Vietnam Diary

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“as an intimate and unadorned account of what so many of our career soldiers and draftees … are going through day by day over there, this can be wholeheartedly recommended.” Kirkus Review

In October 1962 Richard Tregaskis joined the American troops posted in Vietnam.

For the next four months he spent his life on the frontline, witnessing and recording what the American men were doing, saying and thinking in the fight against the communist forces of Northern Vietnam.

Tregaskis exposes the confusion of the conflict as he climbs on board Marine and Army helicopters and goes on missions to search out their deadly foes that seem to disappear into the jungle as soon as they are seen.

Vietnam Diary is a remarkable book that takes the reader to the heart of what it was like to be fighting in this vicious war.

Through the course of the book Tregaskis develops deep friendships with many of the troops who begin to open up to him and explain their experiences that they have been through since the beginning of the war.

“He discusses in typical Tregaskis style his observations and experiences during the time he spent with the Marine and Army helicopter units, the Special Forces, the MAAG personnel, and the Junk fleet.” R. C. Rosacker, Lieutenant Colonel, U. S. Marine Corps, Naval War College Review

Tregaskis won the George Polk Award for first-person reporting under hazardous conditions shortly after publishing Vietname Diary.

This book is essential reading for anyone interested in the Vietnam War as well as the lives of the soldiers who fought within it.

Richard Tregaskis was an American journalist and author who served as a war correspondent during World War Two, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. He was no stranger to danger as he frequently put himself in the firing line to report and during the Second World War while in Italy a shell fragment pierced his helmet and his skull and nearly killed him. His book Vietnam Diary was first published in 1963 and he passed away in Hawaii in 1973.