Customer Reviews

Everything We Had: An Oral History of the Vietnam War

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

There are actually two false war stories in this book, those of Thomas Bird ("Ia Drang") and Mike Beamon ("The Green-Faced Frogmen"). Mr. Bird apologized to the author after the book's publication. He did serve in Vietnam, not in combat, and the POW story is a complete fabrication. Mr. Beamon did not even serve in the US military, never mind the SEALS or Vietnam. At the time the book came out, 1981, it was difficult to get veterans to discuss the war at all, never mind insist they verify their stories. Mr. Santoli, who I knew personally, was as disappointed as any of his critics that he had been taken in by these accounts. Still "Everything We Had"is a monumental work, from the days before the Vietnam Wall. Then the popular culture wanted nothing more to dismiss the war completely and held the men who fought there in contempt as losers or criminals. The feelings of Santoli's real contributors are still a compelling read today, twenty years later.

This book takes a very unique approach to narrating the history of the Vietnam war. It allows individuals to tell their stories of their experience, but does so in chronilogical order. So what you get first is a story about welcoming Americans to the war i.e. getting off the plane to see a corpse fall out of the bag...welcome to nam and what you get last is a get out of Saigon before it falls story. The stories are varied, covering special ops and grunt units to hospital and airforce views. Some stories are very short while some linger on, but all of them have heart and truly show a side not usually seen with the battle histories.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and believe anyone with any interest in America's involvement in Vietnam would also. It is very cheap and is a quick read and will improve your knowledge of history...all three great qualities!

I picked this book up for the wrong reason, I thought I was going to be reading account after account of fire-fights. What I got was more human experiences that in the end I probably enjoyed more then just review of battles. Don't get me wrong, there is combat, but there is so much more to the real experiences in the every day life. You really get a feel for what the foot soldier went through. The book does read ok, you notice the different writing styles of the different authors, but the content is really the focus of the book.

This book makes you feel you are sitting with each veteran as they recall situations they experienced during the war. I love the fact that the grammar was basically kept "as narrated", instead of polishing and sugar-coating what they actually said. I really appreciate the openness of each veteran in this book, and sometimes even felt their pain/confusion - at least to some degree. I would recommend to anyone that wants to learn more of the reality of war-time experiences. Very good.

Everything We Had offers a collection of intensely personal war memories from 33 Americans who served in Vietnam. The strength of the book lies in the non-scripted, unconstrained tone of most of the 'stories'. They speak openly about their experiences, with little attempt to "prettify" or rationalize their involvement in the war. This book does presume to explain away the Vietnam war, it simply offers candid testiment to the way it was.

Much of the best literature from the Vietnam War has been its "oral histories." This is one of the best, ranked in the top five by 200 Vietnam vets (men and women both) interviewed for a book project. The other four? A PIECE OF MY HEART (Walker), NAM (Baker), BLOODS (Terry), and CASUALTIES (Brandon). Get them. (Comments by the author of Amazon book DREAM BABY).

This is required reading this month, and this book really opened up my eyes. What Al Santoli was trying to show in his book was that even though many soldiers went through different experiences, they had many of the same thoughts. What it brought out clearly to me was that there were 2 types of American Vietnam Veterans, the Elites and the Grunts. Al Santoli brought to light some very important details concerning why Vietnam veterans now are dealing with so much pain. If you don't think so, take a highlighter and go read it again. You'll see what I mean. (you can skip the liar!)

Al Santoli is a serious writer and a Vietnam Veteran who was led astray by failing to check the stories of the people that "volunteered" to be quoted in "Everything We Had". In his oral history he interviewed 33 "veterans" who fought in Vietnam. The book was commissioned by the Vietnam Veterans of America, and the VVA receives two-thirds of the royalties. One of the subjects was Thomas Bird, a co-founder of the VVA. Bird told Santoli that he was a rifleman in the 1st Cav Div (Airmobile) from August '65 to August '66. Bird claimed that he was captured by the NVA during the Battle of the Ia Drang Valley. He claimed to have been tortured during his short period as a POW. Inexplicably the NVA abruptly abandoned their prisoners one night, leaving them naked and tied up in the jungle where they were found the next day. The military record of Thomas Bird reveals that this story is completely false. The claims of Bird were exposed in a story by Veteran Dan Cragg in Stars and Stripes in 1982. Bird's unit was not over-run by the enemy and only had 16 wounded men in six months from 1 July to 1 December 1965. Both Bird's Battalion Commander and his Company Commander confirmed that Bird's story is completely false. Pretty poor example of history when lies can be accepted as the truth...without anyone the wiser.

EVERYTHING WE HAD is a powerful account by soldiers of the Vietnam war, compiled by a combat veteran, whose experiences and insight ring true for soldiers who have seen hostile fire in any conflict. Members of the Lao Veterans of America who fought in that war have found this book to represent their gut-level experiences and reflections. The benefit of this book for those who have not seen combat, is the fact that Santoli does not attempt to be academic, but instead presents candid personal accounts of fellow soldiers with dignity and honor. Philip Smith, Lao Veterans of America

everyone should have this book, because it is not one of those books that are light and happy, and turn out allright in the end, but because it shows the truth of war. i am blessed to not have grown up in a time of war, and i think that it is very important that this book is kept alive by the younger generation, as well as the older one, because without it the realism of war would eventually fade, and our vets deserve much better then that! so please, but this book