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Almost half a century ago, a young reporter from Germany arrived in still-glamorous Saigon to cover the Vietnam War over a period of five years. In this memoir he now tells the story of how he fell in love with the Vietnamese people. He praises the beauty, elegance and feistiness of their women. He describes blood-curdling Communist atrocities and fierce combat scenes he had witnessed. He introduces a striking array of characters: heroes, villains, statesmen and spooks, hilarious eccentrics, street urchins and orphans herding water buffalos. He shows how professional malpractice by U.S. media stars such as Walter Cronkite turned the military victory of American and South Vietnamese forces during the 1968 Tet Offensive into a political defeat. He mourns the countless innocent victims of the Communist conquest of South Vietnam, which was the grim consequence of its abandonment by the United States. Thus, he argues, the wrong side won. Finally, with the eyes on Afghanistan, he poses a harrowing question: Are democratic societies with their proclivity for self-indulgence politically and psychologically equipped to win a protracted war against a totalitarian foe?

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9781945500008

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Uwe Siemon-Netto, a Leipzig-born newsman, has reported about major world events for 60 years. Having survived the allied bombing of his hometown as a child, he grew up to cover the construction of the Berlin Wall, the Kennedy assassination in Dallas, and the Vietnam War.Dr. Siemon-Netto now lives in southern California as a writer and Senior Distinguished Fellow of 1517 The Legacy Project, a non-profit initiative built, upon the work of Martin Luther, Part of the year he and his British-born wife, Gillian, spend their time at their home in southwestern France.

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