One of the best books I've ever read about the experiences of a U.S.M.C. lieutenant in Viet Nam. Like Caputo, I too was a young Marine lieutenant who served in Viet Nam. Unlike him, I ran convoys to combat bases throughout northern South Viet Nam and didn't tramp the 'boonies' in search of the foe. In fact, my mission was to hope to never see combat, as truck convoys were sitting targets on the roads built above the rice paddies.
Still, I too remember the initial enthusiasm of serving my country when arriving 'in country,' and, like him, undergoing gradual disenchantment of war and the fighting in Viet Nam, until I realized that my primary mission was to get me and my men back home in one piece.
If you want to know what it was like to be a Marine in Viet Nam, read "A Rumor of War."
From book review: "...a timeless testament to the men who leave their homes to kill and die in strange lands...and of the things that grow and perish in the deepest part of themselves."
From the Seattle Times: "It is the most eloquent statement yet on what Vietnam was for the lower echelons who had to do the dirty work."
Caputo describes "the splendid little war" as his road from an enthusiastic idealist poisoned by the romanticized view of war as a chivalrous and noble enterprise to the dehumanized and desensitized wreck that he becomes during his tour in Vietnam. The book is an amazing testimony about the true nature of war with all its atrocities and horrors. Caputo brilliantly captures the endless despair of being strained in the jungle with no clear reason for being there, the hopeless madness of chasing the guerillas and the agony of loosing friends. But the most important aspect of this book is that it shows how a normal mentally healthy person can be turned into a thoughtless killing machine in the course of a few months, fast on the trigger, without any remorse for his victims. Caputo uses very strong and vivid images such as "pigs eating napalm-charred human corpses" to force the reader into his story and feel what Caputo has felt. Very realistic book that cannot leave you indifferent, definitely up there with Remarque's "All quiet on the Western front." If you want to know what fighting the Vietnam War was really like, I can't imagine how any book can possibly be better than Rumor of War.
AMAZON.COM READER'S REVIEW
Philip Caputo has written a timeless testament to the men who leave their homes to kill and die in strange lands; and of the things that grow and perish within themselves.
A Rumor of War ranks up there with Gen. Harold Moore's, "We Were Soldiers Once and Young," and Col. David Hackworth's, "About Face." All three show how debates that raged in Washington, Paris, Saigon, and Hanoi were ultimately scored. Whether you were a "hawk or a dove," a liberal or a conservative, a professor or student, you will benefit from reading this book that answers the question authoritatively: "Hey! What was Vietnam really like?"
I grew up during the Vietnam war, so I knew all about it. Or so I thought. I knew Nothing.This book does such a phenomenal job of putting you right in the jungle of Vietnam, there were times I just had to put this book down and take a break. The soldiers there weren't so lucky. This book is just plain powerful. Philip Caputo went to Vietnam a young officer, ready for a great time in war. He soon found out that's not how it works. When I finished this book, my heart was broken, my soul shattered.This is as honest a telling of war I have ever heard of.
One of the few books I've read twice. Caputo's story of his time in the army in Viet Nam is real, captivating, and eloquent.
