Dispatches

Michael Herr's book, Dispatches, is a powerful literary work with its journalistic documentary immediacy, its emotional impact, and its historic implications. It speaks of the bravery and irony and ability to deal with absurdity that is so characteristic of America's young men. It tell of the idiocy when tremendous resources are put into place with little insight into history, culture, human nature, and the ability of ideology to blind leaders so that they ignore reality. Herr's writing style is testosterone-driven, machine-gun paced with clipped character studies of the many men he met in combat. Of course this is what I got from this book but I came to these conclusions from reading the realistic, earthy, often crude and rough, experiences of front line Marines as they experienced events beyond their control and often beyond comprehension. This book is gutsy and gives a gritty description of the conditions that our young men faced in a poorly led war. Blood, wounds, filth, anger, violence, irrationality, sex, and poverty are often ugly and messy and Herr does not shy away from straight-forward narration of these all too human conditions. Herr focuses on the soldiers on the front lines and gives a very real description of wartime. Herr's heart is with the soldiers and this shows in every description and event in the books. By giving the nitty-gritty details of life in wartime he becomes a defender and advocate for those young 19 year olds who underwent this ordeal. When the enemy can disappear into the forests and crowds and homes of the South Vietnamese, when the primary style of warfare is guerrilla warfare, then increased firepower and destruction is counter productive and bound for defeat. The Vietcong controlled the underground world of tunnels and caves whereas the United States controlled the air with our tremendous war machine. When we protect people by destroying their villages, fields, and forests we should not be surprised when they support the enemy. When entire forests and rice fields are destroyed so that the `enemy' has no cover, the war is lost, for those whom we claim to protect have now joined forces with the enemy. The US Forces had a slogan "Only you can prevention forests" that displays the irony these men felt at destroying a country to save it. Entire Vietcong units were supposedly destroyed only to appear in a matter of days elsewhere. Herr relates that whereas we were suppose to be supporting the South Vietnam government, that the corrupt bribe-hungry government could hardly maintain a police force in Saigon. As Herr says, all this means is that the country could not be saved, only destroyed. Herr's observations on racial relationships and tensions are fascinating. He relates how black and white soldiers supported each other in the field under hardships. He also relates what a blow the death of Martin Luther King Jr. was to the black servicemen. Herr does a great job of revealing the strength and patience of black servicemen who were fighting for their country in Vietnam. The chapter on the Khe Sanh base is the most focused narrative work in the book. There is a sense of paranoia as the trapped Marines wait for the assault of the Vietcong upon the base. Herr relates how the American command appeared to be implementing a strategy to draw out the Vietcong to mass troops around Khe Sanh to repeat their strategy against the French in the Battle of Dien Bien Phu. However, by concentrating their forces around Khe Sanh, they offered a better target for American airpower. However the Marines felt out-numbered and completely surrounded as they endured the most brutal artillery barrage of the war. The evacuation roads were completely under the control of the Vietcong and the monsoon season had 6 more weeks to run making retreat much more difficult. Herr relates the considerable tensions that grew as the confrontation built up and reports of increased but unseen Vietcong troops increased. He is at his best as he relates the effects of this tension upon the front line soldiers. The chapter on the war correspondents is also first class literature. Herr doesn't respect all his colleagues by any means since some took the easy way out and reported only what General Westmoreland and his staff wished reported back to US citizens. Many officers felt that Westmoreland made a critical error in allowing so many correspondents to observe the war and report back their observations to an American public that had cognitive dissonance trying to interpret the chaos and horror. However he does observe that the bravest correspondents tended to be the most compassionate. I found the sections on photographer Sean Flynn, son of actor Errol Flynn, to be an interesting observation of the role of the correspondent under war conditions. Herr conveys the sense of the time with the mix of contemporary culture that the young Marines experienced including the works of Jim Morrison and the Doors, Jimmy Hendrix, and others. The cultural context of the war and times permeated both the United States and Vietnam and Herr captures this background perfectly. I would end this review with one image and one quotation. Herr relates how after a village that was deemed to be sympathetic to the Vietcong was destroyed, a Vietnamese man holds his dead baby girl in his outstretched arms in the road as the Americans pass. He says nothing; he just looks into their faces and holds up the dead baby for them to see as they drive by. Herr says: "Those who remember the past are condemned to repeat it too, that is a little history joke."

A Unique Achievement in Writing about War The first and most important thing to say about Michael Herr's "Dispatches" is that it difficult to begin to do him justice; by its very nature, praise is comparison and Dispatches is incomparable: when you talk about Dispatches, praise is not praise enough. A memoir of war-reporting written from the left-wing-peacenik perspective, Dispatches is like no other book and the world knows it credentialing it with reference and imitation. John LeCarre gave it superlatives, Salman Rushdie quoted it in a speech; scenes from it are the basis of scenes in several of the most successful movies about the Vietnam War and, when one former soldier from the Soviet Union during it's occupation of Afghanistan wanted to write about the soldiers on the ground that his country put there, he used ideas and language garnered directly from reading Dispatches. Among the things that are most striking about Dispatches are its truth, its depth and Herr's raw talent for transforming experience into a digestible, relatable experience that is so rich and so deep that the reader is filled with a sense of the writer's truth on both the large and the small scale; whether he was talking about the history of the war and our involvement in it "it was spookwar then, adventure; not exactly soldiers, not even advisors yet, but Irregualrs, working in remote places under little direct authority, acting out their fantasies with more freedom than most men ever know.... hot on the sex-and-death trail, "lost to headquarters." or about the men on the ground, the actual soldiers, who were an amalgam of every human feeling. They were lost, lonely and lethal--but sometimes, some of them could be kind and caring beyond words "Take your pills, baby, a medic in Can Tho told me. "Big orange ones every week, little white ones every day, and don't miss a day whatever you do. They got strains over here that could waste a heavy-set fella like you in a week." or of subjective experience lived inside a savage, inescapable now "Or dozing and waking under mosquito netting in a mess of slick sweat, gagging for air that wasn't 99 percent moisture, one clean breath to dry-sluice your anxiety and the backwater smell of your own body. But all you got and all there was were misty clots of air that corroded your appetite and burned your eyes and make your cigarettes taste like swollen insects rolled up and smoked alive, crackling and wet." That last sentence is the mark of Herr's real genius: his voice. Herr's voice in Dispatches is something that every writer, would kill for: pure golden music wedded to an intensity of focused purpose that says "war" more effectively than a thousand words of battle description would. Herr's writing is the true poetry of a war that was unlike any previous war in the American experience; one that had left behind the idea of steeling yourself for battle and facing death in a way that would rush in like the tide, go on for a time and then recede. Herr's voice was the voice of someone on a regular military's side of guerilla war; of being surrounded by the real and constant possibility of dying by surprise, dying before you were ready; by ambush or by booby trap or sniper shot, or simply putting your foot down on the wrong six-inches of unknown ground. Herr sets feeling to the rhythms of his gift so well, with sentences so full of twists, turns and afterthoughts, that you're carried along and you wonder if it isn't all some sort of magic trick: you wonder if Herr could have sat down one day at a desk to describe pink tissue paper, closely, precisely and in a way that would make you want to run screaming... Dispatches is not a good book, it is not a great book, it is unique and everyone who wants to read and feel should read it. It is one of the few books of its time and subject matter that withstands multiple readings and if you are reading it for the first time, you're lucky because it might very well change your conception of reading: you will never have read it before and there will be many, many things afterwards that you will never read the same way again.

A vivid portrayal of life at the front of the Vietnam War. Michael Herr, working for Esquire magazine, picked up his notebook and headed out to where the was happening. He was at the Citadel in Hue during the Tet Offensive; he also travelled to Khe Sahn. He talks about being afraid but moving forward anyway "I didn't go through all that not to see." (p 256) Herr does an exquisite job of describing the grunts (he spent most of his time with the Marines). Of a 19 year old Marine he says "He had one of those faces, I saw that face at least a thousand times at a hundred bases and camps, all the youth sucked out of the eyes, the color drawn from the skin, cold white lips, you knew he wouldn't wait for any of it to come back. Life had made him old, he'd live it out old". (p 16) Herr, writing in the 60s and 70s, is extremely critical of the war and the way it was waged (but then weren't most people?). He knew that "A lot of people knew that the country could never be won, only destroyed, and they locked into that with breathtaking concentration." (p 59). He discusses some of the difference between the Army and Marine approach to the war: "That belief [that one Marine was worth 10 dead Vietnamese] was undying, but the grunt was not, and the Corps came to be called by many the finest instrument ever devised for the killing of young Americans." (p102) It was interesting to read this after having read Gregg Jones' "Last Stand at Khe Sanh: The U.S. Marines Finest Hour in Vietnam." Jones does an excellent job of describing the tactics and flow of battle giving details based on interviews with survivors years later. Herr's story is much more immediate. While you don't get a sense of the ebb and flow of the stand, you get a gritty, realistic view of life in the mud of the bunkers and trenches. I read this book back in the 70's and was glad I picked it up again. If we are going to put our young men and women through pain and misery that will last a lifetime, sometimes a very short lifetime, we should be damn well clear that it is worth it for us.

I read Michael Herr's Dispatches a few years ago, right at the start of the pandemic. I had already read my way through most of America's other wars and conflicts, and I decided that 2020 was as good a time as any to start reading about Vietnam. Dispatches is a top-ranked book, so I started here, hoping it would be a good introduction or summary of a journalists experiences during the Vietnam War. It was clear to me that Dispatches is highly regarded for a good reason, but the prose is strange and the material is rather thick, and I don't remember much about what I'd read or how I'd felt while reading it four years ago. However, I spent the next several years doing a deep dive into books about the Vietnam War--books about soldiers and marines and nurses and generals and locals and VC and NVA and everybody in between. And now, I'm happy to report, Michael Herr's book makes a lot of sense and is actually quite excellent. He gives you life in Vietnam in little flashes, explaining the unexplainable through what my literature teachers in college may have called an epic tone poem. There is little true exposition or explanation of the war, but that is largely because there is no such thing. Vietnam isn't anything at all like The Civil War or World War 2--there aren't any real turning points in the history of the conflict, no real developments that help frame the story itself. There is no Normandy Beach or Iwo Jima, no Gettysburg or Battle of Atlanta. No, Michael Herr's Vietnam was nothing but one helicopter ride after another, one death after another, mass murder and injury without reason or explanation. And so, I must give it five stars for capturing the mood and the actual lack of reason for the war. Plus, Michael Herr gives us short little cameos from all of the journalists who are heroes for those of us who are Vietnam War junkies: there's Dana Stone and Sean Flynn and Tim Page and The Great Larry Burrows, all seen through the lens of a fellow journalist who was right there in the trenches with them. Magnificent. (There are obviously problems with some of the language used (I was particularly disgusted by his use of a derogatory word against African-Americans), but you know what? I'm sure Michael Herr wasn't the only journalist using that word in Vietnam.)

A young reporter goes to Vietnam during the very height of hostilities in Southeast Asia. Unlike any young marine or army soldier, Michael Herr has choices to make. Where are the stories? Is it in the clubs and dens of Saigon or Da Nang or is it in the Central Highlands with the First Cav or the Fourth Infantry Division or was it up in I Corps with the marines at Khe Sanh. Herr got a chance, unlike any soldier, to go to all these areas and describe to one and all what was really happening in Vietnam. His education was far advanced to any soldier who served usually in a small area of operation for his or her tour of Vietnam. The stories unfolded in this book are irreverent and straightforward, infantry language and all. It conveys the attitudes, fears and concerns that marines and soldiers dealt with in their combat tours in Vietnam. Herr tells us the mindsets of the soldiers whether in the field or in the supposed REMF (Rear Echelon Mother F------s) areas. But as explained by Herr there really is no rear area. Whether in built up areas such as Da Nang, Saigon and Hue there really was no safe haven in Vietnam. Vietnam was a war where you could get killed anywhere. In Herr's stories he brings the unadulterated truth. He holds no bars, even in his attitudes with the higher authorities who he knew were not telling the full story of just who was "winning" the war. Herr along with his other youthful peers are able to go where the action is. They are not shy about going with troopers who were put into harm's way. These reporters do not shy away from danger, and in many instances put themselves in just as much peril as any marine or cav trooper. Of special interest in this book Herr devotes much time in I Corps with the marines in the battle of Khe Sanh. He makes a valid comparison of the siege of Khe Sanh with the siege of Dien Bien Phu. He tells of the similarities but also relates why the siege was broken by the Americans, whereas the French were defeated 14 years before. One thing which intrigued me was Herr's evaluation of what he thought were the best troopers fighting in Vietnam. They were not the marines. They were in his opinion the First Cavalry Division as quoted in the book. "And now, everywhere you went, you could see the most comforting military insignia in all of Vietnam, the yellow-and-black shoulder patch of the Cav. You were with the pro's now, the elite." This is a visceral book which will let you go into the mindsets of the men who served in this much misunderstood war fought in Southeast Asia.

I understand why Dispatches was held in so high-regard when first published. There had never been anything like it before written concerning the Vietnam War. It came before The Short-Timers, The Deer Hunter, Apocalypse Now, Platoon, Full Metal Jacket, Hamburger Hill, and The Phantom Blooper, remember. In hindsight, though... Dispatches was an allegedly non-fiction account of things witnessed by civilian combat correspondent Michael Herr. The story is disjointed and is little more than a series of short stories thrown together after the war ended. It is not presented in strictly chronological order. There are some fine passages; Herr claims to have been present at the siege of Khe Sahn, for example. Most of the book is largely forgettable, though. There are some golden nuggets in the book. Herr knew Sean Flynn, Errol's son who retired from acting in spaghetti westerns to go to Southeast Asia and work as a freelance photojournalist. He disappeared, believed to have been in Cambodia by most, and was presumed dead at the time the book was published. His family is still searching for his remains. Herr also rubbed elbows with military combat correspondents, including the group known as the snuffies. In this group, the only one Herr mentions by name is Dale Dye, now a famous consultant in Hollywood, who he appears to have had a friendly relationship with. He also mentions a crazed, young snuffie from Alabama nicknamed Joker, an obvious reference to Gus Hasford. Herr says that the snuffies did not have a good relationship with the civilian corresppndents, and that the feeling of dislike between them was mutual, aside from Dye. Herr goes on to say that, although they didn't get along, he respected the snuffies and that they tolerated each other, with one notable exception: Herr says that Hasford scared him. More fascinating than the book itself is what happened to Herr after it was published. Hasford, the Marine correspondent who so scared Herr years before in Vietnam, was able to publish his novel The Short-Timers following the success of Dispatches. Francis Ford Coppola hired him to write the VO dialogue and other scenes in Apocalypse Now. One scene that Herr claims to have witnessed was that of a Marine falling from a height at a USO show. This scene (from a helicopter in the movie) is repeated nearly verbatim in Hasford's novel, with the character falling from the rafters and landing on a general's table. In Hasford's book, the character is later nicknamed Rafter Man, a fictionalized version of a photographer Hasford knew in Vietnam. It appears this event - or something close to it - took place and that both Hasford and Herr witnessed it, coming away with very different interpretations. Herr was abhorred by the behavior, Hasford was delighted by it, as were the other snuffies. After all, it's not hard to wonder how Rafter Man got his nickname after falling from those rafters, is it? Herr went uncredited for his work on Apocalypse Now and when the screenplay was nominated for an Academy Award at the Oscars ceremony Herr did not receive a nomination along with Coppola and famed screenwriter John Milius, though his contributions did not go unnoticed in Hollywood. Several years later, though, Stanley Kubrick decided he wanted to make a war movie and began researching articles and books. He considered trying to adapt Dispatches, but found the book devoid of plot, albeit well-written (both sentiments I share). Eventually, someone recommended The Short-Timers to him. He decided to adapt that book and came to the conclusion that it could only be completed with VO dialogue. A Vietnam War movie with VO dialogue, after reading and enjoying Dispatches, even if it wasn't fit for adaptation, who you gonna call? Herr went to Hollywood again, this time adapting the book of a man that he loathed above most others. To his credit, though, he admitted that he thought Hasford's book was a masterpiece. The writing process of The Short-Timers adaptation, eventually titled Full Metal Jacket, is well-known. Kubrick would talk to Hasford and Herr on the phone and tell them what he wanted, both men would write scenes and mail them to Kubrick, and Kubrick would piece the best of both submissions together. Kubrick met several times with Herr and so enjoyed the project and his conversations with Hasford that he wanted to meet him, as well. Herr advised against this, telling Kubrick his impressions of the man from their time together in Vietnam. Kubrick had trouble believing the man he had hours-long conversations with on the phone could be as scary as Herr found him decades prior in a combat zone, and he insisted. A meeting between the three men was arranged. It did not go well. Kubrick came away with the same impression as Herr. He thought Hasford was crazy. Most of the scenes in Full Metal Jacket originated in the Short-Timers, though some were from Dispatches and others were previously unpublished tales related by Hasford. In addition, technical advisor R. Lee Ermey made a cameo appearance as the senior drill instructor, a minor character in Hasford's novel who became a major character in the movie. Ermey was a drill instructor during the Vietnam era and ad libbed most of his lines. His ad libs were later retroscripted into the screenplay by Kubrick. When all was said and done, neither Herr nor Hasford knew how many of their contributions made it into the final screenplay. This led to a dispute in the way writing credits were awarded by the WGA and further divided Herr and Kubrick from Hasford. The most concrete contributions to the screenplay were Ermey's ad libs. Ermey, however, went uncredited. The screenplay was nominated for an Academy Award, and Kubrick, Herr, and Hasford were all nominated. Hasford, still bitter over the writing credit he received, refused to attend the ceremony. The movie didn't the Oscar. Although Ermey wasn't nominated along with the other three for his contributions to the screenplay, he had a last life of sorts when he was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for best supporting actor for his cameo appearance in the movie. Hasford's life did not improve after Full Metal Jacket. The Short-Timers, while critically well-reviewed, never resonated with mainstream audiences and went out of print. He was later arrested for grand larceny after he was found to have stolen thousands of dollars worth of library books and served prison time. Desperate for money, he wrote the sequel to The Short-Timers called The Phantom Blooper, which included many scenes that he'd used in his screenplay for Full Metal Jacket. The Phantom Blooper, like its predecessor, was critically well-received but failed with audiences and also went out of print. Hasford wrote a third novel about a Vietnam Veteran-turned private detective before dying at the age of 45 in Europe from complications of untreated diabetes. It appears that Herr's assessments of Hasford, though harsh, were probably accurate. Things did not go swimmingly for Herr either. People began revisiting Hasford's work after he died, which ultimately led them to his association with Herr. His frank opinions of Hasford in Dispatches (although he did not use his name) were criticized. People re-evaluated Dispatches since its release in 1977 and, in hindsight, did not find it as riveting as they had when first published. Furthermore, people began to doubt many of the things Herr claimed to have witnessed in Vietnam. Fact-checkers entered the fray, and sure enough, Herr admitted that much of the book was fabricated. In his defense, he claimed to have told his publishers that the book was novel but they had insisted on only buying it if it were non-fiction. Herr relented. What's the true story? I don't know. What I do know is the book is a work of fiction that - even after being outed - is still touted as non-fiction. The book is worth a read. Some of it is undoubtedly true, such as the things that both Hasford and Herr witnessed But Kubrick's criticism if a lack of a cohesive plot is spot-on and, with the benefit of hindsight, it's hard to read this book knowing that a significant portion of it is BS and take it seriously.

The early story of the Vietnam War told through the unobstructed eyes of a correspondent eye opener. This is told as days actually began and ended in a land we had no reason nor ever a chance of winning. And yet we went there with all our technology and superior forces and we left on the run. But the men and women on the ground who did the dirty work can rest assure that their story was told accurately and as things actually happened in the rice paddies and jungles. The enemy was infinite and mostly unseen. Tough to fight under so circumstances. This is a fine book. It is written in a way that makes the story clearer and honors the feet on the ground as they made the ultimate sacrifice for their country. Young kids 18 and 19 years old who really thought they was involved in a conflict that would somehow right a great wrong. And the only wrong many of them experienced was a ride back to the states in a body bag tagged KIA. Read this book and try to understand how futile a conflict such as this was followed by Iraq and Afghanistan and no telling where our President and Congress might send us next. This was a war that the US entered because they thought it would be easy to win. Regardless that the French and many other powers have been unsuccessful in defeating North Vietnam, disregarding the US debacle in the Korean Conflict, the US thought we could pump munitions, airpower and limited manpower into Viet Nam and the locals would take the lead. The reality of this war was far from what was anticipated. We lost a great deal of our youth and many of them were so stoned that they didn't even know they were dead. There is more action in one page than you normally would find in a novel of 600 pages. And then as if our congress were on drugs along with the Pentagon and Department of Defense, we entered a war against Iraq two times, then we are embroiled with God knows who in the middle East at this writing (05/2015) and Afghanistan.. How many times do we have to fall into these unwinnable situations before we stop sacrificing our youth and resources What an absolute waste!! This book is only 235 pages in length but it packs a lifetime of realty and waste on the part of our Defense Department, CIA and a lethargic voting public.. Read it and keep in mind that author's observations. It may help you next time you support an agenda or enter the polling booth.

It has been said that the "real" legacy of Vietnam was that for the first time reporters and editors began to question the American authorities as they never had before. This is not a view Historians can particularly subscribe to. History presents us evidence of opposition to the `party line' over the last century, including the Spanish American War. Perhaps this is idea of legacy seems credible due to the general short memory of the American public. Certainly, the Vietnam press coverage (even before Tet in 1968) stands in contrast to the Korean era when any question of objectives or policy might lead directly to a McCarthyist challenge of where one's allegiances lie. So it was that in Vietnam the politeness in the line of questioning was certainly in contrast to the Korean `police action'. Yet, Michael Herr's book Dispatches does not show his part in this allegedly newer style of hard-look journalism. Yes, things may have been questioned as never before but this occurred only after the failures in US policy became glaringly acute did the editors begin jumping on the bandwagon. Herr jeers the `syndicated eminences' and mainstream editors and bandwagoneering in oblique passing (Herr 214, 220). But this is not the thrust of Dispatches. In reading this work, one finds some portions reading more like a personal journal. Other portions read like a high-octane fuel-injected amphetamine-driven psychotic episode. Some parts are a recall of previous experiences, while others were written closer to the time in which they occurred. Either way, Dispatches gives us the glimpse into the world of a war correspondent covering the Vietnam War. Much of what Herr has to say is heartbreaking, but more often the words leaping of the page do so with the same adrenaline with which they were originally inscribed. Herr often mentions the trouble Grunts had understanding why he and other journalist would put themselves in the situation in which they encountered him. As a columnist for Esquire and Rolling Stone, it is even less likely that he hardly garnered the understanding that a journalist from the New York Times or Washington Post might have enjoyed. Indeed, there is a sense of self-consciousness when he relates "There was no nation too impoverished, no hometown paper so humble that it didn't get its man in for a quick feel at least once." Furthermore, he informs the reader that he didn't have the deadlines facing many of the other journalists in Vietnam. Of course, his dismissal of deadlines can be partly attributed to the fact that he considered himself a `writer'... But the distinction between a `writer' and a journalist or correspondent was hopelessly lost on grunts, who were just as likely to see the difference between a Viet Cong and a `friendly' villager. The fact that he didn't even carry a camera led to further incredulity on the part of the military brass he encountered. Herr's writing does not need to impugn the Military and Administration's talking heads and their endless chatter of `Victory just around the corner.' His stories reveal the utter lack of faith in their words. He tells us a few of the running jokes, and the stale lines for given situations. Herr might have told us the joke about "how do you know when ___________ (insert Westmoreland, LBJ, Taylor or any other name connected to the madness) is lying? Their lips are moving..." But he need not even do that. His companions in the press corps and the majority of the grunts who were remotely in US policy knew after a few hours in Vietnam that it was not about anything they could have claimed. Still it is difficult to reconcile Herr's disdain for the grunts' brutality and his apparent admiration that surfaces when his not trying to suppress it. Herr's narration is colored by the pop music of the era. Of course, that pop music was as counter-culture as his personal views. It is difficult to grudge a person for their attachment to the most exciting times of their life. Herr's is almost an addiction to the life of the thrill seeker, but as he mentions, unlike the grunts, he could always take the next chopper back to an air-conditioned hotel room in Saigon, or leave altogether. (Not that an air-conditioned room in Saigon would be necessarily safer than Khe Sahn...) There was a band in the early 1980's that sought to re-kindle the psychedelic experience of the bands that Herr most appreciated. Herr's Dispatches recalls his experience and the experience of the press corps in Vietnam (and to a certain extent that of all Americans): Easier said than done you said, But it's more difficult to say With eyes bigger than our bellies, We won't do it but we can't look away... What were you thinking of, When you dreamt that up? We can't tell our left from right, But you know we love extremes Get into grips with the ups and downs, Because there's nothing in between... With eyes bigger than our bellies, we won't do it but we can't look away... So much of the press corps, Herr included, lived vicariously through the lives and deaths of the GI's. The American public lived vicariously through what the press fed them. Some would like to believe that the lesson of Vietnam is a "lasting legacy." In deed many members of the press continue to claim this. It is supposed now in the press and the American public that "we don't take things for granted; we don't take things as face value; we don't believe officials, as we did before Vietnam." The `Credibility Gap' created by the wake of the US involvement in Vietnam and the many presidential administrations that tried to deny the reality of its circumstances was supposed to make us somewhat wiser. However, those who are following the news today, hearing similar themes and even similar speeches cannot help but realize it is not so much wisdom gained by Vietnam, but crass cynicism on the part of the American public. `Yes, our own government lies to us, but that it is to be expected... It is the journalist job to act as a kind of Consumer Protector...' "Just let us know when the amount of lying exceeds an accepted standard." At that point, The Press is then like the USDA. When a certain amount of rodent feces exceeds the amount we allow for in our food supply, let us know... otherwise keep it to yourself because we don't want to know. In a response to a recent PBS NewsHour special on the Vietnam War, David Greenway, (one of Michael Herr's acquaintances) commented, "When you think about it, Vietnam was unique. The same problems... were true in previous wars, in World War II and in World War I. Only in Vietnam were the two bugbears of journalism overcome - censorship and access to the action - that the military can impose. Vietnam is really the only war where there was no censorship and you could go anywhere you wanted. That wasn't true in World War II or World War I, and it's never been true since. So Vietnam was really unique in that - to that extent." Greenways comments could be a clarion call to the public to demand more access and knowledge about the wars and "operations" (Grenada, Panama, Haiti, Iraq, Bosnia, Afghanistan etc., not to mention the others that aren't on anyone's radar...) But the publics utter lack of demand suggests another lesson from the Vietnam experience, as consumers, we want only so much and at a certain point we are satiated. When that point is reached, the twisted and charred bodies, the `collateral damage' is not only unacceptable, it is unappreciated. On the other hand, there are many who have developed a pallet for it. As Herr says, "I think Vietnam was what we had instead of happy childhoods." (Herr, 244.) In many ways, He seems to have written the book full of dark nightmares and adrenaline pumped dreams that acquiesces to Page's assignment, (the British journalist friends' acclamation) "Take the glamour out of WAR?? How the bloody hell can you do that?" (Herr, 248.) The glamour of war remains in it hellish visions and ecstatic epiphanies.

Just as powerful now as when I first read it in the late 70s, maybe more so. I thought it a bit pretentious then, but now it seems more profound. Herr’s rich fever-dream, druggy, rock-and-roll lyricism (amplified his subsequent work on ‘Apocalypse Now’ and ‘Full Metal Jacket’) still frames much of the pop culture view of the Vietnam war. The author acknowledges, “conventional journalism could more reveal this war than conventional firepower could win it.” Herr was a magazine journalist, hopping helicopters “like taxis” to cover hotspots, so viewing the conflict (”a war of our convenience”) simultaneously from above as well as the brutal grunt ground-level, both the “glamour” of war and its PTSD-triggering gruesomeness. Herr finds his own, and his fellow correspondents’ ambivalence deeply troubling, “I think Vietnam was what we had instead of happy childhoods.” In the first section, ‘Breathing In’ Herr tries to capture the mesmerising sensory and cultural overload of arriving “in country”, then on to ‘Hell Sucks’ and the bloody Tet Offensive in Hue. The biggest section covers (comparatively conventionally) the futile, even “absurd” 1968 siege of Khe Sanh,” a passion, the false love object of the Command” and “Illumination Rounds”, vignettes of war’s madness. “Colleagues” affectionately describes “those crazy guys”, his fellow correspondent and photographers and is both touching and funny. In the media war, “something wasn’t answered, it wasn’t even asked”, and Herr felt a commitment of truth to the soldiers, as one said, “You tell it, man”. He does, and reminds us of the horror but also the humanity of conflict, “War stories aren’t really anything more than stories about people anyway.”

Michael Herr was an excellent writer and correspondent. Using my Kindle, I was able to search the background for references and certain metaphors offered in the chapters. It made for a more complete and thought-provoking reading experience and understanding of the abject insanity spawned by global elites/powers and how it was/is manifest "on the ground". Kindle has "re-kindled" my love of reading and Dispatches was my first read.

Good read, very interesting insights. Like the other very very interesting "Once Upon a Distant War: David Halberstam, Neil Sheehan, Peter Arnett--Young War Correspondents and Their Early Vietnam" it is very much focused on the early 1960s, before the US entered the war with full force. I am looking for some book about the later, of course not - with all due respect - the memoirs of some vets (and not "We Were Soldiers once ...", but the bigger picture. Would be grateful for any useful hint.

One of the best war relates I've ever read. Human and fully involved, never cynical, nor bombastic, nor approximate in his descriptions of context, feelings, ...and wounds. A must-read about the US in Vietnam

It's like if Hunter S Thompson went to Vietnam. Love it as a history buff, provides so much insight into the conflict. Also love it as a film buff as Herr co-wrote Full Metal Jacket and the Narration for Apocalypse Now. The influence this book has had on both films is obvious once you've read it. Anyone interested in the Vietnam war and the movies it inspired should pick up this book. It's informative as any good nonfiction but written in a style that's as entertaining and creative as most fictional books. It's no wonder Hunter S Thompson and Stanley Kubrick both spoke so highly about this book.