"An overwhelmingly eloquent book of the purest and most simple writing on Vietnam."—David Halberstam More than twenty-five years after the official end of the Vietnam War, Dear America allows us to witness the war firsthand through the eyes of the men and women who served in Vietnam. In this collection of more than 200 letters, they share their first impressions of the rigors of life in the bush, their longing for home and family, their emotions over the conduct of the war, and their ache at the loss of a friend in battle. Poignant in their rare honesty, the letters from Vietnam are "riveting,...extraordinary by [their] very ordinariness...for the most part, neither deep nor philosophical, only very, very human" (Los Angeles Times). Revealing the complex emotions and daily realities of fighting in the war, these close accounts offer a powerful, uniquely personal portrait of the many faces of Vietnam's veterans. Over 100,000 copies sold. |
Average Customer Review:
 ( 16 customer reviews )
Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
31 of 32 found the following review helpful:
InsightfulDec 03, 2001
By Janice
This book consists of letters written by American soldiers during the Vietnam War. It's extremely heart-breaking to read these letters as they gives "voices" instead of a mere figure. A lot of times, the figure of how many were killed, wounded, missing, etc but it does not portray any "emotions" the soldiers felt. At the end of each letter, the editor includes a few sentences on what happened to the author. It's extremely sad to read how many of those killed were just 19 year-olds, 20 year-olds, and these soldiers were just kids! It makes you think how wasteful, stupid, unnecessary wars are, and the sacrifices that has to be made.The last chapter of this book speaks a lot. It is chronologically listed and you can see the evolving sentiments of the soldiers. At the beginning of the war, the soldiers were proud to fight against the Communists, how they think the war will be over soon. Towards the end of that chapter, most soldiers were scared, depressed and just wanted to get out of the war... alive! This shows why many Vietnam War veterans suffered from postwar depression as the horror of the war, how their friends, buddies were killed or wounded in front of their own eyes and how many could not possibly forget these horrifying images. I highly recommend this book as this book speaks a lot. To me, the important message that it is trying to convey is the unnecessary sacrifices that these soldiers have to make, to fight a war that is not theirs, and the horror and bloodiness of the war is vividly described by these soldiers.
29 of 30 found the following review helpful:
Powerfully emotionalMar 18, 1999
I still remember the day I walked into my college's library back in the late 1980s and saw this publication sitting on the table of new releases. I picked it up and headed for a couch. About six hours, many tears, mixed emotions, and several missed classes later I emerged from that couch and put the completed book back on the table. In those six hours my view about the Vietnam experience and those who fought it changed. The words of those soldiers in their letters are powerful evidence of the collision between innocence and experience that takes place when young men are thrust into battle. This book should be required reading for all students of that war and required reading for every President who ever contemplates sending soldiers into battle.
9 of 9 found the following review helpful:
A MUST READ FOR ALL AGESSep 11, 1998
Of all the books I have read none have touched me this much. It is powerful because it is real. These are real stories, real feelings, real lives. This book will keep you up all night just thinking.
5 of 5 found the following review helpful:
Heart gripping, personal and emotional letters home from warNov 30, 1997
This book is one of the hardest books I have ever had to read. To know some of these men would never return home and to read emotional letters home to their girlfriends, parents and friends, made reading very hard with tears in my eyes. As a VietNam veteren I could relate to some of those feelings expressed in the letters.
7 of 8 found the following review helpful:
First hand account of the Vietnam WarOct 26, 2005
By H. A. M. Geerts
"Bookfiend"
After the amazing documentary about Vietnam that solely exists of actor voice overs of funny, goofy, anxious and heartbreaking letters home from soldiers at the battlefront in Vietnam, accompanied by graphic footage of the war itself, this book came out. It contains the letters read out in the movie, and additionally has some more background information about the soldiers who wrote the letters.
Even without the trained actor voices reading the letters out loud to you, and without the grim and realistic war images, this book is a pageburner. Heart-wrenching accounts of the legacy of war written by the soldiers that fought it, as well as by the people they left behind.
See all 16 customer reviews on Amazon.com
|
based on 16 reviews
