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Summary: An wonderfully accurate portrayal of Marines in Vietnam
Review: I just read this book for the second time in ten years. Once again I am struck by how Jim Webb captures the essence of Marines in combat during the 1968 and 1969 period. From the mounting racial tensions to the chaos of night combat he gets it right. I particularly appreciate that he explored that not so rare, but inexplicable to most people, phenomenon of a Marine who extends his tour of duty for more of the same. On my first tour as an enlisted Marine I extended twice. On my second tour as an officer I extended twice again. Read the ruminations of the squad leader after he extends his tour and you'll get a glimpse of why many combat Marines chose to stay on.
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Summary: Gripping and shattering-
Review: Fields of Fire is the finest war novel I have read in a long time. It grabs you and drags you into a bomb crater full of stagnant, wormy water and won't let go. This has to be the masterwork novel about Vietnam.
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Summary: I devoured this book.
Review: Two marathon sittings and I was finished. Mr. Webb created believable and compelling characters. Hodges, Snake, and Goodrich all kept my attention throughout the book. Overall, my favorite section of the book came when Goodrich returned home. While I thought the confrontation with Harvard anti-war protesters was cliche, his conversation with his father was extremely well-done. If I recall correctly, the father's wise words--"morality combined with self-interest isn't really about morality"--rang appropriate to me.
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Summary: Great One!
Review: Best war novel I've read in a long time. Makes you feel like your really there.
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Summary: Brutal authenticity with an ending wallop
Review: This book took me a while to get into, what with the tape-recorder-like gutter language and the awful things its characters went thru and their tomcat morals. But it screams authenticity to me, which may not mean much since I was never in Vietnam. But the haunting moral dilemmas faced by the protagonists cannot help but inspire thoughts such as: what would I have done in a like situation? While Robert E. Lee Hodges is the central character, Goodrich ("the Senator") faces the more agonizing situations. Read the book, and you decide. But don't let the grime and the horror keep you from getting to its overpowering ending.
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Summary: Did he try to cover too much?
Review: After reading "The Nightingale Song", which covers Webb's career at Annapolis and Washington, I was compelled to read this book. A conservative person who fought valiantly but underwent a metamorphis after the war and became more liberal, this book was clearly a method to exorcise the pain of the war for Webb. Unfortunately, I was traveling when I read this and read in many short periods. I became extremely engrossed in the battle tales but failed to connect with the characters as well as I would have liked. Irrespective, I would agree that this sounds like the most realistic book describing what it was like to be in the field in Vietnam. But Webb covered much more than just a platoon that suffers heavy casualties. A brief part of the book covers a young officer in Okinawaw who develops a love interest with a young Japanese girl with the relevant cultural issues that arise when he proposes. The battle scenes are mezmerizing like the three men sent outside the perimeter stupidly by command who are terribly overrun and must lay wounded in the midst of the enemy all night. In many respects this book seemed to closely parallel the movie Platoon. But the most unexpected part of the book was the dialog from the Vietnamese scout who was a former Viet Cong who defects only to have his family killed. This was great perspective on what was going on in the minds of the Vietnamese people who generally hated the Americans for their brutal treatment. In summary, I think this is a very important book by a very decorated and brave individual that shows the mental conflicts and pain of war. I encourage you to read this if you want to learn of the brutality of war. But this is not a light read and will challenge your feelings of the war.
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Summary: A reflection on today's political leaders
Review: This book is one of the Top 10 best war novels of all time. Webb's experience as a platoon commander in Vietnam makes him expertly qualified to comment on the gap that existed between the "haves" and the "have-nots." His combat experiences are thinly veiled through the eyes of LT Hodges, a main character in the novel. The enlisted Marines in this book are based on the farmers, coal miners, drop-outs, immigrants and the lower class in general who fought and died in the war. The quote at the beginning of the book, from a General to a war correspondant, accurately depicts the gap in society that was created by LBJ's draft laws. The draft laws were full of loopholes that the middle and upper class were only too eager to exploit. Webb uses "Senator" Goodrich, an Ivy League dropout and a disabled infatryman, as an anti-hero to explain the war to the privilaged few who decided to protest the war from thousands of miles away. His epic quote of " How many of you are going to get hurt in Vietnam? I didn't see any of you in Vietnam. I saw dudes, man. Dudes. And truck drivers and coal miners and farmers. I didn't see you. Where were you? Flunking your draft physicals? What do you care if it ends? You won't get hurt." to a peace rally at Harvard is one the most gripping paragraphs in context of the civilian protests of the Vietnam War. Webb has shown that the college students, the draft dodgers and the morally weak deserted the country in it's time of need. The United States used the underprivaleged to fight a stupid war. How would the war have turned out if a few senator's sons, or a few sons of prominent businessmen were KIA in Vietnam? How many lives could have been saved if this occurred? As Mr. Goodrich eloquently states in the novel," These people have no sense of country. They have no sense of obligation. Well, so be it. If they are willing to accept the benefits of this society- such as a Harvard education- the they should also accept the burdens." A fascinating look into the souls of the forgetten men who were willing to fight for no other reason than brotherhood. They didn't fight for the US, they didn't fight for the society- they fought for themselves, and they often paid the price in blood. Mr. Webb- thank you for such a wonderful novel. It helped see what my father had to endure as an Army infantrymen in Vietnam.
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Summary: The powerful ring of truth
Review: This book opened up the Vietnam war to me like few other books have. We get to spend a tour with a group of people from all walks of life, cast into a common hell as soldiers in Vietnam. We walk beside them as they endure endless, seemingly fruitless, patrols. We feel their uncertainty, live with the filth, fear, bravery, triumph, and tragedy of combat. Get to know each man as a person and get inside his thoughts, fears, and motivation. Share the camaraderie, and feel the pain. And, tragically, feel shame for a country that little appreciates or understands their sacrifice. Fields of Fire is extremely powerful and a little graphic (but not gratuitously so), at times funny, often poignant and sad. This is not just a war story, but a magnificent commentary on war and society, and all can understand and benefit from it's message.
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Summary: How NOT to fight a war
Review: First I don't like fiction generally, its just not helpful enough when trying to change the REAL non-fictional behavior of people often bent on self-destruction through self-deception. But James Webb is a "straight shooter" and his fiction encapsulates his observations/experiences in Vietnam. And they are indeed a negative collection of what NOT to do. Those that think Fields of Fire somehow supports and justifies the marine corps status quo tactically are just decieved, perhaps even Webb himself. I read a unit that is getting its tail kicked that has not adapted its tactics, techniques and procedures to overcome the enemy. The vanity and ethos of Lt. Hodges has nothing "under the hood" in his bag of tricks to defeat the enemy other than stumbling around in the jungle overloaded with gear. If Webb sees him as the epitome of military training, then its his own limitations showing. A THINKING ethos would have its leaders reading Bernard Fall, Larteguy, Mao, whatever it took to get the "edge" we need to win as the Hackworth of old did. The beginning/ending scene when the unit is surrounded, in the dark guarding a too-heavy for Vietnam M48 tank symbolizes America's predicament--supposedly so "powerful" but when it comes down to it it cannot even protect itself as it got disabled by a mere land mine. The last scenes of the movie Platoon with its impending doom captures this essence of despair Webb wants you to feel. Hell yes, I'm grateful we have men willing to be there in uniform in dark situations, but I WANT THEM TO WIN, and we don't get there by business-as-usual. You get there by innovation, by THINKING by looking less in the mirror wearing dress blues and recounting family heritage and spending more time learning what makes the enemy tick, perhaps....heresy......in a LIBRARY? Or ordering a book from Amazon.com.... Then you get involved in how America designs its armored vehicles (less time at uniform balls chasing skirts) so they have a "V" hull shape so they can deflect a mine, have powered road wheels so they can run on a short track...make them light enough so they can go off the roads and avoid likely mines/ambushes..make them light enough so they can fly by helicopters to get into dominant positions using the Air-Mech-Strike concept in General David Grange's new book by the same name. You only need to read this book once to know what NOT to do. For this, it succeeds marvelously.
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Summary: One of the Very Best Vietnam Books
Review: This is an amazing work when you consider it's Webb's first book. The writing is so compelling you may feel like you've been dropped into a rice paddy with Webb's/Hodges' platoon. In Robert Timberg's book, The Nightingale's Song, Webb is a featured character. He describes Webb's experiences from the Naval Academy through his stint as Secretary of the Navy. The real people who were main characters in Fields of Fire are discussed. He also tells the amazing story of how Webb read Hemingway at the urging of a law school classmate and decided he could write like that. I'm sure glad he did. All of his books are among the best I've read.
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