Red Thunder, Tropic Lightning: The World Of A Combat Division In Vietnam

by Eric M Bergerud

Overview

This book examines the world confronted by the men of an American combat division during the Vietnam War. It covers several subjects, including the physical surroundings, weaponry, battles big and small, the medical effort, relations with the Vietnamese, and morale.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780367300753
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	12/07/2020
Pages:	328
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

Table of Contents

Preface — Introduction — A Setting for War: Coping with a Strange and Hostile World — Tools of the Trade — Around in Circles: Warfare in 360 Degrees — The Shifting Battlefields of Vietnam — WIA: Wounded in Action — The Vietnamese — To Stand and Fight: Morale in the 25th Division — Epilogue: Last Thoughts from Three Veterans of the Tropic Lightning Division — Appendix

Editorial Reviews

In this gripping oral history of the Vietnam War, soldiers of the 25th Division recount the ways the war was actually fought and the psychological pressures they endured. Bergerud ( The Dynamics of Defeat ) divides his material into broad categories such as weapons (``The Tools of the Trade''); medical care, from the wounding of a soldier through his evacuation and treatment; the antipathy between frontline soldiers and support troops, and relations between Vietnamese civilians and American GIs. Raw memories of combat form the core of this impressive book, as the veterans recall their experiences in a viciously hostile environment--ambushes, minefields, friendly fire (``I was more afraid of our firepower,'' says one vet, ``than of the enemy's''). The men also complain about the paucity of experienced NCOs and the crippling officer-rotation system. Only one group of memories is wholly positive: those of comradeship. Photos. History Book Club selection. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Bergerud's name is a familiar one to students of the Vietnam War. His Dynamics of Defeat ( LJ 11/15/90) was a well-received study of the war in the Hau Nghia province of what was South Vietnam. His latest work studies American participation by examining the war through the eyes of the officers and men of the 25th Infantry Division, nicknamed ``Tropic Lightning.'' The 25th soldiered on in Vietnam from 1966 to 1971 and was the unit in which the director Oliver Stone served. Some 5000 of the names on the Wall, the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C., are from the 25th. An outstanding example of the use of personal experiences to describe the nature of the fighting and of the world the soldiers knew, this memoir is a necessary addition to any library collection.-- John R. Vallely, Siena Coll. Lib., Loudonville, N.Y.

Library Journal

Twenty years after the US withdrawal from Vietnam and a spate of books on the war, Bergerud (Military and American History/Lincoln Univ.) offers a fresh and original work that gives essential new insight into the US-Vietnam experience. Ignoring the diplomatic maneuvers of nations and the strategic histories of battles, Bergerud graphically reveals "the world confronted by an American combat division...including...climate, living conditions, deadly combat, and morale," and catalyzes his text with the unvarnished stories of combat veterans. He focuses on the 25th Division; nicknamed "Tropic Lightning," it lost 5000 men between 1966 and 1971. Bergerud notes, for example, the lack of experienced NCOs to lead troops in combat; the Army's answer, he explains, was to create "shake and bake" instant-sergeants drawn from likely looking stateside conscripts who were run through brief courses in leadership and then shipped to the fight. As Armored Cavalry Commander Carl Quickmeyer (one of the author's many interviewees) says of his first tour of duty, "I took over a squad after three months in country...but now, you have four shake-and-bakes and a green platoon leader. And then you had guys who had been there for seven or eight months who didn't have any experience." Explanations of Army standard operations and of soldiers' reactions are definitive and riveting as Bergerud covers the emotions of men in firefights; the quagmire of patrolling the same area hundreds of times; soldier's stories of being wounded; Vietnamese civilians' views of US soldiers; drug use; racial tension; and the Army's withholding of troop-movement intelligence from grunts, even though for them it was vital, possiblylife-saving, information. The war at ground level, in full force. (Photographs and maps—not seen.)

Kirkus Reviews