David Donovan

David Donovan had a privileged position in the Vietnam War. A lieutenant fresh out of training, he was assigned as a military adviser deep in the Mekong Delta, a backwater without roads, electricity, even soap. With just 4 other Americans and two platoons of haphazardly equipped local militia, Donovan didn't have much, but he was the Co Van, the senior American in the district, and for better or worse a Warrior King. He could call down fire from the sky, dole out miraculous American show more medicine, order people imprisoned or killed with a word. Donovan admits that at times he may have gone slightly mad, but some sort of fundamental decency kept him on track in his year-long tour. He couldn't win the war, but he held his sector together.

The anecdotes make this book, ranging from tense ambushes and slogging patrols to the indignities of being at the end of the American supply system and learning to make do with grilled rat and rice dipping nuoc mam. Three incidents in particular speak out: trying to maintain conservative Vietnamese sexual mores and American military standards with young ladies literally throwing themselves at the team (Donovan claims he respectfully declined), a local Catholic priest who hated Americans and plotted against them to the extent that Donovan strongly considered having the Phoenix Program assassinate the man (and declined because he didn't want to kill a man of the cloth, no matter how annoying), and when 'loose-cannon' Captain Jackson fired his M16 to intimidate some prisoners and wound up causing a fire in the base that set off 400 rounds of mortar ammunition and leveled everything (which would be hilarious, except that 4 people died). show less

Donovan served in the Mekong Delta as a military advisor to village chiefs and local militia. Lack of money and basic services for the Vietnamese people frustrated him. He had little in the way of medical supplies with which to help injured villagers. While his team became close to the people and were often sought out to solve the villagers problems, the people with the resources, the South Vietnam Government and the US Government would not supply the items necessary to ensure success by show more American soldiers like Donovan.

He and his fellow men always treated the Vietnamese militia as fellow soldiers and the civilians with respect. As he mentions in the last chapter where he recounts his visit to the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, he never refereed to the Vietnamese as "Slant Eyes" because they were fellow humans that he was there to help.

I have read many books about the war but this was one of the few that described fighting from boats and the first describing fighting in the Mekong Delta. Very readable. show less

A good book worth reading. A different view of the murder committed by we Americans in Vietnam - this soldier was left in the middle of the jungle with five other Americans to assist the local militia against the VC - his position being that the VC was, in fact, a terrorist organization which preyed upon the Catholics and Buddhists of the South, and he was there to help - no doubt he was -he and his compatriots were good and brave men (young boys, actually) - but the bigger point is that show more none of it was our damn business in the first place - and the US Government was not there to help the peasants of Vietnam - it was there to make money for the industrial complex - Westmoreland, Johnson, McNamara, Kissinger were war criminals who should have been Nuremberg/ed - incredible - the author is in combat - people are dead all around him and - suddenly - he is put on a helicopter - flown directly to Saigon - is soon placed on an airplane - and hours later is in San Francisco airport - no coming down from combat mode - no word of caution about being back in the world - just get thee out of here - everything about the Vietnam War was bad, except for the courage and commitment to duty of our young men, - if you don't believe me about the cost - the families of 58,220 guys may want to speak with you. show less

5766. Once a Warrior King Memoirs of an Officer in Vietnam, by David Donovan (read 28 Nov 2021) I have read more than 30 books concerning the Vietnam war, though I was too old for it and my kids, thank God, were too young to be in it. This book, published in 1986, is by a man who was an Army second lieutenant and served as the officer in a five man team assigned to live and work in villages in a province in the Mekong delta. He was there for almost a year and utterly believed in the work he show more was doing, which was often dangerous. He worked with the villagers and there was mutual respect Often the book is tensely interesting but there are aspects of the story he tells which I can understand he does not feel proud of, though on balance his work was admirable. The closing chapters of the book, when he tells of the effect of the time on him subsequently, is poignant and well-written. show less