cover image Vietnam: The Heartland Remembers

Vietnam: The Heartland Remembers

Stanley W. Beesley. University of Oklahoma Press, $24.95 (194pp) ISBN 978-0-8061-2062-1

The 30-odd people represented here have two things in common: ""They went to Vietnam without a whimper and returned without whining,'' and they are all from Oklahoma. Intended as an oral history in the spirit of Al Santoli's Everything We Had and Mark Baker's Nam, this collection lacks the power of either, although the short reminiscences are not uninteresting. Doctor Jack Welch comments on the callousness of journalists. Infantry scout Wilber Brown recalls what it was like to become lost in the jungle and nearly captured. Ranger Billy Walkabout describes his initiation into his tribe's warrior society on his return home. David Price, former counterintelligence scout, relates his struggle to overcome the stigma of being an ex-POW and Vietnam vet. Kathryn Fanning, widow of a Marine pilot, describes her attempts to learn what happened to her husband's remains, accusing the Marine Corps of a cover-up. (September)