Will I love Bloods?

This was the first collection of oral histories that I ever read from the Vietnam War. Reading history done this way, with the men speaking for themselves, opened a new world for me. It allowed me to understand that it is only by talking to and with our veterans that the true depth of the combat experience can be delved. Terror, camaraderie, death, honor, humor, compassion, and boredom – the full human story of Vietnam and war is on display in Bloods. And it was this book that taught me to be an oral historian. 

On top of that, … show more.

Fiction or nonfiction? Vietnam War literature presents the reader with a unique set of problems. If a name has been changed, is it fiction or fact? If the accuracy of the details is not absolute, fact or fiction? Tim O’Brien dealt with this problem most sensibly in The Things They Carried, in the chapter entitled, How to Tell a True War Story. The truth of any story is not as important as the story itself. The stories about the American War in Vietnam reveal something about the storytellers, and their thought about that war. Wallace Terry offers a unique… show more.