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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Vietnam Story-a little fiction, a lot of facts!, January 30, 2009
Want to learn alot of the small nuances of the Vietnam War that will never make the history books? Do yourself a favor and pick up Dennis Mansker's "Bad Attitude". This is a 621 page "story" that was so lucidly written in such concise language that it took me less than 6 consecutive hours to read from start to finish. Being a historian of the Vietnam War, I know when a historical novel bends the truth to make the book more interesting. Along with another book written by ex-Vietnam Vet Lennox Cramer (see my review on "Slow Dance on The Killing Ground")"Bad Attitude" has so many facts surrounding the truth that no history book will ever dare print. In many ways if you really want to learn the "nitty gritty" of that dirty war in S.E. Asia, do yourself a favor and order "Bad Attitude".Slow Dance on the Killing Ground I do not like to write a review where I spoil the plot and leave nothing else to read. You can read the other reviews for that. I will touch on subjects that Mansker sounds out that are unique. There is an expression Mansker claimed all G.I.'s used when talked to condescendingly by a superior officer. When ordered to burn feces as punishment, Mansker writes the famous retort: "You think I give a rat's ass? What are you going to do, draft me and send me to Vietnam" Another symbol, unique to the Vietnam War, that Mansker mentions was the peace sign. Similarly to W.W. II where the "Kilroy sign" made it everywhere you looked, there were peace signs that graced helmets and walls everywhere you looked. Another issue Mansker brings up is the subject of "fraqging". This occurs to a character named "Sgt. Bragg" in "Bad Attitudes", and the book details exactly why this happens. Although "fragging" was more commonly used as a term to define friendly fire in vietnam, in this case it's meaning was to assasinate an unpopular officer of one's own fighting unit (often by means of a fragmentation grenade, hence the term). A hand grenade was most often used because it would not leave any fingerprints, and because a ballistics test could not be done to match a bullet with a firearm. Usually, the grenade would be thrown into the officer's tent while he slept. A fragging victim could also be killed by intentionally friendly fire during combat. In "Bad Attitude's" case, Sgt. Bragg's death would be blamed on the enemy, and due to the dead man's unpopularity, the killer would assume that no one would contradict the story. Very few history books like to tarnish America's view of our troops, especially when it comes to killing our own men. However, there were reasons for fragging in Vietnam. It most often involved the murder of a commanding officer, or a senior N.C.O. who was viewed as unpopular, harsh, incompetent or overzealous, especially in a war that was already lost. Many soldiers were not overly keen to go into harm's way, and preferred leaders with a similar sense of self-preservation. "Bad Attitude's" story took place after the "Tet Offensive" of 1968, where a scale-down of troops as well as the U.S. turning the brunt of the war over to the South Vietnamese (called "Vietnamization") was the direction the U.S. war effort had taken. If a C.O. was incompetent (Sgt. Braqgg's character embodies this!) fragging the officer was considered a means to the end of self preservation for the men serving under him. How We Lost the Vietnam War Fragging might also occur if a commander freely took on dangerous or suicidal missions, especially if he was seeking glory for himself. Ripcord: Screaming Eagles Under Siege, Vietnam 1970 The whole concept of fragging served to warn junior officers to avoid the ire of their enlisted men through recklessness, cowardice, or lack of leadership. Junior officers could in turn arrange the murder of senior officers when finding them incompetent, or wasting their lives needlessly. As in the attack on "Hamburger Hill" and "Operation Ripcord", underground G.I. newspapers sometimes listed bounties offered by units for the fragging of unpopular commanding officers. After the My Lai Massacre, soldiers serving under Lt. William J. Calley Jr. disliked him so much that they considered fragging him. From 1965 to 1973, there were documented cases of at least 230 U.S. officers killed by their own troops, and over 1,400 other officer's deaths could not be explained. Another subject Mansker covers, which cannot be done now with the current situation in the war with Iraq, is that during the Vietnam war, if a youth fell into legal trouble, a judge would offer the offender as a diversion the choice to go to Vietnam or jail. This happens to Mansker's protagonist, Farnsworth Smith. Mansker's story is so realistic when describing the sights and sounds of Vietnam, anyone that was there will pick up on it immediately. Mansker describes Smith's arrival in Vietnam on a commercial airplane as follows: "We drop too quickly from a safe, high altitude. The plane glides over little villages scattered among neatly patterned rice paddies. we're close enough to see people in fields wearing black pajamas and straw cones for hats. They look like Viet Cong you see on television, and I wonder why they just don't blast us out of the sky. Then we're down with a quick thump on the concrete runway of Bien Hoa air base. It's the middle of the morning in Vietnam and I'm completely disorientated. I'm still on West Coast time and tired from not sleeping. Somewhere we've lost a whole day because of the so-called International Date Line. As soon as the plane stops, a couple of ground crew flyboys push a rolling ramp up to the door and I'm the first one off. I stop short when I run up against a wall of heat, humidity, and a lush rotten jungle smell, mixed with a nasty combination of urine and burning garbage, all topped off with the slight bouquet of disinfectant. The guy behind me gasps, gurgles "airborne" and prods me in the back. A dark line of blue busses waits for us at the edge of the runway and we are hurried onto them. There's no glass in the windows, but they are all covered with a thick mesh of heavy wire, like a miniture cyclone fence. "What's this" a guy behind me asks. "This looks like a prison bus." "It's not to keep us in." somebody else says. "It's to keep them out." "Huh?" "You know, grenades, satchel charges, stuff like that." Welcome to Vietnam. I have read a multitude of stories by other vets, all virtually identical to this book's story of a G.I's first impression of South Vietnam.A Life in a Year: The American Infantryman in Vietnam Other taboo historical subjects Mansker writes about are the venereal disease problem in Vietnam. Mansker writes that new GI.s' are warned as such: "We are given a welcome briefing by a bored captain. He drones about duty, honor, country, and tells us not to have sex with any Vietnamese women while we're here. He say's they've all got a strain of clap that's incurable. If you get it, you have to go live on an island in the South China Sea and no one will hear from you again." The Saigon Zoo: Vietnam's Other War: Sex, Drugs, Rock 'n Roll On the insect problem of Vietnam, Mansker asserts: "Bugs are fluttering around the three naked light bulbs. About a million bugs. White casually picks up an olive drab aerosol can and blasts the center of the cloud of bugs circling the closet light. As far as I can tell it has no effect. The bugs seem to like it." On the sounds of Vietnam: "I edge my way out of the hootch and make a short tour of the company area. Then I sit on a sandbagged wall and smoke cigarettes until chow call. The rest of the day is quiet. Except for the constant clatter of helicopters overhead, jets landing and taking off at the air base which seems like it's ten feet away, the muffled blast of distant artillery, and the complaint-filled jabbering of a little monkey on a chain that one of the company cooks has staked out next to our hootch." Mansker's description of the indigineous Vietnamese that work on the base is classic. He writes: "Groups of Vietnamese men and women gather there, stand around and jabber, and then climb onto the ancient smoky busses or the scooter-taxi's and leave, off to their jobs, I guess. It strikes me as odd that these people can go about their regular lives in the midst of the war. At night, probably half of these people are the war." Down South: One Tour in Vietnam Another subject Mansker hits on is the military industrial complex and how the Vietnam War was an economic exploitation for some companies. Mansker writes: "What do you know about Brown and Root?" "They're Everywhere. Their insidious goal is to eventually build up and pave over all of Vietnam. They're the ones who are really in charge of the war. The only reason we're here is to keep the Vietnamese off guard while they go about their nefarious schemes and suck money out of Uncle Sugar." "Brown and Root" is really an American engneering and construction company, a private military contractor and a subsidary of Haliburton. Servants of War: Private Military Corporations and the Profit of Conflict This company has had many contracts from the U.S. military during the Vietnam War, as well as today involving Iraq. It also built 85% of the infrastructure needed by the Army during 1965-1973. During the height of the war resistance movement of the 1960's, Brown and Root was derisively known as "Burn and Loot" by protestors and soldiers. Another rare fact Manksker wrote...
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Catch 22, March 25, 2003
"A bad Attitude" is a real page-turner. If this book gets any kind of publicity at all, and is read by a few influential reviewers, it has the possibility of being listed in the top twenty books about the Vietnam War. "A Bad Attitude" is a work of fiction. Or is it? I guess the hallmark of really good fiction is when the reader finishes the work and isn't really sure if what he has just read is fiction, a true story or somewhere in between. Dennis Mansker is the real thing. He served as a company clerk with two truck companies from the 48th Group during 68/69 and is a member of the Army Transportation Assn. Vietnam. The main character in the book is Spec. 4 Farnsworth. Farnsworth is the new company clerk of the 345th Trans, 6th Battalion, 48th Group. The 345th is truck company. Don't expect a lot of convoy action in this book. Farnsworth only makes a few convoys as a shotgun and then only as punishment by the evil First Sgt. Bragg. However, the language and dialog is authentic and if you are a Vietnam vet, it will take you back to Vietnam. You will need to dust off your old pigeon Vietnamese/English/G.I.language skills to follow the
conversations. You bic G.I. Dennis makes no attempt to explain the gag lines to the uninitiated reader. This is a book for Vietnam vets by a Vietnam vet and if you didn't serve; your not going to understand all the "short" jokes and Dennis isn't going to explain them to you. You just had to be there. From my perspective, that's good news. "A Bad Attitude" is not watered down by pages of explanations to non-vets, which hamper many Vietnam books. "A Bad Attitude" has many of the same elements as Catch 22. This is a serious book at 635 pages.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Been there, done that, March 12, 2003
Mr.Mansker has provided the reading world with a fine murder mystery based on a familiar problem of the era. ...I could all but smell the dust during his descriptive and accurate tales that he provides. Brovo Dennis, and thanks for writing our story.
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