Customer Reviews

Once a Warrior King: Memories of an Officer in Vietnam

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Splendid book. Entertaining and minimally technical, it is strongly recommended for non-veterans who want to get a feel for "how it really was."

Donovan, as a mere First Lieutenant, was the senior U.S. military officer in a rural district near the Cambodian border. The Vietnamese District Chief cared little and higher authority was far away. By default, therefore, he became a kind of proconsul, a king. In charge of four Amercans and two platoons of Vietnamese militia, he ran his "own" war.

At first full of idealism and self-importance, he resembled Alden Pyle of the "The Quiet American". He mused that he could have any villager killed on his orders, and that he was treated like a lord. But he believed in the cause, loved the Vietnamese people, hated the Vietcong, disdained the corrupt and incompetent South Vietnamese government, and was appalled at the occasional coarseness of his fellow Americans. Like Horatio Hornblower, he was incredibly brave while filled with internal fear and doubt.

All of the grand complexities of That War are conveyed in microcosm through anecdote. There is much humor (the pubic-hair contest he was asked to judge while holed up in a bar; the Keystone Cops escape in a Jeep with the Vietcong blazing away), pathos (the burned child he could not save), frustration (the Province Chief on the take; the District Chief who cared more for his own comfort than his people's safety; the air-conditioned REMFs who inhabited a separate world in Saigon), anger (the Vietcong-planted bomb that shredded a schoolhouse full of children), and harrowing action (assaulting a Vietcong bunker complex in a motor-driven sampan).

I served in the PBRs--river gunboats--that he often mentions, in a nearby area and at roughly the same time. This is the book that I would have written, if I had Donovan's diligence, sensitivity, and craft.

'Once a Warrior King' is an
excellent book. Written by Terry Turner using the pen name David Donovan.
I served on MACV Advisory Team 88 in Ben Tre, Kein Hoa Province, IV Corps, Sept. '68 - Aug. '69.
(That was where 'We had to destroy the town in order to save it.'
A dumb statement which was not true. Some buildings were damaged but were quickly repaired.)
I was fortunate to be at Province headquarers where we were able to live in a decent manner. By comparision, the MAT and District team where Terry Turner served, near the Cambodian border, had very little personal and US military support. It is obvious to me, as a former MACV officer, that the book 'Once A Warrior King' could have only been written by somemone who was actually there. The fact that T. Turner used a pen name is OK. Many of the names in the book were changed for reasons of privacy.
A good book.

This is the best first person Vietnam War book I have ever read. I have read it multiple times and have given away each copy I've had. This book is the real deal.

This is one of the finest books I've read about the tragedy that was Vietnam. You can see why the Americans lost the war. Donovan pointed out the problems, mistakes, the unbelievable waste and corruption; and the plain ignorance that sent too many men home in flag draped boxes. He came to love the ordinary people of Vietnam, and saw them as individuals, not just a bunch of gooks, slopes or other derogatory terms that were in general use. You also come to realise that America could have won if they'd had more Donovans, and employed tactics that won hearts and minds, rather than use body counts as their measure of success.

If you want an insight into the Vietnam war, I'd recommend this book.

My husband also served in Vietnam and recently reunited with some of his old comrades among them the author. So when I learned that he had written a book, I bought it for my husband. I do not think I have ever bought a book for him that he has loved more.
So even though I have not read it myself, I very much recommend it.

The original Blue Berets were advisory teams that worked and lived in the villages of Vietnam. Their little known war was training and operating with the local village militias and regional popular forces. They lived, fought, and died with the local population in a very personal small unit war without the massive artillery, air support, airlift, and troop numbers that characterizes most American military efforts. Their medics provided the first and only contact the villagers had with modern medicine which we all take for granted.

I was fortunate to have one of these men as a neighbor of mine for several years. He saw I was reading this book and told me that it perfectly captured the experience of his tour in Vietnam.

I bought this copy for my Godson, a Marine, now training up to ship out with an advisory team for Afghanistan, after having already completed one tour in Fallujah. I hope the experiences of our teams in Vietnam can help him in some small way with his counter insurgency work in Afghanistan.

I wish him and all our troops Godspeed, good hunting, and a safe return with the victory their valor and sacrifice deserves.

This is the story of Lt. Donovan, and a Mobile Advisory Team ( MAT 32 ),
and is exceptionally well told. There is no better book about being an adviser in Viet Nam. The culture and isolation of these small (5 Americas) teams is so well told, the gulf between the advisers and the American units their outlook on the war and the Vietnamese, the good, bad, and funny.
This is how it was, I was there for 2 1/2 years. Six months with an American unit and two years with MAT's, MAT 46, 6, and 64. This is the story of the 400 plus MAT's that operated until the final pull out of American Advisers.