In this candid, historical look at the atrocities of the Vietnam War, Noble points out parallels to Iraq from the inside...
The next best thing to being there is getting a firsthand account, particularly when recounting the Vietnam War.
A former medic in the U.S. Army reveals the Vietnam he experienced and why, today, a similar war is happening again in Iraq. At the beginning, Noble returns readers to Vietnam with the “we can beat them attitude” that many soldiers carried prior to departure. Then came their realization that the war was bigger than him–bigger than he and his fellow servicemen ever could have imagined. Noble’s journals from his service, from 1967 to 1968, help him to accurately re-create his account; he only starts the comparison to Iraq after painting a real-life picture of Vietnam. According to the author, the Vietnam War resembles the Iraq War due to two major culprits–media and government officials. For example, those alive at the time might remember coverage of a half-naked young girl running from a napalm attack set off by U.S. military, as reported stateside. Unfortunately, those facts were wrong: Southern Vietnamese were responsible for this attack, but the United States was blamed in the news. Noble points out that many assumed “facts” were wrong then–and that these errors continue today in the reports from Iraq. He also compares politicians to Santa Claus, as they promised great honors to soldiers once they returned home. The role was filled by President Johnson then–today those who serve are met with President Bush and VP Cheney’s nonchalant responses. Noble also acknowledges that, at times, the U.S. military was its own worst enemy, with internal fighting, freak accidents and drug use running rampant. The author finally and capably outlines direct comparisons between Iraq and Vietnam–he includes an appendix of military jargon and a chronology of events, from 1957 to 1967, to provide a Vietnam 101 for those who may not be familiar with that war.
In this candid, historical look at the atrocities of the Vietnam War, Noble points out parallels to Iraq from the inside out–proof that, unfortunately, some things never change.Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2008
ISBN: 978-1-4196-5463-3
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorkerstaff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
