A Rumor of War

About this book

The classic Vietnam memoir as relevant today as it was almost thirty years ago. In March of 1965 Marine Lieutenent Philip J. Caputo landed at Da Nang with the first ground combat unit deployed to Vietnam. Sixteen months later having served on the line in one of modern historys ugliest wars he returned homephysically whole but emotionally wasted his youthful idealism forever gone. A Rumor of War is more than one soldiers story. Upon its publication in 1977 it shattered Americas indifference to the fate of the men sent to fight in the jungles of Vietnam. In the years since then it has become not only a basic text on the Vietnam War but also a renowned classic in the literature of wars throughout history and as Caputo explains of "the things men do in war and the things war does to men." "A singular and marvelous work." The New York Times