 |
 |
A gritty, gut-level look at the lives, times and trials of a rifle platoon of the 25th Infantry Division operating in the III Corps area of Vietnam circa 1967-68.
Based on the script for Oliver Stone's Academy Award winning film, this book fills in the background of many of the main characters and gives vital context to operations near the Cambodian border that lead to an illegal killing of a Vietnamese villager and the subsequent power struggle that developed in the unit.
The tale is told mostly through the eyes of a young, sensitive replacement rifleman who finds himself the focus of a struggle between good and evil as represented by two veteran sergeants.
Captain Dye Speaks: I was genuinely honored when Oliver Stone asked me to write the novelization of his script.
I served my time in Vietnam as a Marine - quite a different experience from that of the standard Army draftee - and I didn't want to color or flavor the narrative with Marine bias, but Oliver felt that since I had trained the actors and lived the story in the field while we made the movie, no one could provide depth and context better than I could.
In the broad view, I focused on context; helping the reader to understand what frustrations might lead to the tragic events depicted.
In a more personal sense, I tried to put the reader inside the minds of the soldiers and let them feel the turbulent emotions that assail a human being in mortal combat.
|
Unfortunately, this book is out of print. You can usually find a copy here, however.
| |
