Soldier
by Herbert
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Book Summary Information
Author: HerbertEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1974-01
ISBN: 0440180716
Publisher: Dell Pub Co
Book Reviews of Soldier
Book Review: Part fiction, part farce, part sober truth - read Stolen Valor first
Summary: 3 Stars
Being in Iraq and having worked for the military for many years now, Soldier was recommended to me by a friend equally frustrated with the way the military operates.
Written by LTC Anthony Herbert (ret), the book details his life from a kid in West Virginia coal country, to enlisting in the Army, service in Korea, returning to the Army as an officer, and rising to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel as a battalion commander in Vietnam.
The book became extremely controversial upon publication in the early 1970's. Anti-war activists used it as "evidence" of massacres that were covered up and unreported.
This is definitely a "tell-all" vengeance book in every sense of the word. The book was written by a fuming Herbert who thought he was unfairly drummed out of the military to protect senior leaders from having to face the truth and to undermine his accusations. He goes into great detail about his success in combat, and in making his unit one of the most productive during his tour.
He had an ax to grind, but the reader is left wondering if the anti-war zealots who co-authored and promoted the book didn't help take literary license to a new low. According to other sources, the book is now "thoroughly discredited."
After reading Burkett's Stolen Valor, you can see there is almost certainly some creative writing woven into the story. The "red-flags" of exaggerated war stories pop up everywhere.
Herbert claims to be the sole survivor of several different super secret black operations. He is whisked around the world to be inserted into Vietnam (early 60's) on a mission for which he has never trained and with which he has no experience. The book boasts he is the most decorated American soldier (no such centralized records are kept). AFTER being forced out of the military, somebody tries to rig his car to explode (why, he was no longer a threat?) - a patently absurd farce.
In fact, some of the accusations he makes regarding his combat experience in Korea and early experience in Vietnam, prior to becoming the Inspector General (IG) during his official tour, smell and sound like kooky conspiracy theories.
While you might choose leave it at that - discredited - there is something of value in the book. Sandwiched between the fiction seems to be a very good account of a top-notch battalion commander. How much is true and how much is fiction is pure speculation, but I suspect it is very accurate - and possibly the only part he wrote.
His experiences as an IG and battalion commander are eerily similar to today. Except for the references to the jungle, you could swear he was describing the military in Iraq. That needs to be qualified - the conflicts, justification, and situation are completely different - the way the military operates though has not changed; not in a hundred years!
Reading a World War I account of Major Biddle (Fighting Airman) you first see the similarity - the gross inefficiency, the malicious effort to keep senior leadership uniformed (and therefore not liable), and the obsession with completing a task regardless of the quality of results or impact.
LTC Herbert details the same inefficiency, willful ignorance, and indifference to quality that is seen today in Iraq. The same unstable characters that sling wildly unsubstantiated accusations almost violently, and then, upon learning the facts, acts as if nothing happened are here. The same "O-4 blackhole layer" (modern term) whose sole function is to ensure no bad news reaches O-6s or above is functioning in Iraq today. This part is too close to home to be fiction.
The reports on the efficiency of his command and success of his battalion, particularly in combat, actually go a long way to proving that if other battalion commanders had equally been concerned about results (as opposed to just feigning task completion) the war in Vietnam would have been very different. Herbert was probably a very effective combat commander who understood the importance of being on the ground, in the thick of it with his soldiers. That goes a long way to explaining why he was respected by them.
All sorts of sociology studies show how non-performers are quick to bring down high-performers as a way of masking their own poor record. That and his insistence on briefing bad news to the brigade commander probably had much more to do with his reassignment and dismissal than a cover-up of any atrocity.
Did the atrocities he witness really take place? Again, with his credibility squandered in other areas, who knows? They could easily be embellished stories. That is, perhaps the unarmed combatants shot were shot by South Vietnamese on their own, not under the direction of American advisers. The same is possibly the case of the interrogations about which he complained. In any case, the incidents he describes are not in the same league as My Lai, but in fact standard operating procedures of the communists. Without condoning the actions, once can easily see why the South Vietnamese would be quick to act accordingly, and why many Americans would willingly turn a blind eye.
Unfortunately, he appears to have chosen to become a tool for the domestic anti-war propaganda machine as a way of getting even with his former commanders. Enough of the book is clearly fiction though; that there is great difficulty in determining what is not. Read Stolen Valor first, and then read Soldier. Both are good reads, and the former will help you come to your own decision on the veracity of Soldier.
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