I read this biography for an AP US History class, so as we all know, for some reason, required books are hard to get into. Although this book could be very dull at times (perhaps solely for the aforementioned reason) it was amazing that a man could know so much about Ho Chi Minh. You really got a glimpse into his personal life. So, if you're doing a report or essay on Ho Chi Minh, or if you're simply a Ho Chi Minh fanatic, then I'd recommend this book.

I really wanted to give this book a "No Star" if I could. Even though I haven't been able to read this book (not yet released until April 2003) but, fairly speaking and by the historical facts, the author makes a big mistake by mixing up Ho Chi Minh with Osmar Bin Laden. These two men are totally different in many ways: backgrounds, personalties, idealogies, goals, and methods etc.. In my opinion, the author is trying to make his book more marketable by bringing in the controversial name of Ho Chi Minh (haunting name to American public). However, for critical-oriented minds, it is a dirty trick that will be back fired like the first two words of the title of this book: "Fighting Dirty."

Peter Harclerode, a historian of special forces, presents the simple-minded anti-communist version of history to try to justify the appalling story of state terrorism that he tells here.

He writes, 'The Soviet Union and China ' turned to pursue their own ambitions which, along with those of emerging nationalist movements, posed new global threats during the late 1940s and early 1950s by supporting revolution, insurrection and ultimately war in Eastern Europe, the Baltic, the Balkans, Indochina, Malaya and Korea.' The special forces operated in the British and French empires, or in countries where progressive forces had taken power. The special forces waged counter-revolutionary, aggressive wars, supporting empires and capitalism, against national liberation struggles.

Harclerode gives detailed accounts of wars in Eastern Europe and the Baltic states 1947-56, Albania 1949-54, Indochina 1950-54, Malaya 1948-58, Korea 1950-53, Algeria 1954-62, Borneo 1962-66, Tibet 1956-74, Oman 1958-76, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos 1954-71, and Afghanistan 1979-2001. He omits the CIA operations in Hungary, Angola, Kenya, Jamaica, Cuba and Nicaragua.

The CIA and MI6 operated in Eastern Europe, the SAS in the Empire. France's Action Service operated in France's empire in Indochina and Algeria. The CIA fought the USA's secret war in Tibet, which has always been part of China. A CIA unit, the Saigon Military Mission, organised terrorism in Vietnam and Laos, breaking the Geneva Accords.

The CIA and MI6 started funding, arming and training terrorists to attack the progressive government in Afghanistan six months before the Soviet Union sent forces to defend the government. These terrorists later went to the USA, Algeria, Bosnia and Chechnya.

The US and British states consistently built up terrorists like bin Laden, to fight national liberation struggles led by people like Ho Chi Minh. But the terrorists, like the special forces, were expendable. As the US Director of Central Intelligence, Admiral Turner, said, 'it was permissible to use other people's lives for the geopolitical interests of the US.'

A great revolutionary wrote, 'To die for the people in weightier than Mount Tai, but to work for the fascists and for the exploiters and oppressors is lighter than a feather.'

Having lived abroad in Asia for 4 years, I have enjoyed Butler's "A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain". The fact that the author lived, ate and spoke among the natives effuses throughout his books. So my disappointment couldn't have been greater when I picked up this book. The action, which the author wants to depict as breathless is listless and the characters come across as pathetic and pitiful when they should be portrayed daring and poignant. As his earlier work, this novel confirms that the author only got better with age.

I would be interested in learning if Ms. Taylor corrected the errors I pointed out in her first edition.

Women have always figured prominently in Vietnamese history and I approached this work with a great deal of positive anticipation. I was looking for something akin to Bruce Myle's Night Witches. This was an excellent account of Russian women combat pilots in WWII. Unfortunately Taylor's book fails on several fronts and I found its value to be very limited.

Probably the first thing that stands out is the so-called photograph identified as that of a Captain William Robinson, allegedly shot down in the 1972-73 Christmas bombing. On page 110, Professor Taylor writes that this captain returned to Vietnam in 1985 to apologize. This same picture is identified in Rochester and Kiley's book Honor Bound as a helicopter NCO named William A. Robinson who was shot down on 20 September 1965 (pages 141-142). This would be the same A1C helicopter mechanic who was awarded the enlisted Air Force Cross for that mission. Robinson's team was attempting to rescue an American pilot when they were shot down. Nor can I find any verification of Mr. Robinson's "apology" in 1985. Discrepancies such as these do not do much to lend credibility to the rest of the text. What is particularly disturbing is the fact that Professor Taylor seems to have accepted the photograph presented by the Women's Museum in Hanoi at face value. It is next to impossible that a 22-year-old would have received the rank of captain anyway. Given several documented incidents of individuals passing themselves off as POW's and making fake apologies, one would have expected some documentation of an attempt to verify this information.

Taylor indicates that she does not speak Vietnamese and that her interviews were done in the presence of government interpreters. One wonders how candid these interviews would be and in fact Professor Taylor indicates a certain reluctance on the part of those interviewed attributing it to Confucian principles of "right relationships" rather than the presence of government interpreters. On this issue, I remain skeptical.

I have traveled to a few communist countries (Russia, China and Vietnam and the former East Germany). My experience has been a consistent pattern of enthusiastic efforts on the part of communists to correct me on points of history that are simply not credible. And I have no doubt these people genuinely believed what they were telling me and they were certainly not reticent. This was not the case in rare private meetings with "average citizens".

If you are interested in how the North Vietnamese have reconstructed their history to fit political goals or are interested in the mechanics of propaganda, then this book may be of some interest. I have no doubt there were many patriotic North Vietnamese women who fought bravely, suffered and sacrificed much, particularly under French colonialism and later under Diem. Unfortunately their stories are subsumed in the same sort of revisionism seen in the Cultural Revolution in China. It is likely that the real story of women's participation in the Vietnam War will have to wait until Vietnam can become a freer society than it is today.