Customer Reviews

A Time of War

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While this novel is not on the level of timeless literature, it is a compelling read filled with interesting characters, a serpentine plot, and lots of sex and violence, underpinned by a sharply critical perspective on the Vietnam misadventure. As you read it, you cannot help thinking of "Iraq." Example: "This is an enemy we cannot defeat and an ally we cannot prop."
Adding to the tragic nature of this novel is the fact that its author, a Vietnam veteran, was convicted in 2003 of the murder of his wife and now serves a life sentence for the crime. A riveting documentary on the case "The Staircase" is available on dvd and is highly recommended.

If you're looking for a Vietnam War novel, but you don't want to wade in too deep, this is perfect lightweight fare. Think of it as a cross between Tom Clancy and Graham Greene (see Orrin's review of The Quiet American)--with the civil servant as superhero trying to navigate a moral cesspool. Bradley Lawrence Marshall is the blue blood, war hero, diplomat who is sent to Vietnam as the personal emissary of President Johnson, to find a way out. In country, he meets with real figures like General Westmoreland, who tries to convince him everything is copacetic. But he also meets folks like: his driver, Corporal Mead, a decent though violent American lad of ambiguous sexuality, who is sick of the war; Lacouture, a flamboyant, Guy Burgess-like, Frenchman who sells information to all sides and loves Mead; and the insidious CIA station chief, Wilson Abbot Lord, who lives to fight the Communists and, fearing that Marshall will end the war, plots to kill him. And it's all set against the backdrop of the Tet Offensive.

The whole premise, of Johnson and a bureaucrat secretly planning an exit strategy, doesn't withstand much scrutiny and the stereotypes and clichés run rampant. But taken on its own terms, as a sort of politico-military potboiler with only mild pretensions of addressing issues in any serious way, it succeeds pretty well. It's certainly a more diverting read than many of the more critically acclaimed novels of the war.

Literary life has rarely been as interesting as when an author can convince Americans that President LBJ needed to have peace in Vietnam for what he wanted to accomplish in domestic politics, but the strength of the World War Wit mentality in American forces was so strong that LBJ never had a chance to get anything he wanted for Vietnam. Part of my appreciation for baby boomers as a bunch of spoiled brats is based on my own participation in the draft, military training, Vietnam, Cambodia, Harvard Law School, the Minnesota State Bar Association, the intellectual death wish sweepstakes, becoming an involuntary unBranched Davidian, and having a first anniversary deleted expletive celebration on April 22, 1995, with an attitude to match a response linked to Richard Nixon, when he was told that Jack Ruby had shot Lee Harvey Oswald:

Two rights don't make a wrong.

I was more than ready to read the novel A Time of War (1990) by Michael Peterson. I was craving anything that could help me accept the feeling that if David Koresh were to spring up right next to me, the feds would burn this place down and kill him. LBJ thought he was holding back escalation "because I won't let Curtis LeMay pound it into a cow flop. Bomb, bomb, bomb - that's all I hear!" he shouted. (p. 2).

Undoubtably the best I have read. Although stated fiction I feel it was a lot of his personal experiences. A sad time for America, all that lived through it will always remember it. History changes as time progresses but the honor pride and men of honor that stood and fought this war can never be forgotten. They did what was expected for their country and all that stood next to them in their fearless ways. God bless them all and through novels like this we can remember them in our minds and hearts.

A powerful, moving (and fast-moving) drama of the Vietnam War with well-drawn and motivated characters,a compelling historical context, and the pace of a thriller. Much more like War & Remembrance (Wouk) or Armageddon (Uris) than like the typical Vietnam War novel. I highly recommend it.

QUICK! Somebody grab Oliver Stone!! This book is the literary equivalent to Stone's Platoon, and on many levels superior! The characters are vivid. The scenery makes you feel like you're actually there, and the situations aren't so far fetched to make you doubt their plausibility. Peterson's biggest asset is his characterization. When a character is killed, you actually feel sorry for him. When two main characters are married, you feel tears of joy running down your face. The visualness makes you feel the action is unraveling on a big screen in front of you! Mr. Stone (or anybody in Hollywood, for that matter) had better hurry. I can see the film adaptation of this book becoming just as big a blockbuster as the book was a best seller!

By far, the best Vietnam fiction I've ever read! Oliver Stone's gotta make a film based on this book