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The Green Berets
by Robin Moore
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Ballantine Books (1983-02-12)
ISBN: 034530747X
EAN: 9780345307477
Mass Market Paperback
Release Date: 1983-02-12
SKU: 1056
Condition: Good
Comments: Binding: Softcover. Condition: Good. Small tear on front cover. Slight wear along spine.
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
In 1965, writer Robin Moore wanted to understand more about the little-known activities of the U.S. Army Special Forces, known amongst themselves as the Green Berets. With presidential approval by John F. Kennedy himself, Moore went to a place called Vietnam--and was never the same again.
This monumental, bestselling work--the inspiration for the classic movie starring John Wayne and one of the first wake-up called given to the American public about Vietnam--plunges us into the chaos that was our nation's first experience with unconventional warfare.
From fighting the Viet Cong to fighting alongside Montagnard tribesmen, The Green Berets captures the terror of fire fights and iambuses, the constant confusion between friend and foe and the amazing can-do spirit of U.S. Special Forces "advisors" who changed the shape of war even as it changed them. Filled with unforgettable characters- woman spy, a daredevil pilot, and heroic soldiers on both sides of the battle--and updated to include a chapter comparing today's special forces to those from the Vietnam era, The Green Berets is an action-packed, unforgettable chronicle of a secret war and the extraordinary men who fought it.
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Customer Reviews
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A CLASSIC THEN, A CLASSIC NOW
Rating  (5)
Date: 2008-11-07
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
The Green Berets by Robin Moore was first published in 1965. It is classified as fiction. From personal experience, and the experiences of very close friends, I can truthfully say that this work is much closer to fact than many of the so called popular history works that have been published since the war. In fact, it is much closer to the truth than in many government documents which we now have available for study. A war story; yes certainly, by all means, but an extremely accurate one.
This is the story of the U.S. Army Special Forces during the time they served in South Vietnam (among other points in the world). Robin Moore is a natural story teller but has based his story on more fact than fiction. Like any "war story," small parts may have been altered here and there simply to make the story more readable but still and all the author sticks to what actually happened. Moore is a master at not only conveying physical happenings, but also the emotions, attitudes and thought process of the various characters we meet in this tale. Some of the events have of course been dramatized but again, the background material to which the author hangs his story is all fact.
Now please do not judge this work by the horrible movie staring John Wayne which used this book as a God-awful propaganda film. I have nothing against Wayne, love some of his western movies and action movies, but this was one of the poorest films he ever acted in and sort of made a travesty of this author's work, and indeed, the Special Forces guys. The book is nothing like the movie and the only resemblance between the two is the title.
It has become the in thing, now as during the later parts of the war, for the professional whiners, and the professional sensitive, to look down upon the men who made up the Special Forces during this gut wrenching time in our nation's history. The men who made up the Special Force Units were themselves very professional. They were given a job and they did it with the best of their ability, which I might add, was considerable, i.e. their ability. This job was a difficult, dirty and in many ways a thankless job, but they did it anyway. I hold absolutely no ranker against those who opposed the war. I was not overly thrilled with the whole mess myself, but it does gripe me that so many took their anger out on the soldier's who did what they felt was their duty and did it well.
Highly recommend this work. It was good when it was first published and has held up well over the years.
Don Blankenship
The Ozarks
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An excellent book grounded in the reality of what was happening at the time...
Rating (5)
Date: 2008-10-24
...and for those who enjoyed this book, you will undoubtedly be overjoyed to know that a new biography of the real "Sven Kornie" (hero of the first chapter of Robin Moore's book) has just been published. Sven Kornie was, in real life, the Finnish-born Captain Larry Allan Thorne (born as Lauri Torni in Finland in 1919, emigrated to the USA after WW2, joined the US Army and served in the Green Berets until his death in combat in Vietnam in 1965). Thorne was the model for Sven Kornie and the events described in Chapter One of the Green Beret's were pretty much what happened in reality.
If you're interested in reading more, take a look at "Born a Soldier :The Times and life of Larry A Thorne" by J. Micheal Cleverley. It's a great biographical account of a true American hero who led an amazing life.
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Accurate and Inspiring - and a Post Script on Larry Thorne
Rating (5)
Date: 2008-03-04
This is a great book. Very accurate, painfully so in many instances, especially considering the absurd restrictions placed on units operating in the field. Ironically, Moore's account of Special Forces operations in Vietnam is much more accurate than anything you'll ever get from the US government...even 40 years later.
Post Script: In the first Chapter, Moore writes about Capt. Steve Kornie, a larger than life Special Forces officer. Darn near everything Moore wrote was accurate! The officer's real name is Larry Allan Thorne (the "Americanized" version of his Finnish name - Lauri Allan Torni). He was a truly remarkable man by any measure.
Major Thorne was lost on a cross-border mission into Laos on 18 October 1965; but, at that time, and "for the record" he was classified as Missing In Action resulting from a helicopter crash 25 miles south of Da Nang (not even close).
A joint US-Vietnamese team found the wreckage in 1997, excavated the site in 1999, and collected the remains of Maj. Thorne and 3 Vietnamese (two pilots and a door gunner). A decision was made to do a joint internment at Arlington, since what little remained of the bodies was intermingled. Although positive identification, however, was made through Thorne's dental records and parts of the Swedish-K submachine gun that was his personal weapon.
The memorial stone is atypically large for Arlington; and the local Vietnamese community ensures that fresh flowers are maintained at the grave. I have provided additional information should you be in the neighborhood and would like to visit the site. Unless you have very specific information on dates of internment and the correct spelling of the name, you will not be successful in locating the site through the cemetery administration.
[...]
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Nothing Changes
Rating (5)
Date: 2007-05-09
The new edition of Robin Moore's Vietnam War era classic "The Green Berets" is as timely and relevant today as it was when it was published over forty years ago.
What is amazing is that the problems faced by the Green Berets in Vietnam described by Moore are the very same problems faced by our soldiers today in the War on Terror. These include the problems of corrupt local soldiers, relegious differences and the ago old cultural clash between the coventional military mindset and the unconventional warrior.
The new edition also contains materials which were not in the original edition. It was also enjoyable to read the various stories which conributed elements to the John Wayne movie which was based on the book. The book is well worth your time.
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Well Written
Rating (5)
Date: 2006-04-28
I liked this book so much I bought an old paperback copy and added it to my personal collection. I believe that there's a picture of Staff Sergeant Barry Sadler, or someone that looks a lot like him, on the cover. The movie made in 1968 does NOT do Robin Moore's work justice. I found the short stories in this book to be very well written.
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