Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam

by Bernard Edelman

Overview

"An overwhelmingly eloquent book of the purest and most simple writing on Vietnam."—David Halberstam

Nearly forty years after the official end of the Vietnam War, Dear America allows us to witness the war firsthand through the eyes of the men and women who served in Vietnam. In this collection of more than 200 letters, they share their first impressions of the rigors of life in the bush, their longing for home and family, their emotions over the conduct of the war, and their ache at the loss of a friend in battle. Poignant in their rare honesty, the letters from Vietnam are "riveting,... extraordinary by [their] very ordinariness... for the most part, neither deep nor philosophical, only very, very human" (Los Angeles Times). Revealing the complex emotions and daily realities of fighting in the war, these close accounts offer a powerful, uniquely personal portrait of the many faces of Vietnam's veterans. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393323047
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	05/17/2002
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.80(d)
Lexile:	980L (what's this?)

About the Author

Bernard Edelman served as a broadcast specialist/correspondent in Vietnam. He is the author of Centenarians: The Story of the 20th Century by the Americans Who Lived It

Editorial Reviews

"Dear America is painful, but it must be difficult to be realistic and entertaining about war.... Reading it, I felt I was listening to the voices of the men and women who lived and fought in Vietnam."

Baltimore Sun

"No full understanding of the most disastrous foreign war in American history can be complete without reading these letters from the GIs to their loved ones back home."

Peter Arnett

"Not a history book, not a war novel.... Dear America is a book of truth."

Boston Globe

"Here is the sad and beautiful countermelody of truth, audible at last, now that we have trashed the drums and cymbals of yet another senseless war."

Kurt Vonnegut

"Dear America tells of an ache as ancient as time—adolescents off to war with high expectations, who soon change greatly. Ambiguities abound—from pain, disillusionment and sorrow for dead comrades to a hard-earned measure of individual strength and survival."

Washington Post Book World

An overwhelmingly eloquent book of the purest and most simple writing on Vietnam.

David Halberstam

Always an extremely moving read, but I think never more than now.

Bob Herbert

This is a poignant collection of letters and poems, mostly to loved ones back home, written by soldiers while serving in Vietnam. Ordered roughly by a typical GI's year of service (arrival ``in-country,'' leave, etc.), the selections range from brave and philosophical to raging and grief-stricken. ``Last Letters,'' the chapter containing missives sent by men shortly before their deaths, is particularly haunting. ``This book provides valuable insight into what `grunts' went through,'' PW stated. Major ad/promo. February

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly