Dispatches

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Summary: Recommended reading for all students of war
Review: Dispatches is the book about Vietnam from the perspective of the "grunt". It should be required reading at every war college and for that matter every high school in this country. As Wilfred Owen said about the War to End All Wars: "My friend, you would not tell with such high zest To children ardent for some desperate glory, The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori." Have your sons read this so we never have our boys come home in body bags again.

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Summary: War IS hell
Review: It is not the content the distinguishes Michael Herr's "Dispatches," it is the delivery. Herr is an excellent reporter who risked life and limb to cover the Vietnam War. The book is his account of what he saw there. What he saw was young American soldiers, far from home fighting a war few of them understood against an frustratingly elusive enemy. If this sounds like the subject matter for many Vietnam books, it is. But Herr's writing is so evocative ans so powerful that many of his descriptions will stay with you for a long time after you've put it down. Along with Phillip Caputo's "A Rumor of War," and Fredrick Downs's "The Killing Zone," this is one of the best personal accounts of the Vietnam War available.

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Summary: Apocalypse Anytime
Review: Michael Herr wrote the narration for "Apocalypse Now," so what more do you need to know? This book is a brilliant description of the surreal. It is crucial to understand that this book is not a political or military history of the war. Instead, Herr tried to portray the "experience" of what it was like to be in Vietnam. If you have ever read Tim O'Brien's "How to tell a True War Story," you will understand Herr's accomplishment that much more. As an ex-grunt who saw a little action in Somalia and Haiti, naturally I have read many books on Vietnam from the infantryman's POV. Two great ones written in the "Dispatches" vein are out of print now, but worth getting; "Young Man in Vietnam" and "Free fire Zone." On a side note, I just got back from a trip to Vietnam and I absolutely loved it. The people couldn't have been nicer or more helpful in showing me around their country. I thought I was going to be resented as an American, but instead, the Vietnamese seemed fascinated and proud that I was visiting their country. An eye opening experience and after talking with them and looking at the beautiful Viet women, I have to once again marvel at the stupidity of war that separated our peoples.

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Summary: Fascinating view of one aspect of war
Review: As a Vietnam vet, I can attest that Michael Herr vividly portrays Vietnam from a grunt's point of view. Unfortunately, he does not give us the overview, the "big picture" as to why those grunts were there to begin with. This may be a fair presentation, however, because most of the grunts were not given that overview either.

This is a wonderful (and appropriately disturbing) picture of Vietnam from the trenches, equally applicable to any war in which young men have fought and died. For the "big picture", try Phillip B. Davidson's "Vietnam at War". For a great read, read Michael Herr's "Dispatches".

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Summary: Dispatches is very different from other Vietnam accounts
Review: I looked for Dispatches after reading a recommendation in another book on Vietnam. The point I would like to make regarding my review is that new readers need to understand that Herr wrote this book immediately upon returning from Vietnam, while the images and experiences were still "fresh". This benefit is passed on to the reader. Sights, sounds, smells, visions (real and imaginary) are all here. This book excels in its immediacy to be told. Other recomendations: "We were soldiers once, and young". "Everything we had" by Santoli. "Low level hell" "Chicken hawk (book 1 & 2)" "Siege of Khe Sahn" "13th Valley" end.

Rating:
Summary: Dispatches
Review: In Herr's book, Dispatches, he describes Vietnam as a jumbled, confused, mess of a living hell. His writing style, disjointed and confused, makes the book a little hard to get used to. But when you do get used to it only then can you see and understand the brilliance behind his technique. As you read about how the young soldiers in Vietnam you begin to understand how it must have been for a young kid to go over. Scared and confused you see how these soldiers either were brutally slaughtered or went insane. Herr helps any layman to understand the incredible magnitude of what was happening in those dense jungles as well as in the cities. When he talks about being not only a correspondent but also a soldier, taking up an M-16 and shooting right beside the grunts you get a deeper respect for him and what he is saying. For me as a graduate of the year 2002 I was not alive during the conlfict and this book helps me to gain a greater understanding of what Vietnam Vet's have been through. All in all Herr delivers an unforgettable novel, that tells anyone who wants to know the true horrors of war more than they want to know.

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Summary: Excellent as history and as literature
Review: I'm not a vet; I have no real personal connection with Vietnam or the war. Nor was any required to experience Dispatches. It's as much a poem about the condition of men at war, any men, any war, as it is the story of Herr's year as a war correspondent. It's not a history of the war; you won't find a handy map and glossary in the back. (If you honestly don't know what words like di di, zip, grunt, 16, and DMZ mean, I suggest you bone up on your history before trying this.) However, if you're even mildly knowledgeable, there's nothing to prevent you from feeling the full impact of the language here. And what language! If I ever manage to write anything half so eloquent, so beautiful, and so horrifying in my life, I'll be content to shut the laptop and walk away without writing another word.

Herr describes, in brief and sometimes disjointed vignettes, his experience as a war correspondent: the fear of death, the love of the machinery, the media-driven fantasies, the ambivalence of the troops towards the correspondents, and the correspondents' ambivalence about the troops, the misery of Khe Sanh, the frustrated schemes of the bureacracy, the myth and the reality of the drug-taking, foul-talking, anti-establishment reporters who supposedly "lost us the war".

I've probably been overstating this, but I love this book.

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Summary: Good Stuff
Review: I have never read an account of war, fiction or non fiction, that truly exposes the essence of combat in the same way that "Dispatches" does. The key to this piece is the honesty with which every story, every dialogue, and every descrition is portrayed. It is clear to see how this work alone could spark the interest and mystique that surrounds the concept of the Vietnam war as Hell. From films such as Apocalypse Now and Full Metal Jacket, one may often find themselves struggling to believe the events that appear to them on the screen. As "Dispatches" is a firsthand account, it is impossible to discount much of what the reader experiences. Herr, being a journalist, unveils the culture of Vietnam (the war) from a non-military perspective. However, the relationships he forms with marine grunts gives the reader an idea of how easily one can be sucked into the culture. This book is absolutely amazing, if you have an interest in the Vietnam War, this will give you a greater understanding of what went on. If you have little or no interest in the conflict, this book will spark some in dramatic fashion.

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Summary: Unbelievably vivid
Review: I'm too young to remember Vietnam, but I still think the book is fantastic. Some of the images in the book are literally unforgettable and his description of emotional states (e.g., optimism v. cynicism) is often heartbreaking. Herr uses lyrics from Johnny Cash to Jimi Hendrix, and he does it brilliantly. (I can't listen to "Ring of Fire" without remembering this book.) I can't say enough about this book. I'd recommend it to anyone who appreciates vivid writing that will stay with them.

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Summary: Dispatches a truly great book
Review: as a vet I feel Herr's book caught the dream like quality that the war had for me.The images came so fast and furious I often didnt have a chance to digest them until later.I feel this is one of the best books in American literature.This isnt just about war it is about being caught up in an event that strips away your personal facade and leaves you emotionally raw.Please read it.