National Security Archives historian Prados, who has long specialized in the Vietnam War (Inside the Pentagon Papers), presents a compendium of first-person accounts of the American war. Although most of the voices are those of American service personnel and North and South Vietnamese military veterans, Prados also includes a sprinkling of civilian participants, including CIA operatives. (All of the words are excerpted from previously published material.) The book contains a brief overview of the war’s history, and short introductions to each entry. The voices offer a message that is not political, writes Prados. Rather, 'it is one built from the ordeals and adventures of men and women thrown into the maelstrom of this war.' Some of those men and women will be familiar to students of the Vietnam War: Philip Caputo, Fred Downs, W.D. Ehrhart, Ronald Glasser, David Hackworth, Hal Moore, Colin Powell, Norman Schwarzkopf, Jack Smith, Ray Stubbe, Hugh Thompson, Lynda Van Devanter, Bruce Weigl. A preponderance of the witnesses are officers, and only a scarce handful are support personnel. Still, this is a valuable collection of primary source material that succeeds in the author’s goal of recapturing 'the smell and the taste of Vietnam' and the on-the-ground experiences of those who fought there.

Publishers Weekly

Prados' great gift is his solid structure and commentary that add a context that might--just might--lead to understanding.

Army Magazine

A good collection of primary source material that succeeds in the author’s goal of recapturing ‘the smell and the taste’ of Vietnam and the feelings of the vets confronting the land and the adversary.

The VVA Veteran

John Prados performs a valuable service, drawing together the perspectives of those who fought the war on the ground in Vietnam. The result is illuminating, and often moving. He puts faces on those who bore the burden of the bloody fighting on both sides. This is a must-read for military historians and Vietnam War veterans.

James H. Willbanks, author of Abandoning Vietnam

Nothing illuminates the true nature of war as well as the voices of those who experienced it firsthand. In this valuable volume, John Prados has gathered together an impressive array of first-person testimony from a wide range of individuals who took part in America's long, controversial war in Vietnam. This book provides readers with page after page of insights on the complex nature of that conflict. Highly recommended.

Marc Leepson, journalist, author, historian