The VVA Veteran

The VVA Veteran is the bimonthly publication of Vietnam Veterans of America. http://www.vvaveteran Congress.

The VVA Veteran is a publication of Vietnam Veterans of America, Inc.® A veterans service organization chartered by the U.S.

04/15/2025

Monmouth University History Professor Melissa Ziobro's Battlin' Bastards of Bravo Company is the Vietnam War story of Bravo Company, 1/506th, in the 101st Airborne Division through 25 short stories told by its veterans. That includes taking part in the infamous Battle of Hamburger Hill. Here's Harvey Weiner's review, just posted on Books in Review II: https://vvabooks.wordpress.com/2025/04/15/the-battlin-bastards-of-bravo-by-melissa-ziobro/

04/14/2025

Retired U.S. Army Col. Chuck Bechtel's "Sent to War: Returning for Peace" is a Vietnam War memoir that also includes details about an inspiring 2022 trip he and other members of VVA Chapter 1008 took to Vietnam, that, he writes, “gave us the opportunity to see Vietnam as a country, not a war.” Here's Tom Werzyn's review, just posted on Books in Review II:
https://vvabooks.wordpress.com/2025/04/14/sent-to-war-returning-for-peace-by-charles-m-bechtel/

04/10/2025

The renowned Vietnamese novelist and poet Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai's latest book is a poetry collection, "The Color of Peace," that includes verses about the Vietnam War and its legacy.

Although the publication date is in September, the book can be pre-ordered at the big online booksellers and through the publisher, Black Ocean, which is making copies available now to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War. To receive a book from the publisher in April, go to https://www.blackocean.org/catalog1/color-of-peaceAll

Proceeds from the sale of this book will go to organizations that support victims of Agent Orange and those that remove unexploded ordnance in Vietnam.

Here's Bill McCloud's review, just posted on Books in Review II: https://vvabooks.wordpress.com/2025/04/10/the-color-of-peace-by-nguyen-phan-que-mai/

04/04/2025

Judy La Salle volunteered to serve as a stewardess on chartered military flights sending American troops into and out of the Vietnam War zone. She was so moved by the servicemembers she met that she volunteered to be a Red Cross Donut Dolly. Not long after that, she spent a year in South Vietnam doing selfless work helping the troops cope with the stress of serving in the war.

She tells that tale in a new memoir, "From Stewardess to Vietnam Donut Dolly." Here's Bob Wartman's review just posted on Books in Review II:
https://vvabooks.wordpress.com/2025/04/04/from-stewardess-to-vietnam-donut-dolly/

04/03/2025

Check out the just-posted online March/April issue freaturing articles on a dramatic April 30, 1975, escape from Saigon; a timeline of the war's starting and ending dates; and the "Parting Shot" of the last helicopter leaving from the roof of the U.S. Embassy in Saigon. Take a look at https://vvaveteran.org/

04/01/2025

The latest book to examine the famed 1970 Sơn Tây POW camp raid is military historian Justin Williamson's "Son Tay 1970: The Operation Ivory Coast POW Rescue Mission," a concise, heavily illustrated analysis from Osprey Books of the planning, ex*****on, and legacy of the large-scale attempt to free a group of American POWs in North Vietnam. Here's John Cirafici's review, just posted on Books in Review II:
https://vvabooks.wordpress.com/2025/04/01/son-tay-1970-by-justin-williamson/

03/29/2025

John Reeg's autobiographical novel, "My Senior Trip," tells the story of a a recon Marine's rough 1969 Vietnam War tour of duty and his emotional readjustment problems after coming home. Here's Doug Bradley's review, just posted on Books in Review II:

https://vvabooks.wordpress.com/2025/03/29/my-senior-trip-by-john-reeg/

03/28/2025

The latest entry in the Osprey Publishing series, “Osprey Duel: Engaging the Enemy,” is zz'AH-1 Cobra Gunship vs. NVA Armor, Vietnam 1967-73zzzzzzzzzz' by the veteran British military historian Peter Davies. This one's a deep but concise dive into how the Cobras performed against NVA tanks in the Vietnam War during the last six years of the war. Here's Harvey Weiner's review just posted on Books in Review II:
https://vvabooks.wordpress.com/2025/03/28/ah-1-cobra-gunship-vs-nva-armor-vietnam-1967-73-by-peter-e-davies/

03/25/2025

"The Colors of April "is a collection of top-quality short fiction by more than a dozen Vietnamese and Vietnamese-American writers. Nearly all the stories deal with the legacy of what the Vietnamese call the American War. Editors Quan Manh Ha and Cab Tran were born in Vietnam and live and write in the U.S.A.

Here's Bill McCloud's review, just posted on Books in Review II: https://vvabooks.wordpress.com/2025/03/25/the-colors-of-april-edited-by-quan-manh-ha-and-cab-tran/

03/24/2025

Here's Episode 36 of “Dispatches,” our video web series. In this episode Arts Editor Marc Leepson has a lively conversation with Bill Broyles, the acclaimed journalist, author, magazine editor, and screenwriter who served a 1969-70 tour of duty as a 1st Marine Division LT in Vietnam. After the war, he became the founding editor of Texas Monthly magazine in his home state in 1972. He later was the editor of Newsweek magazine. In 1984, he became one of first American war veterans to return in Vietnam, a trip that resulted in his pioneering 1986 book, Brothers in Arms. Two years later, he co-created the pioneering Vietnam War TV dramatic series, China Beach. He went on to write screenplays for many Hollywood movies, including Apollo 13, Cast Away, Planet of the Apes, Polar Express, and Jarhead. Bill Broyles is a featured on-screen contributor to the new Apple TV docuseries, Vietnam: The War That Changed America.

03/22/2025

Keith Saliba's "Crucible 1972"" focuses on that crucial year in the Vietnam War on the ground and in the air, culminating with Operation Linebacker II--and the war of words at the Paris Peace Talks. Saliba has written widely on the war, including his 2023 book, Death in the Highlands: The Siege of Special Forces Camp Plei Me." Here's Tom Werzyn's review, just posted on Books in Review II:

https://vvabooks.wordpress.com/2025/03/22/crucible-1972-by-j-keith-saliba/

03/20/2025

Coming Monday, March 24, at 9:00 a.m. Eastern time: Episode 36 of “Dispatches,” our video web series. In this episode, Arts Editor Marc Leepson talks with Bill Broyles, the acclaimed journalist, author, magazine editor, and screenwriter who served a 1969-70 tour of duty as a 1st Marine Division LT in Vietnam.

After the war, he became the founding editor of Texas Monthly magazine. He later was the editor of Newsweek. In 1984, he became one of first American war veterans to return in Vietnam, a trip that resulted in his pioneering 1986 book, "Brothers in Arms."

Two years later he co-created the pioneering Vietnam War dramatic TV series, China Beach. He went on to write screenplays for many Hollywood movies, including Apollo 13, Cast Away, Planet of the Apes, Polar Express, and Jarhead.

Bill Broyles is one of the featured on-screen contributors to the new Apple TV docuseries, Vietnam: The War That Changed America.

03/19/2025

It’s official: The No. 1 bestselling book of 2024, according to Publishers Weekly (the book industry’s top trade news magazine), was Kristin Hannah’s "The Women," a compelling novel centering on Vietnam War nurses. The book, with a first printing of a million copies, by year’s end had sold nearly 1.5 million. More info on this post on our Arts of War on the web page:
https://vva.org/arts-of-war/the-women-the-no-bestselling-book-

03/14/2025

Pat Moffett pushed the draft and the Army obliged, inducting him in 1967 when he was 20 years old. He went through Infantry AIT and was assigned to the 101st Airborne Division the next year during the height of the war. Through a series of circumstances, he lucked out, and served a 14-month tour mostly at a desk job in the rear. He tells that story in his memoir, "Lucked Out." Here's Bill McCloud's review, just posted on Books in Review II:
https://vvabooks.wordpress.com/2025/03/14/lucked-out-by-pat-moffett/

03/13/2025

The recently released independent film, "My Dead Friend Zoe," centers on Merit Charles (Sonequa Martin-Green), a young Afghanistan War veteran, and her debilitating post-traumatic stress related to the death of her close war buddy, Zoe Ramirez (Natalie Morales).

This moving film also features two big Hollywood actors playing Vietnam War veterans: Morgan Freeman as a VA mental health professional, and Ed Harris as Merit's cranky grandfather. Here's Arts Editor Marc Leepson's review, just posted on our Arts of War on the web page: https://vva.org/arts-of-war/my-dead-friend-zoe-a-hard-hitting-movie-all-war-veterans-can-relate-to/

03/09/2025

Vietnam War veteran and longtime military historian Robert Silano's "Political Warfare in Republican Vietnam," bores in on the history of South Vietnam's psychological operations to counteract the North Vietnamese starting in 1955 through the end of the war twenty years later. Here's Dan Hart's review, just posted on Books in Review II: https://vvabooks.wordpress.com/2025/03/09/political-warfare-in-republican-vietnam-by-robert-silano/

03/03/2025

Here's Episode 35 of “Dispatches,” our video web series. In this episode, Arts Editor Marc Leepson talks with Todd DePastino, the founder and host of Pittsburgh-based Veterans Breakfast Club, which offers podcasts and a blog, as well as weekly programs online and in-person in which veterans of all ages and service branches share their stories. Marc and Todd discuss—among other things—how VBC came about and has evolved, and how all its programs “connect and heal, educate and inspire” veterans of all eras, including Vietnam War veterans.

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The VVA Veteran is the bimonthly magazine published by Vietnam Veterans of America, the only congressionally chartered U.S. Veterans Service Organization that has worked since its beginnings (in 1978) on behalf of Vietnam War veterans and their families. Our founding principle is “Never Again Will One Generation of Veterans Abandon Another.”

Visit our on-line edition at http://vvaveteran.org/37-6/37-6_index.html, our Books in Review II web page at https://vvabooks.wordpress.com, and our Arts of War on the web page at https://vva.org/publications/the-arts