Everything We Had: An Oral History of the Vietnam War As Told by 33 American Men Who Fought It
by Al Santoli
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A collection of thirty-three tours of duty presented in chronological order from 1962 through 1975.Tags
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This collection of the memories of 33 veterans likely presents a more accurate picture of the reality of the war than any politically-oriented overview. They represent many different aspects of the engagement, from frontline foot soldier to pilots, from nurses and medics to CIA agents, from those who just wanted to find drugs and escape responsibility to those who worked from a high moral standing.
It's not easy reading. I don't even know if the editor/author had a specific point he wanted to get across. I hope that any person reading this will come away thinking that there has to be a better way to solve conflicts between nations.
Ends with a Glossary, explaining many of the slang and shorthand words used.
It's not easy reading. I don't even know if the editor/author had a specific point he wanted to get across. I hope that any person reading this will come away thinking that there has to be a better way to solve conflicts between nations.
Ends with a Glossary, explaining many of the slang and shorthand words used.
4867. Everything We Had An Oral history of the Vietnam War by Thirty-three American Soldiers Who Fought It, by Al Santoli (read 3 Oct 2011) Somewhat to my surprise, I found this compilation of oral accounts concerning the Vietnam War mostly full of good reading and sometimes of high interest. Possibly the highlight of the book was the account by Admiral William Lawrence of his time as a prisoner of war. What he managed to do in the six years he was a prisoner seems unbelievable. Most of the other accounts also were of much interest, though some of the unsanitized language reproduced could well have been edited out. There is not a "you know" in the book so all such were edited out and some of the other language would have been show more appropriately left out as well. But the book is filled with good accounts of some fearful things. show less
Published a little over half a decade after the war ended, these are the personal accounts of 33 servicemen who fought in Vietnam. They are honest and do not show a belief in what the US was doing. One of the more shocking phrases by a Navy seal ..using a word so common today.. Page 219 "It was a business and the business was terrorism".
Personal account of the Vietnam war by the men that fought it. Author was first a combatant then later he collected sories from other veterans in an oftentimes emotional recounting of the nightmare that was Vietnam.
#542 in our old book database. Not rated.
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6 Works 532 Members
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Common Knowledge
- Original publication date
- 1981
- Important places
- Vietnam
- Important events
- Vietnam War, 1961-1975
- Epigraph
- At the beginning of an undertaking the enthusiasm is always greatest.
And at that time both in the Peloponnesus and in Athens there were great numbers of young men who had never been in a war and were consequently far from... (show all) unwilling to join in this one.
--Thucydides, "The Peloponnesian War"
I have asked Commanding General William Westoreland what more he needs to meet this mounting aggression and he has told me. And we will meet his needs...We do not want an expanding struggle with consequences that no one can ... (show all)foresee, nor will we bluster or bully or flaunt our power. But we will not surrender and we will not retreat.
--President Lyndon B. Johnson, July 28, 1965
Though it be broken--
Broken again--still it's there,
The moon on the water.
--Chosu - Dedication
- For the families of the men and women who served in Vietnam.
- First words
- A couple of us were just kind of hanging loose out in front of the main hospital building,w hich was a big corrugated-tin prefab.
Preface: This is a book by thirty-three veterans of the Vietnam War. We have tried to put into honest words the raw experience of what happened to us. - Quotations
- It was a business, and the business was terrorism. (p.219)
...I was an American, I was party to all this, I was responsible for it. You can't say I'm just a cog in a machine. If I wasn't responsible, who the hell was? (p.53)
I thought I had to experience things to understand...But you don't have to experience things. You can read a book and...you can learn from that. You don't have to experience war. (p.160-1)
If we can't get together with the world, if we can't be compatible, obviously we're not going to be dominant very much longer. (p.161)
There's nothing worse than a little guy with a big ego that can't be satisfied...He was out trying to win an Air Medal, overcompensating...we couldn't run the air strikes or anything else like that to help the Vietnamese beca... (show all)use this yo-yo had been out screwing around and got himself shot down and captured. (p.225)
the outset of the war, the Green Berets were a symbol of counterinsurgency and they were excellent. What happened was that they got all kinds of cowboys in there, and the cowboys wanted to go out and shoot and kick down doors... (show all) and beat up people. That's not the way to run a counter-guerrilla outfit. You don't win any friends by going into a village and ripping the place to shreds. (p.201)
I have to conclude that all of that in Vietnam was an advanced boot camp to train operatives for other kinds of terrorist activities that the United States runs all over the world.(p.213)
The Viet Cong was somebody that I avoided as much as possible, and the officers were somebody that I really kept my eye on because I was certain that they were going to get us killed. It's like being between two hammers that... (show all) are pounding on one another and you're just there in the middle for no reason. (p.218)
Toward the end of my tour, when I started knowing what I was doing in the jungle and started knowing what to do under fire, it was just about time to go home. If that happened to me...what good is it? I'm going to be replace... (show all)d by a guy who is as green as I was when I got here, and by the time he gets good at it he's going to be replaced by a guy who is green. It's no wonder we never got a foothold in the place. (p.43)
Vietnam was the first place I delivered a baby...It was creation of life in the midst of all that destruction. And creation of life restored your sanity. (p.162)
There were a lot of guys AWOL in Saigon then, 3000 in 1969 that the military knew about And I've really wondered what's happened to them since the troops pulled out...the military doesn't want to admit how many guys were gon... (show all)e over the hill. (p.248)
There is no understanding. My mind isn't mature enough. It wasn't then and it isn't now and it's never going to be able to understand murder. (p.255) - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)To really try to help people to work through the problems of their own.
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Preface: I was that veteran, and we present our story. - Original language
- English
Classifications
- Genres
- History, Nonfiction, General Nonfiction, Biography & Memoir
- DDC/MDS
- 959.704 — History & geography History of Asia Southeast Asia: Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam Vietnam 1949-
- LCC
- DS559.5 .E88 — History of Europe, Asia, Africa and Oceania Asia History of Asia Southeast Asia French Indochina Vietnam. Annam Vietnamese Conflict
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 357
- Popularity
- 87,941
- Reviews
- 6
- Rating
- (3.82)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 4
- UPCs
- 1
- ASINs
- 4
