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DISTANT WAR: RECOLLECTIONS OF VIETNAM, LAOS, AND CAMBODIA
by Marc Phillip Yablonka
A Merriam Press Original Publication: Military Monograph MM27
This is a newly-edited compilation of eighteen years of Yablonka’s reportage on American involvement in Indochina and the people affected by America’s connection to that part of the world. After all those years and numerous articles about an indelible mark on American history published in the likes of the U.S. Military’s Stars and Stripes, Army Times, American Veteran, the Weider History Group publication Vietnam Magazine and others, these stories needed a wider audience for the world to know what they suffered, how most survived, and how they overcame adversity.
Distant War: Recollections of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, will be the vehicle to the reader’s understanding of a war and its aftermath that may seem distant now, but what is important is that it will make readers realize—if they haven’t already—that in war, whether in the jungles of Vietnam or the sands of Iraq, in a very real sense, while who wins and who loses is obviously important, what is equally necessary is that good somehow must and shall prevail.
Contents
Prologue
AcknowledgmentsChapter 1: Doctors in a War Zone: The Ultimate Training Ground
Chapter 2: Wounded Four Times and Still Proud: Major Jim Morris
Chapter 3: A Gold-Plated Mission
Chapter 4: Indomitable Spirit at the Hanoi Hilton: Vice-Admiral James Bond Stockdale
Chapter 5: Everything is Okay Now: Nick Ut
Chapter 6: From AFVN to Wheel of Fortune: Pat Sajak
Chapter 7: $100, a Leica, and a One-Way Ticket to Saigon: Catherine Leroy
Chapter 8: Air America: The Truth
Chapter 9: If the Walls of the Continental Could Talk…
Chapter 10: When Art and Life Blur: Kieu Chinh
Chapter 11: Cambodia Revisited
Chapter 12: Bringing the War Home: Requiem
Chapter 13: Standing by Their Men: Donut Dollies
Chapter 14: Q&A Time with Steve Stibbens
Chapter 15: Lest We Ever Forget: The POWs
Chapter 16: Chopper Chums Reunite: Pilot Association Remembers Vietnam’s Good Times
Chapter 17: Heaven Helped Them: Oliver Stone and Le Hy Haislip
Chapter 18: Back to the Present
Chapter 19: Canada Just Lost Track of Something: Vietnam Vets From North of the 49th Parallel
Chapter 20: Dog Tags Take the Long Road Home: David and Kurt Arnold
Chapter 21: Unfriendly Skies for Air Vietnam
Chapter 22: So Long Bob: Obit for Bob Hope
Chapter 23: Burying the Hatchet: Nguyen Ngoc Hung
Chapter 24: Shadow of War: Cherie Clark
Chapter 25: A Shepherd in Laos: Bishop Jean Khamse Vithavong
Chapter 26: Radio Japan Manager is Tuned in to Vietnam: Masako Yuasa
Chapter 27: Serving with Distinction…on Four Legs! Dogs in Vietnam
Chapter 28: The Longest Yards: The Mountain People
Chapter 29: The Long Journey of Bounlieng Philavong
Chapter 30: Big Trouble in Little Saigon
Chapter 31: He Hated War but Loved the Work: A Q&A with Allen Cates
Acknowledgments: Thank You to Magazines and Newspapers
Specifications
First Edition (July 2009)
Paperback: ISBN 978-0-557-08441-8 — $19.95
Perfect bound, full-color wrap-around cover
Hardcover: ISBN -0-557-08483-8 — $36.95
Blue linen cover with title stamped in gold on spine, full-color dust jacket
PDF file on CD disc — $10.00
Complete copy of the book including the cover images in a single PDF file.
258 6 × 9 inch pages
67 photos/illustrations
Testimonials
It is a truism that everything that can be said about Vietnam, Watergate, and that terrible era in our history has been said or written. Marc Yablonka proves this wrong, as he explores those days from odd and untouched angles. He creates an unforgettable portrait of something you thought you knew well, and find you did not know at all.
—Jim Morris, author of War Story
Marc Yablonka captures the nuances and sidelights of Vietnam and the personalities of the war in South East Asia. I spent two tours flying Army helicopters in this conflict and Marc brought out some views that I was not aware of. Combat is not all war stories and he artfully fills in a lot of blank spaces for veterans like me. His writings will help others understand the war better. Yablonka has a skill and it shows in his recent work. Hope there is more to come …
—LTC (Ret) Tom Lasser, RVN, 1967-68, 1969-70
The Author
Marc Yablonka is a graduate of the Professional Writing School of the University of Southern California. He served as a Public Affairs Officer (CWO-2) with the 40th Infantry Division Support Brigade and the Installation Support Group, California State Military Reserve, at the Joint Forces Training Base in Los Alamitos, California, between 2001 and 2008. He also served with the Sar-El unit of the Israeli Defense Forces. He lives with his wife Cammie and their long-haired orange Tabby named Ruffy in Burbank, California.
Availability
Published July 2009. Available now direct from the publisher by mail, phone or the Merriam Press web site, as well as from Amazon and other online booksellers. Available from most bookstores by special order.
Booksellers: This title will be available soon through Ingram.
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Short URL: http://www.veteranstoday.com/?p=8188
Posted by Veterans Today on Aug 4 2009, With 0 Reads, Filed under Vietnam War. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
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the war is over stop reliving it is my advice turn your attention to todays vets and this confliict you are worthless to us other wise
debatable point….
not everyone from vietnam is dead
even funnier….much of what seems to be included in this has the ring of bullshit.
g
Why don’t you read it before you call it bullshit, asshole!
Yeah! Good point George! What kind of asshole would call something bullshit before even experiencing it. If anybody’s got the ring of Bullshit, it’s this guy “g,” don’t you think?
I agree with Duff, most of the subjects this guy has written about are old news. Pat Sajak, a game show host. Catherine Leroy, a French journalist. Air America, a good action movie. Donut Dollies, they were in one of the veterans magazines a month or so ago “Red Cross Girls”. Oliver Stone, bad action movies. Bob Hope, went to where the REMF troops were, everyone loved him. If you can’t write something original about Vietnam, please get on a new subject. Please don’t tell me about your purple hearts, when there are over 40,000 dead with one and thousands more with missing limbs and holes in their flesh that you can lay a hand in.
As the publisher of Marc Yablonka’s “Distant War”, I am absolutely astounded by the childish responses to the book–from Nammo, Duffster, and DA White–which not one of them has even seen. The subjects may be “old news” however Marc managed to come up with info that most of you have probably never heard before. DA White got the war’s death total wrong–it’s 58,000. Catherine Leroy did a combat jump into Tay Ninh Province with the 173rd Airborne Division during Operation Junction City. “Air America” was a silly action movie and if you read the book you’d learn that the real Air America was nothing like the movie and it did a disservice to the AA veterans. I’m no fan of Oliver Stone, but the book provided me with some info I didn’t know about before. Apparently if someone writes a single article about some topic, you guys think no more needs to be said. Long after every VN vet is dead and buried, they’ll still be writing books and articles about VN and there will be plenty of new info presented. I have been publishing books and magazines on military history since 1968, and people who know little about such subjects are always asking me, “Hasn’t everything been written about [insert your favorite war here]?” No, it hasn’t and never will. I just wonder if these three are simply jealous of Marc’s having a book published. Apparently the “Duffster” is a “staff writer”–perhaps “resident curmudgeon” would be a more appropriate title. Has he ever written any books, or even an article? If you don’t like what someone else has written about a subject, then maybe you should write your own book (put up or shut up, perhaps).