Body Shop; Recuperating from Vietnam:

by Corinne Browne

Corrine Brown's book "Body Shop: Recuperating From Vietnam" is a fascinating glimpse of men freely talking to the author about a variety of subjects concerning the war in Vietnam. The interviewed all... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0812816137
• ISBN13: 9780812816136
• Release Date: January 1973
• Publisher: Stein and Day
• Length: 180 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.

Customer Reviews

No History Book Will Ever Be This Candid About Vietnam!

Corrine Brown's book "Body Shop: Recuperating From Vietnam" is a fascinating glimpse of men freely talking to the author about a variety of subjects concerning the war in Vietnam. The interviewed all have several things in common. They all were severely wounded in the war with resulting traumatic amputations of their limbs. They all were waiting for their wounds to heal and were learning to use their new, artificial limbs. They were all patients, when this book was written, at "Letterman General Hospital, in San Francisco, California. And most revealingly, they give the reader in 2009, almost 40 years after this war has ended, information about this conflict no history course, academian, nor book will ever reveal! 365 Days Corrine Brown uses close to 10 patients' stories, bouncing back from one to another. Where one story leaves off, another picks up, with these men horrifyingly describing what it was like to "be hit" in "the 'Nam. Left for Dead: A Second Life after Vietnam The largest story is of a vet named "Woody", who lost both his legs and gives a vivid account of this. He begins his story by explaining that he no longer reads newspapers. This book was written after American involvement officially ended in Paris, France, with Henry Kissinger successfully extricating the U.S. from what appeared as a never ending conflict. To that, Woody remarked: "Since I've been back from Nam I gave up on papers. It seemed what you read was untrue. even on TV news, They show you what they want you to see". The Big Story Woody received his draft notice on September 3, 1969. He wrote that alot of his friends "copped out" in phony ways, like telling the army they were gay, or running to Canada. Woody gave the following reasons as to why he went: " It would have been neat to go to Canada and still have my legs, but I would always be running. I had friends who'd been killed, who could say I should cut out? I've never run from anything in my life. I was glad to get it over with. My dad would have been ashamed, he wouldn't have been able to go to the VFW and face his friends if I'd backed out. I figured, how many people have fought and died, who am I to live here and say I won't go?" Northern Passage: American Vietnam War Resisters in Canada Not waiting for the draft to scoop him up, Woody volunteered and opted for jump school, NCO and Ranger training. Blood Trails: The Combat Diary of a Foot Soldier in Vietnam After arriving in Vietnam , and being placed with Echo Recon, 5th of the 46th of the 198th Americal, his opinion shortly after arriving "In Country" rapidly changed. Of the war and the Vietnamese, he asserted: "I thought I was going to fight Communism, but it's a useless cause in Nam because as soon as we leave it will happen. If we want the Communist's out, we will have to stay there. It doesn't matter to the people there. They only want to eat. And we won't stay there". [[ASIN:1574411438 The Twenty-Five Year Century: A South Vietnamese General Remembe