When Peter Scott began a 1968 tour in Vietnam advising ethnic
Cambodian Khmer Krom paramilitaries, they shared only an earnest
desire to check the spread of communism. It took nearly thirty
years and a chance reunion for Scott to realize just how much they
had become a part of him. This fascinating chronicle of Scott's
experiences with the secret army of brave, disciplined warriors is
by far the most moving and richly detailed account ever published
of the deep bonds forged in war between Americans and our Asian
allies.
Successfully blending intense combat narrative and stirring
emotional drama, Scott vividly captures both the unique village
culture of a little-known, highly spiritual people and their
complex relationship with Special Forces soldiers, who found it
increasingly difficult to match their charges' commitment to the
costly conflict. With a novelist's powers of description and
reflection and a professional soldier's keen insight and analysis,
Scott raises the standard for literature about the Vietnam War with
this searing portrait of promise and betrayal.
Building on his experiences as a Phoenix Program adviser near
the Cambodian border, extensive interviews with Khmer Krom
survivors, hundreds of hours of research in government archives,
and requests for Freedom of Information Act disclosures, Scott
seamlessly reconstructs the six-thousand-strong mercenary force's
final crusade against communism, beginning in their ancestral home
in 1970 and ending on the U.S. West Coast in 1995. Such a
hauntingly evocative and highly readable book will both entertain
and shock, and it is assured of a place among the classics on
Vietnam.
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