Tiger Men (Asian Portraits) [Paperback]

Barry Petersen (Author)

Book Description

Series: Asian Portraits | Publication Date: July 17, 2006

This is a story of life among the minority tribesmen of Vietnam who were trained by the author during the Vietnam War to become the feared and respected "Tiger Men", defending their villages and homes against the Viet-Cong.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Australian Barry Petersen was a legend for the "Tiger Men" he led against the Viet Cong - but the CIA didn't like it. Sandy Barron reviews the story of a Vietnam war experience with a difference

Barry Petersen was 28-years-old when he was dropped off in mountainous Darlac province South Vietnam, with a bag of cash worth about US$350 (Bt 8,750) and vague instructions from the CIA to "get to know the locals". Almost thirty years later, Bangkok- based Petersen is full of affection for the Montagnard hill-tribe people he found in the highlands and downright chilly about his former CIA masters

"I was not a secret service officer, but a simple soldier with that special operations training. Now I was to become a CIA man, without understanding what the term meant, or what it entailed" he writes in Tiger Men the story of his two years in the highlands which was a bestseller in Australia and has just been published by White Orchid Press in Bangkok

"With the Rade in particular that means their whole way of life is being surpressed," says Petersen. North Vietnamese have been resettled in the highland areas and "superimposed" over Montagnard villages. "The Rade are very demoralised - it's very upsetting. I think the Vietnamese did have to take steps to suppress the insurgency, but I think the steps they chose were very harsh - they've destroyed the way of life of ethnic minority groups." Resistance to the Vietnamese is now limited to the level of "banditry" says Petersen

Tiger Men is written in the first-person in a tight, readable style and illuminates a fascinating and little known aspect of the Vietnam War. This new edition would have been enhanced by the inclusion of more follow-up on the fate of the Montegnard since the mid-sixties, but that might have called for a different kind of book. Tiger Men's strengths, and limits, are in its sharp focus - the pragmatic Petersen sticks with his own story and ventures little into the realms of analysis of the wider dimensions of the war in Vietnam. -- Sandy Barron, The Nation, Bangkok, May 15 1994

Product Details

• Paperback: 246 pages
• Publisher: Orchid Press; 3rd edition edition (July 17, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9748299139
• ISBN-13: 978-9748299136
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,584,991 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Barry Petersen,Special Forces Soldier,Vietnam., October 29, 2005

By 

Stephen Gandy (Sydney Australia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Tiger Men (Asian Portraits) (Paperback)

Barry Petersen is one of the most fascinating people that I have ever met.My Dad (an ex-soldier) and I drank a lot of beer and heard a lot of stories from Baz,as he was our neighbour.All of them check out,in fact Baz was quite modest about his experiences.
In the official history of Australian Special Forces in Vietnam,Barry is the only person with a chapter to himself.Special Forces soldiers that I have met testify to his skill,bravery and compassion for his private Montagnard army.
This is a riveting account of a little-known part of the Vietnam conflict from a tough,intelligent likeable writer and a brave and modest soldier.
Thoroughly recommended to anyone with an interest in the war and the Vietnamese people.

5.0 out of 5 stars Review of Tiger Men, February 11, 2010

By 

John Kendra "John K." (Dumfries, VA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Tiger Men (Asian Portraits) (Paperback)

I found this to be a very enjoyable book and informative. I was in the same area he was during the same time frame, but wasn't aware of his operations. Good information about the early years in Viet-Nam with the Rhade Montagnards.

5.0 out of 5 stars Hard to find info on early FULRO days, September 23, 2009

By 

S. M Darragh "lirelou" (Seoul, Korea) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Tiger Men (Asian Portraits) (Paperback)

Barry Petersen gives his account of our early efforts in Vietnam, when the U.S. was transitioning from village defense to border surveillance. His unique bottom up viewpoint highlights the often ignored personal nature of the war, and how the personalities of various American, Vietnamese, and Montagnard leaders effected the war effort in the Highlands. His Truong Son Commando Force decided to call its base 'Dam San', after the hero in a Rhade epic saga. Strangely enough, in 1961 the French Army disbanded an Airborne Commando (#35) in Algeria composed mostly of Rhade and Jarai, with exactly that name. One wonders if any Montagnard veterans of Algeria ended up in Petersen's force. Both shared the same insignia, but snarling tiger heads are common Asian symbols. Petersen's account of the early days of 'the United Front for the Struggle of Oppressed Races" (FULRO) are the most comprehensive I've seen in a single source. For those who loved the 'Yards' and were interested in FULRO, "Tiger Men" is a must read. Likewise, anyone who has traveled through Ban Me Thuot recently will find in Tiger Men a description of a town and way of life that has disappeared. The quiet, shaded former Rhade tribal capital is now a bustling city of 316,000 conquerors, capital to the Vietnamese coffee industry, the second largest in the world.