Last Men Out: The True Story Of America's Heroic Final Hours In Vietnam (2011) - Plot & Excerpts
For those interested in the last few days of the Vietnam experience. "This totally riveting and moving story tells how a small band of Marines risked everything to accomplish the harrowing evacuation of American personnel in the last days of the Vietnam war. You feel the fear of facing overwhelming odds, the frustration of a self serving bureaucracy turning an orderly evacuation plan into a shambles. Another name for this book could have been, Americans last stand in Vietnam. This book could serve as a sort of synopsis of the entire Vietnam experience. Self serving inept politicians and so called Statesmen that put careers and misplaced ideology ahead of common sense. I don't mean to dishonor the good work done by the US Marines during the evacuation of Saigon in 1975 and I don't mean to be disrespectful to the authors who have had good intentions, clearly, to write this book. However I think there are several major problems with this book and I am going to list them: 1- It is way too long and could have been 80-100 pages shorter, 2- The story is not joined. I think it is mainly because two authors have written it instead of one, 3- The text is poorly edited and is in dire need of a professional editing. For example, the author(s) constantly go back and forth between using abbreviations for South Vietnamese military and their full names and even then they have got them wrong. As we all know South Vietnam (Vietnam as whole) was a republic and therefore I don't see why they have referred to their air force and marines as Royal Vietnam Air Force or Royal Vietnamese Marines. Seriously, you'd think the authors would have known this simple fact.. Another example: Page 107; the authors refer to a Vietnamese pilot getting his "F-15" ready for take-off (which they must have meant an F-5). Vietnamese air force didn't have F-15s and neither did the US at the time. Editing for its paper back edition would be good. I'd also recommend cutting the length of the stories and slashing the number of pages to less than 150. We don't need to know every single conversation between the "Top" and his subordinates or what went on with some marines in their previous postings. Readers don't need to know what happened to the Japanese film crews in Saigon or British embassy flag pole. It distracts the reader and makes for one very boring book. The authors should have stayed with the US Marines' story of evacuation and the daring flights done by the USAF, USN and the Marine Corps flyers.All in all, you can basically read the first few chapters to get a decent background of the characters and then skip all the way to the last 2-3 chapters to see what happened. I did not do that though. I swear I tried to read the whole thing and it took me a long time since it is a very boring book for sets of actions that could have been and must have been very fast paced and thrilling. I liked the way the story of flag recovery from a distant US consulate in Vietnam was told but then there are parts of the book that you can literally skip without losing/missing the story line.I'd say don't waste your money on this book if you're a military history buff.
What do You think about Last Men Out: The True Story Of America's Heroic Final Hours In Vietnam (2011)?
Excellent Book! A must read for all History Buffs! Great Americans!
—goldiejenny
Cheerleading for forgotten Marine guards at the Saigon embassy.
—batman
