War Story

I cannot begin to express how much I enjoyed Jim Morris' personal reflection on his time spent in Vietnam as a Green Beret in the early years of the war, as his account truly hits the mark. A vast conflict, affecting hundreds of thousands of lives, where the worst enemy was often misconception and the anally retentive "red tape syndrome" so indicative of any large military machine. Not afraid to say it like it is - we get to meet such legends as "Cowboy", "Luette", and discover the true relationship that existed between the VC, Vietnamese, and indigenous tribes such as the Montagnara... We get to dip into the funny side of life in Vietnam - Jim's account of the time he visited a leper colony in the company of a local missionary and ended up sharing a jug of numpai with the village elder through a shared straw (Yuuum) had me crying with laughter And sadly, we see the poignant heartrending reality too - John Link's story near the end of the book was especially tragic and typifies the cruelty of war. A normal guy doing what he can to save a fellow soldier and paying the ultimate price. (Jim himself was badly injured during that same rescue attempt). And this from a man who's worst fear was getting promoted out and being "8 to 5'd to death in a foul little job in a foul little office", and who never felt more alive or at home than when he was out on patrol in an endless sea of green, doing something he felt was more important than life. If you ever feel the need to read a true life tale that's thoroughly engaging and exposes what the conflict was all about, then War Story is just the thing you need. From one veteran who has lived through the crucible of fire to another...Respect, brother. Respect.

Tricky, if you are to convey merit but perhaps only modest approval of the events sometimes very adequately described. Jim Morris starts as a Captain in Special Forces, who yearns-his word-to lead a force into battle with the Vietcong. He also admit that he really wants to kill lots of -now I'd need to re-read the precise words he uses to be absolutely fair to him. This is a very involving book. It's also , at times, confusing. Morris despises both some of his men-sometimes-and his superiors. He's at quick character assassination, and at times a bit wearisome. However, he usually redeems himself with a fair and interesting account of a firefight or someone really interesting, and generally he likes slightly more people than he dislikes. He is a self confessed lover of Vietnam-yes! Right in the middle of a nasty war. His thrown away comments are nonetheless sometimes enlightening-you can see where he's coming from. There were some horrors in this war and undoubtedly some very tough times-he was injured more than once. But it's interesting reading all the way to the end.

Jim Morris was in-country from early on, before the first conventional troops were deployed, until after the Tet Offensive. As an officer in Special Forces, he bounced around quite a bit in South Vietnam, able to put both the forest and the trees of that conflict into a perspective that your average lowly grunt (or a REMF in Saigon, for that matter) could not--at least without years of investigative journalism afterwards, I'd bet. War Story is about a man whose chief aspiration in life was to be a soldier. While other young men were dragged to Vietnam kicking and screaming, or dodged the draft altogether, Jim Morris and other members of the Special Forces volunteered for Vietnam. Against his wishes, Morris was assigned jobs either in the rear or on Okinawa--jobs other men would have killed for. Still, he clawed and scratched his way back to the periphery of the conflict. Sometimes right into the hot thick of it--you can be certain that, unlike some who've attempted to parlay their service into political success, Morris earned his Purple Hearts. In fact, Morris actually feared promotion beyond 0-3 (Captain), because it would nix his chances to command an A-Team. Had there been more officers like this in my time, I might have held to my original plan of being a 30-Year-Man. Or at least 20. Morris was a soldier who cared about the mission, and wanted to make a difference, armed with ideas which could have done so. He worked within the system, but (and this is one thing I love about SF) wasn't obsessed with following counterproductive protocols, or eating cheese. He wanted to fight, and to win, while the average career officer just wants to brown-nose, shuffle paperwork, and admire rows of spit-shined boots and starched uniforms all perfectly dress-right-dressed. But not only was victory not an objective for the US chain-of-command, the South Vietnamese weren't much interested in it, either. The ARVN (Army of the Republic of Vietnam) was infamous for its corruption and incompetence. It would be hard to name a military organization more rife with cowards, crooks, traitors and fools. Whatever good soldiers fought for the South were buried under bureaucratic BS. Morris relates the story of how some loyal villagers reported six VC (Viet Cong) sighted in a certain ARVN officer's district. "Only one weapon between them." That ARVN commander could have captured them quickly and easily, possibly getting some valuable intelligence into the bargain. Instead, he sent the report up his ponderous chain of command. Three days after the VC left the village, an airstrike leveled it. That's how loyalty was rewarded. Any wonder why most of the Vietnamese citizens turned a blind eye to VC activity? As Morris hops around South Vietnam in War Story, you might want to follow along on a map. Having never been there myself, I was unfamiliar with the geography and sometimes grew confused about where he was and when he had been there before. The command structure on both the American and South Vietnamese sides were equally cumbersome. Heck, it was a convoluted mess by WWII and has only gotten worse every decade since then. Other Amazon reviewers complain about the structure of the narrative--that there are too many flashbacks, sidetracks and personal reflections, and they make it difficult to keep a grip on the main thrust of the memoir. I say the style perfectly fits an account of the Vietnam War. If you have trouble tracking the story in this book, you'll probably have much more difficulty ever fully understanding that conflict. To me, it was worth keeping a map handy and taking notes on the people who weaved in and out of the story. Morris himself says: "There is only one way to fight a guerilla war and that is to outguerilla the guerilla. You have to steal his political issues and his social issues and his tactics; and if you do that he has nothing left to sell and the war is won. It was so easy. Why couldn't the bastards see it? Maybe that was what made me not one of the boys: the fact that I moved around so much as a kid that I was highly sensitive to new social situations. That was what made me not one of the boys. Maybe I knew what I was doing and 'The Boys' didn't." And Morris could certainly adapt to new social situations. He didn't just work with the 'Yards (Montagnards--ostracized mountain tribes of Vietnam), but made friends with them. He could make sense of their military and social network, and knew who could get the job done unclouded by the "all Dinks are the same" attitude held by some of the more condescending officers on our side of the fence. One such 'Yard comrade, nicknamed "Cowboy," is a fascinating enough character to warrant his own biography. I could go on at great length about this book and what I learned from it. I recommend that you just read it and let Morris' narrative speak for itself. For a more detailed review, you can read my post about this book on the Two-Fisted Blog. Henry Brown, author of Hell and Gone

I couldn't decide if this was fiction or not. Interesting to a point but difficult to follow at times. Easy to read tho.

Wow! At first I/ was somewhat disappointed due to the lack of actual battle accounts. However; somewhere along the line I became so wrapped up in Jim Moore's descriptive story that I forgot all about the field battles and fire fights I find so fascinating. Moore has a great style that is relaxed yet poignant. I was drawn into his friendships with cowboy , his description of the "Yards" and his special love for the people and the country. An expense amount of information without ever becoming boring or overly verbose. A really exceptional account of the real life affairs of a true soldier who somehow managed to live (and fight) for years in country w/o becoming hateful or cynical. Absolutely amazing life and a story that describes a side of the Vietnam war rarely written about. In addition,the story was told a way I have never seen portrayed more honestly. I highly recommend this book.

A recomended classic

Completely different take on Vietnam - easy reading. Understand the complexity of the Vietnam War better. Jim Morris share his thoughts and experience.