A Rumor of War, Philip Caputo. (Paperback 080504695X) Used Book available for Swap

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A Rumor of War
Author: Philip Caputo

When it first appeared, A Rumor of War brought home to American readers, with terrifying vividness and honesty, the devastating effects of the Vietnam War on the soldiers who fought there. And while it is a memoir of one young man’s experiences and therefore deeply personal, it is also a book that speaks powerfully to today’s ... more »students about the larger themes of human conscience, good and evil, and the desperate extremes men are forced to confront in any war.

A platoon commander in the first combat unit sent to fight in Vietnam, Lieutenant Caputo landed at Danang on March 8, 1965, convinced that American forces would win a quick and decisive victory over the Communists. Sixteen months later and without ceremony, Caputo left Vietnam a shell-shocked veteran whose youthful idealism and faith in the rightness of the war had been utterly shattered. A Rumor of War tells the story of that trajectory and allows us to see and feel the reality of the conflict as the author himself experienced it, from the weeks of tedium hacking through scorching jungles, to the sudden violence of ambushes and firefights, to the unbreakable bonds of friendship forged between soldiers, and finally to a sense of the war as having no purpose other than the fight for survival. The author gives us a precise, tactile view of both the emotional and physical reality of war.

When Caputo is reassigned to headquarters as “Officer in Charge of the Dead,” he chronicles the psychological cost of witnessing and recording the human toll of the war. And after his voluntary transfer to the frontlines, Caputo shows us that the major weapons of guerrilla fighting are booby traps and land mines, and that success is measured not in feet but in body counts. Nor does the author shrink from admitting the intoxicating intensity of combat, an experience so compelling that many soldiers felt nostalgic for it years after they’d left

Vietnam. Most troubling, Caputo gives us an unflinching view not only of remarkable bravery and heroism but also of the atrocities committed in Vietnam by ordinary men so numbed by fear and desperate to survive that their moral distinctions had collapsed.

More than a statement against war, Caputo’s memoir offers readers today a profoundly visceral sense of what war is and, as the author says, of “the things men do in war and the things war does to men.”

This edition includes a twentieth-anniversary postscript by the author.

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ISBN-13: 9780805046953 ISBN-10: 080504695X Publication Date: 11/15/1996 Pages: 356 Rating: Currently 3.7/5 Stars. 35 3.7 stars, based on 35 ratings	Publisher: Owl Books Book Type: Paperback Other Versions: Hardcover, Audio Cassette Reviews: Member \| Amazon \| Write a Review

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Top Member Book Reviews

Currently 4.5/5 Stars.

Vicki B. (vbittersweet) reviewed A Rumor of War on 2/9/2008 + 2 more book reviews

2 member(s) found this review helpful.

A moving, intimate account of the early days of Vietnam. Captures the undying spirit of the proud marine struggling to figure out how to apply all of his training to such an unfamiliar battleground. Compelling, insightful, brutal and frightening.

Currently 4/5 Stars.

Michael T. reviewed A Rumor of War on 5/26/2006 + 14 more book reviews

2 member(s) found this review helpful.

Everyone quotes Caputo's "Rumor of War" for a reason. It is an excellent account of the Vietnam War from a superb writer.

Currently 4.5/5 Stars.

Robert S. (radonfish) - Rogers, TX reviewed A Rumor of War on 5/16/2007 + 133 more book reviews

1 member(s) found this review helpful.

heartbreaking, terrfying, and enraging, it belongs to the literature of men of war, you have got to read it if you want to understand the conflict...

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Currently 4.5/5 Stars.

Laura W. reviewed A Rumor of War on 8/11/2011

I read this after reading "Matterhorn" and was jolted by how similar the authors' experiences had been. Caputo succeeded at his goal, making the reader experience the war as he did--- exhilarating, terrifying, disgusting, confusing and boring by turns. A well-crafted read.

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