Distant War: Recollections of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia

 Author's Summary

This is a newly-edited compilation of eighteen years of Yablonka's reportage on American involvement in Indochina and the people affected by America's connection to that part of the world. After all those years and numerous articles about an indelible mark on American history published in the likes of the U.S. Military's Stars and Stripes, Army Times, American Veteran, the Weider History Group publication Vietnam Magazine and others, these stories needed a wider audience for the world to know what they suffered, how most survived, and how they overcame adversity.
 
Distant War: Recollections of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, will be the vehicle to the reader's understanding of a war and its aftermath that may seem distant now, but what is important is that it will make readers realize--if they haven't already--that in war, whether in the jungles of Vietnam or the sands of Iraq, in a very real sense, while who wins and who loses is obviously important, what is equally necessary is that good somehow must and shall prevail.

MWSA Review

Distant War Memories 
 
It is always good to be surprised by a great book. I was expecting the same old typical Vietnam War kind of experiences that hundreds of other books have already explored and exposed.  However, author Marc Phillip Yablonka gives us a new dimension to those long ago Asian conflicts in his new book "Distant Wars: recollections of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia".  His tales are fresh and new and give the reader a much broader view of what happened in Asia back during those war years. 
 
Yablonka takes us on a journey with members of Air America, some donut dollies, a radio DJ in Saigon named Pat Sajak , to doctors who served in various places in Asia during the war years. He moves through people and places that give us a richer and fuller and much deeper image of the big picture. It is also a very emotional telling of life experiences by many diverse people.
 
The author is able to weave these very personal stories together so that they make a composite picture that will certainly impact the reader.  The writing and flow of the stories featured in the book is first class and professional at all levels.; but more importantly, it is riveting and entertaining . You will find yourself wanting to finish the book in one long sitting. 
 
Personally, I found the book contained lots of wisdom and insight that seems to be hidden and very subtle. But nonetheless, it will move you.  It may make you think about these people who are featured in the book long after you put it down.  I give this book my personal recommendation.  Truly a great book! 

Reviewed by: Bill McDonald (2009)