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MWSA Review
Just Another Day in Vietnam tells the story of the 52nd Vietnamese Ranger Battalion’s battle for survival in War Zone D northeast of Saigon in June 1967. With no time to plan or prepare, the Ranger Battalion’s commander, Major Nguyen Hiep, must deploy his forces to attack a suspected Viet Cong base camp located in a bend of the Dong Nai River. After a helicopter insertion into a landing zone near the suspected camp, the Rangers discover they’ve been ordered into a trap and are soon surrounded by numerically superior Viet Cong and North Vietnamese forces. Only through the heroic leadership of Major Hiep, the incredible fighting qualities of his men, and the assistance of U.S. airpower, does the Ranger Battalion survive.
This is an important story that needs to be told. The bravery and fighting ability of the 52nd Ranger Battalion and the heroism of Major Hiep dispel the myth that all South Vietnamese fighting forces were ineffective in combat. The author’s role as a U.S. military advisor to the Ranger Battalion ensures the credibility of the narrative, which captures as only a combat veteran can the emotions and true horrors of war. If you are looking for a gritty combat narrative covering a battle from planning through execution, you need to read Just Another Day in Vietnam.
Review by David Grogan (March 2022)
Author's Synopsis
Keith Nightingale’s accomplishments in both military and civilian life largely contribute to the excellence of Just Another Day in Vietnam as a creative memoir of unusual depth as well as breadth.
Uniquely adopting a third-person omniscient point of view, Nightingale eschews the “I” of memoir in favor of multiple perspectives and a larger historical vision that afford equal time and weight to ally and enemy alike. Examples of the many perspectives based on real-life characters include: Hu, a VC “informant” whose false information led the Rangers straight into the jaws of a ferocious ambush; General Tanh, the COSVN commander; Major Nguyen Hiep, the 52d Ranger Commander; and Ranger POWs later returned by the North.
Nightingale moreover offers the point of view of an American advisor to elite Vietnamese troops, a vital perspective regrettably underrepresented in the literature of Vietnam, including Burns’ documentary. Added to this are well-informed conjecture of enemy psychology; insight into the dedication and often misunderstood role of the elite Vietnamese Ranger forces; the intelligence acquired from debriefing captured Rangers, whose captors had told them that the entire battle had been a carefully staged attack planned by COSVN as part of a larger Total War strategy developed by the leadership of the North Vietnamese Army; and an eyewitness account by a gifted author who is a rare survivor of one of the most vicious—and heretofore forgotten—battles of the war.
Format(s) for review: Paper and Kindle
Review Genre: Nonfiction—Creative Nonfiction
Number of Pages: 264