them with the America of the 1960's. The book had to be long enough to capture his experience as fully as possible. It did. The lives of the soldiers were beautifully interlinked with the life of the author. The military and political leadership, the good and the bad, are painted with remarkable clarity.

Then there was the "Cat", Meo, the dreaded cat who hated Americans. Always stalking and studying its enemy, attacking with stealth and fury, retreating from a superior force to regroup and wait for a better time to strike, Meo seems the perfect metaphor of the relentless and dedicated warrior. Laurence's description of the life and actions of this unusual cat helps the reader gain a better understanding of our enemy in the field. Unconquerable, never truly "pacified", involved with Americans only at arm's length (paws in this case); Meo inflicted much pain on the Americans he encountered.

Remember John Laurence, the CBS reporter, who brought Vietnam into our living rooms? His vivid portrayal of the grunts and soldiers who lived and died for their country was seen on
television on a nightly basis. The real war came home for the first time.

"The Cat from Hue" continues this theme with more details and behind the scene stories told from his viewpoint and often from the words of the original speaker. There are many interviews with tht original soldiers, written in their voice. So well written I feel I am "In Country"- a book hard to put down- not much is left out -Vietnam in first person.

I saw John Laurence on C-Span, being interviewed about his novel. And, he was just as remembered. He told us that the Vietnam War changed his life, as it did for all who were part of this War. He has made a mark in the field of journalism for his courgeous stories told in the field of fire. Highly recommended. prisrob

I am a Marine tank commander Vietnam veteran. I was In-country from January 1968 to February 1969. I have a very deep interest in any and all books about the war in Vietnam. This book may not have a lot of the flash - bang and blood and guts of a "classic" book about a war but what it does have is a wonderful writing style that meanders from the bustling and yet farily safe streets of Saigon to the real "war front" at Con Thien along the DMZ. Jack Laurence's reference to his life with "the cat" throughout the book is really wonderful. His incredible writing talent seems to make the killing and maiming of the enemy and of our own troops less harsh and less painful to the reader. John Laurence may have been what was considered a "non-combatant" but he has captured the essence of combat in this wonderful book. It is the BEST and most entertaining book about the war in Vietnam that I have read so far. Thank you Mr Laurence and Semper Fidelis.

Being a Vietnam veteran myself, I have read every major title ever published on the war. I can honestly say that The Cat From Hue will stand the test of time and will join the handful of "must read" classics on the war. The Cat From Hue will occupy a prominent place on the bookshelf of any sincere student of the Vietnam War. I was unable to put it down until I finished it and upon completion knew that it would not be the last time I would pick this volume up. Belongs right up there with David Halbertstam's The Best and the Brightest and Neil Shennan's A Bright Shinning Lie. Don't miss it.

This wonderful book rates with the finest war memoirs--of any war. Like all the great memoirs, it illuminates the gap between the political aspirations of war and the horrible reality. And it demonstrates how that gap alters individuals and societies.

The book is long, but never tedious. The stories presented are startling even though we have heard, read, and seen so much about Vietnam already. Particularly interesting is the extraordinary access journalists had to the field, and the increasing constriction by the military as this particular journalist reported less than flattering accounts of the war.

Mr. Laurence presents the soldiers as decent individuals in extraordinary circumstances. He neither unreasonably lionizes them or criticizes them. Best of all, he never pretends to be one of them even though he spent enormous time in the field. (In contrast, I note a recent article by Joseph Galloway in the Chicago Tribune promoting the movie version of his book. In reading it, one would think that Galloway was a member of the Cavalry unit he covered. While he obviously spent difficult and dangerous times with them, and justifiably respected these soldiers, his absorption into the military culture undermines one's sense of his objectivity). Moreover, the reliability of Laurence's accounts are hard to dispute since so much of it was on video or audio tape.

What ultimately makes this book so magnificent is the emotional commitment Laurence applies to it. Undeniably, this book matters to him. This sincerity of purpose lends an honesty to his work that many books on the subject of war lack. One can imagine that John Laurence would have written the book whether it was published or not. That it was published is truly our good fortune...answered.