Father, Soldier, Son: Memoir of a Platoon Leader in Vietnam [Paperback]

Nathaniel Tripp (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 1998

"Father, Soldier, Son will stand as one of the finest soldier memoirs of the Vietnam War . . . If all that has been written about the war in Vietnam, in fiction and nonfiction, has made it a familiar story to some, Tripp overcomes cliché by individualizing every well-known fact." -- The Boston Globe

NATHANIEL TRIPP GREW UP fatherless in a house full of women and he arrived in Vietnam as a just-promoted second lieutenant in the summer of 1968 with no memory of a man’s example to guide and sustain him. The father missing from Tripp’s life had gone off to war as well, in the Navy in World War II, but the terrors were too much for him, he disgraced himself, and after the war ended he could not bring himself to return to his wife and young son. In "some of the best prose this side of Tim O’Brien or Tobias Wolff" (Military History Quarterly), Tripp tells of how he learned as a platoon leader to become something of a father to the men in his care, how he came to understand the strange trajectory of his own mentally unbalanced father’s life, and how the lessons he learned under fire helped him in the raising of his own sons.
"Not since Michael Herr’s Dispatches has there been anything quite as vivid, gripping and soul-searing," raved the Washington Post, and the Chicago Tribune said "the description of combat in the jungles of Vietnam are authentic and terrifying, as good as any I have read in fact or fiction."

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

A beautifully written book and a stunning achievement. Thanks to Nathaniel Tripp's extraordinary depiction of war in Vietnam, based on his own experiences, I finally understand what it was like to fight there. Here is the savagery, the terrible anxiety, the sheer unreality of the conflict, and above all the appalling innocence and unpreparedness of the young Americans who were sent into that incomprehensible war.

Skillfully interwoven with the war story is how the author comes to terms with his own terror, with his failed father and their failed relationship, and how he makes up for the lost love of a parent by becoming something like a father to the men in his platoon. I can't recommend Father, Soldier, Son highly enough. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Written by an Army platoon commander, this memoir is, on one level, a compellingly vivid look into the conduct of the ground war against an increasingly sophisticated enemy by a decreasingly effective American military in the months after the 1968 Tet Offensive. Tripp's work addresses questions about America's morale, intent, and leadership. However, it involves a moving and candid personal narrative, drawing parallels to the author's relationship with a father whose military career was ended by mental illness. Tripp's work explores the paternal concerns for his platoon members (and, in lyrical sidebars, of the evolving love for his children) and explores the themes of doubt, courage, and commitment in terms of both the war experience and those other battles that one must face in life. Tripp has created seamlessly riveting prose, full of recollections of combat that are chillingly accurate. This is enduring literature; recommended wholeheartedly for all collections, especially military ones.?Mel D. Lane, Sacramento, Cal.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 261 pages
• Publisher: Steerforth (August 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1883642884
• ISBN-13: 978-1883642884
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,723,498 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Read, But Be Aware....., December 18, 2001

By 

Bon Ami (Vancouver, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Father, Soldier, Son: Memoir of a Platoon Leader in Vietnam (Hardcover)

Like most historical events and first person accounts of that history, there is more than one perspective that must be considered. Mr. Tripp's book although excellent and compelling, gives the reader 'his' experience. Sometimes this effort comes at the expense of objectivity. So, in reading this book be aware of other realities that share his Vietnam world.

I was with the 9th Infantry Division approximately the same time. In fact, I know many of the same places Mr. Tripp refers to in his book. Who knows, maybe he and I shared C-rations at some point. I also know that Mr. Tripp's description of the 9th Division and the Division Snipers in particular, although written from his perspective and with literary license, and meant to be compelling, is also unfair and plays into the hands of those who called us 'baby killers' and 'killing machines'.

We were young men, 18 years old and in combat for the first time. For most of us, it was not about proving one's self, or fighting the internal war with families and other bagage. It was about getting through the day without getting killed. Mr. Tripp has provided us with some gutsy descriptions of that emotion, I only wish it was not at the expense of other GI's who shared the same battleground, we were not all automatons nor were we without our own feelings of guilt, regardless of origin.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great, artistic read, February 5, 2002

By 

5 Elements Style (Japan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Father, Soldier, Son: Memoir of a Platoon Leader in Vietnam (Paperback)

I can't make any claims to the validity or non-validity of the book's subject matter, but I found the whole book engrossing from beginning to end. The man's private motivations and trials may not belong to everyone, but I think they are deep and true enough so that anyone can understand them. They are mixed in with commentary about the war from the author's viewpoint then as a young man and at the time of writing, and is also filled with the nerve wracking, often spooky action of that period in that place, which creates its own atmosphere along the lines of Dispatches by Herr. This book is not to be missed.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Much more than just gripping battle descriptions., March 16, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Father, Soldier, Son: Memoir of a Platoon Leader in Vietnam (Hardcover)

Like true-crime literature, this book proved to be a disturbingly-satisfying and valuable learning experience. However, this opinion may not be shared by many if they forget that this is a memoir, not a novel. Don't be misled by the title and the blurbs, expecting just a neatly chronological action account of a soldier's year of survival in Vietnam and his relationship with his father before and after his tour of duty. It's far more than that.

Soon after starting, you will realize that there are many more dimensions to this work than anticipated. The allusions to "father" and "son" prove to be metaphors not only for the author's personal relationships (within and outside the Army), but also that of War, The Military Establishment in general, and Government:

"Vietnam was, more than anything else, a place of betrayal. Vietnam was where fathers betrayed sons, and sons betrayed fathers."

And rarely in the past have we been treated so incisively and credibly to the real attitudes pervading our fighting forces in Vietnam:

"I hated Saigon, the bile rising inside of me. It was noisy and filthy, overflowing with REMFS and hucksters of all sorts. The population had increased tenfold because of the war, and the very foundations of the city were exploitation of one sort or another, East meeting West at its very worst. The air was heavy with exhaust fumes and the constant hustle of survival, the great open market of Mammon beside heartbreaking slums. Everything was for sale: drugs, weapons, people, principles, the past, the future. We brought Walmart to Saigon, with blow jobs and televisions offered side by side, while beggars with their legs blown off, with puffy napalm scars and white, unseeing eyes, fought for scraps."

The book is replete with poignant enlightening anecdotes such as the following documentation of the Vietnamese poplulation's attitude towards Our War:

"We soon came abreast of the cause of the delay. A young man on a motorcycle had been struck and killed. He lay there in the road in the kind of impossible position that only the dead can assume, and what was causing the delay was not so much his death as the subsequent pillaging. A crowd had gathered and was stripping his corpse of everything, watch, ballpoint pens, shirt, while others stripped his mashed motorcycle. Tu was silent for a long time after we passed, and continued on down the long, straight, open highway into the delta. Then at last he said, 'So now you see what your war has done to my country.' "

The relationship between the Americans and the French in Vietnam may be a revelation to many of us. This is the way history should be taught:

"We had, after all, grown up amid the glorifying mythology of the Second World War, and had naively expected the French to welcome us again, showering us with champagne and kisses from beautiful girls as we marched toward Loc Ninh, driving the evil communists before us. It had been disillusioning to find that the French in Vietnam disliked us more than they seemed to dislike the Viet Cong themselves. We could not understand that the French had been goaded, cajoled, even bribed into going to war in Vietnam by the United States in the first place."

In addition to its historical reporting, perceptions and philosophies, this book is also notable for its exceptional style of presentation. Although the almost-poetic prose sometimes seemed affected, and occasionally a bit incongruous with the context, for the most part the rhetoric was another unanticipated windfall. Nathaniel Tripp has produced an important and memorable record of what it really was like and what it all meant. In the next edition a glossary, especially of the military terms and abbreviations, and at least one map of the locale would be desirable.