Soldiers Story

Veteran newsman Steinman was NBC's bureau chief in Saigon from 1966 to 1968. His continuing interest in the war led to his involvement in the production of the Learning Channel's The Soldiers' Story (to be rebroadcast on July 23, 1999). This book, a collection of oral interviews with veterans, is the written accompaniment to that TV documentary. Readers will be on the edge of their seats as they learn the details of war presented by 77 combatants representing all four branches of the armed forces, as well as by men who took part in the ""Secret War"" in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. The book's six chapters include details of the fighting in the Ia Drang Valley, the siege of Khe Sanh, the 1968 Tet offensive, the air war and the fall of Saigon in 1975. Readers can thrill to the harrowing rescues of downed pilots, suffer with POWs brutalized in North Vietnam, share in the chaos of battle when the enemy is so close in the jungle that hand-to-hand combat occasionally breaks out, go with small teams of men working behind the lines and feel sorrow when a comrade is killed. This is, quite simply, a powerful book that brings to life the triumphs and tragedies experienced by American soldiers in Vietnam. Then-and-now photographs of each contributor are spaced appropriately throughout the text. This excellent compilation of oral histories belongs on every Vietnam bookshelf. (Aug.)