Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ...... 11

Introduction ...... 13 i. The War ...... 13 ii. The Soldiers ...... 29 iii. The Narrative Literature of the War ...... 39 iv. The Present Study ...... 46 Notes ...... 51

Part I Partisans

Chapter One. Early Adventurers ...... 59 i. Lieutenant-Colonel Landsdale ...... 59 ii. Graham Greene, The Quiet American (1955) ...... 64 iii. William J. Lederer & Eugene Burdick, The Ugly American (1958) ...... 79 iv. M. J. Bosse, The Journey of Tao Kim Nam (1959) ...... 89 v. Jean Lartéguy, Yellow Fever (1962; English Translation, 1965) ...... 97 vi. Epilogue: Ward Just, A Dangerous Friend (1999) ...... 110 Notes ...... 117

Chapter Two. Fictional History & Historical Fiction: The Fall of Diem ...... 121 i. President Ngo Dinh Diem ...... 121 ii. Stuart Hempstone, A Tract of Time (1966) ...... 127 iii. Robert Vaughn, The Valkyrie Mandate (1974) ...... 135 iv. Morris West, The Ambassador (1965) ...... 140 v. Conclusions ...... 145 Notes ...... 148

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Chapter Three. Advisors & Friendlies: Pro-War Novels ...... 151 i. Optimism in the early phases ...... 151 ii. Robin Moore, The Green Berets (1965) ...... 154 iii. Scott C. S. Stone, The Coasts of War (1966) ...... 165 iv. Richard Newhafer, No More Bugles in the Sky (1966) ..... 169 v. Gene D. Moore’s The Killing at Ngo Tho (1967) ...... 176 vi. James Crumley, One to Count Cadence (1969) ...... 181 vii. Charles Larson, The Chinese Game (1969) ...... 188 vii. Conclusions ...... 192 Notes ...... 193

Chapter Four. Advisors & Friendlies II: Ambivalent Warriors ...... 195 i. Doubt sets in ...... 195 ii. , One Very Hot Day (1967) ...... 195 iii. Daniel Ford, Incident at Muc Wa (1968) ...... 202 iv. John Rowe, Count Your Dead (1968), ...... 207 v. Alan Clark, The Lion Heart: a Tale of the War in Vietnam (1969) ...... 213 vi. Josiah Bunting, The Lionheads (1972) ...... 218 vii. Bo Hathaway’s A World of Hurt (1981), ...... 224 viii. Donald McQuinn, Targets (1980) ...... 229 ix. Conclusions ...... 235 Notes ...... 238

Chapter Five. Soldiers & Civilians ...... 239 i. Protestors & Reporters ...... 239 ii. Norman Mailer, Armies of the Night (1968) ...... 240 iii. Pamela Sanders, Miranda (1978) ...... 257 iv. Thomas Fleming’s The Officers’ Wives (1981) ...... 263 v. Joan Didion, Democracy (1984) ...... 276

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vi. Takeshi Kaiko’s Into a Black Sun: Vietnam 1964–65 (1968, English trans. 1983) ...... 281 vii. and Martin Kalb, The Last Ambassador (1981) ...... 289 viii. Conclusions ...... 294 Notes ...... 296

Part II Modes and Genres

Chapter Six. Combat Memoirs ...... 301 i. Autobiographical War Writings ...... 301 ii. Ron Kovic, Born on the Fourth of July (1976) ...... 306 iii. Philip Caputo, A Rumor of War (1977) ...... 315 iv. Tim O’Brien, If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home (1975) ...... 329 v. Frederick Downs, The Killing Zone (1978) ...... 341 vi. W.D. Ehrhart, Vietnam-Perkasie—A Combat Marine’s Memoir (1983) ...... 342 vii. Robert Mason, Chickenhawk (1983) ...... 350 viii. Tobias Wolff, In Pharoah’s Army—Memoirs of the Last War (1994) ...... 359 ix. Conclusions ...... 364 Notes ...... 368

Chapter Seven. Allegory ...... 371 i. Allegorical Vietnam ...... 371 ii. Jonathan Rubin, The Barking Deer (1974) ...... 373 iii. Asa Baber, The Land of a Million Elephants (1971) ...... 374 iv. Victor Kolpakoff, The Prisoners of Quai Dong (1967) ...... 378 v. Norman Mailer, Why Are in Vietnam? (1967) ...... 384 vi. Robert Stone, Dog Soldiers (1974) ...... 393 vii. Joe Haldeman, The Forever War (1975) ...... 400

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viii. Conclusions ...... 407 Notes ...... 409

Chapter Eight. Combat Realism ...... 411 i. Conventions of Realism ...... 411 ii. Robert Roth, Sand in the Wind (1973) ...... 422 iii. Stephen Philip Smith, American Boys (1975) ...... 426 iv. Tom Suddick, A Few Good Men (1974) ...... 429 v. William Pelfrey, The Big V (1972) ...... 430 vi. William Turner Huggett, Body Count (1973) ...... 434 vii. Larry Heinemann, Close Quarters (1974) ...... 436 viii. Conclusion ...... 440 Notes ...... 442

Chapter Nine. Combat VS. Ideology ...... 445 i. Two Authors ...... 445 ii. James Webb, Fields of Fire (1978) ...... 446 iii. John Del Vecchio, The 13th Valley (1983) ...... 453 iv. Comparisons & Conclusions ...... 458 v. Epilogue: Karl Marlantes, Matterhorn: A Novel of the (2010)...... 461 Notes ...... 469

Chapter Ten. Deviations ...... 471 i. Alternatives to Realism ...... 471 ii. William Wilson, The LBJ Brigade (1966) ...... 472 iii. James Park Sloan, War Games (1971) ...... 476 iv. John Clark Pratt, The Laotian Fragments (1974) & Vietnam Voices (1984) ...... 484 v. Ward Just, Stringer (1984) ...... 492 vi. Lloyd Little, Parthian Shot (1975)...... 499 vii. Gustav Hasford, The Short-Timers (1979) ...... 507

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viii. Conclusion ...... 514 Notes ...... 515

Chapter Eleven. Inventions: Fantasy & Metafiction ...... 517 i. Literature of the Optative Mode ...... 517 ii. William Eastlake, The Bamboo Bed (1969) ...... 518 iii. Tim O’Brien, Going After Cacciato (1975) ...... 524 iv. Nicholas Rinaldi, Bridge Fall Down (1985) ...... 530 v. Tim O’Brien, The Things They Carried ...... 536 vi. Conclusions ...... 544 Notes ...... 545

Chapter Twelve. Correspondents ...... 547 i. Reporters in the Nam ...... 547 ii. Library of America collection: Reporting Vietnam (1998) ...... 551 iii. John Sack, M (1966) ...... 553 iv. Harrison E. Salisbury, Behind the Lines—Hanoi (1967) .. 556 v. , The Village of Ben Suc (1967) & The Military Half (1968) ...... 561 vi. , Winners and Losers (1976) ...... 569 vii. Mary McCarthy, Vietnam (1967) and Hanoi (1968) ...... 570 viii. James Jones’ Viet Journal (1973) ...... 578 ix. , Dispatches (1968) ...... 585 x. Conclusions ...... 593 Notes ...... 595

Chapter Thirteen. Ordinary People: Oral Memoirs ...... 599 i. War Stories & Oral History ...... 599 ii. Al Santoli, Everything We Had: an Oral History of the Vietnam War by Thirty-Three Soldiers Who Fought It (1981) ...... 600

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iii. Mark Baker, Nam—The Vietnam War in the Words of the Men and Women Who Fought There (1987) ...... 603 iv. Keith Walker, A Piece of My Heart: The Stories of Twenty- Six American Women Who Served in Vietnam (1985) ...... 607 v. Wallace Terry, Bloods: An Oral History of the Vietnam War by Black Veterans (1984) ...... 614 vi. Conclusion ...... 626 Notes ...... 629

Chapter Fourteen. Vets: The Return of the Repressed ...... 631 i. A.R. Flowers, De Mojo Blues (1985) ...... 631 ii. Jack Fuller, Fragments (1984) ...... 632 iii. Bobbie Ann Mason, In Country (1985) ...... 636 iv. Larry Heineman, Paco’s Story (1986) ...... 646 v. Stephen Wright, Meditations in Green (1983) ...... 650 vi. Michael H. Cooper, Dues: a Novel of War and After (1994) ...... 658 vii. Tim O’Brien’s In the Lake of the Woods (1994) ...... 661 viii. Conclusion ...... 672 Notes ...... 674

Bibliography ...... 677 Primary Works ...... 677 Secondary Works ...... 679

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