'Al Santoli's new oral history is original, basic, historical research. What he has uncovered must alter the manner in which many Americans view our involvement in Southeast Asia...The importance of "To Bear Any Burden" cannot be overstressed' - John Del Vecchio, Author of "The Thirteenth Valley". '"To Bear Any Burden" is necessary to understand the most significant aspect of the Indochina wars: the human one. It is the voices of Vietnamese, Americans, Cambodians, Laotians, Montagnards, Hmongs...Together, they represent the triumph of the human spirit. Indeed, "To Bear Any Burden" is Arthur Koestler's "Darkness at Noon" of the 1980s, a more comprehensive and moving one' - Tran Van Dinh, Author of "Blue Dragon White Tiger: A Tet Story". 'Al Santoli writes with the authority of experience and commitment' - J. C. Pollock, Author of "Mission MIA" and "Centrifuge".'At least this reader would like to spend hours if not days talking to each of the people within these pages' - Jack Reynolds, Network Correspondent, NBC. "To Bear Any Burden" presents the stories of 48 American and Asian witnesses who participated in the Vietnam War.
The veterans, refugees, and officials who speak in this book come from widely divergent backgrounds. In their narratives we hear them reliving crucial moments in the preparation, execution, and aftermath of war. We hear, for example, POW Dan Pitzer learning of the American build-up from his bamboo cage; Vietnam operative, Nguyen Tuong Lai describing a terrorist run into Saigon; and, Cambodian teacher Kassie Neou charming his executioners with fairy tales learned from the BBC. "To Bear Any Burden" gives us a riveting, eyewitness account of the war and also reclaims from this tragic continuum larger patterns of courage and dedication.It is a part of "Vietnam War Era Classics Series" edited by Jane Hamilton-Merritt and John Clark Pratt.
