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The GruntsBy VVAWThe Grunts, by Charles Anderson; Presidio Press, $10 (hardback). There are lots of books about Vietnam coming out, and THE VETERAN tries to cover as many as we can. But this book deserves special interest because Anderson, a "grunt" marine, describes both his experiences in Vietnam and the experience of Vietnam vets back in the world. The first part of the book, "the Tour," covers the opera- of one Marine company on a 58-day operation. Like most of the biography-type stories it does not portray wal like John Wayne in the "Sands of Iwo Jim" or "The Green Berets," but then Anderson was walking through jungles, not the back lot of some movie studio. While it is one Marine's story, it also captures glimpses that we can all remember. "The call from Battalion came at about eleven in the morning; the hated frenzy of preparation was taken up again. The company was caught at a time more awkward than usual: there was too much water and too many c-rations to carry. But an heroic effort was made to consume it all." "A night in the 'Nam always comes alive to some degree—things are either seen or heard. If something is both seen and hear, it usually turns out to be a tiger, rock ape, or North Vietnamese. With a half-moon out tonight Sorenson expected to see bushes move and work on the imagination." "Hill 174 shook as in a death rattle and then for Bravo Company the world turned into a dark chaos of noise, dirt, hot metal and blood." Part Two, "The World" doesn't mince words when it takes on the questions of atrocities, alienation or alliances and tries to give answers to them: "The Vietnam War in particular provoked a unity of sorts between the minority of the young generation who went and the majority who did not. Those who were bloodied in the hundreds of demonstrations against the war were also lied to and deceived and tasted disillusion. They and the veterans have resolved to tolerate less abuse of authority and deception in life than previous generations."
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