Description
Book Synopsis The U.S. Marine Corps'' Combined Action Program (CAP) in Vietnam was an enlightened gesture of strategic dissent. Recognizing that search-and-destroy operations were immoral and self-defeating and that the best hope for victory was winning hearts and minds, the Corps stationed squads of Marines, augmented by Navy corpsmen, in the countryside to train and patrol alongside village self-defense units called Popular Forces.
Corporal Edward F. Palm became a combined-action Marine in 1967. His memoir recounts his experiences fighting with the South Vietnamese, his readjustment to life after the war, and the circumstances that prompted him to join the Corps in the first place. A one-time aspiring photojournalist, Palm includes photographs he took while serving, along with an epilogue describing what he and his former sergeant found during their 2002 return to Vietnam.
Table of Contents
- Table of Contents
- Dedication and Acknowledgments—vii
- Preface—1
- 1. The Identification—3
- 2. Palm and the Delaware Dream—10
- 3. My Great Expectations—19
- 4. Mixed Blessings—27
- 5. How It All Began—30
- 6. That Other Parris—34
- 7. The Sticking Point—39
- 8. Camp Lejeune—41
- 9. Delaware Revisited—45
- 10. An Enlightened Gesture of Dissent—48
- 11. Palm on the Supply Side—52
- 12. Deliverance—55
- 13. CAP School—57
- 14. Papa One Confidential—59
- 15. Flashback: The Girl I Left Behind—63
- 16. Tiger Papa Three—67
- 17. The Dramatis Personae—72
- 18. Blissful Ignorance—80
- 19. Flashback: My Great Expectations Revisited, July 1966—83
- 20. And the Rains Came!—88
- 21. Hard Times—90
- 22. Deus ex Machina the Second—93
- 23. The Way We Were—96
- 24. Puff the Magic Dragon Comes to Call—104
- 25. Schism—108
- 26. Close Encounters of the Strange Kind—110
- 27. On Courage—Physical and Moral—112
- 28. Winning Hearts and Minds—114
- 29. Boys Will Be Boys—American and Vietnamese—119
- 30. The R&R Experience—123
- 31. The Fire Next Time—December 4, 1967—125
- 32. Confession Being Good for the Soul…—133
- 33. Innocents Abroad—135
- 34. A Way You'll Never Be—139
- 35. Life Goes On—141
- 36. The Shape of Things to Come—143
- 37. Coming Home—145
- 38. Looking Back on Leaving—150
- 39. A Siren's Spell—152
- 40. "All the way with LBJ!"—161
- 41. Shelter from the Storm—163
- 42. A Chance Encounter with the Third Kind—of Girl—166
- 43. Palm at Penn—169
- 44. Men Without a Country—177
- 45. Vietnam and Modern Memory—179
- Epilogue—183
- Index—201
