American Daughter Gone to War

by Winnie Smith

Book Overview

From Simon & Schuster, American Daughter Gone to War is Winnie Smith's story of being a 21-year-old student nurse joining the Army "to see the world" and was sent to Vietnam.

American Daughter Gone to War is the extraordinary story of how she was transformed from a romantic young nurse into a thoughtful, battle-scarred adult. It is a mirror for how our country dealt with the shattering experience and aftermath of the war...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0671870483
• ISBN13: 9780671870485
• Release Date: May 1994
• Publisher: Pocket Books
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 1.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.3" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Should be called an American survivor comes home from war

Another thrift shop purchase that I wasn't sure I would take too but strangely enough I was compelled to read the book from cover to cover. At first the author Winnie Smith didn't strike me as all that likable, look at it from my point of view, a young white and attractive woman of the sixties, promiscuous yet strangely innocent, racist though she doesn't know it, after all racism was something that most people accepted as a kind of norm and at first filled with gung-ho patriotism to do her "bit" in Vietnam. However as I turned each page I began to see the human side of Winnie and I realised she was a woman of her time or rather she was a woman living in time of misunderstood values, and misplaced values that she just happened to be partaking a part in. Knee deep in blood, gore and guts Winnie does her "bit" sometimes seeing friends die in front of her, a particularly gruesome experience is seeing the chopper pilot she is with get the top of his head sliced off when their helicopter crashes. It is obvious from the way she writes that she is remembering every moment of that terrible incident. Despite all of this horror she seems to get used to sending young men back home minus limbs or their minds or in body bags and she gets on with her job of being a nurse. Interspersed in all of this is her innocence that is slowly but surely eroded by war and its indifferent cruelties, I laughed out loud when I read a section where she has to be told what "condom" is at the ripe old age of 22, Winnie grew up in Vietnam, came of age as did many of her counterparts but as woman she was never to be counted as one of the "survivors" of the Vietnam war. Winnie is as much a causality of the war as the men she has helped put back together or sent home in a casket. She doesn't realise this until she is sent stateside and only then does the real horror begin, she has to come to terms with what she has seen and been through. This is not a sentimental read, it is abrasive, harsh and mind numbing but it is also gives a real insight to the "other side" of war, of what it was like to be a Nurse looking after the soldiers wounded in battle. Despite having a loving family at home Winnie is never able to make them understand what it was "truly like" in Vietnam but if Winnie is anything she is a survivor and in the end she comes to terms with her being a "Vietnam Vet" and gets on with her life, scarred, battle weary but totally and utterly a survivor.

A nurse's account of the Vietnam War

Long ago, my boss gave me a copy of a thin (by my standards) book, and said it had been written by a friend of his; would I like to read it? I said yes; I love to read, and Bob Thomas was someone I admired. If he said a book was worthwhile, then I knew it was. "American Daughter Gone To War" has been with me ever since.Winnie Smith's writing is straightforward. Her account of her childhood and adolescence is as clear as her account of her tour in Vietnam, even when the horrors start mounting up; although Smith's narrative sometimes skimps on description, the reader should keep in mind that she's writing her memoirs, not a novel. She shows a gallows humor throughout, particularly when she tells of dealing with arrogant doctors, officers, and (later) men who lie about having served in the war; she gives glimpses of the day-to-day life at the bases (tarantulas in the latrine are just one ordinary occurrence). When I finished the book, I felt as if I'd spent the time actually speaking to Smith, sharing in her memories, and was just as emotionally wrung as if I had.If all history is relative, a patchwork of accounts from witnesses in high and low places (as well as on the giving and taking ends of orders), then the American involvement in the Vietnam War is a kaleidoscope. Of all the literary fragments worth piecing together, "American Daughter Gone To War," although small, is one to keep.

I almost expected to see Hueys outside my window...

As a 32 year old Canadian I picked up Winnie Smith's book out of interest as I am a Women's Studies student. I could hardly bring myself to put it down, and thought about it all the time I wasn't reading. If the war was a silent subject in the States it has been buried here in Canada. And yet there were many brave Canadian men and women who fought, nursed and died in Vietnam. Ms. Smith brings the war to vivid life and helps those of us to young to clearly remember Vietnam understand its impact on an entire generation of young people on either side of the 49th parallel. She does those who died in Vietnam and those who returned from Vietnam proud in a book that is insightful, honest and brutal in its recollections. I salute her courage in writing this book and thank her for the new perspective she has given me.

American Daughter taught me like no history class could

For those of us too young to remember the Vietnam War, it can seem like an unreal, almost romantic time. American Daughter dispelled all those myths and finally gave me an insight into why it was such a horrible war and the alienation the soldiers and nurses felt after getting back to the U.S. I became Winnie Smith when I read that book. I laughed when she laughed and felt pain when she lost someone she loved. It was funny, sad, gripping and most of all, real. What this nurse went through was experienced by tens of thousands of men and women, no older than me and in most cases, much younger. This book gave me insight I never got from a history class or Vietnam War documentary. I recommend it for anyone under 35. And let us all work together to prevent another war like this.