Someone Else's War (H)

Novels about the Vietnam War tend to overlook the long, sad history of the French in Indo-China. However, Simpson's latest thriller (after Tiger in the Barbed Wire), tells the story of Robert Fraser, a career CIA officer stationed in Vietnam since before the defeat of the French by the Communists at Dien Bien Phu in 1954 (an event that Simpson, a former U.S. Information Agency officer in Vietnam, chronicled in last year's Dien Bien Phu: The Epic Battle America Forgot). Fraser learns that his old friend Arnaud Caze, a former French officer who now provides intelligence to the Americans, has been named as a double agent who has sold valuable data to the North Vietnamese. Now Fraser must see to it that Caze is ``terminated with extreme prejudice.'' As he struggles with his conscience and plans his strategy for the killing, Frazer's memories of Caze provide a richly textured picture of life in the tortured, battle-torn nation as the war builds up to the Tet offensive of 1968. In addition to examining the pervasive effects of the French/Indo-Chinese culture on Vietnam, Simpson offers a vivid description of unconventional warfare; this isn't a pleasant read, but it is an authoritative, and cautionary, one. (Nov.)