A Rumor of War

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Summary: Great book!
Review: My father is a Vietnam War veteran and this in my opinion is a great book of the day to day occurances of life in Vietnam. This sounds like some of the things my father has told me when he was over there.

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Summary: Unique Tale of Viet Nam
Review: Caputo's "A Rumor of War" is a fantastic look into the day-to-day occurances of the common "grunts" who served in Viet Nam. His ability to "put the reader there" as well as his amazing ability to make a powerful political point is apparent in this masterpiece.

Many would call this book an "anti-war" book. I think Caputo's work is not nearly that simplistic. Rather than blaming the act of war as the root of all evil, he implicitly fingers the military structure and complex as the cause of so much pain and suffering among the American troops who served. He causes the reader to feel sympathy for those soldiers (including Caputo himself) who committed horrible crimes of war. In doing so, he makes the powerful political point that you can't blame the individuals who served in the war; the problem was at the top, with the people who organized the war and sent our boys over there. "A Rumor of War" vividly shows the extent to which the people who planned the war were completely disconnected from the people who had to do the dirty work.

What makes Caputo's ideas so powerful is his ability to write powerfully and vividly. He does an amazing job of making the reader feel like he is really there, standing next to Caputo during all of the fire-fights and ambushes. This is book is certainly among the best writing I've read on the Viet Nam War.

Additionally, I recommend Herr's "Dispatches" if you like "A Rumor of War."

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Summary: Short but dramatic and painful spell in Vietnam.
Review: I am unable to compare this book to others, it was my first reading purchased in the bookstore about Vietnam War. 'A Rumor of War' is probably not the best on this subject; it is neither historical book nor packed with action thriller. It is rather a cut taken from the early stage of this long lasting conflict, describing US military actions against Viet Cong guerilla fighters around Danang (South Vietnam) in 1965 and 1966.
There are no big battles and huge maneuverings of opposing armies. Do not misunderstand me though. Lieutenant Caputo and his platoon had a good chance of learning what the jungle fight is, and his work describes quite vividly ambushes, snipers, booby traps and other perils waiting for Marines outside their Military Last Resistance zone. And they were dying, many of them.
It is not intense book, not the one that would not allow a reader to put it aside and continue next day. Some parts are fast paced and intense and some are even slightly boring. The same was life then, in those military camps, days full of fighting and days 'all secure, situation remains the same'.
What makes 'A Rumor of War' special is, that it is as much about events as it is about human mind's reaction to brutality of war. Philip Caputo created very personal, honest and confession like masterpiece, filled with deep thoughts and brooding about life and injustice, especially when it comes to war and death.
In his postscript to this edition, author explains what he wanted to achieve by writing ' A Rumor of War'. I will say - he has met a target.
Finally, reading would be a lot more interesting should map depicting area of military operations (around Danang) was better.
...

Rating:
Summary: Caputo is a great storyteller!
Review: According to Caputo, A Rumor of War is "simply a story about war, about the things men do in war, and the things war does to them." He also writes that he does not wish to make the book a protest of Vietnam, because Vietnam is over and "no amount of objecting will resurrect the men who died." He goes on to write, "It might, perhaps, prevent the next generation from being crucified in the next war. But I don't think so."
Whatever Caputo aimed at accomplishing, he succeeded in conveying what the soldiers went through, what they felt, and what war did to them. I really started to feel like I was there with swaying morality, ringworm, heat exhaustion, and tons of mosquito bites. I saw how wars take their toll on the souls of the men who fight them. For most of the book I found myself wanting the war to just end... for America to bite the bullet and get out. I wanted the pain to go away. I was sick of the bloodshed, the heat, the smell, and the pain. I despised what Vietnam did to the soldiers - all roughly my own age, but most of all I hated the fact that I would have done the same exact thing in their shoes.
A Rumor of War is Caputo's frank recollection of his days in Vietnam, and it reveals all the ugly things that spawn from warfare. What makes it stand out is its gory illustration of the mental toll that war takes on people. I recommend A Rumor of War to anyone who has ever considered becoming a soldier, or to anyone who thinks that war is glorious. Even if you don't fit into these categories - read the book anyway to learn about the Vietnam War from a soldier's perspective and how nasty the war really was.

Rating:
Summary: Know the Vietnam War better than Generation X
Review: I read this book in college, about 3 years ago, and just now reread it. I recently found myself talking about Vietnam w/ a Vet who had been there, and I knew as much as he did. The book gives you a true knowledge of the battles in Vietnam. If you havent done much reading, its comparable to [another book] Warning: Read the book at night and you'll find yourself looking around dark corners for the Viet Cong.

Rating:
Summary: A True Classic
Review: Do you like great war books. Not ones about strategy etc. But the kind written by one of those who survived all the nasty evil [stuff] people do to each other. Then this book, as you should know, is that kind of book. You won't want to put the book down. Its that good. I am an X-Marine myself and I know I'm biased, but biased or not Philip Caputo knows the lingo, and knows how to spin a tale. I'm glad he took the time to write it and share with the rest of us what he and so many other ordinary men went through. Just get the book.

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Summary: war from the soldier's point of view
Review: I have been reading a lot of books on the subject of the Vietnam War and Philip Caputo's is one of the most honest albeit graphic account of what it was really like. But the highlight for me was Mr.Caputo's moving tribute to a fallen conrade, Lt. Levy. I had to stop and put the book down to compose myself for I was near tears. It has to be one of the most eloquent elegys written for someone who in Mr.Caputo's belief died "pro patria".

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Summary: A Rumor of War
Review: Caputo's A Rumor of War is a highly readable, albeit chilling, narrative of ground combat. It is a story of Marines - their pain, their fear, and the hardships they endured in Vietnam. Caputo wrote this book with a clear purpose: to convey the destructive effects of war on man's morality.
Unlike so many war stories, this book contains few heroes; only men who, in Caputo's mind, died senselessly still clutching their naive idealism. It is to this youthful idealism that Caputo devotes the first section of A Rumor of War. Portraying his innocence and that of his fellow Marines before and during their initial insertion into Danang in 1965, Caputo writes of men who craved danger and combat, with idealistic visions of gallantry and heroism. Countless Marines who were heady with anticipation would, a short time later, lie dead or maimed in the jungles of Vietnam. Despite the ominous warnings of the few veterans among them, the young Marines failed to grasp beforehand the horrors that awaited them in Vietnam.
Throughout this book, Caputo protrays Marines (himself included) who completely lost their idealism, and whose morality the war corrupted. They had long forgotten why they were in Vietnam. Constant exposure to death raped them psychologically. Countless Marines "lost it." Patrols down "Purple Heart trail," anticipating booby traps with every step, and tense probes into VC enclaves like Hui-Voc and Giao-Tri took their toll on the Marines mentally and physically. Caputo describes his own fear intensifying to a breaking point where he ceased to be afraid of dying - a final revalation that his own psyche and morality were casualties of war.
The Vietnam War, however controversial, is over. Caputo and his fellow veterans grow fewer in number every day. But A Rumor of War is more relevant now than ever. As America slowly forgets the Vietnam War's legacy, so too does it forget the realities of combat. Since Vietnam, a new generation of military servicemen - of which I am a member - has risen in this country, fresh with idealism and dreams of glory. We, like young Phil Caputo, are ignorant of the chaos, horror, and immorality of real war.

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Summary: Should be mandatory reading in every high school!!
Review: Caputo describes the Vietnam War, or the "the splendid little war" as he ironically calls it, as his journey from being 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 in the course of a few months into a thoughtless killing machine, fast on the trigger, without any remorse for his victims. Caputo exploits very strong and vivid images such as "pigs eating napalm-charred human corpses" to force the reader into his story and make the reader feel what Caputo has felt. Every single high school student, every single gung-ho young kid in boot camp must read this book -it is about real war, real corruption, real deaths, and real emotional scars left for life.

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.

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Summary: Self-serving crud!
Review: This book can be summed up in the title of this review. And, there you have it.