Dispatches, by Michael Herr, is perhaps the best first-hand account of the Vietnam War that I have read. As a reporter in the field, Herr was in Khe Sanh, Hue, the highlands, and many other places, mostly with Marines on the ground and in choppers. His first hand experiences give these pieces a gritty realism. Herr does not hold back on the horrors of war.
He steps back to examine the meta-narrative of the war in Vietnam, the Sixties, and the post-war period. He does not glorify war, except in the last essay, where he starts slinging around Sixties slang and post-adrenaline nostalgia for a war that killed millions. This is an unfortunate part of this otherwise excellent book.
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