Growing up in India in the 1960s and 1970s, for me the Vietnam War was far away from our every day lives. However, it did loom large over the decades and occupied a lot of mind space. To my mind, there were two types of people in those days. A large number of Americans seemed to believe they were true patriots fighting for their country's values and objective of defending democracies anywhere in the world. As the war dragged on and the number of dead and wounded increased by the day, an anti war sentiment grew in the US. Books have been written in plenty exhorting both sides of this spectrum. I have read many of them over the decades.

A recent book caught my attention: " Exit Wounds: A Vietnam Elegy" by R Lanny Hunter, published by Blackstone in October 2023. As a medical doctor who served with the Special Forces in Vietnam, Dr Hunter is well placed to write about the horrors of war which he witnessed himself. The six day siege at Plei Me in October 1965- where for the first time the US Forces came up directly against the Army of North Vietnam is described in gory detail. Dr Hunter then a Captain (Medical Corps) in the Special Forces writes about the men - whom he came to know intimately-who fought that battle and many others. Dr Hunter had to make quick decisions on the battlefield- decisions that could save a soldier's life or leave him to his fate based on the age old principle of triage.

Given the financial resources and military might of the United States, no one imagined at that time that this war that would end the way it did. Over time, the North Vietnam Army occupied large tracts of South Vietnam. A picture that remains framed to this day in our minds is of men desperately scrambling to hang on to the last helicopter to leave the US Embassy in Saigon. The United States exited Vietnam in 1973 when Richard Nixon was the President - after losing over 58,000 men. The long drawn war finally ended in 1975 with a comprehensive victory for North Viet Nam. Dr Hunter returned to the United States after his two year tour of duty as one of the most decorated medical officers to serve in Vietnam. Amongst other awards, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross

It is interesting to read in Hunter's book that during the Vietnam war - 1965 to 1975- the United States and its allies dropped more than 7.5 million tonnes of bombs in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia- more than double the amount of bombs dropped in Europe and Asia in the Second World War! Still they lost the War - which has many insights to modern day warfare and geopolitics.

What sets Hunter's book apart from most others is not just the description of his meritorious war time duties but the story of his return to Vietnam in 1997. He returned three decades after he left Vietnam -answering a plea for help from Y-Kre Mlo- his former Montagnard interpreter of bygone days. All through the book, we see the war through Hunter's eyes as also through that of Y-Kre showing how he was treated during and after the war when he suffered a lot due to his having helped the Americans.

There are some charming vignettes in the book like Hunter taking time off his battlefield duties to answer letters from a kid back in the US. His observations of Vietnam in the '90s are interesting- - where some things had changed and many things had remained pretty much the same.

I am sure this book will interest readers keen on war and human interest stories. Highly recommended.

I have read books before about the Vietnam War, but from the Australian perspective (since I am Australian), so reading this memoir from an American's point of view was very interesting indeed.

This was a very powerful book written by an unusual man. He was a medic AND a soldier - most people are one or the other. He was brought up in a strict Christian household and lived his life in that way and yet he was open to the cultures and beliefs of others and he questioned everything.

I think I would like Lanny Hunter if I met him. His story was a whole lot of things - confronting, shocking, honest, fair, contemplative.

The Vietnam War was awful and there were no winners anywhere. Nevertheless, you have to admire those men and women who step up and say "yes, I will defend my country, you can depend on me".

Good on you, Lanny Hunter, the world is a better place for having had you in it.

5 stars from me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Blackstone Publishing.

This was a great book. As the son of a Vietnam veteran, I always heard that the doctors and medics had the worst jobs in Vietnam, with nothing but blood, guts, and gore. It's true, and this author proves it.