Incident at Muc Wa: A Novel of War in Southeast Asia (Paperback)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A fine novel. Recommended." -- Library Journal, March 15, 1967

"His hero is a likeable and dogged young man who believes that anything worth doing is worth doing well [and] a grim illustration of the consequences." -- New Statesman (Britain), February 17, 1968

"Sad, bawdy, and compelling." -- Detroit Free Press, June 11, 1967

"The corporal's involvement has built-in hazards, which Mr. Ford develops in a series of deftly stated ironies." -- New York Times Book Review, June 4, 1967

"The greatest work to date on the Vietnam involvement" -- Cincinnati Enquirer

Product Description

This is the story that inspired the acclaimed Burt Lancaster movie, Go Tell the Spartans. It's 1964—early days in South Vietnam—and the U.S. Army Raiders garrison a town that the French abandoned ten years before. "Sad, bawdy, and compelling," wrote the Detroit Free Press—and prophetic, too, of how the larger war would end.

"The greatest work to date on the Vietnam involvement"—Cincinnati Enquirer

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Product Details

• Paperback: 231 pages
• Publisher: Backinprint.Com (May 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0595089275
• ISBN-13: 978-0595089277
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.3 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #189,236 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Bittersweet; Prophetic, August 5, 2002

By	Michael Tozer (Bloomingdale, IL United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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Daniel Ford's novel served as the basis for the excellent Vietnam war film, "Go Tell the Spartans". The movie was generally faithful to the novel, with just a bit of Hollywood added. The story follows draftee Stephen Courcey through special forces training and finally into the jungle of the Central Highlands of the Republic of South Vietnam. There, the experience of his military advisory team seems to be an allegory to the American involvement in Vietnam. One of the characters, a number crunching junior officer, allows that it will take 50,000 American combat deaths to "stabilize" the situation in Southeast Asia. This statement in this work of fiction written in 1967 is pretty amazing when you consider that the final American death count in Vietnam was 58,000 and change.

The novel moves quickly and flows nicely. The characters are strong. You find yourself somehow inside Corporal Courcey's head and laughing at Captain Olivetti's obsession with his CIB, his combat infantry badge. The role of Major Barker in the book is much less central than it is in the movie. But then, Burt Lancaster played the ... out of Major Barker in the film, so they may have made certain adjustments for the star.

There is a sadness and fatalism about the book that may bother some. However, the topic is not exactly uplifting. On the whole, a worthwhile and enjoyable read.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How the Vietnam war began, November 16, 2000

By	Karly Granholm (Chicago) - See all my reviews

This is a classic, a story written by a journeyman reporter who was in Vietnam before the war escalated out of control. The story is a metaphor for the conflict: a handful of Americans and a platoon of Vietnamese mercenaries are told to garrison a "town" called Muc Wa. There is no town--just the remains of some French emplacements and a graveyard. (The graveyard becomes a major theme in Go Tell the Spartans, the Burt Lancaster movie made from Ford's novel.) They set up a garrison, the Viet Cong attack, the garrison is reinforced, and onward and upward in a spiral of violence that ends only when the Americans are ordered to "exfiltrate." For a novel that was published in 1967, that was a darned good prophecy. Read it, and wonder how the United States was so pigheaded as to believe it could ever win a war being fought on those terms.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The story behind the best Vietnam movie!, July 30, 2000

By A Customer

If you know the Vietnam movies, you're familiar with the Burt Lancaster classic "Go Tell the Spartans". Well, here's the story it was based on.

It's 1964 and a team of U.S. Army "Raiders" (Special Forces) and local mercenaries are sent to put the old French garrison at Muc Wa back in business. Sergeant Ski falls in love with a refugee girl, and Corporal Courcey falls in love with the town he helps build. Not a good idea. The Viet Cong put the screws to Muc Wa and the Americans are ordered to "exfiltrate". Sounds like a metaphor for the Vietnam war, doesn't it? Sure, except that it was written and published years before the U.S. got out of Vietnam.

Dan Ford was a reporter in the Nam, writing for "The Nation" magazine. I like his stuff--it's masculine, gritty and funny. Check this one out. Then if you haven't already, rent or buy "Spartans" and see what Jonathan Goldsmith and Craig Wasson do with the roles, not to mention "Butterfly" and Burt Lancaster as the major from headquarters. -- Paddy O