No Longer Enemies, Not Yet Friends: An American Soldier Returns to Vietnam [Hardcover]

Frederick Downs (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1991

Downs' journey from hatred and suspicion to a larger understanding of human suffering is told here in this account of his trips to Vietnam as a member of the Vessey mission--an effort to extend humanitarian aid to the struggling Vietnamese people. Photographs.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Amid the lengthening list of return-to-Vietnam accounts, this is one of the most memorable. Downs, a former infantry officer who lost an arm in the war, the author of The Killing Zone and director of prosthetics and sensory aid services for the Veterans Administration, took several trips in the late 1980s as part of an official mission charged with exploring humanitarian issues. Along with its acute observations of postwar Vietnamese culture, this report is distinguished by Downs's admission that he returned to 'Nam for the first time in 20 years with his low opinion of "gooks" intact, and expecting to find widespread hatred of Americans. The story of his coming to terms with his former enemy is both moving and instructive, and includes a detailed account of the week in 1988 he spent escorting the Vietnamese director of rehabilitation around Washington, D.C. Downs discovered that "the greatest civics lesson for any American is to have to explain our way of life to a hard-line Communist." Photos.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Downs continues his personal chronicles of war and peace in Vietnam with a followup to The Killing Zone ( LJ 10/1/78) and Aftermath ( LJ 1/84). In his latest work, Downs, who lost his left arm in combat in Vietnam, describes a series of trips to Vietnam as a member of the controversial Vessey Mission, which studied humanitarian needs of the Vietnamese. Between 1987 and 1989 Downs was called up on to demonstrate the use of modern prosthetics to his ex-foes. In stark and unpolished language, he presents the reader with the turmoil he felt trying to reconcile his wartime hatred, his wounding and physical rehabilitation, the POW/MIA issue, with his shock at the quality of life and condition of healthcare in Vietnam. Gradually he comes to accept the Vietnamese as people rather than as depersonalized objects or as enemies. Purchase for Vietnam War collections or where Downs's other titles have been popular.-- Stanley Planton, Ohio Univ.
Chillicothe Lib.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc; 1st edition (November 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393030474
• ISBN-13: 978-0393030471
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,636,979 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Soldier returns to Vietnam 20 years later, September 28, 2003

By 

Frank (Stockton CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: No Longer Enemies, Not Yet Friends: An American Soldier Returns to Vietnam (Hardcover)

This book is essentially a memoir by Frederick Downs, former infantry lieutenant whose arm was blown off by a mine in the Vietnam war. Twenty years later he finds himself, now the director of the VA's Prosthetic and Sensory Aids Service, as a US team member re-establishing contact with Vietnam to determine their humanitarian needs. Downs faces his own prejudices and memories as he deals with his former enemies, and walks a political tightrope as the US tries to extend aid to Vietnam, without making it appear as though the US was trading aid for missing American soldier remains. Downs also examines his own preoccupation with his service in Vietnam, asserting, "Once a man has contributed his blood and his honor to a country, he is always a part of what it becomes." His own veteran friends question his actions in "helping the enemy."
Downs' descriptions of life in late 1980's northern Vietnam are well-written and informative, as is his verbal portrait of his North Vietnamese counterpart, Dr. Bui Tung.
A deeper book examining how the North Vietnamese and the Viet Cong soldiers fought the war, written by former US soldiers who go through their own feelings of "dealing with the enemy," is _ Inside the Vc and the Nva: The Real Story of North Vietnam's Armed Force_ by Michael Lee Lanning and Dan Cragg.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars soldier turns healer, April 23, 2003

By 

rahul mehta (india) - See all my reviews

This review is from: No Longer Enemies, Not Yet Friends: An American Soldier Returns to Vietnam (Hardcover)

No Longer Enemies,Not Yet Fiends is the story of Down's dual journeys: as an official for reapproachment between two adversaries;and his own internal journey from hatred and suspicion to a large understanding of commonality of human suffering.In his book the author has more than anyone else,tried to convince himself,as to why a soldier who has lost his arm in war against Vietnam be there to help the same.

0 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointed, April 14, 2010

By 

NP (California, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: NO LONGER ENEMIES, NOT YET FRIENDS: An American Soldier Returns to Vietnam (Paperback)

After reading an excerpt from "The Killing Zone" I really wanted to like this book. In actuality, it was the first book I had read by Mr. Downs. I could not believe that as the book was published in the 90's he is still referring to Asians as Orientals; there were also a number of passages that were potically insensitive. I expected a more savvy account of his experiences and was thoroughly disappointed.