The Village

Leatherneck Magazine A fantastic, down in the mud and crud book of enlisted Marines fighting to defend a village….West tells of some of the victories and the tragic cost. And he tells it well.Pacific Affairs Pure Hemingway in the best sense of that characterization….West brilliantly portrays the drama of a war few Americans have known.The New York Times A vivid and unbiased portrait of one Vietnamese hamlet in the grip of war…Exceptional insight….West has told this story with honesty and without embroidery, while bringing out its inherent human drama.The Washington Post A minor classic about war.Washington Post Book Review This is the way Vietnam should have been fought – by tough volunteers who lived alongside the Vietnamese….It will take the sternest idealogue to remain unmoved by West’s perceptive and human treatment of the men who fought it….It’s an account of brave men at war in a far country, honestly told.Charles B. MacDonald Author of Company Commander Unquestionably the best book to come out of the Vietnam war – human, compassionate, suspenseful, dramatic.Keith William Nolan Author of The Battle for Saigon and A Hundred Miles of Bad Road One of the small handful of truly great books to come out of the Vietnam war.Peter Braestrup Author of Tet A superbly honest, readable work that goes beyond journalism to become good literature.

Francis J. “Bing” West served in Vietnam as a Marine infantry officer, and later as Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, Dean of Research at the Naval War College, an analyst at the RAND Corporation, and a lead CNN commentator during Desert Storm. He is currently president of the GAMA Corporation. A frequent contributor to defense journals, West is also the author of Small Unit Action in Vietnam, and Naval Forces and National Security. His new novel, The Pepperdogs, is available from Simon & Schuster.