Tiger in the Barbed Wire: An American in Vietnam 1952-1991 (Kodansha Globe) [Paperback]

Howard R. Simpson (Author)

Book Description

Series: Kodansha Globe | Publication Date: April 1994

Tiger in the Barbed Wire is a fast-paced, colorful memoir by one of the few Americans to live in Vietnam during both the French and American wars. In the 1950s, Foreign Service officer Howard R. Simpson patrolled with French paratroopers at Dien Bien Phu, reported on Hanoi's fall to the Vietminh, was a press advisor to ill-fated Premier Ngo Dinh Diem, and was nearly machine-gunned in street fighting during the bloody Revolt of the Sects. In the 1960s, at a time when coups were the order of the day, he was a press advisor to Prime Minister Nguyen Khanh. When he returned to Vietnam recently to observe the shooting of a movie about Dien Bien Phu--a film that will include some of his own experiences--he interviewed the legendary Vo Nguyen Giap, the architect of the North's victory. Over the years, the author came to know many of the French, Vietnamese, and Americans who shaped Vietnam's tragic destiny. This extraordinary life is described in vivid, powerful imagery by a writer whose skills have been honed during a successful second career as a novelist. As Simpson progresses from neophyte to "old Indochina hand, " the reader learns what Vietnam was like during two explosive decades--and what it is like today.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Former foreign service officer Simpson's memoir of his life in Vietnam from 1952 to 1991.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

Memoir of Vietnam by the author of A Very Large Consulate (1988) and other novels, including one about the French war against the Vietnamese (To a Silent Valley, 1961). Well over half of Simpson's book concerns his tenure as press officer for the US Foreign Service in Saigon, 1952-55. Simpson got along well with the French, and the set-pieces here are his accounts of the battle of Dien Bien Phu and the vital engagement at Nasan that prefigured that great turning point. Particularly affecting are the desperate hopes of the French commanders and their Algerian/Moroccan/Legionnaire troops as the battle goes badly and they beg, in vain, for American air support. There are shades of Graham Greene's The Quiet American in Simpson's depictions of the dying French empire and the brash but naive American opportunism; and the portraits of the eternally patient General Giap and of the corrupt Diem regime are painstakingly informed, not only from Simpson's personal observations but also from declassified accounts. The chronicle ends with Simpson's 1991 return, as a correspondent, to Hanoi and Saigon, where he visits the set of the French-made film Dien Bien Phu, in which he is a character. He meets with General Giap, who muses on the inevitability of his peasant army's victory. But mostly what Giap and others want, Simpson explains, is for the American trade embargo to be lifted and for Vietnam's economy to achieve its considerable potential. The embargo, says Simpson, has lost every rationale and is now simply ``vindictive.'' Particularly engaging as a chronicle of French defeat and, despite all best advice, the taking up of the doomed struggle by the US. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Kodansha Amer Inc (April 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1568360258
• ISBN-13: 978-1568360256
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,499,826 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A unique and compelling perspective on Vietnam, November 14, 1999

By 

David S. Rupp - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tiger in the Barbed Wire: An American in Vietnam 1952-1991 (Kodansha Globe) (Paperback)

In reading "Tiger in the Barbed Wire", I re-discovered Howard Simpson, having read an obscure mystery of his ("Junior Year Abroad") quite a few years ago. Believe me, the two books have nothing in common. Howard Simpson has discovered that he has more than one story to tell about his own life, no need to resort to fiction. How many Americans can claim to have served their country in Vietnam for so long, from pre-Dien Bien Phu to our own involvement much later? The late Lou Conein comes to mind but he did not leave a written legacy, nor was he likely to. Simpson not only worte about Dien Bien Phu but he was there, getting out while it was still possible to escape the trap being laid by the Viet Minh. Simpson draws word pictures of what it was like to be in Hanoi before the Geneva accords, when the French thought they still ruled the roost; he draws marvelous descriptions of what it was like to live in Saigon in those days when the French still clung to visions of their empire, looking down at the newly arriving Americans as interlopers. And finally, how that all changed, so dramatically, after DBP. This is a book to be savored by any former American officials in Vietnam. Simpson talks of familiar places that changed dramatically, of French conniving that was usually not in our best interest, of ever changing Vietnamese officials who usually did not understand official US policy, or worse, of ever changing US officials who rarely understood the Vietnamese or what was going on in Vietnam. But it is really Simpson's unique perspective on the French and their involvement that make this such a fascinating read for me. Howard Simpson's book has a spot in my library right along with History" but, truth be told, Simpson's was the most compelling, perhaps because I felt that I could identify with it personally. I look forward to reading his latest memoir, "Black Tie and Bush Hat". For me, Simpson's memoirs are more compelling than his mysteries - but this comes from an old francophile who has spent many years in France, including Marseilles and Paris, as well as Saigon. In short, all of Simpson's well tread venues. When he writes of the Corsican mafia and some favorite watering holes in Saigon, a smug smile comes to my face.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars USIA and the French and Diem period in Vietnam., February 6, 2006

By 

Kevin M Quigg (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Tiger in the Barbed Wire: An American in Vietnam, 1952-1991 (Hardcover)

Simpson was a USIA officer in Vietman during the fifties and sixties. In this excellent personal observation of what he saw during this time period, Simpson details the drift toward U.S. intervention. He also details the defeat of the French and their replacement by the Americans. This is good history, as well as a good personal story of U.S. involvement.

The author does a good job of showing the antagonism between the French and the Americans. The French was losing their empire, but still wanted the have its sphere of influence. America was the rising power. Its seems the French were jeleous of American power, and did all in their power to thwart it.

Also interesting is the infighting between the anti-Communist Vietnamese. There were so many different groups fighting for a share in the power that they forgot their main enemy, the Viet Minh (or Viet Cong). Simpson details this infighting in the stories of the coups. They destroyed the unity of the anti-Communist groups.

This is a nice little history of American involvement prior to the Marines landing in 1965. This book shows the drift to U.S. involvement in a war they probably couldn't have won. A nice read.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Unique Perspective on Vietnam, November 24, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Tiger in the Barbed Wire: An American in Vietnam 1952-1991 (Kodansha Globe) (Paperback)

Pls check status of my review on this book