Grunts: The American Combat Soldier in Vietnam

by Kyle Longley

This book provides a fresh approach to understanding the American combat soldier's experience in Vietnam. It integrates such topics as the political culture, the experiences of training, the actual Vietnam experience, and the 'homecoming', and offers a remarkable overview of the 870,000 'grunts' who bore the brunt of the fighting in the jungles and highlands of South Vietnam, and eventually Cambodia and Laos.The book addresses many of the stereotypes of the Vietnam combat veteran that have been perpertrated in popular culture, and also considers how Vietnam veterans have been commemorated through memorials and other means, and how the veterans remember each other. The coverage also includes women who served in or near the front lines as well as on the home front. The author draws on memoirs and oral histories including his personal interviews with veterans, but the book conveys a picture of the Vietnam combat soldier's experience far more powerful than what individual memoirs can provide.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, War

272 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

The author of nearly a dozen books, Kyle Longley is widely considered an expert in the field of U.S. foreign relations. Consulted by The New York Times, The Washington Post, and MSNBC among others, he has taught in the field of modern U.S. history for more than 25 years.

Reviews

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book provided a boots-on-the-ground view of the life of combat soldiers in Vietnam, from being drafted or volunteering to trying desperately to get veterans’ care from an overstuffed bureaucracy. It is really quite sobering, but also interesting.

The grunts were fighting on the front lines in the Vietnam War. The book says most of them were from the lowest strata in American society. This book provides a good mix of facts and analysis. I mostly preferred the facts, which include many stories from actual veterans. This book analyzes veterans’ lives from many different perspectives, like class, race, and masculinity. When analyzing race, I would have liked more analysis on how the concept of race affected. white soldiers.

It may not analyze all that I’d like it to, and may lean too hard into collective memory, but I found this book very interesting. I liked seeing veterans’ experiences up close, with many nitty-gritty details, statistics, and disturbing anecdotes, like how some soldiers danced wearing ghost robes when MLK died. It was surprisingly entertaining to read.

[Toviel · Rating 4 out of 5]

EDIT 5/24/2016: Fixed minor typos.

At the end of the day, 4/5 is probably a star higher than the book actually deserves. However, given the unique perspective that the book takes, along with the interesting facts and tidbits sprinkled throughout, I ended up enjoying the read despite its apparent flaws.

In GRUNTS, Longley tries to replicate the experience of the soldier of Vietnam, starting from the nervous and naive recruit at boot camp and ending with the mangled sufferer of PTSD trying to integrate back into society. Attention isn’t paid to specific years or hard dates, instead opting to explain the soldier's lookout and challenges gradually throughout all five chapters. From poor training to hard drug and alcohol problems, the Vietnam War is painted as a vivid emotional hell. In addition, significant attention is to paid to under-recognized racial issues that existed before, during, and after the war for many POC veterans.

Despite drawing on a vast wealth of testimony from veterans and records of deceased soldiers, only the basics of the war itself is described. Outside of the Tet Offensive, the My Lai massacre, and some actions of the anti-war movement, it's very difficult to pin-point when shifts in military outlooks changed for the young men serving in the far-off country. Specific military and political operations and procedures are often left hinted at rather than thoroughly explained to the reader. But then again, how many of soldiers were even acutely aware of the higher up's decisions and their implications to begin with?

While I wouldn't call the stories Longley relates to the reader as "generic," as some other reviews have, it ultimately doesn't say anything particularly new about Vietnam, either. Even so, it's a solid introduction to some of the controversies of the Vietnam War, especially if paired with another book on the timeline of said war.

[Jesse · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall a fairly broad but interesting examination of the role of the soldier and the world they were thrust into. While it was fairly generic and the author let in his opinions more often than not, I think it is still a compelling piece, if only for the stories that help paint a clearer picture of the world they were thrust into. It can really be broken down into an examination of the psychological impact of the war on the men who waged it on the front lines. What is clearly evident is the psychological impact from day one through the trip home and the haunting aspect the war had on the men and women who were forced to face it. An excellent read but one that fails to bring much new information to light. Overall read if your a novice to the topic or want to look more closely at what the soldiers had to face both at home and abroad.

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good very bare bones general overview of the Infantryman's experience in Vietnam. This book isn't a history of the war itself, but focuses SOLELY on the role of the soldier from the early / mid 1960s through the return home. The book covers what drove men to enlist (from the draft to societal pressures), the experience in country, and the experience after returning home. While the book mentions racial tensions both at home and abroad, it never really offers enough to get a clear image of what was happening; just that it happened. What makes the book an excellent reference material is the extensive bibliography and footnotes - plenty of material for those who want additional reading / research materials.

[David Horney · Rating 3 out of 5]

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