Customer Reviews

A Rumor of War

5 star:		(115)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

For anyone who has ever asked, "What was Vietnam really like," Marine Lieutenant Philip Caputo's book, "A Rumor of War," is a must read. In this autobiographical account of his time as an infantry officer in, "the `Nam," he describes the experience in authoritative terms enhanced by collegiate English studies and time spent as a combat journalist. The result is the most well written account of life in an infantry platoon in Vietnam that I have ever read.

Phil Caputo could have been virtually anyone in America in the early `60's. A young, idealistic, all-American boy who joined the Marines in search of adventure, and out of a patriotic desire to answer John Kennedy's challenge to, "Ask not what your country can do for you. . ." He and his platoon marched off to war to find glory and honor. What they found was, "death, death, death."

Caputo takes you into the muddy foxhole with him, making you feel the heat and annoyance of the ever-present insects, and the sniper shots that all united to deprive you of the precious commodity of sleep. He takes you on patrol with them down, "Purple Heart Trail," where the main enemies were the heat, the insects, and endless mines and booby traps. The reader can feel the rage of the infantrymen who fought endless battles with an enemy that was everywhere, yet nowhere. Gradually enthusiasm turned to pessimism; pessimism to despair; and despair to rage; rage that ultimately vented itself in mindless violence against anything Vietnamese. They were then left with the heat, the insects, and guilt borne of actions taken that they would never have dreamed of a few short months before.

Caputo and his enthusiastic, young, Marines could have been anyone who has ever fought: the patriots at Lexington and Concord, who later found themselves half starved and freezing at Valley Forge; or any number of Union or Confederate soldiers from Bull Run to Appomattox. They could have been "Doughboys" who went, "Over There," to "Make the World Safe for Democracy," only to find themselves "fighting" immersion foot and mustard gas in the trenches of France; or perhaps even soldiers serving under, "Ol' Blood and Guts" himself, George S. Patton; "Our blood, his guts," as the GI's said. Their stories all verify Gen. Robert E. Lee's famous quote: "War seldom avails anything to those unfortunate enough to have to fight it."

A Rumor of War ranks up there with Gen. Harold Moore's, "We Were Soldiers Once and Young," and Col. David Hackworth's, "About Face." All three show how debates that raged in Washington, Paris, Saigon, and Hanoi were ultimately scored. Whether you were a "hawk or a dove," a liberal or a conservative, a professor or student, you will benefit from reading this book that answers the question authoritatively: "Hey! What was Vietnam really like?"

Caputo describes "the splendid little war" as his road from an enthusiastic idealist poisoned by the romanticized view of war as a chivalrous and noble enterprise to the dehumanized and desensitized wreck that he becomes during his tour in Vietnam. The book is an amazing testimony about the true nature of war with all its atrocities and horrors. Caputo brilliantly captures the endless despair of being strained in the jungle with no clear reason for being there, the hopeless madness of chasing the guerillas and the agony of loosing friends. But the most important aspect of this book is that it shows how a normal mentally healthy person can be turned into a thoughtless killing machine in the course of a few months, fast on the trigger, without any remorse for his victims. Caputo uses very strong and vivid images such as "pigs eating napalm-charred human corpses" to force the reader into his story and feel what Caputo has felt. Very realistic book that cannot leave you indifferent, definitely up there with Remarque's "All quiet on the Western front." If you want to know what fighting the Vietnam War was really like, I can't imagine how any book can possibly be better than Rumor of War.

To anyone who thinks of war as a glorious enterprise or some kind of Nintendo game, they should read Caputo's book. THe author himself was once an idealistic, glory seeking young man eager to participate in "a splendid little war,' but by book's end he has become an unfeeling, unremorseful and scared shell of a human being. THis may have been what kept him alive, but Caputo is angry over the deep emotional damage done to many men like himself who were thrust into a civil war and cultural revolution in a country and place we had little understanding of. Caputo manges to show us how this transformation took place. Its not a pleasant read or ride, but in the process we discover why the war was unwinnable at a price America was willing or should have paid, and what damage we inflicted on men like Caputo in putting them in such a difficult position. BUt don't read the book for any lengthy history or diatribe on Vietnam or America's policies toward it. First and foremost its a memoir of war and preparing for war. From boot camp thru training, to Vietnam and back home, Caputo keeps you riveted with descriptions of crawling through leech filled swamps, nights in the sticky jungle being consumed by insects, and witnessing the irony of pigs eating charred human corpses. When not focusing on battles, we are privy to the insanity of body counts and body bags and the tense downtime between jungle patrols, as well as the dynamics of a Marine platoon. Caputo's insights and ability to reflect back upon the events and physical and emotional carnage he inflicted upon himself and others is what makes this memoir special. There is also no small irony that Caputo was part of the first marine unit to go to Nam, and that as a journalist some 10 years later, he was one of the last to leave. Anytime I think of war as a glorious enterprise, I need only pick up this book and read a few sections. Should be required reading in war history courses! If you liked Dispatches by Michael Herr, this book is even better.

"A Rumor of War" is a darkly disturbing book. It is set in what was the early, "optimistic" Vietnam in the spring of '65 when we thought we were fighting for "freedom" and before the reality of the place hit home. Vietnam hits Lieutenant Caputo very quickly, as it must have for all Marine Corps platoon leaders. It's all right there-booby traps, mines, trip wires, leeches, foot blisters, jungle rot, constant shelling, dysentery, pigs eating corpses and cold C Rations. As a Vietnam vet, I was surprised the author never mentions RATS!, but we both know they were there too. (THEY were everywhere). Lt. Caputo's transfer to a staff job is worse than the field, so he transfers back to the bush as a platoon leader.It's more of the same-patrolling and repatrolling the same trails, the same hills, the same villes. All watched over by unsupportive and bureaucratic commanders. "RW" offers yet another look at the Vietnam War, one more pessimistic than most because so many of us felt that the years of '65 and '66 were more positive than this. I might suggest reading Joseph Owen's "Colder Than Hell" to compare the Marine experience in Korea with Lt. Caputo's. Reading the late Bernard Fall's "Street Without Joy" will make us aware, again, that perhaps there was never a time to be optimistic about Vietnam. I must admit that I constantly found myself curious as to how I would have handled many situations in "RW". How would I have measured up? What would I have done? How would the men have judged me? While the story of "RW" tends to stray at times, I found no fault since the author is relating a painful part of his past. One small point: "RW" would benefit from better maps-these are so often lacking in military books. The bottom line:"A Rumor of War" belongs on the bookshelf of any serious military book reader or anyone searching for yet another angle to the frustrating Vietnam War that affected so many of us.

if you were fortunate enough to miss the horror of the vietnam war but always wondered what it was truly like, then phillip caputo puts you there. he makes you experience the war with all of your senses. i spend very little time reading but was unable to let this book set for more than a few hours at a time, if you only read one book about vietnam, do yourself a favor and read this one, you wont be disappointed, i have a new found respect for our vietnam vets after reading this book.

I picked up Philip Caputo's book," A Rumor of War", several years ago. I started reading and was quickly engrossed in the detail and knowledge that was describe by Mr. Caputo. I could picture in my mind everything he was saying. Suddenly, as I was reading, I knew what was going to happen next. I said to myself that I must have read this book before. But to my delight as I read on, I realized that I had been right beside Mr. Caputo, and that he had been my Platoon Commander. I had forgot many details that came flooding back as I read on. His telling of his story, and mine, was masterful. When you read of a firefight, everyword he describes happened. The feelings of a Combat Marine Grunt lives in his words. "Rumor of War", is a must read for all Americans , young or old, If you want to know the true feel of war. A heartfelt salute to a True Marine and Platoon Commander, Semper Fi !

Of all the Vietnam narratives I've read, Rumor of War strikes me as the most well-written. Here tells the story of Phillip Caputo, a baby boomer who grew up in the golden years of John F. Kennedy and the sweet success of World War II. Caputo joined the Marines like many others from a sense of patriotism and a desire to prove his toughness. Training instills in him the tradition of the Corps, but as his tour in Vietnam progresses his disillusionment grows.

For those who are searching for a glimpse of combat, here it is in all its brutality. Then more than now, Rumor of War provides a unique non-John Wayne view of warfare. This is the real-life 'Heart of Darkness'. Caputo goes from an idealistic American kid to a jaded war vet, all in a few years. As death piles up around him, he descends into the realm of numbness and hate. I firmly believe that what happened to him can and does happen regularly to those under war's grim watch.

World War II taught that war can be necessary, 'moral' and profitable as well. Vietnam showed us the other edge of the blade. So, where do we go from here? I imagine many will put down this book with one word on their lips: Iraq. Is that parallel correct? Maybe, maybe not. There are two lessons I hope Rumor of War provides (though the second goes beyond the book's scope). The first lesson is that war is no romantic diversion. Abandon that instinct, for modern war deals death in a horribly random manner. For every hero's death there are twenty ignoble ones. It's a waste. The other - not covered by the book - is that sometimes in history, this savagery of war is an unfortunate necessity.

"A Rumor of War" is a darkly disturbing book. It is set in what was the early, "optimistic" Vietnam in the spring of '65 when we thought we were fighting for "freedom" and before the reality of the place hit home. Vietnam hits Lieutenant Caputo very quickly, as it must have for all Marine Corps platoon leaders. It's all right there-booby traps, mines, trip wires, leeches, foot blisters, jungle rot, constant shelling, dysentery, pigs eating corpses and cold C Rations. As a Vietnam vet, I was surprised the author never mentions RATS!, but we both know they were there too. (THEY were everywhere). Lt. Caputo's transfer to a staff job is worse than the field, so he transfers back to the bush as a platoon leader.It's more of the same-patrolling and repatrolling the same trails, the same hills, the same villes. All watched over by unsupportive and bureaucratic commanders. "RW" offers yet another look at the Vietnam War, one more pessimistic than most because so many of us felt! that the years of '65 and '66 were more positive than this. I might suggest reading Joseph Owen's "Colder Than Hell" to compare the Marine experience in Korea with Lt. Caputo's. Reading the late Bernard Fall's "Street Without Joy" will make us aware, again, that perhaps there was never a time to be optimistic about Vietnam. I must admit that I constantly found myself curious as to how I would have handled many situations in "RW". How would I have measured up? What would I have done? How would the men have judged me? While the story of "RW" tends to stray at times, I found no fault since the author is relating a painful part of his past. One small point: "RW" would benefit from better maps-these are so often lacking in military books. The bottom line:"A Rumor of War" belongs on the bookshelf of any serious military book reader or anyone searching for yet another angle to the frustrating Vietnam War that affected so many of us.

Caputo's book chronicles the sixteen months of the war, or at least what Caputo saw of it. A Rumor of War is about the things men do in war and the things war does to them. Caputo had one of the most one of a kind perspectives on the Vietnam War possible from his first hand experiences in Vietnam. A Rumor of War is about the dangers in Vietnam, the casualties, the frame of mind, and the endless monotony to moments of sheer terror of the American soldier in Vietnam. Throughout A Rumor of War, one can sense the soldier's enormous desire to go home and to abandon the foolishness of a war that soon after arriving in Vietnam most soldiers did not believe in. Caputo's character was the factor that moved the Marine's in his platoon and their desire to survive. Caputo is one of the first Marines ashore in Danang Vietnam on March 8th, 1965 convinced that American forces will win a quick victory in Vietnam. "I guess we believed in our own publicity, Asian guerrillas did not stand a chance against United States Marines". Caputo and his platoon are part of the initial process of escalation under the Johnson administration that led to our massive commitment to fight the war in Vietnam. Caputo's platoon in Vietnam first guards an airbase, and then makes limited patrols into the surrounding Vietnamese countryside to route out snipers. Eventually Caputo is part of the first massive search and destroy operations of the war trying to find an enemy that cannot usually be found for large-scale "American" style engagements. The Vietnamese are the "phantom" enemy as Caputo describes them because the Vietcong had a division of troops around the airbase his platoon was helping to protect yet the Americans had yet to see one enemy soldier.
Eventually Caputo is transferred to a staff position as "Officer in Charge of the Dead" and as one of his duties posts every day the number of American's lost and Vietcong killed on the regimental headquarters blackboard so his colonel could keep track of the battalions and companies under his command and rattle off impressive Vietcong kills to visiting dignitaries. Sometimes Caputo had to verify Vietcong body counts at headquarters, which was not pleasant since at the climate of Vietnam the bodies were already decomposing. This shows the United States emphasis on body counts.
Caputo is then voluntary transferred back to an infantry company to serve once again as a platoon leader. Caputo serves in this capacity until stress and lack of judgment lead him to order his men on an anti-insurgent mission that results in the death of two South Vietnamese civilians that were incorrectly identified as members of the Vietcong. Caputo's men tell him one of them men had to be killed because the "Cong" sat up with his forty-five and ran outside yelling "Oh God" and the other "Cong" flung a tree branch at the Marines and tried to escape. Caputo is found not guilty on all counts, all charges were dropped against him and a letter of reprimand was put in his military jacket. Caputo was again a free man and he is sent home from Vietnam less then ten days after his acquittal. Ten years later, Caputo was one of the reporters that reported on the fall of Saigon to Communist North Vietnamese forces for the Chicago Tribune.
I personally do not feel that this memoir enhanced my understanding of the conflict in Vietnam. I do not feel that I learned too much by reading this particular book. Since my dad was in Vietnam, I already knew most of the bloody details about the war from his first-hand experiences there as an F-4 Phantom pilot. Moreover, with my personal passions having to do with modern military history in general I already knew that most of the troops did not want to be in Vietnam and did not believe in the cause that they were sent to Vietnam to fight for. However, Rumor of War shows the transformation of the American military into the dejected organization that had come to symbolize American forces in Vietnam. It became popular after the war to suggest what America should have done differently to win the war. From Caputo's book, it becomes clear that America could not have won the war in South Vietnam. America just pursued an ever-rising body count. "Since the landing, we had acquired the conviction that we could win this brushfire war, and win it quickly, if only we were turned loose to fight." In fact we never even knew what "winning" would entail Caputo says.
Caputo's perspective about the Vietnam War is very important for people who know little about the bloody, gory, and discouraging details regarding the Vietnam War. Caputo's book is very informative and an entertaining read for people who have trouble reading an entire book. The reader in a sense can connect with Caputo's first hand story telling in this book, which is brutally honest I must say. Caputo describes his youthful, naive longing for adventure, his subsequent suffering and that of his fellow soldiers, and what he believes is his ultimate betrayal by his own country regarding his court-martial.
I personally thought it was a very good book. Rumor of War is definitely the book students should read if they like action packed books with blood and gore to keep them entertained though the entire book.

Caputo's A Rumor of War is a highly readable, albeit chilling, narrative of ground combat. It is a story of Marines - their pain, their fear, and the hardships they endured in Vietnam. Caputo wrote this book with a clear purpose: to convey the destructive effects of war on man's morality.
Unlike so many war stories, this book contains few heroes; only men who, in Caputo's mind, died senselessly still clutching their naive idealism. It is to this youthful idealism that Caputo devotes the first section of A Rumor of War. Portraying his innocence and that of his fellow Marines before and during their initial insertion into Danang in 1965, Caputo writes of men who craved danger and combat, with idealistic visions of gallantry and heroism. Countless Marines who were heady with anticipation would, a short time later, lie dead or maimed in the jungles of Vietnam. Despite the ominous warnings of the few veterans among them, the young Marines failed to grasp beforehand the horrors that awaited them in Vietnam.
Throughout this book, Caputo protrays Marines (himself included) who completely lost their idealism, and whose morality the war corrupted. They had long forgotten why they were in Vietnam. Constant exposure to death raped them psychologically. Countless Marines "lost it." Patrols down "Purple Heart trail," anticipating booby traps with every step, and tense probes into VC enclaves like Hui-Voc and Giao-Tri took their toll on the Marines mentally and physically. Caputo describes his own fear intensifying to a breaking point where he ceased to be afraid of dying - a final revalation that his own psyche and morality were casualties of war.
The Vietnam War, however controversial, is over. Caputo and his fellow veterans grow fewer in number every day. But A Rumor of War is more relevant now than ever. As America slowly forgets the Vietnam War's legacy, so too does it forget the realities of combat. Since Vietnam, a new generation of military servicemen - of which I am a member - has risen in this country, fresh with idealism and dreams of glory. We, like young Phil Caputo, are ignorant of the chaos, horror, and immorality of real war.