Vietnam. Inside story of the guerilla war.

by Wilfred G. Burchett

International Publishers, New York, 1965

Burchett was in his early 50's when he traveled with the guerilla army of the NLF, the National Liberation Front, in South Vietnam. He spent 8 months being what we now call, 'embedded' with the enemy of the United States Army in the Vietnam war.

I looked around the Internet for background. Seems Burchett was a controversial journalist for decades. He took a train, alone, into Hiroshima after the US attacked it with a nuclear weapon, and reported evidence of radiation sickness. The US denied any such problems. Burchett was condemned as passing on Japanese Propaganda. Other controversies involved reporting claims that the US used biological weapons in Korea, an issue that it seems has not been substantiated to date. He was accused by a Russian defector of being an agent for the Chinese and the North Vietnamese governments; however this was later shown to be speculation. Typically, Burchett reported from places few others did and just as typically was in some way accused of passing on propaganda by those whose positions his reporting challenged.

A controversial book - no surprise

It's clear from the book and from his past, that Burchett had sympathies with socialist and communist programs. His admiration for the NLF shows through. Does this 'taint' his reporting? It does make me suspicious that some details that don't reinforce his sympathies are left out. It does make me suspicious that facts are threaded together to make a overly glowing impression of his hosts. However, I have the same suspicions about reporters who are sympathetic to American GI's and to 'capitalist' programs. I am grateful that his point of view is honestly portrayed. It is up to the reader to decide what looks credible.

The details he gives from his travels and conversations with NLF officials jibe with views given by more standard, typical reporting: the honest work of the NLF cadre amongst the people of South Vietnam; the fact that they were of the local people, not insidious outsiders brought in from the North; their intense loyalty, determination and almost unbelievable hard work in defending their country from oppression and attack. He gives detailed information of the timeline of the war and the origins of the NLF. He gives detailed information about the terror of the Diemist regime, almost universally recognized as brutal, despotic, and murderous.

John Wayne's Green Berets, from the other side.

Anyone who fought for the US in this war might find this a hard read. Burchett shows no sympathy for the US soldier or the ARVN soldiers, the victims of the ambushes and mantraps of the NLF cadre and the mountain folk who fought along side of them. He doesn't demonize these enemies of the NLF, not at all. His reporting is rather matter-of-fact. However, I must remind myself what all this guerrilla defense of rural Vietnam did to the young men who were thrust into it by the policymakers back home. At times it turns my stomach.

Here are a few links I found checking this author out:

• Australian Dictionary of Biography
• Public Enemy Number One, A documentary by Australian filmmaker, David Bradbury