Books and Films

List of known books and films about the Manchus in the Vietnam War. Some of these books are currently in print others are out of print or self published with limited availability. This list is for reference purposes only.

Books

Unfortunate Sons by L.D. James

"Go inside the killing zone of one of most devastating ambushes suffered by U.S. forces in the Vietnam War. Learn how it happened and why but most of all experience what it was like for the men who went through it."

Vietnam War Stories I Never Told: Memoir of an Infantryman at the Cambodian Border 1968-1969 by Herbert G. Jansen

"This memoir of the author's tour of duty in Vietnam in 1968 is a true account of a 19-year-old's journey from a quiet civilian life in Connecticut to an Army infantryman in Vietnam, first as a private and a point man, later as platoon sergeant. He describes the many face-to-face encounters he had with the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army--experiences that required him to remain calm and focused--and the hardships he encountered and friendships he developed along the way."

Manchu Delta by Ric Bridwell

Written by a Delta Company/3rd Platoon member from 1967-1968 - "Manchu Delta, in the starkest sense, is a Vietnam war story. It is a war story too few veterans have forced themselves to tell."

Delayed Detonation by Jeff Dossett

"From the mountains of East Tennessee, a young and naive college student of the 1960s plunges into the horrors of the Vietnam War. Like many others of that era, he grew up with a romanticized and naive vision of the glories of war. As an officer and Artillery Forward Observer with the 25th Infantry Division, 1967 through 1968, he would live through a year of combat, including the 1968 Tet Offensive, without a scratch."

Suicide Charlie by Norman L. Russell

"Drafted in the spring of 1968 from a job as a sportswriter for a small, New England daily, six months later Norm Russell found himself serving in the infantry in Vietnam in an outfit nicknamed Suicide Charlie and fighting for his life against some of the North Vietnamese Army's top units. In a remarkable journey that takes the reader from a time of innocence and protest back in the States to the battle of Mole City where, in the author's words, he makes his acquaintance with the Devil, and then beyond into the despair and depravity of combat, the reader experiences the Vietnam War in gripping and graphic detail, as well as the humor and comradery that helped make it all bearable."

Letters to Tony by Ronald S. Figueroa

No description available.

Mokane To Mole City by Stanley J. Adams

"Drafted in late May 1968, Adams, barely 20 years old, was quickly transformed into an infantry rifleman on the front lines of the Vietnam War, where he survived a year of combat with the famed “Manchu” Regiment, 25th Infantry “Tropic Lightning” Division. Sent in as replacements for those Bravo Co. soldiers who were killed in the Thanksgiving Day Battle of 1968, Adams and his fellow soldiers were charged with building “Mole City,” a combat patrol base camp near the Cambodian Border, to purposely bait the NVA and disrupt their supply lines through the region. He had been “in country” for less than a month when the NVA attacked Mole City during a Christmas truce, just before midnight on December 22, 1968."

Henchman's Light Rangers: In War Zone C 1967-68, A Vietnam Diary by Todd P. Dexter

"Dexter’s autobiographical diary in Henchman’s Light Rangers, gives us an intimate view of what it was like to be an infantryman during the war in Vietnam. With his clear and honest portrayal, we experience the ordeals — from long periods of extreme boredom to sequences of extreme violence and chaos — that can take a lifetime to overcome."

An Unending War: A Memoir of Vietnam by Bob Goff

"This story is about the war in Vietnam from April 1967 to April 1968, as seen and experienced through the eyes of a young infantry sergeant. It is a story that is punctuated with personal accounts of ambushes, booby traps, and battles that involved his unit. It is about the struggle of dealing with PTSD even before it was an official diagnosis and, after, being haunted in his sleep by dreams of ambushes and the cries of the wounded. It's a heartfelt story that's emotional and exciting, one that will most certainly give you the feeling of being on the ground with these troops as they fight to stay alive. "

The Soul of a Warrior: Spiritual Reflections From the Battlefields of Vietnam by Tim Rezac

"There is an intriguing correlation between the physical warfare of an infantryman and the spiritual warfare of a follower of Jesus Christ. Both of these combat situations are challenging, intense, and life-altering. Every Christian has been drafted into the army of God and is engaged in battles with spiritual forces. Not very many people, in comparison, have experienced the horrors of earthly combat. The author, Tim Rezac, has experienced both, in a very real and personal sense."

Dragon Men by Joseph Reass

"Dragon Men is a first novel for Joe Reass. In it he depicts real events pulled from long clouded memories of his combat experiences in Vietnam. Pieced together and told by a fictitious protagonist, David Reno, the story brings into perspective, true events, honest, tragic and even humorous that young men of Charlie Company, 4th Battalion, 9th Regiment, faced in the unconventional combat of the Vietnam War. Along with graphic descriptions of combat and death, there are insights into men who served and how they coped with difficult situations of surviving not only the fighting, but the arduous life in the boonies."

Wounded Body, Healing Spirit by John T. Senka

No description available.

Other Books Of Interest

'Toon Daddy: Twelve Months in Vietnam as a Commissioned Officer and Combat Helicopter Pilot by Joseph P. (Pat) Dougan

'Toon Daddy is the memoir of Joseph P. "Pat" Dougan, a twenty-one-year-old commissioned officer and combat helicopter pilot who flew twelve months with the 187th Assault Helicopter Company — the Crusaders — at Tay Ninh, Vietnam, in 1968 and 1969.

This is not a war story built on blood and spectacle. It is an honest account of what sustained combat does to a person — the growth, the loss, the decisions made in seconds with lives on the line, and the permanent change that no one warns you about when you raise your right hand.

Warrior Nurse: PTSD and Healing by Sarah L. Blum

At the 12th Evacuation Hospital Cu Chi, Vietnam, Sarah L. Blum is an operating room nurse during the fighting in the iron triangle in 1967. Mass casualties with severely wounded soldiers show up for Sarah, her fellow nurses, and the surgeons to treat in the midst of mortar attacks, monsoons, and exploding artillery.

Her story is intertwined with Johnny, hit by American artillery, and Jim, a baseball pitcher with multiple wounds including to his pitching hand. It encompasses her terror on the tarmac at Bien Hoa air base on the day she leaves, culture shock, emerging PTSD symptoms, assaults by protestors, being head nurse of the orthopedic ward at Madigan General Hospital, and her growing awareness of the effects of the war on her and her fellow soldiers.

Through it all, she learns the essentials to healing PTSD and shares some tools and adjuncts to therapy that ensure anyone with PTSD has the best healing outcome.

Platoon: Bravo Company by Robert Hemphill

Lieutenant Colonel, Retired Robert Hemphill takes us back to his fighting days in Vietnam when he commanded Bravo Company, 3rd Battalion, 25th Infantry Division--the same unit director Oliver Stone fought in and presumably based his Oscar-winning movie Platoon on.

Fresh off a promotion and brand-new to Vietnam when he was unceremoniously given command of Bravo Company, the worst fighting unit in the 25th Battalion, Captain Robert Hemphill had to prove his courage and skill as a commander over the next five months--taking Bravo into an endless seres or search and destroy missions, reacting to midnight mortar attacks and ambushed, and trying desperately to not only keep his men alive, but also keep sane in the madness of Vietnam. Then, just when Hemphill was getting the hand of it, the NVA unleashed their 1968 Tet offensive, and Bravo was plunged into the most horrific fighting of the war.

A Hundred Miles of Bad Road by Dwight W. Birdwell and Keith William Nolan

Dwight Birdwell's coming of age took place, as it did for many young men of the sixties, in Vietnam. There he fought the war from the command cupola of an M48 Patton tank, an experience far removed from the stereotypical grunt in the rice paddies. The M48 was fifty-two tons of hell on wheels, equipped with a .50-caliber machine gun and a 90mm main gun, and Birdwell's hard-charging unit was responsible for securing the main supply route between Saigon and Tay Ninh. After extensive interviews with Birdwell, Vietnam War historian Keith William Nolan transports the reader to the confident days of 1967 when Dwight Birdwell, then nineteen years old and raring for a fight, was first assigned to Troop C 3d Squadron, 4th Cavalry 25th Division - a time when there really seemed to be a light shining at the end of the tunnel. Then came the Tet offensive and everything changed. Birdwell won the Silver Star and Purple Heart on January 31, 1968, when the tanks and armored personnel carriers of C/3/4th Cav smashed headlong into the communist regiment that had broken through the wire at Tan Son Nhut Air Base.

Films

Manchu: A Brotherhood of Sacrifice

A film by Matt Wilcox

You can watch the film here on PBS