The Devil's Secret Name

A former Green Beret who fought alongside the Montagnards in Vietnam, Morris, an editor at Berkley Books, was unsuccessful in his attempt to rejoin them after the U.S. pullout, but later helped rescue a number of the tribespeople and bring them to this country. This is but one element in the entertaining chronicle of the author's travels in Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, Israel, Lebanon and El Salvador, mostly on assignment for Soldier of Fortune magazine. His goal was to get close to the fighting in hot spots on three continents, soak up local color and have as much fun as he could. The prose is hardboiled, but Morris also pokes fun at himself, especially over his compulsion to recapture the exhilaration of combat. One of the things he learned is that he is not the gung-ho warrior he once was, either in body or spirit. The book closes on a controversial note as Morris argues that most Third World wars are part of a Soviet global effort to gain control of the world's vital resources and sea lanes, that this strategy constitutes not only a continuation of the Vietnam War but is World War III itself, and that if the West continues to ignore this monumental process the U.S.S.R. will eventually be the sole superpower. (May)