Customer Reviews

Vietnam Voices: Perspectives on the War Years, 1941-1982

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I bought this when it first came out, but continue to use it as a reference book. What is most irritating is that this book is out of print, while the cheap knock-offs keep rolling!!

Pratt has compiled a cross section of everything, from literature to music to poetry, to help explain the Vietnam War from start to finish. As the subtitle explains, this is from 1941-1982, so you get the French view as well as American, North and South Vietnamese mixed in. If you look on page 187 you will also even see a Swedish poem by Goran Sonnevi based on what he saw on television! This is why I say this should have been 10 volumes. And, like, why is poet Bruce Weigl missing?

What is interesting is how Pratt also chose to compile this volume. By that, I mean that authors writing in 1979 on what they saw in 1965 are interspersed with what was reported that year. His Prologue is 1941-May 1955, with an Epilogue for 1975-1982. Each "Act" starts with a page of GI graffiti, such as "As I slide down the banister of life I'll always remember Veitnam as a splinter in my ass." Believe me, I saw this and much better by 1971. Sometimes, you just had to be there to understand the humor and what it was all about.

What is also important is that Pratt also included the casualties for each year. Curious about how my year stacked up with the current situation in Iraq, I noticed we had about 156,000 troops in Vietnam in Vietnam which suffered 1,381 killed and 8,936 wounded. Seems to be getting close by that calculation. I also liked the inclusion of the Christmas song at the end of the 1971 section. We actually sang that in Christmas 1971. The refrain "Take your Merry Christmas cheer and shove it up your ass" got louder each time. We supplied the free fireworks for that and New Year's. Sure beats waving sparklers.

Like I say, my only complaint is that this was never seen as the definitive compilation for Vietnam. What I would like to see would be a much more ambitious project along these same lines.