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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Book Tells Personal Story Of Vietnam

Kyle Zielinski Mead Junior High

When I first picked up “Voices from Vietnam” by Barry Denenberg, it was because of personal interest. I wanted to know more about what went on in Vietnam.

What I didn’t expect was the way the book was written. Instead of taking the political aspect of the war (how the United States did according to casualties and the like), it was written from personal accounts of the war. It showed how the fighters and even politicians felt through their speeches and letters.

I read it anyway. I’m glad I did. Each chapter is about a different time that influenced the war or who was in it. There was a introductory paragraph of information every once in a while, but mainly the book consisted of feelings.

After a bit, I started to get my own opinions on the war and how dumb I thought it was. These opinions probably wouldn’t have come out like they did if the book had just been the story of the war. That type of writing isn’t as in-depth and doesn’t make you stop and think about it much. Those are the kind of books that tend to be on the boring side.

The thing that hit me about the book was the way Denenberg ended it, with a letter from a soldier to his parents. It revealed that even though there were some soldiers who liked to fight, there were many who didn’t feel so great about fighting and what was going on in Vietnam.

The letter went something like this:

“One day a solder wrote to his parents. He wrote, ‘Did you know the weather is great here …’ “

His mother wrote back, “Son, please tell us what really goes on.”

So he wrote, “Yesterday we invaded a town. I killed three children myself.”

The next time the soldier got a letter it was from his father, who said, “Son, please do not write such depressing letters, you’re saddening your mother.”

So the son wrote back, “You know, the weather is great here … “

I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to know about Vietnam or what it was like to be in that war.