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WEST, RICHARD: : VICTORY IN VIETNAM

LONDON.PRIVATE EYE/ANDRE DEUTSCH,1974.

ISBN 0233966110.

UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn.FINE/FINE.No owner inscrptn,but price-clip to dw/dj.Bright, crisp,clean,glossy laminated,wrap-around blue+b/w cartoon artwork by Michael Heath illustrated dw/dj; with negligible shelf- wear and creasing to edges and corners - no nicks or tears present.Top+fore-edges crisp,bright and clean; contents bright, tight and pristine - no dog-ear reading creases to any pages' corners - an unread copy? Unblemished,clean,publisher's original,plain dark blue cloth boards with crisp,bright,crisp,stamped gilt letters to spine/backstrip and immaculate beige endpapers.UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn,vii-viiipp+3-196pp [paginated] includes author preface,Pts 1-6 comprising 14 chapters,8pp contemporary b/w photographs between pp86/7; plus [unpaginated] half-title+ title pages,and b/w map frntis. 'Victory in Vietnam',argues Richard West, belongs to neither the Communists nor the Americans,but to the Vietnamese themselves,whose refusal to be defeated by circumstance he describes with insight and sympathy.Unlike so many who have written about it,West likes Vietnam and returns as often as an editor will send him there. This book is the fruit of many such assignments: a mixture of personal anecdote,war reports,and a wider view of the land, its people and history. West was there for the famous Tet Offensive and describes it vividly,not least his own terror.He was at the last Bob Hope Show.He blows the myth of the Green Berets and the myth that dope makes soldiers harmless.But with the stage full of corpses he can still make us laugh.A periodical circulating in the US Army urges GIs to shoot their colonel and filming West in the Mekong Delta a British TV crew put a bottle in his hand to make dawn look like dusk. Some things are not so funny,like the swarms of child addicts in Saigon,final product of a heroin racket condoned by the French and Americans to the great financial profit of their proteges,such as Marshal Ky.The scandal of the drug trade in Vietnam,which has yet to receive the attention it deserves,is told by West in full.But through all the chaos and atrocities he never loses sight of the people,who come and go through his pages, modest,good-humoured and resilient.The result is perhaps the best report on Vietnam yet written by an Englishman (then 1974).Illustrated with photographs taken by Philip Jones Griffiths who authored 'Vietnam Inc.',an account of the war in words and pictures. Please contact seller,because of the weight of this item,for correct,insured shipping/P+p quotes - particularly ALL overseas buyers - BEFORE ordering through the order page!

UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn.
Not SIGNED.