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A review by andrew_russell
The Boys of '67: Charlie Company's War in Vietnam by Andrew Wiest, Anne Toole, Erik Hendrix
3.0
It's difficult to review this without comparing it to the only similar book which I've read; The Long Gray Line. This is a classic book in the pantheon of Vietnam non-fiction literature. The Boys of '67 strives to match this and while it is a satisfying enough read, it never quite reaches the same standard.
What it does pretty well is capture the atmosphere of battle in war-torn Vietnam, the daily danger presented by booby traps or sudden ambushes and the effect of battle fatigue and ultimately PTSD on US troops. There were moments when my heart was in my mouth and I almost felt as though I was there, fighting alongside those guys. Charlie Company had a hellish roller-coaster ride of a tour in 1967 and every time one of them got taken down by the VC or a booby trap, I gritted my teeth and my inner voice screamed 'Goddammit!' It's not every book that manages to get this conveyed to the reader, to project with stunning clarity what the experience of your average infantryman actually was.
These positives were watered down though, by a relentless catalogue of names, a poorly conceived structure and battle sequences which sometimes weren't all that clear. Maybe the confusion of battle is reflected in the latter point raised, but in any case it isn't a positive in my eyes. Wiest documents numerous individuals who followed the pattern below:
1) met a girl
2) married girl
3) got girl pregnant
4) waved girl goodbye at station platform before departing US for Vietnam
5) was KIA in Vietnam
Each of these cases is related one after the other, like a conveyor belt of misery, with no differentiation between any of the soldiers. Their key characteristics are only ever defined at the most basic level, preventing the reader from gaining a sense of closeness to them. Their failure to make it back reads therefore like a history book, rather than the personal testimony to Charlie Company's journey through Vietnam which I think Wiest may have been trying to achieve.
Wiest also burdens the narrative with too many names. You never know which ones to focus on. It's only with the end in sight that I realised that I wasn't actually able to focus on any of them to any great extent. Their story was like fleshless, sun bleached bones; bare. If Wiest had picked out maybe ten or a dozen individuals whose stories were a reflection of that of the Company as a whole, I think it would have resulted in a far more moving and personal testament to the individuals concerned.
This could have been better but also could have been worse. I liked it but didn't love it and felt slightly let down by the lack of personal closeness I felt to those who fought in Charlie Company.
What it does pretty well is capture the atmosphere of battle in war-torn Vietnam, the daily danger presented by booby traps or sudden ambushes and the effect of battle fatigue and ultimately PTSD on US troops. There were moments when my heart was in my mouth and I almost felt as though I was there, fighting alongside those guys. Charlie Company had a hellish roller-coaster ride of a tour in 1967 and every time one of them got taken down by the VC or a booby trap, I gritted my teeth and my inner voice screamed 'Goddammit!' It's not every book that manages to get this conveyed to the reader, to project with stunning clarity what the experience of your average infantryman actually was.
These positives were watered down though, by a relentless catalogue of names, a poorly conceived structure and battle sequences which sometimes weren't all that clear. Maybe the confusion of battle is reflected in the latter point raised, but in any case it isn't a positive in my eyes. Wiest documents numerous individuals who followed the pattern below:
1) met a girl
2) married girl
3) got girl pregnant
4) waved girl goodbye at station platform before departing US for Vietnam
5) was KIA in Vietnam
Each of these cases is related one after the other, like a conveyor belt of misery, with no differentiation between any of the soldiers. Their key characteristics are only ever defined at the most basic level, preventing the reader from gaining a sense of closeness to them. Their failure to make it back reads therefore like a history book, rather than the personal testimony to Charlie Company's journey through Vietnam which I think Wiest may have been trying to achieve.
Wiest also burdens the narrative with too many names. You never know which ones to focus on. It's only with the end in sight that I realised that I wasn't actually able to focus on any of them to any great extent. Their story was like fleshless, sun bleached bones; bare. If Wiest had picked out maybe ten or a dozen individuals whose stories were a reflection of that of the Company as a whole, I think it would have resulted in a far more moving and personal testament to the individuals concerned.
This could have been better but also could have been worse. I liked it but didn't love it and felt slightly let down by the lack of personal closeness I felt to those who fought in Charlie Company.