MWSA Review

The Ghosts of Thua Thien

by John A. Nesser

McFarland

$29.95

Drafted in October 1968, John A. Nesser left behind his wife and young son to fight in the controversial Vietnam War. Like many in his generation, he was deeply at odds with himself over the U.S. involvement in Vietnam, instilled with a strong sense of duty to his country but uncertain about its mission and his role in it.

Nesser was deployed to the Ashau Valley, site of some of the war’s heaviest fighting, and served eight months as an infantry rifleman before transferring to become a door gunner for a Chinook helicopter. In this stirring memoir, he recalls in detail the exhausting missions in the mountainous jungle, the terror of walking into an ambush, the dull-edged anxiety that filled quiet days, and the steady fear of being shot out of the sky. The accounts are richly illustrated with Nesser’s own photographs of the military firebases and aircraft, the landscapes, and the people he encountered.

REVIEWS:

“I knew John Nesser for years, and never knew him. I read his book. Now I will never forget. He wrote many years after his Vietnam experience and he has forgotten much. But his heart has not. John’s story of adventure (for adventure it was) is as poignant now (in the days of the Iraq debacle and its aftermath) as it was the day he returned to the world. John was a soldier once. Part of him will never be anything else”—Henry Shovic, author of When There’s Only You: Safe Living for Women.

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by R. J. Morris (Roger J. Morris )

Music

Journey to a Closed City

With the International Executive Service Corps

By Russell Miller

Fiction, World War II

Beach House Books

Tradeback: $16.95, Large Print: $24.95

Journey to a Closed City describes the experiences of an unlikely central character, traveling in a little known part of the world, at the aftermath of a different type of war. The book will appeal to armchair travelers eager to discover far-off corners of the world, and the reader interested in expense paid travel to intriguing locations while using their skills to "do good" in the developing world.

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