Type of bind: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 959.704342
EAN num: 9780425188460
ISBN number: 0425188469
Label: Berkley Hardcover
Manufacturer: Berkley Hardcover
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 448
Printing Date: January 04, 2005
Publishing house: Berkley Hardcover
Sale Popularity Level: 727134
Studio: Berkley Hardcover
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Product Description:
Charles Henderson, Marine Corps veteran and author, chronicles the final days of America's involvement in Vietnam through the voices of those who were there-and those who would never be heard again.
On January 17, 1973, the Paris Peace Accords concluded America's involvement in Vietnam, supposedly ending decades of bloodshed. What took place, however, was far from peaceful-as the combined forces of the North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong launched an all-out offensive to end the war with complete victory over the beleaguered south.
Here, culled from extensive interviews and research, are harrowing, never-before revealed accounts from people of every level and involvement in the Vietnam War-NVA and Viet Cong soldiers, U.S. embassy personnel, guerilla commanders, civilians, generals, double-agents, and leaders from both sides, including former president Gerald Ford and North Vietnamese military commander General Tran Van Tra.
From the impending invasion from the north, to the gut-wrenching hours before the fall of Saigon when a brave pilot defied orders and rescued the last five Marines from the roof of the U.S. embassy, this is the Vietnam War as it was: raw, brutal, tragic-and haunting to this very day.
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Rated by buyers 
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I enjoyed this book, for the most part. Think it is fairly accurate and includes some excellent research.
This book falls into a category I heard someone else refer to as 'historical novelization'. As one would do with a screenplay, the author attempts to recreate dialogue between various characters that captures the essence of what was, or might have been discussed at particular moments in time. If you prefer the dialogue of a novel over the traditional 'dryness' of historical books, you may enjoy Goodnight Saigon. I prefer 'dry' historical tomes, thus the reduction of 1 star.
As has been mentioned extensively by other reviewers, there are no maps, diagrams, or pictures. This makes some of the action difficult to put into perspective in terms of time and distance. Yes, I know maps can be downloaded on the internet. That does me little good when I take the book to the beach. Besides, I should not have to find my own map. Dropped another star for this reason.
Goodnight Saigon is an excellent book for anyone who ever served in Vietnam, or has a strong interest in the subject matter. I also believe that if you are a fan of the Tom Clancy or W.E.B Griffith writing style (large cast of characters, frequent cuts between scenes in different locations to maintain time continuity), you may enjoy this book.
Rated by buyers 
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The book is exactly what I expected. Bad time in our past, but well documented.
Rated by buyers 
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I make that rather pungent judgment on the basis of errors of omission and commission by the author. In the former category, we have a complete absence of maps, photographs, and footnotes. For me, leaving those things out of a military history is inexplicable and inexcusable. Why couldn't the author have included diagrams or maps of the Embassy Compound, Saigon, and Vietnam? How in the world can a reader be expected to follow the narrative? The absence of photographs is just as bad. The fall of South Vietnam and the end of the Vietnam War were profoundly photogenic events. Why couldn't the author have provided a few of the iconic images from that time (having just one picture on the cover of the book does not cut it)? Why couldn't he have provided photographs of all the people he interviewed for the book. And the absence of footnotes and endnotes is galling. I know that they are a pain to have to include, but how else can a reader determine what sources shaped the book?
In the latter category (omission), there is an even more grievous error. Like a lot of popular histories, the book includes lengthy conversations between individuals that feature in it. How could the author reconstruct these? A few might have been televised, but what about the rest? How can the author quote word for word what was said at an event that took places thirty years ago? Even for the ones that he was present at, how could he do this? I served in the military, and I have trouble remembering single sentences from conversations from just fifteen years ago under fairly memorable circumstances as well. The obvious conclusion --absent detailed notes explaining why entire conversations are reproduced-- is that the conversations were "reconstructed." They may be the gist of what was said, but having the gist of something does not entitle the author of any history to create dialog from it.
So that's why I think this book amounts to being a historical novel. Novels, after all, don't have endnotes, footnotes, pictures, and much of what happens in them may reflect actual history but is not that history itself.
Bottom line: I think there undoubtedly books about the momentous days of "Cruel April" that do not have the manifest faults that this book has.
Rated by buyers 
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Overall impression--Wow! A real tour de force. The Vietnam War was complicated, and writing a book about it is like trying to write a flow diagram for a large plate of spaghetti. And yet, Henderson has done it--at least as far as the end game goes. I give it an enthusiastic five stars.
Why required reading? As George Santayana said, "Those who cannot remember the past are destined to repeat it." And we might be repeating that history yesterday with George Bush's so-called war on terrorism. You can't really answer that question unless you have something from the recent past to compare it with. Goodnight Saigon makes for a fine litmus test.
There are some books that are meant to be read once and discarded (e.g., the typical Stephen King novel), some that are meant to be read multiple times at differenct times in your life (e.g., Huckleberry Finn), and some that are meant to be studied (e.g., Hamlet.) Henderson's work falls somewhere between read-multiple-times and studied.
The most profound thing about the book is the Interview Notes wherein Henderson details the many players--American and both Vietnams--he interviewed very first hand. It punctuates the fact that these people were real and these things happened and none of this should ever be forgotten.
Some comments on the other reviews:
No maps--true, the book could have used some maps. On the other hand, it is very easy these days to download and print a map from the Internet. Try the site at www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/vietnam/maps.htm, or for even more detail, try Jim Henthorn's excellent site at www.nexus.net/~911gfx/sea-ao.html. To do less is just plain lazy. And to mark Henderson down for this oversight is to obscure his more important achievement, the enormous body of research he collected in order to tell this tale.
The 'unended' sub-plot of LTC Tran Van Toan--See p. 302. (Also in the index) LTC Tran made it, his force of 450 men intact, and was assimilated into the defense of Saigon Under RVN Marine Corps commandant, General Bui The Lan.
--Ejner Fulsang, author of A Knavish Piece of Work, www.AarhusPublishing.com.
Rated by buyers -
A great book which reviews the closing days of the Vietman conflict. The author interviews military, political leaders, civilians and press from both sides. It's a fast moving piece with plenty of action.
The downside of the book is that there are no maps or photos of some of the US Marines discussed, which would have been useful in understanding where battles were located. I found a web site, which has photos and also gives additional information at
www.fallofsaigon.org. Great book!
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