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Howard R. Simpson

Tiger in the Barbed Wire: An American in Vietnam, 1952-1991

by Howard R. Simpson (Author)

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This is a fast-paced, colorful memoir by one of the few Americans to live in Vietnam during both the French & American wars. In the 1950s, Foreign Service officer Howard Simpson patrolled with French paratroopers, reported on Hanoi s fall to the Vietminh, & was nearly machine-gunned in street fighting. In the 1960s, at a time when coups were the order of the day, he was a press advisor to Prime Minister Nguyen Khanh. When he returned to Vietnam recently to observe the shooting of a movie about Dien Bien Phu, he interviewed the legendary Vo Nguyen Giap, the architect of the North s victory. Lively . . . entertaining.

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Product details

Hardcover: 243 pages
Publisher: Brassey's Books (February 1, 1998)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0788151487
ISBN-13: 978-0788151484
Package Dimensions: 10.1 x 7 x 1.1 inches
Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
Average Customer Review: 6 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #14,903,042 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #762649 in Biographies

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Riley Edwards

America's Failed Analysis

February 9, 2015

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

I bought the book as a follow up to Simpson's excellent work "Dien Bien Phu"--"Tiger in the Barbed Wire" continued the story of the French in Vietnam as the French retreated from the country and the Americans took over the war, not to colonize Vietnam, but to stop Communism--the time period is 1954-1964--the author does a great job of relating the infighting between the power groups in Saigon that prohibited the South Vietnamese from ever coming together as a single power source to oppose the Communists--a superb work of history and storytelling--

I am now a Howard Simpson fan--I have ordered his book "Bush Hat, Black Tie" that details his entire life of adventure in the diplomatic corps--

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Motown

Tales of an Old S.E.A. hand

September 13, 2013

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

An autobiography of Howard Simpson, a U.S. information officer in Asia (including Vietnam) from his time spent in French Indochina through the American War and beyond. Simpson offers excellent insights. I bought this as a companion to Simpson's Battle of Dien Bien Phu: The Battle America Forgot. He offers tales of adventure in addition to keen "behind-the-scenes" insights into American policy in Southeast Asia.

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Amazon Customer

Four Stars

June 27, 2016

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

Someone should have written this before we put half a million men in Viet Nam

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Kevin M Quigg

USIA and the French and Diem period in Vietnam.

February 6, 2006

Format: Hardcover

Simpson was a USIA officer in Vietman during the fifties and sixties. In this excellent personal observation of what he saw during this time period, Simpson details the drift toward U.S. intervention. He also details the defeat of the French and their replacement by the Americans. This is good history, as well as a good personal story of U.S. involvement.

The author does a good job of showing the antagonism between the French and the Americans. The French was losing their empire, but still wanted the have its sphere of influence. America was the rising power. Its seems the French were jeleous of American power, and did all in their power to thwart it.

Also interesting is the infighting between the anti-Communist Vietnamese. There were so many different groups fighting for a share in the power that they forgot their main enemy, the Viet Minh (or Viet Cong). Simpson details this infighting in the stories of the coups. They destroyed the unity of the anti-Communist groups.

This is a nice little history of American involvement prior to the Marines landing in 1965. This book shows the drift to U.S. involvement in a war they probably couldn't have won. A nice read.

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James Lallande

I thought this was a great book on the inside story of the French and ...

January 22, 2016

Format: Hardcover

I thought this was a great book on the inside story of the French and US tragedy in Vietnam. I was fortunate to have been in Saigon in 1966 to 1970 while in the US Air Force. The book is a great read and brings back vivid memories of the turbulent times, landscape, smells, and culture of Vietnam and its people. The author gives an unbiased non political or military view on what really happen there. Being a veteran I support our troops 100%, but it's too bad we as a nation have not learned from Vietnam. We are mired in a conflict in the middle east which in the end will make no difference when we finally leave as was the case in far east.

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David S. Rupp

A unique and compelling perspective on Vietnam

November 14, 1999

Format: Paperback

In reading "Tiger in the Barbed Wire", I re-discovered Howard Simpson, having read an obscure mystery of his ("Junior Year Abroad") quite a few years ago. Believe me, the two books have nothing in common. Howard Simpson has discovered that he has more than one story to tell about his own life, no need to resort to fiction. How many Americans can claim to have served their country in Vietnam for so long, from pre-Dien Bien Phu to our own involvement much later? The late Lou Conein comes to mind but he did not leave a written legacy, nor was he likely to. Simpson not only worte about Dien Bien Phu but he was there, getting out while it was still possible to escape the trap being laid by the Viet Minh. Simpson draws word pictures of what it was like to be in Hanoi before the Geneva accords, when the French thought they still ruled the roost; he draws marvelous descriptions of what it was like to live in Saigon in those days when the French still clung to visions of their empire, looking down at the newly arriving Americans as interlopers. And finally, how that all changed, so dramatically, after DBP. This is a book to be savored by any former American officials in Vietnam. Simpson talks of familiar places that changed dramatically, of French conniving that was usually not in our best interest, of ever changing Vietnamese officials who usually did not understand official US policy, or worse, of ever changing US officials who rarely understood the Vietnamese or what was going on in Vietnam. But it is really Simpson's unique perspective on the French and their involvement that make this such a fascinating read for me. Howard Simpson's book has a spot in my library right along with History" but, truth be told, Simpson's was the most compelling, perhaps because I felt that I could identify with it personally. I look forward to reading his latest memoir, "Black Tie and Bush Hat". For me, Simpson's memoirs are more compelling than his mysteries - but this comes from an old francophile who has spent many years in France, including Marseilles and Paris, as well as Saigon. In short, all of Simpson's well tread venues. When he writes of the Corsican mafia and some favorite watering holes in Saigon, a smug smile comes to my face.

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