Customer Reviews

Vietnam Snapshots: Stories of a Conflict

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Thanks, Craig, for your short vignettes. But, the short ones were too short (left wanting more), and the long ones were too short (left me wanting more)!!!

another Dr. Etchison...

James Etchison, Ph.D.

Comments sent by readers to author: 1. What I found truly spectacular was that he was able to present many different situations and emotions of the war in a way that the reader could find interesting. 2. Dr. Etchison's book opened my eyes to the Vietnam War. The stunningly truthful stories brought me to tears. 3. I think the writer did a good job writing from both the American and Vietnamese perspective. I think all high schools should be required to read the book. I'm certainly glad I did. 4. The book gives the reader a clear idea of what the war was really like, and succeeds in arousing a good deal of sympathy.

Years later, the Viet controversy, its questions and few ethical answers are still remaining. Etchison's snapshots are as large as life and gripping. He spares you the travel details, the minutia of a lot of writing. The author gets right to it with his composite of happenings. Take them, one by one, and then, see the overall message of these events of the American intervention in Vietnam. Lessons? Maybe, but you are certain to find a better understanding of really tough circumstances for thousands on both sides of this moral vs. immoral conflict.

Mr. Etchinson's direct and powerful approach to a war that still lives with us in the new Millennium is packed full of vivid memories and images that affect the reader as if he/she had been actually there and had remembered these "snapshots" as if the reader had dreamt them. His verse is solid and concise and evokes shades of Hemingway. Each story acts as a capsule of truth and hits upon our darkest emotions. Not since the movie "The Deer Hunter" have I been moved so much. I commend Mr. Ecthinson for his labor on a subject matter that needs revisiting when other countries are experiencing war times in this day and age. Excellent performance.