The New Legions

Download or read book The New Legions written by Donald Duncan and published by . This book was released on 2018-10-15 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Donald Duncan wanted be the best soldier possible. He was regular Army, then Airborne, then Green Beret. In Vietnam, he led reconnaissance patrols deep into enemy-held territory to assess the strength of the Viet Cong, the communist guerrillas. He returned home with questions about Vietnam. Did the peasants on the farms in South Vietnam want another foreign power in their country? Were they as anti-communist as Americans, or anti-foreigner? What did their attitudes mean to the success of the intervention of United States in Vietnam? He went even further as you will see. He asked if South Vietnam was really a separate country in the eyes of the Vietnamese.Read about his patriotism, his courage and his questions. Editorial Reviews :"Frequently provocative." --The Saturday Review."Duncan's merits are obvious. He has written a buoyant work filled with rueful reflections on our past and present errors, but charged with hopes for the future. In relating his impressions of army life he is at his best; some really fine pages describe the counterinsurgency training of the Green Berets; the numerous missions of the Special Forces into Viet Cong-held territory; the shop talk of war-weary soldiers groping to discover a rational explanation for their presence in Vietnam; the almost totally negative reactions of these same soldiers to the South Vietnamese army, government, and people; and the sorry plight in the armed forces of the American Negro, who still suffers from discrimination despite the efforts of his government to eradicate it."¿ There is much of value in The New Legions. Evident on every page is Duncan's humanity. And the nobility of his cause- the end of the war and the triumph of peace, justice, and integrity throughout the world-is, of course, incontestable. His book is often illuminating and frequently provocative¿"Saturday Review August 12, 1967