|
Bridges of Vietnam From the Vietnam Journals of a U. S. Marine Intelligence Officer by Fred L. Edwards, Jr. |
As a career Marine since the age of seventeen, Fred L. Edwards, Jr., felt a great gulf when he was passed over repeatedly for service in the front lines of Korea. Finally, in 1966, he had his chance to bridge that gulf by serving as an intelligence officer in Vietnam. He traveled regularly from Saigon to the Mekong Delta, to the Central Highlands, to the DMZ, and more. His mission gave him a prime opportunity to see the war as it was fought in the cities and in the countryside. His boss told him:
“Visit every major ground unit in the country. Go to Special Forces camps, ground reconnaissance units, armored cavalry units, and waterborne reconnaissance units. Search everywhere for intelligence sources—long range patrols, boats, electronic surveillance, and agent operations. Don't get bogged down by dog-and-pony shows staged for colonels and generals. When I want special info, go get it and get back with it.”
What he saw not only gave him the ribbons of a combat veteran; it taught him a lesson about war, about soldiery, and about life. “In Vietnam I saw men sucked into an abstract pull of war, because the rules had changed. . . . I learned that, once committed to war and combat, most men become heroes. . . . Finally, I knew that I had acquired a solemn, awesome obligation to all those who died. I was compelled to focus my remaining life upward, the way they might have done had they been given the chance.”
This book is built around Edwards's journals, sent home during his first tour in Vietnam in 1966–67. His own meticulous research fits his individual experiences into a larger context, through postscripts, extensive notes, and a thorough historical chronology. The book is formatted so that the reader can move easily between the events in Vietnam in 1967–68 and the broader context as revealed through later research. The reader can thus move between Edwards's personal experiences in Vietnam and the larger historical forces that sent him there. As a piece of the puzzle of Vietnam, this book holds great significance to those who were there and for students of that war.
FRED L. EDWARDS, Jr., culminated a thirty-year Marine Corps career as a lieutenant colonel. After the events narrated in this book, he returned to Vietnam in 1973 before retiring from the Marines in 1979. He then began a second career as a businessman and writing consultant. Edwards lives in South Pasadena, Florida, where he continues to write about sailing.
The Bridges of Vietnam
1-57441-123-3 cloth $39.95s
LC 00-028678. 6x9. 280 pp. 4 photos. 4 maps. Index.
Military History.
AUGUST
To order this book, please complete the on-line ORDER FORM.