Customer Reviews

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

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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.

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.

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.

Nathaniel Tripp does an excellent job in describing his raw feelings with a style of writing that tends to captivate and draw you in to the story on both an emotional and intellectual level. He is refreshingly candid in sharing his fears, apprehensions, loneliness and insecurities; feelings which most of us experience from time to time or at least can relate to. At first he doesn't want to get close to his platoon but he's gradually seduced into a family like bond - Father, Soldier, Son. Although he was with his platoon for only six or so months, the emotional ties that developed formed such a strong, lasting and profound bond. We saw many times in later years that his platoon became an emotional retreat where he yearned for the comfort and closeness he remembered to help him cope with life's "bumps in the road".

Tripp's book brought back many memories for me; both good and bad. Like Tripp, I was with the First Infantry Division around the very same time-frame (I was with Alpha Co., 2nd Bn., 16th Inf.) Our platoon (Mike) operated in some of the same locations as Tripp's. Some of the experiences he talked about are experiences I could relate to and the names of the villages, rubber plantations etc. are all familiar to me. All this and Tripp's superb writing style made his book particuilarly special for me.

I was surprised to see a soldier on the cover (paperback edition) wearing a First Cavalry Division patch - I would have liked to have seen a soldier wearing a "Big Red One" patch.

I'm just finishing up a second reading of this book, after having read it five years ago. I also was in the Big Red One, in B/2-16, the year after Tripp was there. Tripp writes with great insight and the humility of a man who experienced and understood the reality (the reality for one American infantryman, it must be granted) of the Vietnam War. This book also tells you how many of us were changed by this war.

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.

I was pleased to see another memoir published and eargerly anticipated reading it. When I started it seemed a good book about the war but I feared I would learn nothing new. To my surprise the second half of the book made this book a must read. The perspective of 25 years with the impact of the war on himself and his family made for very interesting reading. I believe this is the most honest book I've read in terms of the emotions dealing with this war. I also learned for the first time ever just how lonely any man's life is. Made me glad to be a woman. Don't miss this book.

Trivial bone-picking: the author states the commanding general of the 1st Infantry Division was the only general officer killed in the Viet Nam war. However I recall the great sense of loss everyone in the Cav felt when General Casey, CG, 1st Cavalry Division(AM), was killed when his UH-1 went down. But on the whole the book rings true.

Tripp's work belongs among the 'classic' memoirs of Americans serving in combat. Without bloodthirsty bravado or bitter resentment, Tripp provides us with another in a short list of honest, reflective, applicable reflections on being a field officer under fire generally, and in Vietnam specifically. The power of the work is not based solely on Tripp's unique ability to share with us much of what he saw, smelled, felt, feared, shared, gained and lost. Rather, it is the openness with which he frames his perspective and outlines his evolutions as a man, a leader, a parent, a son. The child who learns the meaning of the word 'sunset' by hearing the word and then seeing its definition presented in open air at twilight learns the meaning of the word differently compared to the child who has both the term and its definition spoken. That first child learns in a richer, more personal, more powerful way. Tripp provides us with the richer lesson by taking us very close to that westward view, providing us with the basic language, and enabling us to describe our own sunsets. This is an important book for those of us with similar experiences overseas and at home.

Tripp really captures the essence of the ground soldier's role in the overall scheme of things. He is on the money from the first to last page and his engaging style of writing makes it difficult to put the book down.