“If you want to know how it really was in the Special Forces in Vietnam, this is the book to read—no fantasy, no antiwar message, just a true war story.†–Major General Jack Singlaub, USA (Ret.), former commander, Special Operations Group, Vietnam
“Jim Morris is an unusual case…a writer whose style is spare, controlled, sprung with tension, whose subject matter is war, whose obvious purpose is to ‘tell exactly what it’s like’—all dicta impeccably consonant with the Hemingway canon, and yet he is still very much his own man.†–The Editors of Esquire
“War Story is very real, and the low-key approach gives it all the more impact.†–Publishers Weekly
“No other book gives the feel of what it was like to be a Green Beret in Vietnam the way War Story does.†–Lt. Col. Robert K. Brown, Editor and Publisher, Soldier of Fortune
“Morris captures the historical accuracy of Special Operations in the language learned from firsthand experience.†–Lt. Col. Chuck Allen, Commander, Project Delta
“War Story is the lore of Special Forces in Vietnam told in the tradition of Woody Guthrie.†–Al Santoli, author of Everything We Had
“Jim Morris is a highly decorated Green Beret combat veteran, with a unique talent for making his readers feel a part of his gripping, action-packed personal experiences. Morris commands your attention as a reader with the same authority and ability with which he commanded troops in combat.†–J.C. Pollock, author of Mission M.I.A.
Jim Morris was an educated young man who had always wanted to be a soldier. In 1963, he found the perfect war...
"The war was like a great puzzle, great to think about, great to plan, great to do. It was so incredibly peaceful out there in the jungle."
As an advisor to a Montagnard strike force, Morris and his guerrillas outfought and outmaneuvered the Viet Cong in his sector. To a Green Beret like Jim Morris, the “Yards†were brothers—so fiercely insular, they would serve no outsider and made the Berets who fought with them honorary members of the tribe…so valiant, they would follow the right man into a firestorm…But while he loved the ambushes, the firefights and the Montagnards, he could see a tragedy unfolding in Vietnam.
"As I jumped I heard a crack and felt a thud in my right shoulder. I squeezed the trigger on my M-16. The bolt went ka-schlugg and that was that, baby. Jammed again."
In the most widely admired Special Forces memoir to come out of the Vietnam War, Jim Morris tells his story: of the early days and the Tet Offensive in '68, of the slaughters and the beauty, of the violence, the courage, the loyalty and the loss...
"The war was my life and I identified with it totally. To end it was to end me, and that I would not do..."
About the Author Jim Morris served three tours with Special Forces (The Green Berets) in Vietnam. The second and third were cut short by serious wounds. He retired from his wounds as a major. He has maintained his interest in the mountain peoples of Vietnam with whom he fought, and has been, for many years, a civil rights activist on their behalf. His Vietnam memoir War Story won the first Bernal Diaz Award for military nonfiction. Morris is author of the story from which the film Operation Dumbo Drop was made, and has produced numerous documentary television episodes about the Vietnam War. He is author of three books of nonfiction and four novels. He has appeared on MSNBC as a commentator on Special Operations. Visit the author’s website at www.jimmorriswarstory.com.