A Tale of Three Wars

By Edward B. Atkeson

A novel that examines the Vietnam War through the eyes of officers from the U.S., South Vietnam, and Viet Cong.

"Perhaps a better history . . . than nonfiction can adequately portray." --former CIA Director William E. Colby

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1889927007
• ISBN13: 9781889927008
• Release Date: May 1997
• Publisher: Army War College Foundation Press
• Length: 392 Pages
• Weight: 1.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Lucid, Sophisticated, Insightful

A Tale of Three Wars is simply a splendid book. Written by one of the military's leading thinkers, retired General Atkeson's book analyzes the complexities of the Vietnam War through the venue of historical fiction. He illustrates the fractured nature of the NLF (National Liberation Front) and Viet Cong, the often problematic relationship between the US and South Vietnamese intelligence and military authorities, and the troubled internal politics of South Vietnam itself. The result is a nuanced and sophisticated picture of the Vietnam War and the challenges faced by the US in dealing with the daunting problems of insurgency, corruption, and political infighting. This book is particularly critical now during the War on Terrorism. Atkeson has shattered the notion that the NLF, VC, and North Vietnam represented a homogeneous, monolithic enemy. He has shown that beneath the thin skin of solidarity nationalist and ideological movements (and those purporting to be religious) are more often than not fractured alliances of necessity that hide competing ideas, agendas, and struggles for power. The most effective way to deal with them is to find the seams and the fractures and exploit them, as Atkeson's protagonist, Paul McCandless, did in the novel. A similar approach to the War on Terrorism is likely to be very successful. -- Christopher D. Kolenda, Editor and Co-Author of Leadership: The Warrior's Art.

An Explanation After 25 Years

For this civilian, MG Atkeson finally explains some of the roots and conflicts of the Vietnam war and how the participants in it -- on all sides, including the home front -- contributed to its resolution in frustration, disappointment, and loss of honor.Although Vietnam, from Tet to Ia Drang to the last helicopter out, contains enough action for a library of novels, MG Atkeson explains the long battle of attrition by what is, essentially, a novel of character, in particular, the characters of a relatively fast-track young Intelligence officer, an American-trained South Vietnamese officer; and a cadre leader among the Viet Cong, trained like many rebels from Ho Chi Minh on in France.All of them have been snatched from their "normal" lives, but those lives have written deeply on them and influence how they live -- and fight their war. Ultimately, they are brought together in a resolution as moving as it is, essentially, indeterminate.A gulf has opened between those men and what they thought they were fighting for -- a gulf similar to that found today even inside the US.I am grateful for this clarification of something I didn't understand when I was living through it.

The best novel to come out of the Viet Nam War.

Let there be no doubt about it--A Tale of Three Wars is one of the best novels ever written about the Viet Nam War. It certainly is the most authoritative, and the plot is a well-crafted, elaborate, Byzantine labyrinth. If you fought in the war or are interested in a unique view of the internal and external conflicts that characterized it, your simply must read MG "Ted" Atkeson's latest effort. The novel follows the exploits of three main characters: "Paul" McCandless, Infantry officer turned Military Intelligence; MAJ Nguyen Van Do, Paul's counterpart, CGSC classmate and friend; and Patriot (Comrade) Van Ba, a Sorbonne-trained physician who commands the local Phu Loi Battalion. Thus, the three wars of the title, as each fights his enemies and organizational restrictions that tend to frustrate every endeavor. This is not, however, a "blood and guts" combat tale. There are a few battle scenes, some interesting cloak and dagger work, and a major operation launched during the novel, but the most significant conflicts are mental. Van Ba is competent, efficient, and effective as a guerrilla commander--he manages to capture an entire platoon of tanks from a government compound--but is constantly being brought to task for ideological deviations by his political officer, Tran Hua, and his higher headquarters, the Central Office for South Vietnam (COSVN). MAJ Do is fond of American jazz, slang expressions and Parliament cigarettes and indispensable to his commanding general when American newsmen and Congressmen must be briefed. He is delighted when Paul is assigned as his counterpart, but circumstances interfere with their friendship, and he must remain loyal to the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, even when he suspects that a respected superior officer may be controlled by the Viet Cong. MAJ (later LTC) McCandless is equally delighted to see MAJ Do, but he soon must plant a "cover story" with his friend as part of the security measures for a major operation in the planning stages. Paul has his own difficulties with the "hell bent for leather" commanding general of the fictional 100th Division ("Big Hundred"), his boss, the Field Force G-2, and a wife with liberal political tendencies. In addition to a number of logical but frustrating twists and turns in the plot line, there is a false climax when a group of officers who gather informally to gripe about the war effort are tasked by the Field Force commander to produce a valid plan for changing the way the war is fought. They come up with a workable plan based upon interdicting the Ho Chi Minh trail with troops, but politics on the home front as well as the politics of the Pentagon interfere. The resulting non-answer from higher evokes this frustrated comment from one of the officers, "Nobody with four stars has the guts to go to the mat for what he believes." But no one--certainly not the reader--has time to wallow in self-pity. Atkeson turns up the heat on the plot line once again and p