The Quick and the Dead Author:Robert Vaughan "Welcome to the land of sliding doors and slant-eyed whores..." — These were the words that greeted Major Jake Culpepper, USA, on arriving in Saigon as a military advisor in late November, 1963. A few minutes later, the fellow-officer and friend who spoke the words was dead, blown apart by a Viet Cong bomb planted in an officer's mess hall. — Jake... more » Culpepper was the product of four generations of career Army men. But he was unprepared for this nightmare war and he asked, early on: "How do we know who the bad guys are?"
Here is a sweeping novel of the war with no victors, only victims. Here is the story of Mot, anguished secret agent of the Viet Cong; of Kristin, fervent Freedom Rider and in love with Culpepper who stands for all she opposes; of Culpepper's two sons--Andy, who refused a commission and fought as a "grunt", and Mike, who went to Canada and defied the draft; of Larry Cantrell, a black man with a bright future who risked it all in a war he hated; of Melinda, high-priced toy of generals who a last found her true, impossible love.
Here, by a much-decorated Viet Nam veteran, is a panoramic novel that chronicles more completely and vividly than ever before, the years of the nightmare war--a novel that climaxes with Jake's testimony before Congress, where he asks once more the heartbreaking question, "How do we know who the bad guys are?"« less