Dispatches (Vintage International) by Michael Herr (EPUB)

Description

“The best book to have been written about the Vietnam War” (The New York Times Book Review); an instant classic straight from the front lines.From its terrifying opening pages to its final eloquent words, Dispatches makes us see, in unforgettable and unflinching detail, the chaos and fervor of the war and the surreal insanity of life in that singular combat zone. Michael Herr’s unsparing, unorthodox retellings of the day-to-day events in Vietnam take on the force of poetry, rendering clarity from one of the most incomprehensible and nightmarish events of our time.Dispatches is among the most blistering and compassionate accounts of war in our literature.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐I understand why Dispatches was held in so high-regard when first published. There had never been anything like it before written concerning the Vietnam War. It came before The Short-Timers, The Deer Hunter, Apocalypse Now, Platoon, Full Metal Jacket, Hamburger Hill, and The Phantom Blooper, remember. In hindsight, though…Dispatches was an allegedly non-fiction account of things witnessed by civilian combat correspondent Michael Herr. The story is disjointed and is little more than a series of short stories thrown together after the war ended. It is not presented in strictly chronological order. There are some fine passages; Herr claims to have been present at the siege of Khe Sahn, for example. Most of the book is largely forgettable, though.There are some golden nuggets in the book. Herr knew Sean Flynn, Errol’s son who retired from acting in spaghetti westerns to go to Southeast Asia and work as a freelance photojournalist. He disappeared, believed to have been in Cambodia by most, and was presumed dead at the time the book was published. His family is still searching for his remains. Herr also rubbed elbows with military combat correspondents, including the group known as the snuffies. In this group, the only one Herr mentions by name is Dale Dye, now a famous consultant in Hollywood, who he appears to have had a friendly relationship with. He also mentions a crazed, young snuffie from Alabama nicknamed Joker, an obvious reference to Gus Hasford. Herr says that the snuffies did not have a good relationship with the civilian corresppndents, and that the feeling of dislike between them was mutual, aside from Dye. Herr goes on to say that, although they didn’t get along, he respected the snuffies and that they tolerated each other, with one notable exception: Herr says that Hasford scared him.More fascinating than the book itself is what happened to Herr after it was published. Hasford, the Marine correspondent who so scared Herr years before in Vietnam, was able to publish his novel The Short-Timers following the success of Dispatches. Francis Ford Coppola hired him to write the VO dialogue and other scenes in Apocalypse Now. One scene that Herr claims to have witnessed was that of a Marine falling from a height at a USO show. This scene (from a helicopter in the movie) is repeated nearly verbatim in Hasford’s novel, with the character falling from the rafters and landing on a general’s table. In Hasford’s book, the character is later nicknamed Rafter Man, a fictionalized version of a photographer Hasford knew in Vietnam. It appears this event – or something close to it – took place and that both Hasford and Herr witnessed it, coming away with very different interpretations. Herr was abhorred by the behavior, Hasford was delighted by it, as were the other snuffies. After all, it’s not hard to wonder how Rafter Man got his nickname after falling from those rafters, is it?Herr went uncredited for his work on Apocalypse Now and when the screenplay was nominated for an Academy Award at the Oscars ceremony Herr did not receive a nomination along with Coppola and famed screenwriter John Milius, though his contributions did not go unnoticed in Hollywood.Several years later, though, Stanley Kubrick decided he wanted to make a war movie and began researching articles and books. He considered trying to adapt Dispatches, but found the book devoid of plot, albeit well-written (both sentiments I share). Eventually, someone recommended The Short-Timers to him. He decided to adapt that book and came to the conclusion that it could only be completed with VO dialogue. A Vietnam War movie with VO dialogue, after reading and enjoying Dispatches, even if it wasn’t fit for adaptation, who you gonna call? Herr went to Hollywood again, this time adapting the book of a man that he loathed above most others. To his credit, though, he admitted that he thought Hasford’s book was a masterpiece.The writing process of The Short-Timers adaptation, eventually titled Full Metal Jacket, is well-known. Kubrick would talk to Hasford and Herr on the phone and tell them what he wanted, both men would write scenes and mail them to Kubrick, and Kubrick would piece the best of both submissions together.Kubrick met several times with Herr and so enjoyed the project and his conversations with Hasford that he wanted to meet him, as well. Herr advised against this, telling Kubrick his impressions of the man from their time together in Vietnam. Kubrick had trouble believing the man he had hours-long conversations with on the phone could be as scary as Herr found him decades prior in a combat zone, and he insisted. A meeting between the three men was arranged. It did not go well. Kubrick came away with the same impression as Herr. He thought Hasford was crazy.Most of the scenes in Full Metal Jacket originated in the Short-Timers, though some were from Dispatches and others were previously unpublished tales related by Hasford. In addition, technical advisor R. Lee Ermey made a cameo appearance as the senior drill instructor, a minor character in Hasford’s novel who became a major character in the movie. Ermey was a drill instructor during the Vietnam era and ad libbed most of his lines. His ad libs were later retroscripted into the screenplay by Kubrick.When all was said and done, neither Herr nor Hasford knew how many of their contributions made it into the final screenplay. This led to a dispute in the way writing credits were awarded by the WGA and further divided Herr and Kubrick from Hasford. The most concrete contributions to the screenplay were Ermey’s ad libs. Ermey, however, went uncredited.The screenplay was nominated for an Academy Award, and Kubrick, Herr, and Hasford were all nominated. Hasford, still bitter over the writing credit he received, refused to attend the ceremony. The movie didn’t the Oscar. Although Ermey wasn’t nominated along with the other three for his contributions to the screenplay, he had a last life of sorts when he was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for best supporting actor for his cameo appearance in the movie.Hasford’s life did not improve after Full Metal Jacket. The Short-Timers, while critically well-reviewed, never resonated with mainstream audiences and went out of print. He was later arrested for grand larceny after he was found to have stolen thousands of dollars worth of library books and served prison time. Desperate for money, he wrote the sequel to The Short-Timers called The Phantom Blooper, which included many scenes that he’d used in his screenplay for Full Metal Jacket. The Phantom Blooper, like its predecessor, was critically well-received but failed with audiences and also went out of print.Hasford wrote a third novel about a Vietnam Veteran-turned private detective before dying at the age of 45 in Europe from complications of untreated diabetes. It appears that Herr’s assessments of Hasford, though harsh, were probably accurate.Things did not go swimmingly for Herr either. People began revisiting Hasford’s work after he died, which ultimately led them to his association with Herr. His frank opinions of Hasford in Dispatches (although he did not use his name) were criticized. People re-evaluated Dispatches since its release in 1977 and, in hindsight, did not find it as riveting as they had when first published. Furthermore, people began to doubt many of the things Herr claimed to have witnessed in Vietnam. Fact-checkers entered the fray, and sure enough, Herr admitted that much of the book was fabricated. In his defense, he claimed to have told his publishers that the book was novel but they had insisted on only buying it if it were non-fiction. Herr relented.What’s the true story? I don’t know. What I do know is the book is a work of fiction that – even after being outed – is still touted as non-fiction. The book is worth a read. Some of it is undoubtedly true, such as the things that both Hasford and Herr witnessed But Kubrick’s criticism if a lack of a cohesive plot is spot-on and, with the benefit of hindsight, it’s hard to read this book knowing that a significant portion of it is BS and take it seriously.

⭐It has been said that the “real” legacy of Vietnam was that for the first time reporters and editors began to question the American authorities as they never had before. This is not a view Historians can particularly subscribe to. History presents us evidence of opposition to the `party line’ over the last century, including the Spanish American War. Perhaps this is idea of legacy seems credible due to the general short memory of the American public. Certainly, the Vietnam press coverage (even before Tet in 1968) stands in contrast to the Korean era when any question of objectives or policy might lead directly to a McCarthyist challenge of where one’s allegiances lie. So it was that in Vietnam the politeness in the line of questioning was certainly in contrast to the Korean `police action’. Yet, Michael Herr’s book Dispatches does not show his part in this allegedly newer style of hard-look journalism. Yes, things may have been questioned as never before but this occurred only after the failures in US policy became glaringly acute did the editors begin jumping on the bandwagon.Herr jeers the `syndicated eminences’ and mainstream editors and bandwagoneering in oblique passing (Herr 214, 220). But this is not the thrust of Dispatches. In reading this work, one finds some portions reading more like a personal journal. Other portions read like a high-octane fuel-injected amphetamine-driven psychotic episode. Some parts are a recall of previous experiences, while others were written closer to the time in which they occurred. Either way, Dispatches gives us the glimpse into the world of a war correspondent covering the Vietnam War. Much of what Herr has to say is heartbreaking, but more often the words leaping of the page do so with the same adrenaline with which they were originally inscribed. Herr often mentions the trouble Grunts had understanding why he and other journalist would put themselves in the situation in which they encountered him. As a columnist for Esquire and Rolling Stone, it is even less likely that he hardly garnered the understanding that a journalist from the New York Times or Washington Post might have enjoyed.Indeed, there is a sense of self-consciousness when he relates “There was no nation too impoverished, no hometown paper so humble that it didn’t get its man in for a quick feel at least once.” Furthermore, he informs the reader that he didn’t have the deadlines facing many of the other journalists in Vietnam. Of course, his dismissal of deadlines can be partly attributed to the fact that he considered himself a `writer’… But the distinction between a `writer’ and a journalist or correspondent was hopelessly lost on grunts, who were just as likely to see the difference between a Viet Cong and a `friendly’ villager. The fact that he didn’t even carry a camera led to further incredulity on the part of the military brass he encountered.Herr’s writing does not need to impugn the Military and Administration’s talking heads and their endless chatter of `Victory just around the corner.’ His stories reveal the utter lack of faith in their words. He tells us a few of the running jokes, and the stale lines for given situations. Herr might have told us the joke about “how do you know when ___________ (insert Westmoreland, LBJ, Taylor or any other name connected to the madness) is lying? Their lips are moving…” But he need not even do that. His companions in the press corps and the majority of the grunts who were remotely in US policy knew after a few hours in Vietnam that it was not about anything they could have claimed.Still it is difficult to reconcile Herr’s disdain for the grunts’ brutality and his apparent admiration that surfaces when his not trying to suppress it. Herr’s narration is colored by the pop music of the era. Of course, that pop music was as counter-culture as his personal views. It is difficult to grudge a person for their attachment to the most exciting times of their life. Herr’s is almost an addiction to the life of the thrill seeker, but as he mentions, unlike the grunts, he could always take the next chopper back to an air-conditioned hotel room in Saigon, or leave altogether. (Not that an air-conditioned room in Saigon would be necessarily safer than Khe Sahn…) There was a band in the early 1980’s that sought to re-kindle the psychedelic experience of the bands that Herr most appreciated. Herr’s Dispatches recalls his experience and the experience of the press corps in Vietnam (and to a certain extent that of all Americans):Easier said than done you said, But it’s more difficult to sayWith eyes bigger than our bellies, We won’t do it but we can’t look away…What were you thinking of, When you dreamt that up?We can’t tell our left from right, But you know we love extremesGet into grips with the ups and downs, Because there’s nothing in between…With eyes bigger than our bellies, we won’t do it but we can’t look away… So much of the press corps, Herr included, lived vicariously through the lives and deaths of the GI’s. The American public lived vicariously through what the press fed them. Some would like to believe that the lesson of Vietnam is a “lasting legacy.” In deed many members of the press continue to claim this. It is supposed now in the press and the American public that “we don’t take things for granted; we don’t take things as face value; we don’t believe officials, as we did before Vietnam.” The `Credibility Gap’ created by the wake of the US involvement in Vietnam and the many presidential administrations that tried to deny the reality of its circumstances was supposed to make us somewhat wiser. However, those who are following the news today, hearing similar themes and even similar speeches cannot help but realize it is not so much wisdom gained by Vietnam, but crass cynicism on the part of the American public. `Yes, our own government lies to us, but that it is to be expected… It is the journalist job to act as a kind of Consumer Protector…’ “Just let us know when the amount of lying exceeds an accepted standard.” At that point, The Press is then like the USDA. When a certain amount of rodent feces exceeds the amount we allow for in our food supply, let us know… otherwise keep it to yourself because we don’t want to know.In a response to a recent PBS NewsHour special on the Vietnam War, David Greenway, (one of Michael Herr’s acquaintances) commented,”When you think about it, Vietnam was unique. The same problems… were true in previous wars, in World War II and in World War I. Only in Vietnam were the two bugbears of journalism overcome – censorship and access to the action – that the military can impose. Vietnam is really the only war where there was no censorship and you could go anywhere you wanted. That wasn’t true in World War II or World War I, and it’s never been true since. So Vietnam was really unique in that – to that extent.”Greenways comments could be a clarion call to the public to demand more access and knowledge about the wars and “operations” (Grenada, Panama, Haiti, Iraq, Bosnia, Afghanistan etc., not to mention the others that aren’t on anyone’s radar…) But the publics utter lack of demand suggests another lesson from the Vietnam experience, as consumers, we want only so much and at a certain point we are satiated. When that point is reached, the twisted and charred bodies, the `collateral damage’ is not only unacceptable, it is unappreciated. On the other hand, there are many who have developed a pallet for it. As Herr says, “I think Vietnam was what we had instead of happy childhoods.” (Herr, 244.) In many ways, He seems to have written the book full of dark nightmares and adrenaline pumped dreams that acquiesces to Page’s assignment, (the British journalist friends’ acclamation) “Take the glamour out of WAR?? How the bloody hell can you do that?” (Herr, 248.) The glamour of war remains in it hellish visions and ecstatic epiphanies.

⭐Just as powerful now as when I first read it in the late 70s, maybe more so. I thought it a bit pretentious then, but now it seems more profound. Herr’s rich fever-dream, druggy, rock-and-roll lyricism (amplified his subsequent work on ‘Apocalypse Now’ and ‘Full Metal Jacket’) still frames much of the pop culture view of the Vietnam war. The author acknowledges, “conventional journalism could more reveal this war than conventional firepower could win it.” Herr was a magazine journalist, hopping helicopters “like taxis” to cover hotspots, so viewing the conflict (”a war of our convenience”) simultaneously from above as well as the brutal grunt ground-level, both the “glamour” of war and its PTSD-triggering gruesomeness. Herr finds his own, and his fellow correspondents’ ambivalence deeply troubling, “I think Vietnam was what we had instead of happy childhoods.” In the first section, ‘Breathing In’ Herr tries to capture the mesmerising sensory and cultural overload of arriving “in country”, then on to ‘Hell Sucks’ and the bloody Tet Offensive in Hue. The biggest section covers (comparatively conventionally) the futile, even “absurd” 1968 siege of Khe Sanh,” a passion, the false love object of the Command” and “Illumination Rounds”, vignettes of war’s madness. “Colleagues” affectionately describes “those crazy guys”, his fellow correspondent and photographers and is both touching and funny. In the media war, “something wasn’t answered, it wasn’t even asked”, and Herr felt a commitment of truth to the soldiers, as one said, “You tell it, man”. He does, and reminds us of the horror but also the humanity of conflict, “War stories aren’t really anything more than stories about people anyway.”

⭐I found the first chapter “Breathing In” rather hard going. Much of that first chapter reads to me like the author came down off a bad trip and was writing everything down as he was doing so. This book reads so much better when Herr drops the so-hip-it-hurts prose and reverts for the rest of the book to a more gritty take on the whole thing, In fact I’d go as far to say that the rest of the book deserves all the praise it gets.I did like his cynicism about the pen pushers fighting a war from their desks, wishing (perhaps?) they were actually the grunts facing off against the VC. Who among us could not at least grimly smile about the “mad Colonel” stories. Would have been nice to get at least a paragraph as to why he was there in the first place, as there are several mentions of the reporters being able to go home whenever they wished.

⭐”Dispatches” is Michael Herr’s account of his time in Vietnam and became an instant classic when it was published in 1977. A journalist for Esquire in 1967/68, he was eyewitness to some of the famous battles (Hue, Khe Sanh) of the war, as well as to long-forgotten skirmishes. On face value this is a book about the Vietnam War. On closer inspection “Dispatches” addresses so many aspects of the complicated relationship between man and war that it is also an exploration of Herr’s own psyche in trying to make sense of his war experiences.Herr’s writing style (dubbed New Journalism) took me by surprise. I was not prepared for what was overwhelming me from page one. I felt I was taken by the throat and without proper context, scene setting or introductions thrown into the brutality, horror, destruction and madness of the war. Consequently, it took time to find my bearings and to understand the language spoken, jargon used, topics discussed and the humor and logic soldiers had. The result was that I found myself utterly bewildered and mesmerized at the same time. Added to this is Herr’s eloquence in articulating his observations and emotions. It produced so many moments of brilliant prose captivating the essence that it created further breathtaking and jaw-dropping moments of shock and awe for me.Herr contributed to the scripts of “

⭐Apocalypse Now Redux [DVD] [1979

⭐]” and “

⭐Full Metal Jacket [1987] [DVD

⭐]”, so watching both films after “Dispatches” is almost a must. I decided to read it in conjunction with ”

⭐Vietnam: The Real War: A Photographic History by the Associated Press

⭐” to add a visual dimension. Finally, I watched the brilliant but dark 2002 Dutch documentary “First Kill” where Herr and other Vietnam veterans are interviewed about the violence, fear, seduction and pleasure in war. It provides further insight in Herr’s motivations to go to Vietnam, his experiences during the war and his conclusions about the attraction man has to war: “If war were hell, and only hell, […] I don’t think people would continue to make war.”And that is in my opinion the most disturbing aspect of “Dispatches”. There is an undercurrent throughout the book that despite all the evil, destruction, fear and lunacy, war is also glamorous, exciting, pleasurable and even beautiful. I think Herr wrote “Dispatches” partially to come to terms with the above by “trying to piece together their very real hatred of the war with their great love for it that rough reconciliation that many of us had to look at.”The fact that after forty years dozens of people feel compelled to write a review for “Dispatches” here tells something of the impact it continues to have on readers. I am no exception. “Dispatches” will haunt me for a long time to come. Highly recommended. 6 stars.

⭐My friend Eric, a prominent journalist in his own right, is off to Southeast Asia to retrace his illustrious father’s steps, who reported on the Vietnam War 50 years ago.In preparation for his findings, he’s having me do some reading.“Dispatches” is what he recommended, and I can see why: it’s a total assault on the senses. It’s visceral, epic, humble, bombastic, naïve and cynical all in one. And it’s laugh-out-loud hilarious.It’s not a history, of course. It’s a trip, rather.Michael Herr proudly offers a view from the lowest possible vantage point. His account may not even be 100% factual: rather than waste his time interviewing the officers, he spends all his time with “the grunts;” it’s their story he sets out to tell, and if some of it they made up, so be it.In short, if you want to find out what it FELT like to fight the war, if you want to feel the horror and the confusion, if it’s the Vietnam era “All Quiet on the Western Front” you’re looking for, then you’ve come to the right place.

⭐Not a book to be devoured in a couple sessions. Best read 5-10 pages at a time with plenty of thinking time allowed.I first read this in the early 80s and was interested to see how well it had aged. Answer: The book is timeless, the prose can be dense and sometimes hard to interperet but it succeeds in taking us into the author’s mind and explaining the addictiveness of the war correspondent’s lifestyle.Harrowing and brutally graphic at times, beautifully written. Recommended reading for anyone interested in an insider’s account of war,

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