The Village

What most impressed me about this book is that it is told not only from the point of view of the small group of hand picked American Marines who helped to defend "the Village," but because the author also devotes quite a bit of the narrative to the many local Vietnamese who took part in the factual events being depicted.Many readers may have to exercise quite a bit of patience at first however, because despite a well structured framework, much of the first third of the book focuses almost exclusively on the night patrols that the Marines and their South Vietnamese allies were so often required to engage in throughout the war. As a result, the narrative sometimes seems to get lost in all the details, as one account of lying in wait for the enemy in the pitch black jungle night often feels very much like all the other, quite similar accounts. And if you're like yours truly, you may actually be more interested in the real life characters than all the obligatory military details and jargon. But don't let that deter you. Francis J. West Jr.'s The Village is still a very engrossing and highly educational read.And honestly, it's hard to fault the author too much on account of the mostly monotonous details about all the mostly monotonous night patrols American soldiers had to endure in Vietnam, because all that gritty martial stuff is of course highly integral to telling the unique story of all the vivid characters that the author somehow manages to render so very exquisitely. And thankfully, as the narrative progresses, and with the introduction of a number of new characters and situations, everything in the book starts to feel a great deal more immersive, intimate, and truly quite riveting.In fact, what author Bing West does best in The Village, is give readers an up close and very personal view of what life "in country" during the Vietnam war was really like. Yes, in my humble estimation, West seems most adept (and masterful, really) at rendering his highly authentic portraits of American and Vietnamese soldiers and civilians. Remarkably, neither side is automatically vilified or presented as cardboard cutout heroes or villains, and a more than worthy attempt is made in almost every case to paint a realistic picture of each and every individual presented in the book.Best of all, this is not your run of the mill book about the Vietnam War! So I can only highly recommend it to absolute anyone, whether they have any interest in the Vietnam conflict at all or not. All the real life individuals (friends, foes and otherwise) that are chronicled in The Village are portrayed in a very no nonsense and unbiased fashion, and ultimately, that is what makes The Village such a highly memorable and truly outstanding read.

The book provides an historical review with specific individual accounts of Marines "embedded" with the population. As most from that era would recognize, the Marines had "jurisdiction" of the northern provinces of Vietnam, commonly known as I Corps. Although, 5th SFG worked the northern areas of Vietnam (MACV-North, their missions were focused on border operations (Brightlight, etc) of Laos and Vietnam. The book is an excellent read, especially as the focus of COIN today was reflected in the comments in this months (Feb/2012) Foreign Affairs magazine (as where I initially read Mr. West's comment on COIN.Make no doubt the invasion of Iraq on 19 March 2003 placed Afghanistan and what strategy at that time prevailed deeply in second place. As a direct hire/contractor for USAID standing up the 1st PRT in Gardez, Paktia, I witnessed military minimized due to the demands of Iraq. The only financial resource at that time for "hearts and minds" was the CERP (commander's emergency response program; USAID's only implementation partner (USAID is not a direct funding agency) was IOM (International Organization of Migration)..hardly an NGO with experience in "post war" infrastructure development. The last time a had experience IOM was in Haiti (Operation Uphold Democracy) with their mission moving people around from one IDP camp to another.Although, I spent very little time at the Embassy, there were instances when I sat in on meetings (toward the end of my tour) with USAID's implementing partners in education, health care, infrastructure development (Louis Berger..the singular infrastructure development USAID partner in Afghanistan..schools, clinics..and the Kandahar-Kabul Road thru Ghazni). Because the Embassy folks and USAID managers would never venture from the Embassy, the inflated "success" of the implementation partners (NGO's-IO's) became a show. In one case, the presenters did not know there was a field rep for USAID who had traveled to Ghazni, Khost, Logar and Paktia on a daily basis (PRT commander/5th SFG/LTC was a real road warrior). Their assertions of projects was in some cases simply false.Unfortunately, had some of the tenants of Mr. West's summaries in The Village combined with what we know from "all the talk" of COIN been implemented in early 2003, no doubt Afghanistan would be in much better strategic position than today...in short, we wasted perhaps seven (7) years..bleeding us financially and the tragic lost of alot of fine Soldiers, Marines, Air Force and Navy personnel.Lessons learned from The Village and from the Ten Thousand Day War-Vietnam seemed to of been lost within the Administration of that time..and for Afghanistan, what momentum won was quickly lost.Haiti/Bosnia/Croatia/Sudan/Afghanistan/Iraq/Sudan/Uganda/2010RH

Very unusual Vietnam war story, having read many books about this conflict I have never before encountered a situation like this where a small squad of marines lived amongst villagers and fought alongside the indigenous fighters. Between them, they became a local elite, very choosy about whom else could join them. Great story, very enjoyable.

Good book, very informative.

great service and great book for those interested in the Vietnam (US) war John Paul Vann would be proud and upset at the same time

Gives an inside view of the village war and winning hearts and minds.

The book was as described.