Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam

by EDELMAN, BERNARD

• ISBN13: 9780393323047
• ISBN10: 0393323048
• Edition: 00
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-05-17
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Summary

More than twenty-five years after the official end of the Vietnam War, Dear America allows us to witness the war firsthand through the eyes of the men and women who served in Vietnam. In this collection of more than 200 letters, they share their first impressions of the rigors of life in the bush, their longing for home and family, their emotions over the conduct of the war, and their ache at the loss of a friend in battle. Poignant in their rare honesty, the letters from Vietnam are "riveting,...extraordinary by [their] very ordinariness...for the most part, neither deep nor philosophical, only very, very human" (Los Angeles Times). Revealing the complex emotions and daily realities of fighting in the war, these close accounts offer a powerful, uniquely personal portrait of the many faces of Vietnam's veterans. Over 100,000 copies sold.

Table of Contents

Introduction to The Paperback Edition	9	(4)
John McCain
Foreword	13	(6)
William Broyles, Jr
Preface	19	(14)
``Cherries'': First Impressions	33	(24)
``Humping the Boonies''	57	(46)
Beyond the Body Count	103	(38)
Base Camp: War at the Rear	141	(28)
``World of Hurt''	169	(34)
What Am I Doing Here?	203	(32)
``We Gotta Get Out of This Place''	235	(42)
Last Letters	277	(20)
Epilogue	297	(4)
Glossary	301	(6)
Acknowledgments	307	(6)
The Mission of the New York Vietnam Veterans Memorial Commission	313	(2)
Visiting the Memorial	315	(2)
The Making of the Film	317	(2)
Index of Contributors	319	(10)
About the Editor	329