The Vietnam War Almanac

Library Journal

The outstanding contribution of John Bowman's The Vietnam War: an almanac (LJ 10/1/85) is its detailed day-by-day chronology. The present work complements, rather than competes with, that fine almanac, by featuring an extensive ``A-Z'' encyclopedia on Vietnam, including biographical entries, military terms, geographical locations, and topics like ``fragging,'' ``antiwar movement,'' and ``body count.'' Col. Summers presents careful research and well-documented analysis, but he does write from the career soldier's point of view. Thus the enemy's atrocities at Hue and Dak Son are reported along with the account of My Lai, and the successful actions taken to reduce the high casualties of black soldiers are explained. It is the military individual's perspective that makes this almanac so valuable; Summers is a brilliant strategic analyst. Highly recommended. Richard W. Grefrath, Univ. of Nevada Lib., Reno