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Everything We Had Everything We Had: An Oral History of the Vietnam War by Thirty-Three American an Oral History of the Vietnam War by Thirty-Three Am

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Al Santoli has collected the recollections (including his own) of thirty-three American soldiers who fought in Vietnam. The soldiers include an Army enlistee who finds a "nine-to-five war" when he arrives in Vietnam in 1962; an Army drill sergeant who worries that the Army prevents him from teaching his men the killer instinct; and a Navy SEAL whose job is terrorism. ["It was a business, and the business was terrorism." (pg. 219)] The soldiers also include a naval aviator who as senior POW officer worries as much about his men's mental health as his own; and a medical corpsman present during the 1975 fall of Saigon.

Most of these recollections do not emphasize bloodshed. Instead they emphasize the Vietnam War's effect upon men and women soldiers; white and minority soldiers; and enlisted personnel, officers, and their families. The recollections discuss the relationship between the Americans and the Vietnamese people. The recollections also discuss the Viet Cong war philosophy: terrorism and erosion of will.

On April 30, 2000 a copyrighted Reuters news article "Vietnam Celebrates War Anniversary" reported that Vietnamese "Officials paid glowing tribute to the three million Vietnamese soldiers and civilians who died during the war. More than 58,000 American troops were also killed in the conflict." The same article reported that many Vietnamese "also express growing unease over Vietnam's woes: graft, smuggling, heroin addiction, prostitution, excessive party control over the economy and a feeling that the world is getting wired to the future and leaving them behind."

The Vietnam War was long, confusing, and controversial. Al Santoli's collection of oral histories dispels some of the confusion, but the controversy remains. Did anyone win the Vietnam War?