We Never Learn Anything From War
SPOILER ALERT! - To the guest reader, the following will reveal all sorts of plot details. If you wish to remain blissfully ignorant, leave now.
Miles
8 - 8
Found the introductory chapter fantastic. Ward Just has an efficient way of putting a storyline together that Miles loves. The details he gives to his characters make them believable and easy to understand. The American presence in Vietnam was the ultimate moral quandary that is still hard to define. In 1965 there was a naiveness about the war. Miles took an international conflict class in college which looked at classical, liberal, and neo-marxist theories of why we go to war and came away with the idea that, "Men are like children. If they have a BB gun, they want to shoot it." And so, the USA had new toys to play with. He knew things wouldn't turn out well for the peasants and thought the Armands would get wiped out as well.
Kath
6.25 - 6.75
Thought the book was well written, but didn't really enjoy the story. She liked the writing, but found she had to reread it often and in fact read the entire first chapter to see if she could figure out who the narrator was. Nope. Weird. Thought the dialogue was good and had a feel for the 60s. Agreed with Miles that it was a morality play of sorts. The Americans had such a disconnect with everyone. The French understood the hearts and minds of the people, although they did so in order to get what they wanted, while the US just rolled over people, sometimes literally, to get what we wanted. Pablo's line, "Fuck the hearts and minds of the people, we require the hearts and minds of the New York Times," had a certain ring to it, especially when contrasted with today's media circus. She liked the sarcasm, but wasn't excited about the story.
Carolyn
4 - 5
Would read, put the book down, repeat. She often felt lost. It's so much better when a story flows, and she thought she might have liked it better if she were more familiar with the history of Vietnam. Sydney came across as someone who wanted to make a difference but for self-serving reasons. He parroted his higher ups and wasn't high up enough himself on the chain of command to do what he said he wanted done. His wife's line, "When you said it was time to give your life, I never thought you'd give it to a war. I thought it would be me," stuck with her. She felt bad for Claude and Dede who were just minding their own business until Sydney came along.
Artie
7.25 - 7.25
Liked it because it made him think. Artie pointed out that this was written 35 years after the war, and we're reading it 18 years after its publication which affords us three unique historical lenses with which to view the story, each having its own set of cultural mores and standards for interpretation. For example, in 1970 Artie was 18 years old. There were 330,000 troops in Vietnam and Artie was worried about his draft number. The Cuban Missile Crisis was a recent memory as was Khrushchev's promise that our grandkids (us, with the exception of Artie - sorry Artie) would grow up Red. The US was flush with installing democracies in Japan, Germany, and the Philippines and full of generals who had experienced success in WWII, so it sort of made sense that we would not only believe in our ability to do so elsewhere, but see it as our duty. The idea being the Domino Theory and if Vietnam were to fall, Communism would continue to consume more countries. Sydney was naive to think he was there only to provide infrastructure. Who are the good guys? Given our historical perspective it seems there really are none in this story, or in Vietnam at all.
Sandy
4.5 - 5.5
Thought the book was smarter than she was. Was confused with Sydney being called short, not knowing this meant short timer. See! This just had to be explained to me. This book IS smarter than I am. Ha! She disliked all the characters with the exception of Dede, but that could be just because she was the only female character. Liked the line, "Want to do good? You have a daughter. Go home and take her to drawing lessons." Had to google the Kukla Fran and Ollie reference and was pretty sure that few people in 1999 would understand. Loved his writing. The part where Cao's shadow is described as an animal in the jungle was brilliant. Saw similarities between the Llwellyan Group with Halliburton and Blackwater. We never learn anything from war. Didn't find it all that interesting overall.
K'Lynn
5 - 5.5
Knew she had two months to read so she would pick it up and then put it down. Often felt lost and kept hoping that it would click. It finally did when the Armands made their appearance. She was distracted by the lack of quotation marks. Oh! This is a conversation! Who's talking? What's going on? Quotation marks are relevant to the reader! Who was the dangerous friend? Roscoe was too obvious and she kept waiting to find out. Recognized Ward Just's name and was excited to read this, but didn't know that much about Vietnam and wishes she had just plowed through rather than reading piecemeal.
Leticia
8 - 8.25
Kept waiting for something bad to happen and found his writing amazingly spare and suspenseful so she read rather quickly in order to find out what happened next. Loved the analogy of looking for a rationale for Vietnam is like searching for a black cat in a dark room that wasn't there. Also thought it was incredibly naive to think that the Vietnamese would accept us just because we said we were good and wanted to improve their infrastructure. She was reminded of The Merchants of Doubt in that the same type of mindset of stopping Communism fueled so many boneheaded misinformation campaigns. Remembers watching the war on the news with her dad and hearing him say how he did not want his sons to go to war.
Becky
5.25 - 5.25
Is a fan of subtlety but wondered exactly where this story began. When Sydney meets Dede? Maybe, but it's still confusing. Was it a coincidence that he recognizes her? Lots of questions and confusion surrounding their initial encounter and where the story really begins.* Story was filled with characters all trying to do what they thought was the right thing. The Armands were living between the Viet Cong and the Americans and were screwed on both sides. They were naive to think that they could continue to live in their bubble unaffected. Becky noted how Rostock said there was nothing on earth that could not be tamed with enough time and money, but changed his tune months later and gave taming a 50/50 chance.
*Perhaps this encounter is the author's metaphor for the whole Vietnam experience? If you look at the history books there's no decisive beginning. Suddenly the players find themselves surrounded by blood and chaos and the beginning is irrelevant. - Pat
Maggie
6 - 6
I read the book back in July so it is not too fresh in my mind. I enjoyed the book and thought it an easy read. Although the author did not go not any great detail I still thought the characters were well rounded and the surrounding very descriptive and I could picture the story in my head as I read it. I thought the writing was very similar to Graham Greene. It was interesting to read about the Vietnam war from the perspective of the early days when Americans and in particular their Civil servants thought they were there to help and improve the life of the Vietnamese and were sure the war would be short lived. I was a little confused by the episode in the square during the riot when Sydney found Dede and thought that writing a bit muddled. I was waiting for something to happen to move the story along and when it did it seemed to be very understated, probably deliberately, a good example of how one incident could have such a far reaching effect. The life of Claude, Dede and Pablo torn apart by the ego of one man; Rostock. I wondered while reading who the Dangerous friend could be and thought it could apply to more than one character. Although it was directed at Sydney, it could also apply to Rostock and to America itself who did turn out to be a Dangerous friend as the war escalated. Not sure I would recommend the book to anyone but thought it was a great pick Miles.
You have to download the file and it's not Mac friendly, but there are some transcipts
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