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Summary: Upon Further Reflection on Nolan's Book
Review: After reading the numerous comments from other readers (and fellow Vietnam Veterans) I do think that my previous comment was overly harsh. But only for parts of this book. The body of the book is excellent and Mr. Nolan should be given highest honors for recording this important history. Also, Sports Illustrated's commemoration of Bob Kalsu was wonderful and I presented it to my group of Vietnam Veterans. Great, simply great stuff. However, and I stand firm on this point, the introduction in which Mr. Nolan presents his 'big picture' explanation is simply inaccurate. The battle at Ripcord was not the end of an era; it was part of the beginning of the retreat phase. Personally, in my earlier years following the war I would have been very pleased, emotionally, to heap as much criticism upon the higher echelon as possible. As I see it now, I truly believe that the entire US Military in the Vietnam War was excellent. We prevailed against incredible odds, mired in an Asian land war forbidden to destroy the North (the source of the invading communists). I also recall an excellent military withdrawal that put the S. Vietnamese military in as good a position as possible, and that inflicted significant 'hurt' on the N. Vietnamese communists. In contrast, I remember our US Congress later cutting all monetary funds to S. Vietnam and a US public that danced in the streets singing the praises of the communist victory following the fall of Saigon. I remember the S. Vietnamese boat people, the anti-war establishment's ridicule of S. Vietmamese living in San Francisco (even in the 1990's), and personal heroic stories from ARVIN soldiers who fought the communists and suffered in prison camps for decades. Personally, I have been 'shamed' as a Vietnam Veteran even to this day. I contemptuously view the shaming as an 'artifact' of the war. Military retreat is always difficult and presents its own distinct problems and hazards. That certain groups of troops were necessarily exposed to impossible risk 'during our retreat' is a point in history that Mr. Nolan should re-analyze and correctly incorporate. The current explanation (as again presented in Ripcord) that the higher echelon (i.e., those officers) were incompetent and cowardly is absurd and unnecessarily defacing; most importantly,historically,it is simply innaccurate. Also, the 'fragging' and 'racism' and 'drug use' by military personnel simply did not render the military, in say Da Nang, incapacitated. PLEASE, GIVE ME A BREAK. Yes it was a problem, but please curtail the media hype and anti-war sentiment exagerations. More accurately, the drug use and racism has always been, and remains, a bigger problem here in the continental USA. The truth is that the US military today and for its entire history has been similarly effective and courageous. In Vietnam we fought with what we had: and WE WERE THE BEST. We were the best in Iwo Jima and in Okinawa. We were the best in S. Vietnam, including the withdrawal (a withdrawal demanded by the US public). Turning US public opinion against the US military was a propaganda weapon 'successfully' utilized by the N. Vietnamese communists. Consequently, separating media hype, N. Vietnamese communist progaganda, and anti-war sentiment from actual historical fact, has been and remains a major problem. Perhaps it will take later generations who have more cultural and emotional distance to accomplish this.
Rating: 
Summary: Who were these men ...?
Review: Dang! This is one helluva battle history. Right on the money, accurate and with plenty of action to go around. If there's a better story out there about the Vietnam War, let me know ... I'll buy you a beer. Keith Nolan is in top form ... best book he's done yet, and he's done a lot. So what's it all about? Ripcord was the last big battle of the war involving purely American forces. Lam Son 719 came the next year ... featured ARVN and U.S. forces. You want guts and glory? This is it! A division of North Vietnamese regulars surround Fire Base Ripcord on the northeast rim of the dreaded A Shau Valley, put it under siege, and prepare to make a ground assault. U.S. airmobile troopers of the 101st fight back, but are committed piecemeal to the action. No one knows what's really going on until the last fateful days of the battle. By then it's too late. Courage? It's here in spades. Medal of Honor awardee Lt. Col. Andre Lucas is killed on the final day. He's a hero worth remembering. So is the Battle of FSB Ripcord ... so is this book. Read it. Remember those who fell there.
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Summary: Was there at the beginning
Review: For someone who did not serve in the military this book may be hard to follow, as it jumps from unit to unit. I was there (Ripcord AO) from April of 1970 to May 12 1970 at the beginning of the operation. Men I knew for almost a year were killed in this battle, a battle that the press ignored. Reading about how your friends died is hard, but they are finally get the attention they so deserved. If you want to read about how the Vietnam War was fought, this is the book.
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Summary: As confusing as the battle
Review: I was one of the guys on Ripcord during the events described in Mr. Nolan's book and I can't describe how I feel having read his account. Thank you, Mr. Nolan, for writing this account and bringing to the public the story of what happened. Even for someone who lived through it, the account is confusing, jumping back and forth from one company and one engagement to another. It must be very difficult for someone who wasn't there to visualize what was going on. Too many B's and C's and 501st's and 506th's thrown together in a seemingly haphazard array. Having said that, I'll add that such a confusing account, while it makes understanding difficult, accurately mirrors how most of us felt at the time. We didn't understand what was happening or why either. If this book did nothing else for me, it gave me the 'big picture' and finally after all these years, helped me understand the crises and horror felt by the commanders who led us. I'd always felt that they didn't care - a common sentiment among the grunts and other enlisted men. Now I have some peace knowing that the command decisions that seemed so uncaring at the time, were made in large by men battling political pressures that undermined their own abilities to conduct the operation. Gone is my anger, replaced by a new respect and empathy for officers who did the best they could to balance demands for results against a military heirarchy which denied them the men and options necessary to guarantee success. Mr. Nolan, if you ever revise this book, perhaps you could include some diagrams or other visual aids to help readers better visualize the brigade structure and the flow of the battle. But whether you ever do that or not, thank you again for recording what happened during the most terrifying months of my own, and many other men's, lives.
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Summary: DARK ENIGMA
Review: I've read most of Keith William Nolan's books, and this one ranks as one of the best, if not the best. I will not add to the many astute observations already made about the complexity and difficulty of the task Nolan took on. And, yes, you do find yourself lost at times, trying to sort out the units and their various ever-changing positions. However, for me the most haunting memory of the book is how the commander of the 2nd Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, Lt. Col. Andre C. Lucas, could be perceived as both a consummate field officer and leader, and at the same time be reviled as an incompetent glory hound. These diametrically opposed judgments do not represent merely the views of frustrated grunts vs. those of the brass. Men that ran the gamut of the chain of command shared them. There was no middle ground. Men either hated or highly admired him. Lt. Col. Lucas was killed on the last day of the Siege of Ripcord and, thanks to the efforts of the acting Commanding General of the 101st, was awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously. Nolan never gets to the bottom of the controversy over Lucas' performance as battalion commander, but instead simply calls Lucas the "dark engima" of the whole Ripcord fiasco. Perhaps only God knows the truth.
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Summary: more vietnam sacrafice and madness
Review: KW Nolan does a fine job, but, as a siege, Ripcord is not Ke Sahn. Ripcord is not the subject material of operations Buffalo Junction or Duey Canyon. Ripchord is not Hamburger Hill. What is intriguing about Ripcord, is the motives of the 101st brass who are bent on taking the fight to the NVA in the laregely uncontested Ashau Valley, at a time when the American military is "standing down" towards vietnamization of the war.
The war was basically over for most military ground forces by the summer of 1970. Not so, for the Screaming Eagles of the 101st Airborne's 3rd Brigade. What were the military commanders of the 101st thinking, when they established a firebase in the middle of an NVA stronghold which had been largely uncontested throughout the war?
The 101st brass learns again, the lesson of the IA Drang valley. When necessary, the NVA are wiling to make the sacrafices necessary to inflict the casualities necessary for their foe to withdraw. Through it all, as in previous Nolan works, the american fighting man fights bravely, honorably, and suffers greviously for the cause of his superiors. IO recommend the series "Tiger Force" by the Toledo Blade.
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Summary: Why Vietnam Veterans need to write their experiences
Review: My name is Joe Reed. USMC 2/5 An Hoa 1970. I was the last of 5 marines to defend An Hoa combat base when it was evacuated about the same time that Ripcord was evacuated. I am sure Mr. Nolan is a nice person and a good writer, but his book, Ripcord, is an excellent example why US (and S. Vietnam) Veterans need to write down their experiences of the war. Indeed, I have recently encouraged a marine who fought on Hill 881 and an Army 101st Airborn veteran who fought on Hamburger Hill (after the famous battle) to write down their experiences. Why? Because the Vietnam War was also fought in the US. After all of these years, it is now very clear to me that the communist propaganda and US media impact on 'anyone' back in the US inevitably confounds (and continues to confound) their objective historical account of the Vietnam war. Their view is fatally biased due to the profound cultural impact of the communist propaganda waged and 'adopted' by the US public and by the 'tabloid' US media coverage. Current US generations are unaware and would never acknowledge anyway that they adopted communist propaganda, and that they blindly accepted (and accept)the US media as only professional journalism rather than also as mere tabloid sensationalism and 'yellow' journalism. As a consequence, in their eyes, US Vietnam Veterans will always lie on a continuum of being war criminals to being some form of incompetent. Ask any combat Vietnam Veteran how they are stereotyped even thirty years after the war. It is not that Mr. Nolan's account of firebase Ripcord is totally inaccurate, indeed, it has excellent detail. Rather, it is fatally flawed because it is laced with his view of the war as understood through the biased eyes of the American public. Again, the current American public is completely blind that they adopted much of the communist propaganda, that the US media rediculously misrepresented the war (and its famous images), and also that the Hollywood writers and producers made Vietnam war movies that merely promoted (and still promote) fictional Vietnam Veteran stereotype, and also promote non-veterans, North Vietnam communists, and especially US war correspondents as the real war heroes. As a consequence, the current American public only has an extremely biased and distorted view of the Vietnam War, its Veterans, and of the South Vietnamese. As an example, it would be like expecting General Sherman to be able to give a neutral and unbiased account of the US Civil War. Now, think, wouldn't he also be largely blind to his cultural bias ? Mr. Nolan, if you are reading this, we only go through life one time. If you are sincere, and I believe that you are, to do this history for real you would do best to advise Vietnam Veterans and help 'them' to document 'their' experiences. You already have excellent contacts. Time is running out,in twenty more years most of us will be gone....
Rating:
Summary: Ripcord Review
Review: One of the best books I have ever read--no question. I can't even imagine all of the effort and research it took to construct this book. A must read if you like action and more realistic action.
Rating:
Summary: A Superb History of a Largely Forgotten Battle
Review: This book is an excellent study of the siege at Ripcord. Mr. Nolan lets the participants tell the story without the intrusions that so often interfere with the accuracy of historical monographs. In the future, when scholars have the knowledge, insight, and emotional distance to start writing comprehensive histories of the Vietnam Conflict, Mr. Nolan's works will be in every bibliography. The book debunks many of the myths surrounding the final years of the war. First, he demonstrates that the troops on the ground were not shirkers, but fought with bravery and purpose - even though every KIA knew, at the moment of his death, that the battle and the war would not be won. Second, he demonstrates that the military leadership had lost all direction by 1970. After years of complaining that the enemy would not stand and fight, they got their chance for a pitched battle at Ripcord. Ultimately they ran away - bowing to outside pressures -leaving the enemy to hold the field and wasting the lives of many brave soldiers. Mr. Nolan is also surprisingly frank in describing the assessments that the participants made of each other. Even the battalion commander, who received the Medal of Honor, is portrayed as a complex figure with strengths and weakness, and not as some sort of comic book hero. If you don't have time to read the whole book, read "Part Seven: The Storm". It is the author's best prose and tells the story of the most poignant part of a very poignant event. For thirty years I have been waiting for this book. At the time of the battle, I knew that Ripcord was a big deal. Since then, I've read books and watched documentaries on Vietnam. Only the "The Thirteenth Valley" even vaguely addressed this battle. I want to thank Mr. Nolan for resurrecting this nearly forgotten tragedy. The only piece now missing from the Ripcord saga is the prespective of the NVA. Hopefully, that information will be forthcoming before the last Ripcord survivor dies.
Rating:
Summary: Maybe the best combat book I have ever read
Review: This book is one of the very best accounts of combat I have ever read. This book is as good as "We Were Soldiers Once and Young". I wish everyone that has ever been told that "we lost the war in Vietnam because the politicians made us fight it with one had tied behind our back" would read this book. It shows that the war was not lost because of lack of effort on our part. Our soldiers fought bravely and valiantly and their efforts are just now starting to be recognized by the general public. The North Vietnamese Army were a brave and determined foe and were willing to fight to the last man. When you read about the type of firepower they were willing to wade through and would keep coming at you, you soon realize that they were willing to accept losses that we could not comprehend nor stomach politically. Short of genocide, there was no way for the United States to win the Vietnam war.
This book carries my highest recommendation.
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