INNOCENCE DIES is an excruciatingly honest book and the author has done his best to portray accurately the army, Vietnam, and the American war there. It is one of the few books I have read in which there is a major Vietnamese character or any information about Vietnam and its people and culture. The author has also successfully juxtaposed the horrors of combat with the message of Christianity by having an army chaplain as a major character. We hear him pray and preach and counsel. But let there be no mistake. This is not a book for Sunday School readers. The characters come to life: the protagonist Doug Andrews, his platoon sergeant, SFC Szigmond, the chaplain, Doug's family and friends, the men he commands, the Vietnamese Le Qui Thanh, and his lover, Nancy West. It is filled with page turning tension from first to last. This is a book that will last.

This is more than just a story of the horrors experienced in the Viet Nam war. The Andrews family's personal experience in sending a son off to war is a focal point in leading the reader in a realistic path of that difficult time in history. The book is obviously well researched and authentic to what happened in the war. The author makes each character come alive as you experience with the characters the reality of that time. The love story that develops is a sweet one that captures the emotions of the reader. At this time when there is news in the media of things that happened in the Viet Nam war that need to be let alone, it reminds us that one cannot know what those brave men experienced and they deserve our compassion and the right to privacy. It is obvious from the author's bio that he has a rich background in Viet Nam history and we are rewarded with the knowledge that this is an authentic account. The addition of the fictional family's experiences makes it a very good read.

I was motivated to check out the book because of the comments found at "The Colonel Fletcher Prouty Reference Site" that "I believe this book was ordered and delineated by the CIA." Having checked it out I have to agree. It's a warmed over make-up job of a colonizer. If people might find anything interesting about the Prouty corroboration of this fact, it would only be because a former comrade of Lansdale's also speaks with experience.

Well I actually haven't read the book, but wasn't Lansdale photographed passing the 'three tramps' in the street shortly after Kennedy was killed? Lansdale's good at overthrowing governments, isn't he? (Philipines, Vietnam...)

William Colby, the late Director of Central Intelligence, rated Edward Lansdale as one of the ten greatest spies in modern history. Edward Geary Lansdale was indeed a most unusual character: regarded as a maverick by many in the U.S. Defense and State Departments, yet greatly appreciated and even loved by nationals of the countries in which he spent much of his career: the Philippines and South Vietnam. Rising to the rank of major general in the Air Force, Lansdale worked his entire career in either military intelligence, psychological warfare, or special operations, with the O.S.S., C.I.A., and DoD. Lansdale's most successful efforts were in the Phillipines in the late 40's and early 50's, helping defeat the communist insurgents (Huks) and establish democratic reforms. In "Bright Shining Lie" Neil Sheehan called Lansdale the "father of South Vietnam," and this is largely true. But despite two long assignments in country (1954-57 and 1965-68) not even the legendary Lansdale could stabilize South Vietnam, largely because senior U.S. leaders would not support his ideas. Lansdale was against the predominant U.S. "big battle" strategy, but rather believed the fight was a "people's war" which required working with villagers to help them defend themselves. This is the strategy Andrew Krepenivich espoused in "The Army and Vietnam." Lansdale believed that helping nationals fight a people's war was a form of brotherly love, inspired by the Founding Fathers' concepts of respect for the rights of individuals. He felt an important way to learn Asians' culture was to learn their folk songs (always playing along on his harmonica) and to let them know that Americans accepted them as equals. In the long anti-Vietnam period after U.S. withdrawal in 1973, Lansdale has often been unfairly maligned. This book finally gives him a fair treatment, while pointing out criticisms from both the left and the right. Lansdale is a legend, and with good reason. Few people's lives involve the amount of intrigue similar to, for example, the character Reilly, "Ace of Spies," who worked for British intelligence. To learn about the noble ideals behind American Cold War foreign policy (despite often tragic miscalculations), the fascinating life of Edward Geary Lansdale is an enlightening tale.

This book tends to becomes repetitous, but is still worth reading.

The problem with LBJ wound up being not the stockade as much as the incompetency on the part of those that ran it.

From August, 1970 to September, 1971, I was a guard on the twelve-hour nightshift at Long Binh Jail, the U.S. Army's stockade in Vietnam. And so, I had a special interest in reading Cecil Barr Curry's "oral history" of "LBJ". It could be said, I suppose, that my direct involvement with the place prevented me from making an objective evaluation of Curry's book. But I believe it gave me an advantage in determining if Curry's account of this "notorious" episode in America's venture in Vietnam was accurate. And, for the most part, it was.

I say "for the most part" because it is an oral history, told by prisoners and cadre. And, as Curry noted at the outset, memories tend to modify over the years into either exaggerations or self-serving alternations. I even found myself questioning my own memories of certain "incidents" and conditions there but, to be certain, Curry's account validated much of my experience. If I had any problem, it's that I wish he had used more "eye witnesses." In the eight-year history of Long Binh Jail, literally thousands passed through its Main Gate, one way or another, and seeing the same names used repeatedly for his sources was frustrating (or maybe I was just disappointed I hadn't been interviewed).

Curry traced the development of both the physical structure and the human condition of LBJ. The first began as little more than a tented encampment on old tennis courts near Tan Son Nhut Airport near Saigon. It eventually grew into the maze of fence and concertina wire that I knew at the sprawling post at Long Binh. To be sure, there was more than one LBJ, and I turned out to one of the last to work at the "old" LBJ. The new and final version was begun soon after I arrived, and I observed its gradual construction during my entire tour (I also have photos).

But, of course, the real story about the Army's stockade in Vietnam was the human factor, and Curry treated this directly and honestly. For most of its existence, the issue behind all the fence and wire was a black/white one, far more than a guard/prisoner one or even the political dynamics of the war itself. During my time there, the hatred seethed between the mostly black inmate population and the mostly white guard staff. For thirty years, I've had to keep in perspective those very emotions I came to feel there, although I can remember thinking during my more rational moments, when I wasn't worried about getting my throat slit or my head bashed in, what it must have been like to be black and in jail in Vietnam, exactly the insight that Curry mentions.

I doubt very much if a whole book about Long Binh Jail would have been warranted if it hadn't been for the full-scale riot there in August of 1968. At the time, it was considered the worst prison riot in American penal history, and Curry gave a detailed account of the events leading up to, during, and its aftermath. The facility reconstructed on the ashes from the riot was the one I came to know.

As a guard, most of my time was spent in Detained Compound, or pretrial. It consisted of three barracks, each surrounded by fence and wire and capable of holding up to forty prisoners. Very rarely were any of these buildings not filled to capacity. Half my night was inside one of these buildings, often alone but usually with one other guard. Guards didn't carry weapons inside the Stockade. The other half of the night I spent in a tower. It was a little disconcerting seeing the cover of Curry's book, because it shows a guard, with shotgun ready, in one of the towers definitely of the old jail.

On occasion, however, I was pulled from Detain to assist in Maximum Compound, which was where LBJ acquired its other nickname, Silver City. It consisted of metal conex boxes, each with a side cut off and bars welded on, painted silver, and used as individual "cells." It was here that most of the prisoner "abuse" was alleged to have occurred.

Curry dealt with these accusations by letting his interviewees do all the talking, and the result, if somewhat contradictory, corroborated my experience. If anything, any real abuse was conducted against the guards by the inmates, usually in attempts to subdue the inmate. I personally knew a guard who had been slashed across his throat by a coke can torn into two halves which produced sharp jagged edges. And I witnessed an attempted beating of a guard from my Detained watch tower one night. Breaking the grasp of his attackers, he escaped with a slight eye injury. The inmates involved then turned on a few of the white inmates and severely injured them. This was one of the "lessening incidents" that Curry said took place during the command of Lt. Col. Paul Grossheim, under whom I served and was promoted to sergeant. With fairness, however, I also witnessed prisoners who were left lying on their stomachs for many hours and with their wrists shackled to their ankles. The guards called this being kept in the "cradle."

Within the context of all that the word "Vietnam" has come to signify for America, Long Binh Jail was but a blip on the screen. But if someone really wants to understand the Vietnam experience, other than a Hollywood version of it, what happened there should be included in the studies. And Cecil Barr Currey's, "Long Binh Jail: An Oral History of Vietnam's Notorious U.S. Military Prison," is a good place to start.

Currey obviously fawns on Giap. Currey has shown no criticil analysis at all in either confirming or refutting Giap's claims. He simply passes them on. At times one cannot tell whether one is reading Currey or Giap.

Vietnam history is one of invasion, going back a thousand years. Chinese, Khmer, French, Japanese, and finally the Americans. The Vietnamese have struggled with all of these. If one puts Vietnamese history into this context, one starts to realize that there is no other story like the Vietnamese saga.

General Giap is a figure that must be studied by any serious student of warfare history. Giap was a arduious student of Napoleon, very serious, totally dedicated to his cause. While the fighting spirit and mettle of the Viet Minh cannot be understated, Giap's victory at Dien Bien Phu was nothing short of spectacular, using his army of barefoot soldiers. His grasp of logistics, and his sense of flexability on the battlefield are unsurpassed in modern warfare. His victory gave hope to colonial peoples all over the world, and signaled the end of colonialism. He proved the indiginous people could defeat a modern, powerful army. He fought the riches, most technologically advanced nation ever known to a standstill.

I have totally enjoyed Cecil Curry's book on Giap. Curry's book does not try to glorify the man, nor does he make him out to be an evil communist. He simply tries to tell his story, and why Giap is the genius he is. Also, Curry goes into the excesses of the Vietnamese communist, as well as that of the French, Vietnamese oposition, and the Americans: He never tries to gloss over anything. Curry has some interviews with Giap, which makes the book even more interesting.

This book should be read by anyone who loves military history, whether professionally or not. Any officer in any army could learn something here. Love him or hate him, Giap was a formidable foe, both to his foreign enemies, and those at home. History will remember Giap, and Curry's book will be the definitive source on his story for a long time to come.

Casual readers may have difficulty with the over-abundance of military detail and walk-on characters. But indespensible for history buffs interested in World War II ETO theater. Well researched, bloody and overwhelming narrative of the Huertgen Forest battle portrayed in movie WHEN TRUMPETS FADE. Ripe for reissue by a publisher!