Vietnam Diary

New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1963. First Edition [stated], presumed first printing. Hardcover. Good/Good. [6], 401, [1] pages. Endpaper maps. Illustrations. Index. DJ has wear, soiling, edge tears and chips. Ink notation on DJ front flap. Richard William Tregaskis (November 28, 1916 - August 15, 1973) was an American journalist and author whose best-known work is Guadalcanal Diary (1943), an account of just the first several weeks (in August - September 1942) of the U.S. Marine Corps invasion of Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. Tregaskis served as a war correspondent during World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. After the U.S. entered WWII, Tregaskis volunteered as a combat correspondent representing the International News Service. (In fact, Tregaskis was one of only two journalists on location at Guadalcanal.) Tregaskis' most renowned book, Guadalcanal Diary, recorded his experiences with the Marines on Guadalcanal. During the Vietnam War, Tregaskis reported on the growing conflict for a decade and accompanied U.S. Marines in command of local ARVN troops. Derived from a Kirkus review: Mr. Tregaskis has written a lot of diaries and witnessed a lot of warfare in the past twenty-odd years. Vietnam is a tedious, frustrating kind of war, especially for the Americans involved in it. He was there from early October, 1962, to early January, 1963, and in those months he had an enormous amount of experience: flying with Army and Marine Corps helicopters and Vietnamese fighter planes, and slogging around in the rice paddies and jungles with the Arvins (Vietnamese infantry). Dangerous it certainly was, but he found it even more dirty, hot, verminous, and unhealthy. Readers should expect 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.