“Darker than Dark” new book on Vietnam

Twentieth Century “Angel of Mercy” — D. R. Howe (Glencoe, MN) treats the wounds of Private First Class D. A. Crum (New Brighton, PA), “H” Company, 2nd Battalion, Fifth Marine Regiment, during Operation Hue City. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Vietnam War is now fifty years in America’s past. While it was a divisive war, it was an instructive one. It was awash in misunderstandings and miscalculations, many of which were due to our nation’s unfamiliarity with the challenges and consequences of limited war. The insightful novel, Darker Than Dark, by infantry Marine and three-tour Vietnam veteran Major General John Admire (USMC, Retired), is a story of four young Marines attempting to understand the constraints of limited war…a war in which America is today confronted and challenged.

“The limitations are just one big kabuki dance. We just tip toe and lightly dance around targets we should be stomping to holy hell. We’re dancing this little ballet with soft slippers and the North Vietnamese is Texas two-stepping the hell out of us with clod hoppers,” PFC Hawkins railed after mourning the loss of a friend killed because of the constraints. He was a 17 year-old Boston Italian under no illusions war was fair, but he believed in similar rules for all.

In battle after battle they were bloodied and bruised, but their hearts and souls willed them to overcome searing and scaring tragedies. “We want to fight, “Corporal Thunder once exclaimed to his officer, “but often the rules just won’t let us fight like we could and should. We just want to fight to survive.” He was an Osage Indian from Oklahoma and familiar with war’s unfairness.

Lance Corporal Wiley once philosophized, “We’re killing to survive and live. You learn to kill real fast of you’ll be dead real fast. It’s just the way the war is.” The son of a Mississippi sharecropper with roots deep into slavery, Wiley was convinced the limitations threatened their survival and contributed to too many deaths.

Speaking with plain words but provocative wisdom, the Marines strove to understand the complexities of limited war. While neither scholars nor strategic experts, they talked sincerely in their quest to understand and to survive. Ultimately, PFC Clary probably summarized it best for them and our nation when he proclaimed, “It’s just that everything’s pretty easy or simple in theory or in books. But it’s hard and just plain complicated on the battlefield. It’s just hard to take good theories and good words and fight a bad war with them.” A Southern California surfer and accomplished athlete, he was the team’s intellect.

While the Marines lacked the sophistication and articulate skills of generals and politicians, their thoughts focused on practical desires to survive instead of mystifying political debates. As PFC Clary often stated, “Nothing comes easy in Vietnam, except dying. Everything comes hard in war, especially living.” Their first and foremost thought was survival.

Darker Than Dark, states retired Marine General and U.S. Diplomat, Tony Zinni, “Is a must read for veterans who will immediately relate to what (John Admire) has written and for those who want to understand this conflict from an honest, straight forward front line view.”

Darker Than Dark is available on Amazon, as well as other online retailers and bookstores.

Darker Than Dark

www.DarkerThanDark.com

More information can be found at www.JohnAdmire.com

For Interview Requests - contact the publisher: Yorkshire Publishing

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Ray Hanania

Blogger, Columnist at Illinois News Network Online

Ray Hanania is senior blogger for the Illinois News Network news site. He is an award winning former Chicago City Hall political reporter and columnist who covered the beat from 1976 through 1992 (From Mayor Daley to Mayor Daley). And, Hanania is a stubborn and loud critic of the biased mainstream American news media.

Hanania Chicago political beats and Chicago City Hall at the Daily Southtown Newspapers (1976-1985) and the Chicago Sun-Times (1985-1992). He published the The Villager Community Newspapers covering 12 Southwest suburban regions (1993-1997). Hanania also hosted live political news radio talkshows on WLS AM (1980 - 1991), and also on WBBM FM, WLUP FM, WSBC AM in Chicago, and WNZK AM in Detroit.

Hanania is the recipient of four (4) Chicago Headline Club “Peter Lisagor Awards” for Column writing. In November 2006, he was named “Best Ethnic American Columnist” by the New American Media;In 2009, he received the prestigious Sigma Delta Chi Award for Writing from the Society of Professional Journalists. Hanania has also received two (2) Chicago Stick-o-Type awards from the Chicago Newspaper Guild, and in 1990 was nominated by the Chicago Sun-Times for a Pulitzer Prize for his four-part series on the Palestinian Intifada.

Hanania’s writings have been published in newspapers around the world. He currently is syndicated through Creators Syndicate. He has written for the Jerusalem Post, YNetNews.com, Newsday in New York, the Orlando Sentinel, the Houston Chronicle, The Daily Star of Lebanon, the News of the World in London, the Daily Yomimuri in Tokyo, Chicago Magazine, the Arlington Heights Daily Herald, The Saudi Gazette, the Arab News in Jeddah, and Aramco Magazine.

Hanania's Chicagoland columns are published in the Southwest News-Herald, the Des Plaines Valley News, the Regional News and the Palos Reporter newspapers.

He is President/CEO of Urban Strategies Group media and public affairs consulting which has clients in Illinois, Florida, Michigan and Washington D.C.

His personal website is www.TheMediaOasis.com. Email him at: [email protected].

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