Customer Reviews

Dirty Little Secrets of the Vietnam War: Military Information You're Not Supposed to Know

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The title of this 375-page book about the Vietnam War is not accurate. There really aren't too many so-called dirty little secrets revealed and most of the material is not controversial, but the book does have a lot of interesting perspectives and factual data re the war. Eschewing the chronological approach Dunnigan and Nofi write a lot of short interesting chapters on everything from a sketch of the pre-U.S. involvement history of conflict in Vietnam and adjoining nations (which still continues as the growing ethnic Vietnamese population continues suppressing and displacing minority groups) to summaries of each aspect of combat (Army, USMC, helicopters, air war, Naval campaigns (perhaps the weakest section), etc.), descriptions of major actions and incidents and overviews of in-country "cultural" issues (drugs, racial relations, popular music, etc.).

One hallmark is lots of statistics on various topics (casualties, military demographics, air craft, weapons used, etc.). Most of these are from official sources and source references - increasing lacking in much today's politicized nonfiction - are provided. Some of the statistics are explained and provide illustrative insights but unfortunately some of the intriguing data are not well explained.

For instance, there's a general impression that surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) were the overwhelming danger to U.S. aircraft and air-to-air combat was a significant aspect of the war. But the authors present statistics which show that only 11% of aircraft lost in combat were lost to SAMs, 4% were lost in air-to-air combat while the remaining 76% were lost to anti-aircraft artillery and various conventional ground-based weapons fire. However, the authors don't clarify that many, if not most, of aircraft losses occurred over South Vietnam where SAMs and MIGs were not available to our adversaries. The 25% rate of US Navy loss to SAMs and MIGs compared with only 12% for USAF/USMC presumably reflects that the Navy operated relatively more over North Vietnam itself from Tonkin Gulf-based carriers while the USAF/USMC operated a larger percentage pf their fixed wing aircraft over the South.

Another fascinating tidbit are the statistics about deserters who accepted amnesty in the mid-1970s - many of whom had gone to Canada - showing they were disproportionately (86%) in the lowest two classifications out of four military intelligence test classifications.

A suggested reading list, multi-page glossary and extensive indexing give what is basically an entertaining read for military history buffs who are not expert on Vietnam a bit of extra value as a reference for further study.

Recommended for Vietnam War, Cold War and general military history buffs and is an excellent book about the Vietnam-era for people not even born before the war ended.

Reviewed on the 30th anniversary of the fall of Saigon. On April 29, 1975, Radio Saigon began playing Bing Crosby's "White Christmas" (an interesting fact NOT mentioned in this book) as a signal to begin Operation Frequent Wind, the evacuation of all American personnel from South Vietnam.

The title of this book is very misleading in that it promises new items that you might find with a hard hitting investigative report or a new history of the war. What the book gives the reader is a nice overview of facts and interesting details from the war, but it is not a good general study of the Vietnam War. If you are looking for a book to start on the war or just have a book at hand with lots of facts, charts and lists then this is the one for you. There were also some parts of the book that the authors did try and get a little deeper into, but that is not there strong point and I got the feeling they we filling space and hurrying to the next list. Overall the book is a written well and easy to read bunch of facts.

The title is misleading - this is not an all encompassing book about Vietnam. But it does have a lot of tidbits, trivia and information all in one book. The authors cover the political, economic and military aspects of the war - from the US, North and South Vietnamese perspectives. That's a tall order in one book.

The best parts of this book are the efforts to de-bunk some myths about Vietnam War. US soldiers were the youngest, a larger share had Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, more Viet Vets are homeless, everyone came back addicted to drugs, the impact of the Tet Offensive, peace movement just to name a few. You may find yourself disagreeing with the author's conclusions, but they make you think.

Four stars - a few maps would have been helpful and it's not a book I would consider the final word on a lot of the subjects. The data & trivia are things I'd want to verify.

It's amazing how much information they get into one volume. Background & facts on the Army, Air Force, Brown Water Navy, history of Vietnam, Special Forces just to name a few. These are not in depth discussions, but have enough to give a solid overview. I would not consider this a single source reference, some of the conclusions are more based on opinions, but the authors mention this up front. I think this is a very entertaining book, great for those just starting the study of the Vietnam War, an overview or refresher. This book is not meant to be read straight through, but a section here/there, now/later.

The author continues his series of "Secrets" books with this one on Vietnam. They are must have books for any student of history of war. Virtual encyclopedias of useful information and insight. Apolitical analysis of the information, which is unusual for this war, in particular. Easy read.

From the beginning I read with pleasure, because I found two books in one, at least. History of a particular War, and all those information that help to understand after all these years. Very good!

I bought the book in hopes it would add to the research material that I have collected to study my father's service in Vietnam. He was a Marine helicopter door gunner and flew hundreds of missions in a CH-46 Sea Knight. This book gives what appears at first glance to be a comprehensive chapter on the air war but makes no mention of the CH-46 helicopter. This is an unfortunate dissapointment because the CH-46 played such an important role for the Marine's in I Corps. The Marines used the Sea Knight in similar roles as the Army utilized the Huey Slick (resupply, medevac, troop & recon inserts/extracts, etc) and there were many squadrons throughout I Corps from 66-71. Obviously the author felt it unnecessary to include Marine Helicopters yet included stats on three different models of the Chinook CH-47. This omission makes this whole book suspect in my view for it is likely there are many others.

Jim Dunnigan and Al Nofi are well-known to wargamers everywhere -- they were behind the S&T magazine in its heyday, the late 70's. There we first saw his style, lots of data in the form of tables and charts, minimal text, crisp and clean.

This book is one of a series the two are doing, or were doing, "Dirty Little Secrets of..." Here the title is sort of correct, there are a couple of secrets we didn't know, but most of it is readily available information. Nonetheless the collation of factual data here is impressive. They cover a lot of ground.

One thing that was not a secret at the time was the extent to which the administration (LBJ) was LYING to the American people. This began with the Gulf of Tonkin incident and continued right through to the end. I would have liked to see Jim and Al get into that a little bit.

The book is worth getting at the library as I did. Just be aware, as other reviewers have noted, the data is incomplete. (How could it be otherwise with less than 1000 pages?) You will find stuff in here you did not know, e.g., how many guys were actually killed by tigers?

I really liked this book--well enough to recommend it to my father-in-law, a Vietnam veteran and history buff. The title is accurate and Dunnigan and Nofi's scholarship is generally dispassionate and sensible.

It's well titled; a lot of the information here is not common knowledge. Their take on the ebb and flow of the conflict is straightforward and well supported (the 'why did we lose?' question). I like their view on the MIA issue, and they deserve credit for neither ducking it nor kowtowing to either side. The descriptions of the loss of credibility of pro-war and anti-war activists speak volumes.

There's a lot of information about the units that were there, but I think more detail would have been welcomed. The ARVN in particular is not heavily covered. They copped out a little on the Phillipine contingent; couldn't come up with details as basic as death figures. The defoliants were mentioned but the nonlethal chemical agents, Adamsite (DM) in particular, aren't well covered. And so forth.

Very much worth reading with the caveat that if you want to drill deep into any aspect of the war (for example, the ARVN Rangers, or the organization of a Special Forces camp) you'll have to look elsewhere to get the detail.

The title is a misnomer. Virtually everything is covered in other books on Vietnam. I suspect that the reviewers who praised this book on the basis of it containing hitherto unrevealed information simply have not read anything else on the subject. It does give a pretty good, if somewhat superficial overview of the war as well as the background history leading up to it. I would recommend it except for the pervasive (but not overwhelming) right wing cant. For example, the authors state that one of the reasons the war was lost by the South was that the superpowers supporting the North had more will and staying power than those (actually, one, the U.S.) supporting the South. They neglect to mention that the Americans were fighting and dying there but Russians and Chinese were not. They also adhere to the pervasive, but very questionable premise that had we been allowed to bring our full military power to bear, we would have won. They do acknowlege that U.S. losses would have been much higher and the subsequent occupation would also have been very costly and prolonged. Still, there is much information conveniently collated here from many diverse sources and if one decided to read only a single book on Vietnam, one could do worse.

This book was listed as in good condition, but it should have been listed as in "excellent condition." A+ to this seller!