Warner Books

For my fellow lefty drummers, he doesn't use L and R but he uses B.D.1 and B.D.2 which is refreshing.

Thank you Joe!

JAN ("TURTLE") WENDLING "A"CO.3RD TANK BN.3RD MARINE DIV.1ST PLATOON

THE EASTER OFFENSIVE is another chapter of the Vietnam War unknown to the average Americans. It is an invaluable collection to the military buffs as well as those with a passing interest in the war. The focus of the book is on the crack South Vietnamese outfit, the Marine Division, and its American advisers bearing the brunt of resistance against the largest North Vietnamese offensive mounted in the history of the war. A preface by a highly-decorated Marine hero-turned novelist, James Webb, sets the frame for this unforgettable tale of gallantry and sacrifrice.

A group of gung-ho US Marine advisers are trapped in the North Vietnamese Division in stopping the onslaught of the heavily armed North Vietnamese mechanized columns in Quang Nam Province. The South Vietnamese Marines are to defend the province at all costs. The incompetent South Vietnamese corps commander in charge of the area has cracked under pressure. Their brethren division in defense of the province is routed with one of its regiments surrendering to the enemy. The Marine numbers are fast dwindling, and it is up to the South Vietnamese Marine commanders and their advisers to whip their bruised outfit to a fighting shape.

The South Vietnamese Marines take heavy casualties in the initial phase of the enemy offensive. The Marines try to take out the Communist tanks with 72mm anti-tank rockets, but to no avail. The Marine battalions fall back from their position, with some of its men stranded. The Marine morale is beginning to crack. However, the US Marine advisers and their South Vietnamese counterparts would slowly gain momentum through sheer courage and gung-ho initiative. No Marine battalions surrender to the enemy, despite the cowardice exhibited by its brethren division.

The book flows smoothly in a gripping narrative. While the book focuses on a South Vietnamese fighting unit, the author, then Deputy Senior Marine adiviser to the South Vietnamese Marine Corps, also tries to give a macro view of the war by describing the background to offensive, and the fighting capability of the South Vietnamese generals.

Also worth noting are the heroic exploits of the two American Marine captains, Ripley and Smith, who brought their South Vietnamese Marines to the safety while exposing themselves repeatedly to the enemy fire in rallying the Marine defense. Their tales of courage, the paragon of what an inspirational military leadership ought to be, are not easily forgotten and inspire the best of the fighting men.

The book, while filled with military lessons to be learned and fascinating exploits, does more than what is asked of it through its gripping narratives. It paints the acts of courage by America's often misunderstood ally, the South Vietnamese, with noble dignity. Through the gallant acts of its elite Marines, the book shows that they were willing to fight provided they had the spirit and proper leadership. The American Marine advisers and their own gung-ho Marine commanders provided them both during the Offensive. In the final outcome, they ran short of both in a wrong war whose cause they could neither articulate nor justify. But military men merely fight to live another day in a war started by their own politicians. This book gives the South Vietnamese Marines that very credit they deserve for doing their best despite the insurmountable odds.

There is reason to enjoy a book wherein the time sequence of every paragraph is a mystery: This volume (all 700+ pages of it) is about the nonlinear progression required, to turn a young gay child into a fully-sentient, understanding young adult. It's a process, and it doesn't happen all at once, or in a simple chain of events. In fact, Effect precedes Cause by several hundred pages here. Other ambiguous discoveries realized by the author: The fluidity of sexual expression in young people, the moral relativism of adults, the ease with which lovers turn to betrayal.

If you're not an avid fan of ambiguity, it might be best to stay away from this book. Some of the most important sentences in it are written in Afrikaans, and there is no context afterward to help the reader decode their meaning. This is problematic, since Afrikaans is not a world language (your friends will be unable to help you). Speaking fluent German is little help with Afrikaans. Perhaps the only people who will be able to understand these important sentences, other than South Africans, will be people who speak Dutch, which itself is not a world language. The author also uses Afrikaans words gratuitously throughout the book. Happily, where these words appear one-at-a-time in the narrative, there is sufficient context around them for the reader to guess their meaning.

I congratulate the author on his unflinching honesty in approximating the thoughts of a young boy, struggling with his parents, hormones, relationships, and the human body (his own--and others'). Sometimes this honesty is reflected in a nongrammatical stream-of-consciousness recorded by the protagonist. It's precisely the way humans think when upset, confused, humiliated, or elated. The relationship between the adult choir teacher and the young protagonist leads to all of these emotions, and more.

If homosexuality bothers you, if you require a yarn told from prologue to epilogue without interruption, if you cannot skip over words in an obscure language without becoming angry at their use (and you don't possess an Afrikaans dictionary) then this book is not for you. If you can embrace these idiosyncratic elements, then this book will open another world, beautiful and untidy, inside your mind.