Hanoi Hellground

Black Eagles #1

by John Lansing

Book

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1983

Reviews

[Phillip Fuller · Rating 3 out of 5]

The 1980s brought about a new interest in the Vietnam war and this series was one of the products of this craze. The author or authors since many used the John Lansing name have a right wing worldview that makes the war into a clash of freedom fighting Americans and the evil Viet Cong commies. Hanoi Hellground works as an action adventure pulp paperback tale but is too simplistic on what both sides stood for in that tragic conflict. Americans thought they were freeing Vietnam from an oppressive Communist ideology but the Viet Cong saw their struggle as a fight for freedom from capitalist exploiters. The characters were interesting and the story was action packed but it was all be appreciated as a pulp novel not a realistic portrait of real soldiers.

[Zinger · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read a bunch of these books in the series when I was in 10th grade. Way more interesting than what ever the senile teacher was yacking about. Luckily I learned that there were true stories of real individuals that went to Vietnam and didn't waste my time reading the rest of the series of "gun porn". It was this time that my first glimmers of interestst in history and politics occured.