Dispatches

A great first hand look from the front lines before the media was "embedded" by the militaries of the world. Read this after it was recommended in the Junior Officers Read Club and it was was a pleasant recommendation. A real look into the Heart of Darkness that was the Vietnam war.

A captivating and compelling book Herr writes as though he is speaking directly to you the reader. His combat observations
Will crease your psyche...and furrow your brow. Dispatches is a superb read.

Other reviewers have covered Herr in Vietnam very well.

Towards the end, when he comes home and writes about how that feels, he evokes why Vietnam never, ever goes away, opening a door that reveals memories as sharp now as they were then, whether you were there or here.

And why living through those times changed everything forever.

And why nothing for the rest of our lives could match the terrible sense of loss when it was over, even if one hated the war and had fought to end it every day until it was over.

Herr knew that was coming.

T

Probably the single best book about the Vietnam experience. Astute, sensory, as true a depiction of the political insanity as opposed to what the combat soldier experienced on the ground. The definitive discourse of my generation

This book brings back so many memories, things I had forgotten, things I wanted to forget. Herr just puts it out there like no one else. As a corpsman I had a very close up and personal look just what it meant to be a marine without really being one. Herr is able to capture in words the essences of that experience. As a reporter he sure lived through some heavy shit. I'm only halfway through the book, as I can only take it in small sections but it is a book I will read again.

realy interesting book i was looking for several weeks to find realy good and quality book about the vietnam war and there it is, it has a realy good detailed story and it keeps you in the spirit of the war so i recommend it without a doubt!!

Dear Friends,
"Dispatches" is one of the best novel about the Vietnam War. Besides other issues, it deals with the battle of Khe Sanh, which I regard as one of the most memorable fights in history. It deserves to be categorized as a battle that changed the Vietnam war as well as the D-Day changed the Second World War. I think it is sided only by the War of Troy, a war whih became a myth in history od the world conflicts.

Michael Herr gives a startling accurate portrayal of this war. I served in Vietnam. HIs writing is often poetic, shocking but very real. He and other reporters deserve medals for thier brave service. And they volunteered, which is crazy. Most of us were either drafted or joined just before being drafted. If you want the real story of this war, this is the best.

Dispatches is a stirring account of a photo journalist experiences during the Vietnam war. It helps to shed light on the horrible experiences of war, and helps to explain why men sometimes do the most awful things to one another. Having served in the army in the early 1980s I had the opportunity to talk to several men who served in Vietnam. These men deserve so much respect. I feel this book helps to honor our veterans.

It has been said that the "real" legacy of Vietnam was that for the first time reporters and editors began to question the American authorities as they never had before. This is not a view Historians can particularly subscribe to. History presents us evidence of opposition to the `party line' over the last century, including the Spanish American War. Perhaps this is idea of legacy seems credible due to the general short memory of the American public. Certainly, the Vietnam press coverage (even before Tet in 1968) stands in contrast to the Korean era when any question of objectives or policy might lead directly to a McCarthyist challenge of where one's allegiances lie. So it was that in Vietnam the politeness in the line of questioning was certainly in contrast to the Korean `police action'. Yet, Michael Herr's book Dispatches does not show his part in this allegedly newer style of hard-look journalism. Yes, things may have been questioned as never before but this occurred only after the failures in US policy became glaringly acute did the editors begin jumping on the bandwagon.
Herr jeers the `syndicated eminences' and mainstream editors and bandwagoneering in oblique passing (Herr 214, 220). But this is not the thrust of Dispatches. In reading this work, one finds some portions reading more like a personal journal. Other portions read like a high-octane fuel-injected amphetamine-driven psychotic episode. Some parts are a recall of previous experiences, while others were written closer to the time in which they occurred. Either way, Dispatches gives us the glimpse into the world of a war correspondent covering the Vietnam War. Much of what Herr has to say is heartbreaking, but more often the words leaping of the page do so with the same adrenaline with which they were originally inscribed. Herr often mentions the trouble Grunts had understanding why he and other journalist would put themselves in the situation in which they encountered him. As a columnist for Esquire and Rolling Stone, it is even less likely that he hardly garnered the understanding that a journalist from the New York Times or Washington Post might have enjoyed.
Indeed, there is a sense of self-consciousness when he relates "There was no nation too impoverished, no hometown paper so humble that it didn't get its man in for a quick feel at least once." Furthermore, he informs the reader that he didn't have the deadlines facing many of the other journalists in Vietnam. Of course, his dismissal of deadlines can be partly attributed to the fact that he considered himself a `writer'... But the distinction between a `writer' and a journalist or correspondent was hopelessly lost on grunts, who were just as likely to see the difference between a Viet Cong and a `friendly' villager. The fact that he didn't even carry a camera led to further incredulity on the part of the military brass he encountered.
Herr's writing does not need to impugn the Military and Administration's talking heads and their endless chatter of `Victory just around the corner.' His stories reveal the utter lack of faith in their words. He tells us a few of the running jokes, and the stale lines for given situations. Herr might have told us the joke about "how do you know when ___________ (insert Westmoreland, LBJ, Taylor or any other name connected to the madness) is lying? Their lips are moving..." But he need not even do that. His companions in the press corps and the majority of the grunts who were remotely in US policy knew after a few hours in Vietnam that it was not about anything they could have claimed.
Still it is difficult to reconcile Herr's disdain for the grunts' brutality and his apparent admiration that surfaces when his not trying to suppress it. Herr's narration is colored by the pop music of the era. Of course, that pop music was as counter-culture as his personal views. It is difficult to grudge a person for their attachment to the most exciting times of their life. Herr's is almost an addiction to the life of the thrill seeker, but as he mentions, unlike the grunts, he could always take the next chopper back to an air-conditioned hotel room in Saigon, or leave altogether. (Not that an air-conditioned room in Saigon would be necessarily safer than Khe Sahn...) There was a band in the early 1980's that sought to re-kindle the psychedelic experience of the bands that Herr most appreciated. Herr's Dispatches recalls his experience and the experience of the press corps in Vietnam (and to a certain extent that of all Americans):
Easier said than done you said, But it's more difficult to say
With eyes bigger than our bellies, We won't do it but we can't look away...
What were you thinking of, When you dreamt that up?
We can't tell our left from right, But you know we love extremes
Get into grips with the ups and downs, Because there's nothing in between...
With eyes bigger than our bellies, we won't do it but we can't look away... So much of the press corps, Herr included, lived vicariously through the lives and deaths of the GI's. The American public lived vicariously through what the press fed them. Some would like to believe that the lesson of Vietnam is a "lasting legacy." In deed many members of the press continue to claim this. It is supposed now in the press and the American public that "we don't take things for granted; we don't take things as face value; we don't believe officials, as we did before Vietnam." The `Credibility Gap' created by the wake of the US involvement in Vietnam and the many presidential administrations that tried to deny the reality of its circumstances was supposed to make us somewhat wiser. However, those who are following the news today, hearing similar themes and even similar speeches cannot help but realize it is not so much wisdom gained by Vietnam, but crass cynicism on the part of the American public. `Yes, our own government lies to us, but that it is to be expected... It is the journalist job to act as a kind of Consumer Protector...' "Just let us know when the amount of lying exceeds an accepted standard." At that point, The Press is then like the USDA. When a certain amount of rodent feces exceeds the amount we allow for in our food supply, let us know... otherwise keep it to yourself because we don't want to know.
In a response to a recent PBS NewsHour special on the Vietnam War, David Greenway, (one of Michael Herr's acquaintances) commented,
"When you think about it, Vietnam was unique. The same problems... were true in previous wars, in World War II and in World War I. Only in Vietnam were the two bugbears of journalism overcome - censorship and access to the action - that the military can impose. Vietnam is really the only war where there was no censorship and you could go anywhere you wanted. That wasn't true in World War II or World War I, and it's never been true since. So Vietnam was really unique in that - to that extent."
Greenways comments could be a clarion call to the public to demand more access and knowledge about the wars and "operations" (Grenada, Panama, Haiti, Iraq, Bosnia, Afghanistan etc., not to mention the others that aren't on anyone's radar...) But the publics utter lack of demand suggests another lesson from the Vietnam experience, as consumers, we want only so much and at a certain point we are satiated. When that point is reached, the twisted and charred bodies, the `collateral damage' is not only unacceptable, it is unappreciated. On the other hand, there are many who have developed a pallet for it. As Herr says, "I think Vietnam was what we had instead of happy childhoods." (Herr, 244.) In many ways, He seems to have written the book full of dark nightmares and adrenaline pumped dreams that acquiesces to Page's assignment, (the British journalist friends' acclamation) "Take the glamour out of WAR?? How the bloody hell can you do that?" (Herr, 248.) The glamour of war remains in it hellish visions and ecstatic epiphanies.

mr. herr makes you feel like you were a participant. thanks to his courage (or stupidity -whatever) I feel like I know some small truths about war. I'm immensely grateful.
why would i bother trying to say anything else about this book?

Really just a trip down memory lane for a drugged out reporter suffering from survivor guilt. Didn't really enjoy it at all for the first the 50-some pages, the author's prose is difficult to follow a lot of the time. Then, the author gets to Khe Sanh and Tet and the book becomes interesting. The last 30 pages or so are about living with it once he was out. Not a bad book, but my expectations were pretty high and this didn't live up to them.