Vietnam Biography

I'm Just a Supply Sgt. is a compelling narrative of the Vietnam War with a very personal, psychological perspective that is difficult to find in most histories. Don Stout's ability to comprehend and record his feelings during the war, and his struggles after the war, provide not only a window into the suffering of many veterans but also a tool for catharsis for those afflicted with PTSD. Without a doubt, Don's story provides one of the most unique perspectives on the war and is not only a history of his service but a psychological epic.

"Kids like me didn't go to Vietnam", writes Jack McLean in his must-listen memoir. Raised in suburban New Jersey, he attended the Phillips Academy in Andover, MA, but decided to put college on hold. After graduation in the spring of 1966, faced with the mandatory military draft, he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps for a two-year stint. "Vietnam at the time was a country, and not yet a war", he writes. It didn't remain that way for long.

In June 1969, Tom Hargrove arrived in Vietnam as a first lieutenant in the US Army. But he wasn’t just there to make war against the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese armies. Hargrove was also there to introduce improved rice varieties into the war-torn region. This unique memoir tells of Hargrove’s efforts to improve the everyday lives of the Vietnamese, even as he was calling in B-52 strikes against opposition forces.

Kevin ‘Dasher’ Wheatley, VC, is one of the most extraordinary characters in Australian history. Dasher was a husband, father, champion footballer and one of the finest soldiers this country has ever produced. The story of his sacrifice is used by the ADF as a perfect example of valour and mateship to this day. Although he is one of the most famous Victoria Cross recipients of all time, his story has never been fully told. Until now.

The Ignorance of Bliss tells the true story of 10-year-old Sandy, who moves with her American military family to Saigon, Vietnam, where her father, the colonel, serves as a military advisor to the South Vietnamese Army.

Following the success of Jarhead, Anthony Swofford assumed he had exorcised his military demons - but as every veteran knows, that isn't exactly how it works. In these searing, courageous pages, Swofford struggles to make sense of what his military service meant, and to decide - after nearly ending it - what his life can and should become. Consumed by drugs, booze, fast cars, and the wrong women, Swofford almost lost everything and everyone that mattered to him.

Warren Robinson planned to go to law school after completing his undergraduate degree. He saw a career in law as a chance to leave his small hometown for a new life in the big city. In another time, Robinson might have achieved his goal, but the year was 1967, and the Vietnam War was reaching its bloody height. Knowing he would be drafted if he went ahead with his plans, Robinson asked for his name to be put at the top of his community's selective service list.

Words With My Father offers a gripping audio portrait of the evolution of a young man's mental illness and how it manifested into a dramatic and often dangerous existence through the turbulence of the Civil Rights, Peace and Conservation movements.

In late 1969, 20-year-old Robert Sweatmon received a letter informing him that he had 10 days to report to the United States Army. Like thousands of others, he had been drafted. Assigned as a rifleman with a mechanized unit, the author began a year-long odyssey in the Southeast Asian wilderness that would change his and his fellow soldiers’ lives forever. Coming of age in the maelstrom of civil rights and the free love culture, the author and his fellow soldiers saw their idealism quickly vaporize in the face of the grim realities of war.

This book tells Dee Knight's story of "waking up" to the truth about the US war in Vietnam, then refusing the draft and going to Canada where he lived for six years. It relates the years-long campaign for amnesty, in which Knight was a leader. After war resisters won a partial amnesty, Knight continued campaigning against US wars up to the present day.

On November 12, 1971, Bernard Patterson, a much-decorated Vietnam War hero, turned a real-life version of Don Quixote, Butch Cassidy, and Robin Hood all rolled into one package, robbed the Northern National Bank in Mars Hill, Maine. He escaped with $110,000; at the time, the largest bank robbery in the history of the state.

Asia’s growing economic clout is starting to reshape global business rules that have been molded by Western multinationals for many decades. The region’s rising star, Vietnam, is now flexing its economic muscles, and Competing with Giants tells the story of its transformation from war ruin to dynamic nation through the experiences of Tân Hiệp Phát (THP), the drinks company founded by Phương Uyên Trần’s family. Told through the eyes of the daughter who watched her parents overcome numerous obstacles to achieve success, the book offers a primer for others to follow suit.

In this inspiring meditation on courage, Senator John McCain shares his most cherished stories of ordinary individuals who have risked everything to defend the people and principles they hold most dear. These are some of the examples McCain turns to for inspiration and offers to others to help them summon the resolve to be both good and great. He explains the value of courage in both everyday actions and extraordinary feats. Most of all, listeners discover how sometimes simply setting the right example can be the ultimate act of courage.

During a nearly 40-year career in the United States Army, Hugh Shelton has been known as a straight shooter - when he speaks he means what he says. Whether serving under a Democratic president or a Republican president, whether in a war that was popular at home or not, Hugh Shelton gave all he had, and asked nothing less of the men and women who worked for him. Politically independent, Shelton told the truth - not what his superiors wanted to hear.

In May 1962, Naval Chief Petty Officer Bryant Arbuckle flew to Saigon to establish a new armed forces radio station. Next to follow were his wife and three boys, Leslie among them. Saigon Kids is the candid, recondite slice of 14-year-old military brat Les Arbuckle's experience at the American Community School during the critical months of the Vietnam War when events would, quite literally, ignite in downtown Saigon.

This is the story of Curtis "Colt" Terry, one of the original Green Berets. The information for this story came primarily from Colt's personal recollections documented in taped interviews. Many facts were confirmed with fellow paratroopers, military historians, and Special Forces NCOs and officers who served with him.

An inside account of the South Vietnamese elites who strove to carry on the war against the Communists during the US Army’s withdrawal. The book is a personal memoir of the author’s service as a US Army advisor during the end stages of America’s involvement in Vietnam. During the period 1970–71, the US was beginning to draw down its combat forces, and the new watchword was “Vietnamization.”

In Jersey Boy Takes Flight, you are taken on an extraordinary journey through the life of a man whose adventure began as a child, growing up in a middle-class, blue-collar family in Newark, New Jersey. Discover the carefree escapades of a boy in the 1950s and early 60s, engaging in boy scouting, hunting, fishing, and his ultimate passion - baseball. Yet, these innocent exploits soon collided with a country in turmoil, a nation grappling with assassinations, race riots, voting rights protests, anti-war movements, the dawn of space exploration, and the ever-expanding conflict in Vietnam.

In the late summer of 1942, more than 10,000 members of the First Marine Division held a tenuous toehold on the Pacific island of Guadalcanal. As American marines battled Japanese forces for control of the island, they were joined by war correspondent Richard Tregaskis. Only one of two civilian reporters to land and stay with the marines, Tregaskis’ notebook captured the daily and nightly terrors faced by American forces in one of World War II’s most legendary battles - and it served as the premise for his best-selling book Guadalcanal Diary.

Anh Vu Sawyer is an acclaimed Christian author. The poignant memoir of her escape from war-torn Vietnam, Song of Saigon has touched the hearts of countless readers the world over.