"There have been a succession of books on the Vietnam conflict, though there have been few that have told it from the South Vietnam point of view, from the aspect of the true losers, those who fought for a and believed in the nascent Southern Republic. Ngo The Vinh brings us essays illuminating his experience as doctor with the crack rangers, here in dealing with the dichotomies of combat. He then moves to the disconcerting life of a refugee rebuilding a life in the strangeness of Southern California and the struggle to reestablish in his profession amongst the politically riven ex-pat community of the 1/2 million boat people. A perspective totally neglected in prose so far. You will find yourself slipping in the mindset of the soldier doctor, prisoner in the gulag and liberated uprooted refugees through to nascent middle class American. The whole time you hear the plaintive tones of a man attached still to the spiritual roots of that haunting country Viet Nam." TIM PAGE, Time - Life, UPI free lance reporter