Rating: 
Summary: An Oral History by some guys who weren't there...what BS.
Review: Al Santoli is a serious writer and a Vietnam Veteran who was led astray by failing to check the stories of the people that "volunteered" to be quoted in "Everything We Had". In his oral history he interviewed 33 "veterans" who fought in Vietnam. The book was commissioned by the Vietnam Veterans of America, and the VVA receives two-thirds of the royalties. One of the subjects was Thomas Bird, a co-founder of the VVA. Bird told Santoli that he was a rifleman in the 1st Cav Div (Airmobile) from August '65 to August '66. Bird claimed that he was captured by the NVA during the Battle of the Ia Drang Valley. He claimed to have been tortured during his short period as a POW. Inexplicably the NVA abruptly abandoned their prisoners one night, leaving them naked and tied up in the jungle where they were found the next day. The military record of Thomas Bird reveals that this story is completely false. The claims of Bird were exposed in a story by Veteran Dan Cragg in Stars and Stripes in 1982. Bird's unit was not over-run by the enemy and only had 16 wounded men in six months from 1 July to 1 December 1965. Both Bird's Battalion Commander and his Company Commander confirmed that Bird's story is completely false. Pretty poor example of history when lies can be accepted as the truth...without anyone the wiser.
Rating: 
Summary: Vietnam as American soldiers saw it
Review: EVERYTHING WE HAD is a heart wrenching account of the experience and remembrances of American soldiers in the Vietnam War. It is the best book of its type that I have read that helped me to better understand what these brave Americans went through. I was a child in Vietnam during the war and never really understood the U.S. soldiers, as many of the soldiers explained how hard it was to understand Vietnamese culture. Their stories describe the terror, the confusion and the courage they experienced in servinf their country and their effort to save the Vietnamese people from the 25 years of suffering that has been imposed forcefully by the Communists after the war ended. I heighly recommend this book to anyone -- man or woman -- who wants to better understand American Vietnam veterans.
Rating: 
Summary: required reading...
Review: EVERYTHING WE HAD is a powerful account by soldiers of the Vietnam war, compiled by a combat veteran, whose experiences and insight ring true for soldiers who have seen hostile fire in any conflict. Members of the Lao Veterans of America who fought in that war have found this book to represent their gut-level experiences and reflections. The benefit of this book for those who have not seen combat, is the fact that Santoli does not attempt to be academic, but instead presents candid personal accounts of fellow soldiers with dignity and honor. Philip Smith, Lao Veterans of America
Rating:
Summary: powerful accounts rings true
Review: EVERYTHING WE HAD is a powerful account by soldiers of the Vietnam war, compiled by a combat veteran, whose experiences and insight ring true for soldiers who have seen hostile fire in any conflict. Members of the Lao Veterans of America who fought in that war have found this book to represent their gut-level experiences and reflections. The benefit of this book for those who have not seen combat, is the fact that Santoli does not attempt to be academic, but instead presents candid personal accounts of fellow soldiers with dignity and honor. Philip Smith, Lao Veterans of America
Rating:
Summary: Not Just Combat
Review: I picked this book up for the wrong reason, I thought I was going to be reading account after account of fire-fights. What I got was more human experiences that in the end I probably enjoyed more then just review of battles. Don't get me wrong, there is combat, but there is so much more to the real experiences in the every day life. You really get a feel for what the foot soldier went through. The book does read ok, you notice the different writing styles of the different authors, but the content is really the focus of the book.
Rating:
Summary: classic book on first-person vietnam
Review: I wanted to address this book because I read certain accounts within that book several times because they were interesting. Al Santoli has assembled a number of thought-provoking and detailed accounts straight from the veterans' mouths. The book allows the reader to learn a lot about personal courage, fear, and a kind of wisdom about the war that you would not realize unless, like the veterans, you were there. I do not proclaim that every account in the books is infallible and completely factual, but I will say that every account has something to it other than a certain dismissal as a bold-faced tall tale out of the mouth of a charlatan. The Mike Beamon chapter is probably the most compelling chapter, next to the P.O.W. account. Certain blow-hard right-wing writers have, in many cases, exposed those fake veterans and self-presenters of the CMH. But in the case of this chapter, whether this is truly this man's name or not, I do believe there is much more to this account. You cannot make up a story like that, and I do not believe Mr. Santoli got duped. Understand that they work on this book was probably completed during the mid-seventies to early eighties. The programs and missions that this individual is talking about were not disclosed to the public and were not part of popular movies and t.v. shows about the military, like they are nowdays. This individual was privileged to information that the normal soldier was not, and he exposes a lot of mind-blowing information. Everything one reads is not neccessarily believable, but in this case a good portion of this chapter cannot be discounted and dismissed. Whether his name is Mike Beamon or whether he teaches women's studies at some college is unknown for sure, but rest assured that may very well be exactly what he wants.
Rating:
Summary: classic book on first-person vietnam
Review: I wanted to address this book because I read certain accounts within that book several times because they were interesting. Al Santoli has assembled a number of thought-provoking and detailed accounts straight from the veterans' mouths. The book allows the reader to learn a lot about personal courage, fear, and a kind of wisdom about the war that you would not realize unless, like the veterans, you were there. I do not proclaim that every account in the books is infallible and completely factual, but I will say that every account has something to it other than a certain dismissal as a bold-faced tall tale out of the mouth of a charlatan. The Mike Beamon chapter is probably the most compelling chapter, next to the P.O.W. account. Certain blow-hard right-wing writers have, in many cases, exposed those fake veterans and self-presenters of the CMH. But in the case of this chapter, whether this is truly this man's name or not, I do believe there is much more to this account. You cannot make up a story like that, and I do not believe Mr. Santoli got duped. Understand that they work on this book was probably completed during the mid-seventies to early eighties. The programs and missions that this individual is talking about were not disclosed to the public and were not part of popular movies and t.v. shows about the military, like they are nowdays. This individual was privileged to information that the normal soldier was not, and he exposes a lot of mind-blowing information. Everything one reads is not neccessarily believable, but in this case a good portion of this chapter cannot be discounted and dismissed. Whether his name is Mike Beamon or whether he teaches women's studies at some college is unknown for sure, but rest assured that may very well be exactly what he wants.
Rating:
Summary: A powerful book, in spite of errors
Review: There are actually two false war stories in this book, those of Thomas Bird ("Ia Drang") and Mike Beamon ("The Green-Faced Frogmen"). Mr. Bird apologized to the author after the book's publication. He did serve in Vietnam, not in combat, and the POW story is a complete fabrication. Mr. Beamon did not even serve in the US military, never mind the SEALS or Vietnam. At the time the book came out, 1981, it was difficult to get veterans to discuss the war at all, never mind insist they verify their stories. Mr. Santoli, who I knew personally, was as disappointed as any of his critics that he had been taken in by these accounts. Still "Everything We Had"is a monumental work, from the days before the Vietnam Wall. Then the popular culture wanted nothing more to dismiss the war completely and held the men who fought there in contempt as losers or criminals. The feelings of Santoli's real contributors are still a compelling read today, twenty years later.
Rating:
Summary: Another of the essential books about Vietnam
Review: There have been a few who have tried to cast doubt on this entire book because one of the accounts here has been exposed as false. Well guess what folks, we have one person telling rather embellished war stories (and who nonetheless WAS in Vietnam), and that still leaves 32 credible eyewitness accounts. Vietnam Veterans of America is politically centrist and welcomes ALL Vietnam veterans as members, and so the extreme right wing, which would prefer that all veterans groups be ultra-conservative, simply does not like them and will try to discredit anything associated with them, such as this book.I'd say, forget the critics and read this book. The 32 credible eyewitness accounts here are powerful, moving, and will give you a "grunt's eye view" of what it was like to be there. This is one of several "in their own words" books which came out during the early 1980s, when America suddenly took an interest in trying to understand and get a grasp on the Vietnam War. In my opinion, this is still one of the best of those books.
Rating:
Summary: Very Unique Summation of Vietnam
Review: This book takes a very unique approach to narrating the history of the Vietnam war. It allows individuals to tell their stories of their experience, but does so in chronilogical order. So what you get first is a story about welcoming Americans to the war i.e. getting off the plane to see a corpse fall out of the bag...welcome to nam and what you get last is a get out of Saigon before it falls story. The stories are varied, covering special ops and grunt units to hospital and airforce views. Some stories are very short while some linger on, but all of them have heart and truly show a side not usually seen with the battle histories.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and believe anyone with any interest in America's involvement in Vietnam would also. It is very cheap and is a quick read and will improve your knowledge of history...all three great qualities!
|
