Matterhorn

Just two days ago, I finished reading the book Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War by Karl Marlantes. Marlantes himself was a soldier in the Vietnam War and I was lucky to have read this novel after I read his latest book What it is Like to Go to War. The novel essentially follows the author's own tour in Vietnam, but he adds some extra ideas for storytelling effect and doesn't go into as much detail about his own feelings as each event occurred.

What really struck me about the book was how inefficient the handling of the war was. Not only was it a mistake to enter the war, but even more atrocities were committed under the radar after that as well.

Some of the bigger mistakes are easy to see: the battalion giving up a key hill and letting it fall into enemy hands, the battalion nearly starving its soldiers on an endless march (in the book, the soldiers name the march the "Trail of Tears Operation"). However, other smaller issues are ignored by the war commanders, most importantly racial issues. Eventually, this issue spins out of control, and a well-liked leader by soldiers of all color is accidentally killed.

Aside from cringing at all the mistakes the armed forces made during the war, just in this small Marine regiment alone, I was shaken by the raw emotion the characters expressed at each event, and how effectively they were conveyed. One such moment is when the main character is debating in his head whether he accidentally killed the young soldier he was trying to save, all the while knowing a bullet from his M16 was what pierced the young man's head.

All in all, I felt this was a very eye-opening look into one of the most controversial periods in American history. I just wish there were more books like it.