After being deeply impacted by the TV series Tour of Duty and the movie Platoon, I as a high school student back in the late 80's wanted to know more about the soldier's experience of Vietnam. I bought this book, a collection of soldier stories put together by Newsweek. In many moves during and post-college, I got rid of almost all my pre-college books, but this one was a keeper.

I wish the experiences of that war had prevented the repetition of similar mistakes: unclear purpose by military and civilian leadership and the psychological turmoil on soldiers who must constantly be on guard against the people they are supposed to be protecting, then must return home to be surrounded by the feeling that all they have suffered for was without meaning and yet they still can't manage to leave it behind. The stories in this book remind us that war is not a game of Risk with soldier pawns; it has lasting repercussions even for those who make it back home alive.