AMERICA'S NATIONAL TREASURES

A collection of brief biographical vignettes commemorates all of the American soldiers who died on the first day of the Tet Offensive during the Vietnam War.

According to Kelley, the rapidly accumulating historical scholarship on the Vietnam War has failed to highlight the personal sacrifices made by the soldiers who died during it, a dismal oversight. “Over the decades, historians shaped our understanding of the war’s military strategy and tactics,” he asserts. “However, this legacy of the war diminishes a grasp of the lives impacted by the tragedy of conflict. The extent of our collective memories of the fallen often is a list on a monument.” In order to correct this problem, the author here assembles a series of short biographies honoring each of the American soldiers who died on Jan. 31, 1968, the first day of the infamous Tet Offensive, one of the deadliest moments of the war. This is no inconsiderable feat of research—Kelley presents 247 portraits, each which includes some general biographical information, an account of the circumstances of the soldier’s service and death, and, in most cases, a photograph, if not of the serviceman, then of his family or headstone. In one remarkable case—that of Fredrick Martin Kittle, an Air Force captain—the author reproduces photos found on the soldier’s camera of the attack that took his life. While the information is presented in the spirit of journalistic objectivity, the accounts are heartbreakingly sad, especially the depictions of soldiers who died leaving behind families, like Robert Beryl Stafford, who had a wife and four children. Kelley served in Vietnam during the war, and his profound respect for his fellow servicemen is movingly evident with each biography. His prose is plainly unliterary and foursquarely lucid—this is an encyclopedic document and not a poetically nostalgic one. He prudently allows the accomplishments of the soldiers to speak for themselves. Most readers likely won’t have the necessary discipline to read so many accounts consecutively, but there is no need to—this book is a valuable resource for those researching the war and those looking for a poignant reminder of its human costs.

An affecting biographical work about Vietnam War soldiers that’s meticulously researched.