This book is shallow, wildly biased, uninformed and does not accurately cover the complexities of the Vietnam war. To top it off this ridiculous book won a Pulitzer - really? This book goes to great lengths to depict the tiger force element as nothing more than murderous thugs while failing miserably at defining the real "tactical" threat the Vietnamese civilians represented. A fact that does not stop merely at the reality of their providing intel and resources to the enemy. But to portray the Vietnamese civilian as "innocent" because they were not carrying weapons is intensely stupid and offensive. This book takes a stab at (and fails miserably) at assessing the possible psychological consequences that killing people can have on the mind of an American teenager. Then somewhere around page 210 or so just when operation wheeler is about to begin.. the idiot authors launch into the point of view of a genuine JACK ASS in CID (criminal investigation division) Regardless, you should not attempt to take on the Vietnam war until you are ready to take on the true underlying motive for the Vietnam war in the first place. To cover
up the race war between the whites and blacks in the United States. Where the later emerges (true to form) as more of an enemy of the American people than the Vietnamese could ever begin to be or even hope to be. Who coined the phrase "THE PROOF IS IN THE PUDDING"