I thought this book was the best book on Vietnam that I have ever read. Its a facinating look into life as a line officer in a front line Marine Infantry batallion during the early part of the war. Caputo holds nothing back when it comes to describing life on the front line and what goes through the minds of these young, too young Marines who fought on the front line. An excellent read and I highly reccomend it.

Its a page turner from start to finish. A very unique view of the war.

Caputo wasn't much of a marine. He started complaining about Vietnam before he arrived. Every page is filled with criticism, cynicism, griping, complaining, and self-serving tripe. He wanted to be a hero, but he didn't have what it took to be anything but a whining wimp. Certainly he writes well. But writing well and living well are entirely different. He doesn't understand honor or duty. Sure the war was politicized, but so is every war. Sure the rules of engagement were stupid, but a soldier serves. Caputo did not serve; rather he whined. Many of us who served in Vietnam believed there were many things that made no sense. But we didn't turn tail and run. We served. For those who want to understand what is was like to be a soldier in Vietnam, read "We Were Soldiers Once... and Young" or "Steel My Soldiers' Hearts". If you want to know what is was like to be useless in Vietnam, read this book.

I assigned this book to my college students for a closer glimpse of the Vietnam Conflict. I had not read it before, but had done research and study on the subject. I found Caputo's book to be insightful, controversial and thought provoking. He doesn't glamorize the war but explains how it effected soldiers and one of the many reasons it was such a mess. Throughout the book, Caputo shows how the conditions changed the average American teenager into a robotic killer and how their experiences stayed with them. In the end, he speaks against the war, but not in the normal Jane Fonda version of bashing the military and labeling them rapists and baby killer. Caputo talks about how the government was at fault and created the situations that lead to PTSD and other issues for returning soldiers.

A must read to understand the war and its effects on our soldiers.

In keeping with the theme of this Memorial Day weekend, I would like to offer my thoughts on "A Rumor of War," a classic tale of Vietnam. Philip Caputo has crafted one of the most moving and disturbing testaments to the men who fought and died in that far away land. When the book was first published in 1977, the New York Times called it "The troubled conscience of America speaking passionately, truthfully, finally." I became aware of this classic memoir when my friend, Capt. Kyle Kalkwarf, West Point Class of 2002, told me that it was one of the best books about war he had ever read. He recommended that I add it to my reading list. He was right in doing so.

Caputo's recollections of his time as a Marine in Vietnam are filled with anger and sorrow at the misbegotten policies promulgated in Washington and carried out with disastrous results by General Westmorland and his subordinates. The author makes it clear in his introductory remarks how he felt and feels about that war and the impact that it had upon him and his comrades in arms:

"Beyond adding a few more corpses to the weekly body count, none of these encounters achieved anything; none will ever appear in military histories or be studied by cadets at West Point. Still, they changed us and taught us, the men who fought in them; in those obscure skirmishes we learned the old lessons about fear, cowardice, courage, suffering, cruelty and comradeship. Most of all, we learned about death at an age when it is common to think of oneself as immortal. Everyone loses that illusion eventually, but in civilian life it is lost in installments over the years. We lost it all at once, and in the span of months, passed from boyhood through manhood to a premature middle age. The knowledge of death, of the implacable limits placed on a man's existence, severed us from our youth as irrevocably as a surgeon's scissors had once severed us from the womb. And yet, few of us were past twenty-five. We left Vietnam peculiar creatures, with young shoulders that bore rather old heads. . .

This book is partly an attempt to capture something of its [the war's] ambivalent realities. Anyone who fought in Vietnam, if he is honest about himself, will have to admit he enjoyed the compelling attractiveness of combat. It was a peculiar enjoyment because it was mixed with a commensurate pain. Under fire, a man's powers of life heightened in proportion to the proximity of death, so that he felt an elation as extreme as his dread. His senses quickened, and he attained an acuity of consciousness at once pleasurable and excruciating. It was something like the elevated state of awareness induced by drugs. And it could be just as addictive, for it made whatever else life offered in the way of delights or torments see pedestrian." (Pages xv-xvii)

Caputo's last comments in the section just quoted seem to be eerily in keeping with the themes of the stunning films, "The Deer Hunter" and "Apocalypse Now."

In one of the most gripping passages in the book, Caputo recaptures the spectrum of emotions he felt during a helicopter assault - running the gamut from fear to courage:

"A helicopter assault on a hot landing zone creates emotional pressures far more intense than a conventional ground assault. It is the enclosed space, the noise, the speed, and, above all, the sense of total helplessness. There is a certain excitement to it the first time, but after that it is one of the more unpleasant experiences offered by modern war. On the ground, an infantryman has some control over his destiny, or at least the illusion of it. In a helicopter under fire, he hasn't even the illusion. Confronted by the indifferent forces of gravity, ballistics and machinery, he is himself pulled in several directions at once by a range of extreme, conflicting emotions. Claustrophobia plagues him in the small space: the sense of being trapped and powerless in a machine in unbearable, and yet he has to bear it. Bearing it, he begins to feel a blind fury toward the forces that made him powerless, but has to control his fury until he is out of the helicopter and on the ground again. He yearns to be on the ground, but the desire is countered by the danger he knows is there. Yet, he is also attracted by the danger, for he knows he can only overcome his fear by facing it. His blind rage then begins to focus on the men who are the source of the danger - and of his fear. It concentrates inside him, and through some chemistry is transformed into a fierce resolve to fight until the danger ceases to exist. But this resolve, which is sometimes called courage, cannot be separated from the fear that has aroused it. Its very measure is the measure of that fear. It is, in fact, a powerful urge not to be afraid anymore, to rid himself of fear by eliminating the source of it. This inner, emotional war produces tension almost sexual in its intensity. It is too painful to endure for long. All a soldier can think about is the moment when he can escape his impotent confinement and release this tension. All other considerations, the rights and wrongs of what he is doing, the chances for victory or defeat in the battle, the battle's purpose or lack of it, become so absurd as to be less than irrelevant. Nothing matters except the final, critical instant when he leaps out into the violent catharsis he both seeks and dreads." (Pages 277-8)

Caputo's thoughtful and passionate recounting of the growing up that he did in the cauldron of Vietnam added to my understanding of what many of my generation experienced as they fought in Southeast Asia and returned to a country that had grown sick of the fighting. As our nation once again wrestles with combat fatigue and the questions of when to withdraw and how to withdraw from Iraq, I am grateful that this time around - unlike the situation that existed in the late `60's and 70's - even those who oppose the war have not showered those returning from the Gulf with opprobrium. They desire our admiration and our gratitude.

Thanks Kyle, for recommending this book, and for your continuing service to our nation.

Al

I think this book comes closest to achieving in literature what Platoon did for the movies, putting you in the war in Vietnam. Im not suggesting after reading this you will have a full grasp of the daily life in the Marine Corps outside Danang in 1965 but, hopefully, its as close as many of us will get. It is a horrible account of the disintegration of the human spirit and the humane sensibility that we all have. It takes us to very dark places and provides no easy answers, only tough questions evoked through powerful and beautiful writing. I have to stress the writing because it is exceptional.
As the author states, it is a memoir of his experiences and not meant to be read as an overview of the war itself, but in many ways it is better than that, for instead of mere numbers, we are given the true nature of the war, one we were slowly pulled into and one we seemed to be unable to get out of. For me, I barely remember the Vietnam War and we barely discussed it in History class, but I think a book such as this would be an important addition to our history classes, especially in high school. Its not a long book. It is very intense and can be quite graphic at times but I was impressed that the author didnt dwell so much on the blood and guts but on the men themselves, who they were at the start and who they became later on. That is the fascinating and disturbing part of the book for me. It is philosophical without forcing it, dramatic in the best sense and one I know I will want to read again. Highly recommended!

Good Transaction.. Received the book quickly and in great condition. Brand new and wrapped nicely.

I found this book to be so raw, and so terrifying that it was difficult for me to put it down. Philip Caputo puts the life of an everyday solider during the Vietnam War into a light that I believe does justice to every veteran of the war. He very articulately describes the horrors, and utter impossibilities of fighting a guerilla war in unfamiliar territory, and does so with a writing style that will make you feel as though you are crouched in a foxhole right next to him in the dense jungles of Vietnam. This book is an absolute must read for anyone interested in the Vietnam War, or for anyone who is sick of the constant "glamorization" of war by Hollywood.

I was very impressed with the order of A Rumor of War. The book shipped quickly and arrived between the 7-14 day window. The service was professional. The book details matched the quality of the book. I am very pleased with the service provided.

Pulitzer Price winner Philip Caputo held me on the edge of my seat with his autobiographical experience as a young marine lieutenant in the first year of the US major troop deployment period. I, as a 21 year old enlisted man, was also was part of that initial troop operation with the 1st Infantry Division just north of Saigon.

We arrived full of excitement not knowing what we were about to encounter. I still find it hard to explain the experience of unanticipated paralyzing fear, an environment of massive infrastructure development in the middle of a rubber plantations and mountain jungle, new deadly weapons design to counter our initial losses, the anything goes in Saigon, snakes and tigers, indiscriminate death and the general behavior of kids that had been raised with upper middle class values that simply didn't hold up when exposed the emotional sensationalism of this conflict.

Caputo does the best job describing that environment and the related
evolving behavior that became part of the daily experience. As you approach the end of the novel with stimulated enlightenment he drops the bomb.

Along side of "Making of a Quagmire" by another Pulitzer Prize winner, David Halberstan and "We were Soldiers Once ....And Young", Harold G. Moore, readers will share the true history of the journey through moral decadence to which no participant was exempt.

The three best (in my opinion as a Viet Nam Veteran) pieces of literature written on the Viet Nam War. They are, as writers, truly artist.

I've been wanting to read first-hand accounts of the Vietnam war for some time and have finally read several books within the last few months; "A Rumor of War", "Dispatches", "Vietnam/Perkasie" and "Letters from Vietnam." Standing above all is Philip Caputo's incredibly vivid "A Rumor of War." It's everything the other reviewers have said. But do try to read the other books too because it's facinating to read the differences and similarities between them and also gives a better, more rounded picture than any one work can paint. Right now I'm reading "Fields of Fire" which so far is terrific as well.

Caputo's first and most famous work "A Rumor of War" is a testimonial of his experiences as a 2nd lieutenant Marine serving in Vietnam in 1965.

On the surface, this book will remind you of so many other testimonials. War is hell, war is bad. Caputo's version of events are so descriptively described, you can taste the dirt of Vietnam in your mouth, feel the grime on your skin and see the fog of what was one of America's worst mistakes.

To get a good picture of what war is like and what it does to the human psyche, there is no better portrayal than what Caputo writes. You watch him turn from a gung-ho Marine being sent to protect a base from the VC, and maybe kill a few in the process, to a person so cynical, he orders his men to kill Vietnamese civilians and burn villages indiscriminately. The atrocities he and others committed were so great, you would expect him still serving a sentence in prison for his crimes. This is until you are reminded that this is a war, and that the hand of the US interests pushed him to insanity.

I thought this book was an incredible read for anyone who wants a discriptive, hands-on look on the effects of war. Captuo is not a hero in this book, and even more so, I can't help but think that he profits off the innocent he killed. It affects me so much, I don't feel that a perfect score on this novel does those who were characters any justice for their deaths. That is the underlying irony in a book about a "splendid little war" that was only considered an authorized use of force by an executive order.

This book plays so well into modern day politics and current events, there isn't any reason why "Rumor of War" should be tossed aside as irrelevant. So many similiarities in his tale sing to the tune of Americans serving in Iraq today. Anyone who is willing to delve into this novel will clearly see the picture, and taste the bitterness of it all.

Probably the best book I've ever read. No political slant, no BS, no glorification of war, no war bashing. Just straight raw truth. So descriptive you would swear that you had just came out of the jungle after putting it down.

I had to read this book for a history class and ended up with a better grasp of what groung cambat in Vietnam was like. It gives the reader a first hand account into the horrors of war.
This book gives you a good intro into what kind of person Caputo is and what type of background he comes from. I would recommend this book to those who are looking for a better understanding of what the combat soldier in Vietnam had to endure.

Wonderful insight on the Vietnam War. The nararrator sheds light on how he felt as a soldier from the beginning of the conflict to the end. I never really understood the war being all but 29 years of age, but after reading this book I knew exactly how it was, and how soldiers matured years beyond their age. Caputo provides the reader with the graphic details of this conflict as well as war in general. Caputo tells a tale of questionable motives, sleepless nights, and wasted lives.

I had to read this book for my college class. I thought it was a war book so it's going to be stupid and boring!!! OMG IT WAS SO GOOD!!! I could not put it down. I would try and read it between classes but that didn't work.. IF you like war books and want to see the Vietnam war though the eyes of someone who was there? THEN READ IT BOOK!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A friend is mentioned in the book. While he does not share Caputo's views on the war, he said it was an accurate, truthful desription of their time in Vietnam.

Book is boring, not much for those who want action stories.
The friend is one of those on R&R.

Not much more needs to be said about this excellent book. As a teacher preparing a class on the 60s and Vietnam, I found myself emotionally attached to Caputo and his trials, choices, and despair. Indeed, as others have said, this would make an excellent text for those who really want to know what the war was like. I will certainly be recommending it to students that I think are mature enough to handle the material, and will have its content in my mind as I teach about this conflict and its impact on the men who served there.

'A Rumor of War', along with James Webb's 'Fields of Fire', are the two best personal accounts of the Vietnam war. Caputo possesses remarkable ability to chronicle the surreal, Alice in Wonderland quality of the Vietnam experience for a wide range of readers - from those who remember it firsthand to others who weren't yet born. No need to hear any more from this reviewer; go get the book and see for yourself.

In my sophmore year of high school, in my U.S. History class, we're wrapping up the Vietnam War unit, and I saw this book had a little column in there. I knew I had the book I attempted to read it at least twice, but always got distracted; so I finally picked it up and read it through front to back. "A Rumor of War" is an amazing account of a man's journey through the desolate jungles of Vietnam during that war. If you're fascinated with Vietnam War or just enjoy reading; pick this up and read it!

An excellent read, one that should be required reading in the senior year of high school history class. Caputo details in fine prose the patriotism fueled idealism of his college years which lead, in part, to his enlisting in the USMC. The subsequent disillusionment with the futility of the war, coupled with the the first person choices between good and evil, are narrated in descriptive,knowledgeable prose. The author's deliniation between good people being placed in an evil hell, as opposed to intinsically evil people, give the coercive choice of wheather to retain basic goodness and one's humaness.I shudder when I think of how so many of us protested that war for all the wrong reasons.This work inadvertently exemplifies how we can be opposed to the current fiasco in Iraq and still be completely supportive of the USMC troops there.
If I knew for fact that George W. was literate, I would mail him a copy of A Rumor of War.

This is a very interesting book to read over the summer, i truly enjoyed it. Both the storyline and the syntax make for good reading.

Rumor of War is a good example of a "being there" account of the Vietnam War. It is a classic read that will give the reader a flavor of the bureaucracy and cynicism of military life. Caputo makes no apologies for his very human feelings. He does do an excellent job of painting our human frailties in the context of the horror of war.

The irony of Caputo's experience is he is trained to kill and lead men in aggressive military ops. He does his job and follows his governments mantra of, "If it's Vietnamese and its dead then its VC" and as a result he is charged with murder by the Army.

Caputo's journey is as relevant in today's world, with the War in Iraq, as it was in the 1960's. It's the story of a soldier who believed in a cause and went to serve not of a doubletalk government or an idealistic do nothing who merely complains that "war is bad". Highly recommended.

Caputo's book chronicles the sixteen months of the war, or at least what Caputo saw of it. A Rumor of War is about the things men do in war and the things war does to them. Caputo had one of the most one of a kind perspectives on the Vietnam War possible from his first hand experiences in Vietnam. A Rumor of War is about the dangers in Vietnam, the casualties, the frame of mind, and the endless monotony to moments of sheer terror of the American soldier in Vietnam. Throughout A Rumor of War, one can sense the soldier's enormous desire to go home and to abandon the foolishness of a war that soon after arriving in Vietnam most soldiers did not believe in. Caputo's character was the factor that moved the Marine's in his platoon and their desire to survive. Caputo is one of the first Marines ashore in Danang Vietnam on March 8th, 1965 convinced that American forces will win a quick victory in Vietnam. "I guess we believed in our own publicity, Asian guerrillas did not stand a chance against United States Marines". Caputo and his platoon are part of the initial process of escalation under the Johnson administration that led to our massive commitment to fight the war in Vietnam. Caputo's platoon in Vietnam first guards an airbase, and then makes limited patrols into the surrounding Vietnamese countryside to route out snipers. Eventually Caputo is part of the first massive search and destroy operations of the war trying to find an enemy that cannot usually be found for large-scale "American" style engagements. The Vietnamese are the "phantom" enemy as Caputo describes them because the Vietcong had a division of troops around the airbase his platoon was helping to protect yet the Americans had yet to see one enemy soldier.
Eventually Caputo is transferred to a staff position as "Officer in Charge of the Dead" and as one of his duties posts every day the number of American's lost and Vietcong killed on the regimental headquarters blackboard so his colonel could keep track of the battalions and companies under his command and rattle off impressive Vietcong kills to visiting dignitaries. Sometimes Caputo had to verify Vietcong body counts at headquarters, which was not pleasant since at the climate of Vietnam the bodies were already decomposing. This shows the United States emphasis on body counts.
Caputo is then voluntary transferred back to an infantry company to serve once again as a platoon leader. Caputo serves in this capacity until stress and lack of judgment lead him to order his men on an anti-insurgent mission that results in the death of two South Vietnamese civilians that were incorrectly identified as members of the Vietcong. Caputo's men tell him one of them men had to be killed because the "Cong" sat up with his forty-five and ran outside yelling "Oh God" and the other "Cong" flung a tree branch at the Marines and tried to escape. Caputo is found not guilty on all counts, all charges were dropped against him and a letter of reprimand was put in his military jacket. Caputo was again a free man and he is sent home from Vietnam less then ten days after his acquittal. Ten years later, Caputo was one of the reporters that reported on the fall of Saigon to Communist North Vietnamese forces for the Chicago Tribune.
I personally do not feel that this memoir enhanced my understanding of the conflict in Vietnam. I do not feel that I learned too much by reading this particular book. Since my dad was in Vietnam, I already knew most of the bloody details about the war from his first-hand experiences there as an F-4 Phantom pilot. Moreover, with my personal passions having to do with modern military history in general I already knew that most of the troops did not want to be in Vietnam and did not believe in the cause that they were sent to Vietnam to fight for. However, Rumor of War shows the transformation of the American military into the dejected organization that had come to symbolize American forces in Vietnam. It became popular after the war to suggest what America should have done differently to win the war. From Caputo's book, it becomes clear that America could not have won the war in South Vietnam. America just pursued an ever-rising body count. "Since the landing, we had acquired the conviction that we could win this brushfire war, and win it quickly, if only we were turned loose to fight." In fact we never even knew what "winning" would entail Caputo says.
Caputo's perspective about the Vietnam War is very important for people who know little about the bloody, gory, and discouraging details regarding the Vietnam War. Caputo's book is very informative and an entertaining read for people who have trouble reading an entire book. The reader in a sense can connect with Caputo's first hand story telling in this book, which is brutally honest I must say. Caputo describes his youthful, naive longing for adventure, his subsequent suffering and that of his fellow soldiers, and what he believes is his ultimate betrayal by his own country regarding his court-martial.
I personally thought it was a very good book. Rumor of War is definitely the book students should read if they like action packed books with blood and gore to keep them entertained though the entire book.

I was a REMF, but I was there. If you want to condense Phil's epic American tragedy (Dreiser ref intended) down to one sentence, it could be, "You can get used to anything if you do it often enough."
You zippoed the whole vil? No s--t; let's get chow.
When acts of depravity become as commonplace as body functions, the perpetrators' and witnesses' only coping mechanism is to accept depravity as the norm. That outlook does not change by the simple act of returning back to the world. That's why Phil had to write this book, and why you have to read it.

I was an adult when the Viet Nam war began, one who reads the papers and magazines and listens to some of the talk shows, so I did not expect to be surprised by this book. Caputo was with the first marine battalion to deploy to Danang, and what surprised me was that the problems began right from the start: constant patrols which lead to loss of life without any clear purpose; a strategy which never got past body counts; a gulf between the fighters and the rear echelons, even at the beginning when they were co-located; the infliction of unnecessary civilian casualties out of frustration and fear and rage.
Rumor of War is a simply written narrative account of Caputo's experiences. One almost wishes for more evidence of the novelist he later became. There are relatively few conversations, and the only personality which really emerges is that of Caputo. At the same time, Caputo is honest in his self-reflections, is never verbose, and was there. Possibly, the book would not be as powerful if it were told some other way. I gave the book 5 stars because its material is so important, and certainly bears on our experiences in Iraq, whatever your views on that war are.

I would not claim to have in depth knowledhge of this genre, but, notwithstanding, I blieve that Phillip Caputo's book is a "must read" on two counts - 1.the depiction of men at war and 2. the dwepiction of men at war in Vietnam. With my limited understanding I can comprehend wht reviewers have put "A Rumor of War" in the pantheon of the greats.

I was born after the Vietnam War ended and only know of it from movies and high school textbooks. As amazing as the countless Vietnam movies are, this book tells you what it "felt" like to be there - among the heat, rain, mud, insects, and land mines. So often, movies and television romanticize war and make it into something noble and exciting. Philip Caputo shows Vietnam for what it really was.

Does the title of my review call for an explanation? All right, then, it is this. Caputo created an account of his service experiences in the early part of America's military involvement in Vietnam, that is so crystal clear, I couldn't stand it. It was too close to being an eye-witness to events I did not want to witness or know about. Oh, I finished the book and even did a paper on it in college, but God alive, this was a read that wrenched emotion out of me on every page.

Leaving behind life as a slightly privileged suburban kid in 1960's America, Caputo enlisted in the Marines Corps and became an officer. He was then sent straight off to Vietnam in about 1965, the height of US confidence for quick and total victory over this Third World opponent. What Caputo and his men encountered was a ruthless, determined foe who confronted them remorselessly in this tropical hell. Over the next year, Caputo is changed by his time in this "low-intensity" war until he is transformed into someone capable of ordering the execution of apparent Communist terrorists, who may have been nothing more than civilians in the wrong place at the wrong time. Caputo and several of his men are tried for this deed and had the sentiment regarding Vietnam been as volatile as it later became, he would perhaps have been convicted and jailed, but as it was, he escaped punishment and returned home a disillusioned cynic with "an above average service record."

A Rumor Of War is everything a memoir of a soldier ought to be. It is brutal, it pulls no punches and spares no detail, and thus it is disturbing in the extreme. I recognized this book's value in its achievement, but I did not like it. I think anyone who reads Caputo's account will understand what I mean.

Lieutenant Caputo arrives in Danang early in the conflict, initially to protect the airbase there. Slowly, American forces, including Caputo's unit find themselves roaming into the countryside, looking for Vietcong insurgents. Caputo tells the story very well, and creates in the reader a vivid mental image of the conflict was like from the point of view of the American soldier in this foreign land.

Caputo not only tells his story, but the story of thousands of other G.I.'s many whom never made it home or who came home in a box or with permanent disabilities. This valuable account of the early stages of the war is historically significant on many levels. Even after all these years, this book is as valuable and relevant as ever.

I welcome feedback on this and all reviews at wstrnlibwarrior@yahoo.com