Vietnam-Perkasie

“The only memoir of the war that is written from the point-of-view of the 18 year old living the experience… essential reading for students and military historians with an interest in the Vietnam War… unique, original, informative, fascinating… especially and unreservedly recommended.”–Midwest Book Review
“Bill Ehrhart is a brilliant writer and gifted storyteller… much more than a series of battle scenes… the story of a young man being transformed from a gung-ho 17 year old ready to fight for the cause of freedom to a battle-scarred 19 year old disillusioned with the war and disgusted with those who orchestrated it.”–VVA Veteran
“The strength of this book was and remains its narrative mastery, its two-tier blend of the time of its vivid happening… Ehrhart writes a book showing how he, a diehard patriot, came to believe he was fighting a war that made no sense, political or ethical, and that, stage by stage, brutalized him as a human being… familiar… the man who in his postwar life became a poet as well as historian also has a sense of the ridiculous that lightens, as well as broadens the moral good sense of what he’s saying.”–The Veteran
From the previous edition: “As a poet and editor, Bill Ehrhart is clearly one of the major figures in Vietnam War literature”–John Newman, curator of the Vietnam War Literature Collection at Colorado State University
“brutal, honest, funny and tragic”–Philadelphia Inquirer
“one of the great poets and writers of nonfiction produced by the Vietnam War”–The Nation
“thoughtful and probing…a must”–Choice
“unrelenting, authentic…the most vivid exploration of a soldier’s conscience we’ve ever read…eloquent”–Samisdat; “a graphic portrait…gripping prose”–DAV Magazine; “I don’t think I’ve read another Vietnam narrative that presents a better picture of the participants, both Vietnamese and American, and their shared frustration as the war progressed”–John Clark Pratt, Lt. Col. USAF (ret.), author of The Laotian Fragments; “[Ehrhart] combines compassion, wit, and a poet’s eye for detail with the confessional charm of a bildungsroman: a profoundly moving, authentic work”–Natalie L.M. Petesch, author of Duncan’s Colony; “From the battlefield to the classroom, W.D. Ehrhart has used words to process and protest the Vietnam War, as highlighted by Vietnam Veterans Against the War. A Marine veteran, he transformed his experiences into poetry that is both intimate and political, preserving the memory of combat while critiquing the policies that sent young Americans into harm’s way. His voice remains one of the most powerful poetic responses to the conflict. …he blends prose with lyrical reflection to show the human cost of war. His writing often juxtaposes the innocence of youth with the brutality of war, exposing the loss of ideals and the cost of patriotism. Unlike more abstract war poetry, his work is grounded in lived detail, making it accessible and deeply moving. … His poetry not only preserves the memory of Vietnam but also challenges readers to reflect on the recurring patterns of militarism in American life.”–Country Adventures

Memoirist, poet, editor, and Marine veteran, W.D. Ehrhart taught English and history at the Haverford School in Haverford, Pennsylvania. The author of twenty books, his prose and poetry have appeared in hundreds of publications including the Los Angeles Times, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Utne Reader, Reader’s Digest, American Poetry Review and the Virginia Quarterly Review. He was a major presence in the Ken Burns and Lynn Novick documentary The Vietnam War.

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