The Iron Triangle: A Novel of the Vietnam War

by Douglas L. Edwards

The Iron Triangle, tells the story of a ill conceived mission that goes horribly wrong. It is a character driven story concentrating on the soldiers of a single squad. It shows the unrelenting brutality of war and how teenage boys accepted the daily violence with stoic, grim humor. Barely out of high school, they confront their own mortality on a daily basis. It is set in the months after the Tet Offensive when combat increased dramatically producing the highest casualty rate of the war. The anti war movement was at its height creating a feeling of abandonment in those left to fight in the jungle. These men did fight out of a sense of patriotism, and in fact, scoffed at the idea of anthems and the flag waving patriots at home. They fought to protect their brothers in arms and would gladly endanger their own lives to ensure the safety of their friends. The lived and died in the isolation of a primeval jungle so dense that sunlight was a luxury. They fought for body count, a term and strategy developed by rear echelon officers, that dehumanized both the enemy and themselves. They fought to perpetuate the lies presented in daily briefings that measured the success of the war in ratios and statistics.

Genres: Fiction, Military Fiction

352 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 29, 2019

Reviews

[Daniel Villines · Rating 3 out of 5]

Douglas L. Edwards' bio is enough to substantiate his credentials as an authority on combat experiences during the Vietnam War. He served through two tours of duty with the Army during the conflict. His military awards include four Bronze Stars, three of which were awarded for "Heroism in Ground Combat," and two Purple Hearts. Thus, it's safe to assume that the horrific acts of war depicted in The Iron Triangle reflect Edwards' real-life experiences.

Beyond the environment of war depicted in The Iron Triangle, the novel also depicts the general attitudes and outlooks of the young men who fought the battles and were mostly teenagers. They were pulled from their homes and sent to fight and die for reasons that were poorly understood by them and probably seemed insufficient to justify the sacrifice of their lives. But beyond the reasons, there was the force of the Army, and the career-oriented goals of its officers, that drove them forward to do their duty. Edwards does a good job depicting the hopeless resignation that lived inside this subset of a generation as they hunted the enemy and faced death in the hot, humid jungles of Vietnam.

The weakness of the novel lies in the fact that Edwards never develops his characters. While he has the experience to depict the realities of war, his characters lack uniqueness. It felt as if he cloned himself, and created a squad of men to take on the tragedies that he witnessed and the attitudes that he possessed. As individuals, they are mostly represented by their names and their jobs within the squad.

The lack of character differentiation results in a difficulty in realizing who is who. There are strings of dialogue where the characters talking to one another become indistinguishable, and worse, this lack of differentiation does not matter all that much. One character is as good as the next. It's a bit ironic that Edwards may have wanted to show how the Vietnam War tormented these individuals, but in the end, he created a squad of interchangeable soldiers who were expendable and replaceable in the telling of his story.

[Colin Falconer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fast paced and gripping novel about Vietnam from a former veteran. Well written characters. Addictive.

[John Podlaski · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The Iron Triangle" by Douglas Edwards is one of the most remarkable books I've read about the Vietnam War. The story follows a squad of Infantry soldiers who are assigned to the Wolfhounds of the 25th Infantry Division and patrol the area between Saigon and the Cambodian border during a two-month period after the 1968 TET Offensive. This part of the country is extremely volatile as it's an enemy staging area and corridor for attacks against Saigon and its neighboring towns. The author's style of writing allows the story to flow easily and makes readers feel as if they are right there in the scenes with the soldiers.

Although fiction, the storyline must follow along the lines of Mr. Edwards' personal experiences of his first tour of duty. The descriptions of scenery, patrols, firefights, life in bases and villages, and other insanities he writes about are just too real and can't be made up. He writes about body counts and the officer's constant obsession with getting them at all costs to further their careers; generally inflating the numbers as the after action reports make their way up the chain of command. The protagonists (squad and platoon leaders) do everything possible to ensure the safety of their fellow soldiers; often questioning their orders when the men are at risk. New officers arriving in Vietnam were a hazard to both themselves and the men - practical experience far outweighed book smarts and it was up to the sergeants to keep the men safe; both have covered up wounds after a firefight so they wouldn't be pulled from the field.

As the story progressed, I got to know the soldiers within the squad and developed a fondness to them. Unfortunately, as this is a war story, some of them are horribly wounded or killed which bummed me out. The author also has a special talent for the dialog and banter between the troops themselves. - many times, I found myself laughing out loud - then remembering back to many of those same type of sarcastic discussions we had ourselves back then.

I highly recommend "The Iron Triangle" to anyone interested in learning about the day-to-day hardships and sacrifices that many of our infantry soldiers experienced during the war. The complaints, bantering, and teasing between the troops is alone worth the cost of admission. And at the current price there's no excuse to pass this by.

Great job Mr. Edwards! Thank you for your service and sacrifice...welcome home, brother!

[Tommy Lee Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just another day....

5 stars should be reserved for books that change your life. This book isn't that. What it is is a testimony about "everyday" life in the Vietnam War. That doesn't make it boring, at times it is terrifying. The book has no plot. It just drops you in on a typical day and pulls you out sometime later. You meet some people and some of them die along the way. All in all, just another day in Vietnam. It's a helluva story.

[Jim Walt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like it was. Best VN book I’ve read.

This book is intense. It is hard to know how authentic it is in some of the more intense sections, but overall incredibly well written and, as I say, intense. I am a 2 tour VN vet, also stationed in Cu Chi where the Wolfhounds were based. I flew as an observer in Loachs. It felt very real to me. Best VN book I’ve read.

[Mike (HistoryBuff) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, what a story! This was the third book I've read about the experiences of the young men, teenagers some of them, in Vietnam.
Very well written, the story flowed easily, made you feel that you are part of the experience. Some readers may not like the rough language, but it goes with the times.
Highly recommended for those want to know what daily life was like for the infantry solider.
I would also check out "Boys of '67" and "Things I'll Never Forget Memories of a Marine in Vietnam "

[Joe Rodeck · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hard core story of grunts in the jungle. Not history and not following a plot line, this is more of a slice of the Vietnam experience from an author who was there.

I usually don't trust books with so much dialog, but here it serves a distinct atmospheric purpose with the military jargon and insult humor that shows the coarsening young men need to shoot faceless gooks (used a thousand times to dehumanize) with no short or long term plans explained. With dialog he captures the crazy mindset of the battle scarred regular.

Original and brutal. In an unusual style, the third person narrator relentlessly uses the same rough language as his characters do. X-rated for profanity, violence, sexual references.

Highly recommended for Vietnam vets. [Some readers may get frustrated with the acronyms and lingo.]

[Charles · Rating 5 out of 5]

I usually rate only dreadful books, the ones you toss in the trash after an hour or so of reading. Five-star reviews gush too much and might not even be legitimate...or are written by morons. I'll make an exception for The Iron Triangle.

It was excellent. Perhaps not as a literary work, but certainly as more than mere entertainment. As I got more and more into the book, I realized that it would have made a fabulous screenplay for a war movie with the black humor of Catch 22 or Fargo, the violence of Platoon or the pathos of Hamburger Hill (the definitive book and movie of men in combat.)

Expect profanity and non-PC dialogue, and expect combat that Edwards describes perfectly and choreographs carefully into pulsating drama.

[Jester · Rating 2 out of 5]

What I enjoyed about the book is the perspective of the fighting soldier in action. This book did not dwell on strategy or discuss tactics extensively. Those decisions would not be made at the level of the involved characters, so it did not play into the story for them. I don't think we got much of placement in the world either. Cities were mentioned, the Cambodian border being close was stated, but I did not get a picture of exactly where these men were, which seems to be in line with how many of them felt. Cambodian border, Cu Chi, the Command Post - those were the locations that meant something to the characters, so we stayed at that level. The book may resonate with those that experienced what the author experienced. It could evoke those emotions and senses for those that have them already within.

The troubling elements outweighed the positives, leading to the 2 star rating - could have been 2.4 stars, but the 2 won out. Editors are important. Some misspellings and grammar mistakes can be tolerated, even the lack of spaces between some words so that they ran together. However, the persistence with which the errors prevailed took me out of the story. While trying to get into the story, the author created a barrier by making the characters mostly one-dimensional. I had hope for Holt, but that did not pan out. We had a glimpse of his stateside life, but it was not developed. The characters seemed interchangeable. Was that intentional? Didn't really seem so. The full story was at one level, so the characters appearing as such was consistent with that level of storytelling. The narrator spoke like the characters, offensive language and all. The copyright is 2019 - was it intended to read like someone in 1970 was telling this story in his soldier language?

I am uncertain of the plot. I understand that the war had some repetitiveness and a seeming lack of direction to those in the middle of it. However, to tell a story, there may need to be some direction, or a point. Perhaps the book could have been shorter and focused on the Major's initiative. Maybe that portion could have included the information the author wanted to convey on the war which he included in earlier passages. That could have been a sharper book. Some of the terminology, such as LAW was undefined when initially used - which I did not really have a problem with, though I think it should have been. then the term was used later and then defined. (Again, an editor could have quickly solved this problem.)

As a novel, this effort fell short. I think the author had some good information, and he could have had a nice book. He just needed help on how to present it and deliver it in a format that was more engaging.

[John McNair · Rating 5 out of 5]

First of all, thank to my friend Bart Gauvin, more than a fair writer of military fiction himself, for pointing me at this book, and it's sequel, "The Hobo Woods" (it was on his To Read list). I strongly recommend you begin with this novel since the sequel picks up directly from events in "The Iron Triangle". If you're thinking of reading it, then you are the type of person that will want to read both, of that I am certain.

The novel was great! Although fiction, little details spoke to the author's having "been there and done that". It is focused very much on a squad of infantry, but in a platoon and higher operational setting, and is placed just after the events of Tet, spring 1968. A point when America turned sharply against the war and all those who fought in it. I liked very much the author's accuracy of character - very much drafted teenagers from lower middle-class families. In fact, the best summary I've ever read of who exactly fought and how they were considered by Americans begins on page 101, given by PFC Red Garrett, a soldier in another squad who happened to be college educated. I feel that is the author, speaking directly through Red. He nailed it! If you are repulsed by foul language and an apparent lack or moral character, this novel may not be for you. But what is written is the way soldiers spoke and how they thought, and likely still do (they did when I was a junior officer in the early 1980s!).

Some of the combat was a perhaps a bit over the top (but not Hollywood - ammo expenditure was an obvious concern as it no doubt really was), as was the soldiers' manner of handling all the death and destruction. But I was never there so maybe it is accurate, and maybe many teenager soldiers of the time were somewhat inured to the chaos. But not all, as is brought out in the book. Army leadership (officers) are maybe a bit unjustly portrayed as inept and uncaring idiots, but other reading I've done more or less corroborates that, especially in the US Army of 1968 and beyond (I believe it was different 1965-67, and surely different in the USMC).

This book is an easy read and thoroughly enjoyable. It provides a rich background for any military history (which can be dry and matter-of-fact) concerning the Vietnam War. It may not be a Philip Caputo's "A Rumor of War" or Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried" but it doesn't pretend to be. I liked it as it was.

[Stephen A. Roddewig · Rating 4 out of 5]

Left this book in the gym by accident. Gave enough of a damn that I bought the e-book so I could finish it.

When I first saw that this was a novel of the Vietnam War written by someone who had actually been there and saw combat, I was elated, as this is the first fiction I've ever read by someone who can speak with such authority. That elation was tempered a bit by the beginning of the book, which a felt a bit unrefined. Most jarring was the constant use of unattributed dialog when more than two people are conversing or in the room. This continues throughout the book, but once you're in the field, you find yourself forgiving it quite easily.

Because the combat scenes and daily life of a grunt are where this book shines. And lucky us, that's the majority of the 300+ pages. You can almost feel that this is where the author is most comfortable as well, having lived that life for two combat tours. It's not that there isn't areas that could use more polish. You just don't care anymore. And so I much appreciate the author's decision to keep us in knockout, drag-out combat to the very last pages.

If you read these sorts of books for the combat scenes, you'll be well satisfied with The Iron Triangle

[William · Rating 5 out of 5]

This author writes as if he was there. Characters are alive and real, the storyline is excellent. Really enjoyed this book. This story draws you in and it is as though you are right beside them. As a favorite audio producer used to say it becomes a "movie in your mind". I highly recommend this book. I will read more of this authors work. I read all of this book, only stopping to eat. It is that gripping, and it is the "What happens now" that keep you on the edge. The personal backgrounds and the political climate are true to the time. I remember coming home and going through exactly what is described in this story. I want to thank Douglas L. Edwards.

[D. E. · Rating 5 out of 5]

A DL. War Novel of Viet Man (TIT) (ANOTVNW)

DL. Has penned a War Novel about the Iron Triangle, which is located West of Siagon near the borders of South Viet Nam, Cambodia and Laos. The North Viet Naminese. used the Ho. Chin Min Trail to move weapons and supplies from the North to the South. The young men who went into combat in that arena became highly trained killers and many fell to the constant combat syndrome. Killers. DL. is very descriptive as to he ordeals these young men faced who arrived from the States and went directly into combat. This is an excellent read for the genre. Fiction based on fact. It is obvious that the author served in Viet Nam.

[Roger Wakelin · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a Vietnam veteran this book took me back to the war. It's a novel, but you had to have been there to write this book. Anyone interested in the Vietnam war, the Iron Triangle gives you the feel without having to be there yourself. The settings and extreme conditions are authentic, and the book is worth reading for that alone. The story is straightforward, and the characters portrayed convincingly. The novel is seen through the eyes of the marines on the ground, therefore the reader needs to be aware who is saying what, as the author moves the plot though its characters. Slow down a little, the concentration is worth the effort.

[Tom G. Lapham · Rating 5 out of 5]

Real Enough!

Very well written with few “corny” or unbelievable comments. Just enough action to make it all interesting with out going over the top. The dialogue stayed with in the bounds of reality.
Excellent main character and a true and believable storyline regarding his home life. None of the battles were over descriptive which I like. I was on edge and almost had to “jump ahead” reading the account of the last day at the fort.
A great read for a huge fan of both fiction and nonfiction war novels. This one worked for me!

[Carole Kuentz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sad beyond lack of Words

I am beyond words to describe this book . I cried and hurt my heart broke . Every person who protested that war should hang their heads in shame. These very young men sacrificed everything for a political sham. Shuned when they came home if! They came home.
Today we thank the young people as we should. I lived the Vietnam years and like so many I lived in a cocoon removed from this until my friends and boys I grew up with came home. My husband was one of them.

[virgil · Rating 5 out of 5]

Real Time Carnage!!🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Mr Edwards has written an awesome war novel that is horrific at times, but full of raucous gallows humor as these young men accept a situation beyond their control with only one goal: Do their jobs and get home alive! I served in the Navy and did not experience the carnage as did the ground troops but I can certainly relate to the idiotic decisions and orders from some inexperienced, inept officer. This is so well written that I was totally immersed in the action. The attention to detail is as good as it gets! I would give six stars if I could.

[Bradley L. Stout · Rating 5 out of 5]

Candid account

One of the best, honest, albeit slightly embellished for reader's entertainment, accounts of the horrors and incompetence of a small portion of the war's architects, and the mental disorder our young men had foisted on them in the name of glory for their superiors. It would appear that our leaders haven't learned from this, witness the same conditions and concepts in Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon et.al. I recommend this book to anyone who has not experienced what our young men faced.

[Frank D Norwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

My mind is blown

The characters are not only great but they are people you'd want to spend time with. The action is amazing, not just because this book is well written but because the events are real. I don't normally read war novels -- the last one I remember is The Thin Red Line -- but this is one I not only couldn't put down but didn't want to end.
I've just ordered hard copies to hand to my friends. This is the first review I've ever written.

[Tom Dinen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tells it as it was: FUBAR at the top, blood and guts with the Men

Let’s just pray to God we never get into these types of atrocities again. May those wanting to do so , leave this earth in an unexpected Biblical way. This was written as if you were with the men on the ground. The verbiage and terminology couldn’t have been more accurate. God be with the families of all men and women lost in these senseless wars.

[michael waks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Blood, courage, humor, and philosophical musings!

One of the best war novels I have read. Some of it akin to Vonnegut, some to it to Korean accounts of platoon and company sized tactics, but with a novel blend that makes it compelling reading. You will finish with literally a different “read” on the young men who were thrown into the jungle and tried to make it through each day just to survive.

[Mike Crooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good story 4 1/2 stats!

Clearly written by a Vietnam veteran that was there and experienced life as a grunt. Characters were realistic and believable. Plot was solid and kept moving. I believe that the overall tone of the book was accurate and generally reflects the attitudes of many of guys that were there at the time.
Story focuses on the time period just after the Tet offensive but before the Khe Sahn siege was resolved.

[Thomas A. Doidge · Rating 5 out of 5]

Meant for Southeast Asia

This book is a work that gets your attention and keeps it. I actually became attached to the characters especially "Holt." There are good guys and bad guys and we'll crafted "gray" characters as we have in our lives. In my top 5 of 2019 of the 100+ books I have read. Best "Viet Nam War" book I have read and would be a wild movie.

[neil fowler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Frightening

I could hardly breathe during the combat through fear. How did those heroes endure, during the war. The author has to be one of the best for descriptive writing. An excellent narrative of a very painful period in his life. This is probably the best Vietnam book I have read.

[ann magnus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pure reality

This book may say it's a novel about Vietnam, but this is the most real book I've ever read on Vietnam, including any non-fiction. The dialogue, the situations, soldiers etc are true, heartbreaking,and moving. It's 3:30am and I just finished the book and am writing this review.. highly highly recommend

[David Pauley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Slowish start finished with a bang

Thought it would be the usual ego trip for the U.S. army but was totally wrong by the end of the book I was on the edge of my seat and almost felt as if I was there with the guys war
is not honorable courageous or gung ho, just a group of soldiers doing their job to the best.

[Tom Watson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good read. A little predictable but a great story of valor

A great story of cottage and perseverance, not exactly All Quiet on the Western Front but good nonetheless. The good and the bad of the Vietnam experience come out including most importantly the fact that soldiers fight for each other a part of a brotherhood. I recommend this book.

[Mark Sileikis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well written and a great read

I read this front to back within 24 hours, I just could not put it down. The authors personal experiences comes straight through. One of the best Vietnam fiction books I've ever read. Nothing corny or dumb in it. The characters are real and easy to identify with. You will enjoy this story.

[John M Lambert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Too heroic, but well written

The story was slow in the middle, I went back to finish it because I needed something to-do for an hour or so. The finish was like a John Wayne movie. Somewhat unbelievable but I read on wanting to know how it ended and as plot kept getting better. Push on to the finish, it is worth it.

[Mr R Sack · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent read. Vietnam war as good as any of the books before.

super plotting, great characters, excellent gritty, action. What a genuinely surprising read, It’s as good as any of the best Vietnam war novels. The author deserves every credit. It was with sorrow that I reached the end. I have read most of the acknowledged best books, and this book stands right alongside them.