Written in an almost stream-of-consciousness style, this is the account of a correspondent who accompanied US soldiers and Marines in Vietnam for about a year in the late 1960s. I’ve now read this one twice, both times as part of my graduate studies: it was on my U.S. history reading list, and it was assigned as a book my students had to write about when I was a T.A. I don’t mention that to lend any weight to this terse review, but I only mention that because it’s not a book I would otherwise have picked up.

DISPATCHES does not provide a strictly chronological narrative account; it is also a collection of anecdotes, some much longer than others, and an exact sequencing of the events of 1967-68 is not the goal here. Some of these bits and pieces have made their way into the films APOCALYPSE NOW AND FULL METAL JACKET, as Herr had a role in developing both those screenplays. Herr seems to be attempting to capture and transmit a sense of what it was like to be a young soldier in Vietnam, both in the absurdities of daily military life in a combat zone and in the horrors of combat. I think he succeeds. Did everything that Herr write about in DISPATCHES actually happen exactly as he describes them here? No, certainly not. But that’s not really Herr’s point, I think. In that way, I think Herr and Tim O’Brien (in THE THINGS THEY CARRIED) are doing something similar. Some readers of DISPATCHES have been put-off by Herr’s rampant drug use throughout his time in Vietnam. I don’t know anything about drugs, to be honest, but while they surely altered his perceptions, I don’t think it ruins the narrative or invalidates what Herr is trying to accomplish.

I would have liked to see Herr attempt to analyze the conflict a bit more than he explicitly does. While the reader is certainly left with a series of impressions of Herr’s views on the war’s goals, its execution, the effectiveness of “technowar,” the experiences of common soldiers, etc., he makes no effort to synthesize his findings or rigorously analyze anything he sees. If there is a serious deficiency in the book, I’d say it is Herr’s inability or unwillingness to interact with officers and senior military planners in a meaningful way. While some of this was the result of the officers’ attempts to stymie his efforts and feed him mere propaganda, it is still painful -- in terms of missed opportunities -- to hear Herr say that he essentially had no questions to ask General Westmoreland when he interviewed him. I suppose that makes a statement of its own, but it seems regrettable nevertheless.

It’s a well-written book that entertains and keeps the reader’s mind occupied once it gets going and the reader gets past Herr’s tendency to narrate in a quasi-stream-of-consciousness mode. I enjoyed the book more the second time I read it, I must admit. If you’re simply looking for a taste of what combat in Vietnam was like, I would suggest Philip Caputo’s A RUMOR OF WAR, as it has a more straight-forward narrative style, and Caputo was an actual combatant rather than a correspondent getting some of his material second-hand.

Review copyright 2009 J. Andrew Byers ( )

Chaotic, fierce and devastating reports from the Vietnam war. Herr writes like a dream writing about an endless nightmare. ( )

Great on the ground reporting, good for info on leadup to Tet and the US military mindset at the time. See also Siege in the Clouds (re Khe Sanh). ( )

Hands down the best book on Vietnam I've ever read. The descrptions of different aspects of Vietnam are breath-taking, particularly the battle of Khe Sanh. This book is in league with and perhaps a bit better than Rumor of War and Things they Carried. ( )

I consider this to be the best personal narrative written about the Vietnam War. ( )