Days of Valor

January 22, 2007
In his first book, Tonsetic focuses on the battles at the start of the North Vietnamese and Vietcong Tet offensive from late January to May 1968, fought by his unit, the U.S. Army's 4th Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, which was assigned to the 199th Light Infantry Brigade. Tonsetic, who commanded an infantry company, relies heavily on evocative first-person testimony from his fellow infantrymen to paint a picture of almost nonstop combat action among his and other battalions of the 199th, which fought primarily around the cities of Bien Hoa, Long Binh and Saigon. But rather than a memoir, this is an in-the-trenches look at men in combat that tells "the stories of the men who performed the deeds of valor through their own eyes and words." In fact, Tonsetic refers to himself throughout the narrative in the third person. With its acronym-heavy use of military lingo and its focus on tactics and battle action, this book will appeal to those interested in the nuts and bolts of Vietnam War combat and in the period during which Americans killed in action reached the highest levels of the long Vietnam War.

February 15, 2007
Tonsetic ("Warriors: An Infantryman's Memoir of Vietnam") was a company commander in the 199th Light Infantry Brigade when the Tet Offensive broke out in January 1968. The brigade was involved in the violent struggles for Saigon and Cholon and was a key factor in preventing the Vietcong from overrunning Saigon. Tonsetic's account is a panegyric to the soldiers he served with rather than an attempt at a general history. Although the author refers to himself in the third person, the work is primarily about his own experiences and those of the people around him, collected from the personal recollections of participants and contemporary after-action reports. Those looking for a general history of the period would be better served by James R. Arnold's "Tet Offensive 1968: Turning Point in Vietnam" or James H. Willbanks's "The Tet Offensive: A Concise History". Not an essential purchase for most libraries but of interest to subject collections.Edwin B. Burgess, U.S. Army Combined Arms Research Lib., Fort Leavenworth, KS

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