Red Thunder Tropic Lightning: The World of a Combat Division in Vietnam

by Eric M. Bergerud

Book Overview

"Extraordinary...recreates the Vietnam experience in visceral terms."--Col. Harry G. Sumniers, Jr., editor, Vietnam magazine.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0140235450
• ISBN13: 9780140235456
• Release Date: March 1994
• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.5" x 8.5"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Well-written accurate and moving

I was there too (June 68 to Junre 69), so let me add my voice to that chorus. In addition, this book is very well-written and a pleasure to read. There has been more nonsense written about Vietnam than the next 10 subjects combined; this book is a good start toward an antidote to all those years of lies. Vietnam veterans will love it. Non-veterans looking for the truth will find it fascinating and enlightening. Strong recommended.

A Superb Piece of Research

Although I never served in Vietnam, I was an 11B in the 25th from 12/72-9/74. I served in the Army six years, so I have a good sense of what sounds right and what does not. It is clear to me that Mr. Bergerud put together a well researched product that does a fine job in explaining to me the reader what life in the 25th must have been like in Vietnam. It is the only book I have come across that is Tropic Lightning specific. This book gave me a connection to those guys who served before me.

From one who was there

I served with the 25th Infantry Division in Vietnam--the unit which is the subject of Red Thunder, Tropic Lightning. I have read over a hundred books about Vietnam, but was really impressed with this work. Dr. Bergerud and his oral contributors, one of whom was in my squad, tell it the way it was. I've read other books by Eric Bergerud and consider him a meticulous researcher and brilliant historian. I believe the 25th Infantry Division Association, who recently honored Dr. Bergerud with their Stanley R. Larsen Award for his efforts on this book and his portrayal of the "Tropic Lightning" (25th) division, speaks louder than the "reader from VA". I'd highly recommend this book to anyone interested in what it was really like to be an infantryman in Vietnam.

Red Thunder, Tropic Lightning - The Way It Was

This book is right on the mark and describes the experience of the 25th Division infantryman with candor and accuracy. I recommend it to anyone with an interest in the Vietnam War. You can't get any more detailed or closer to the combat experience than Eric Bergerud conveys in this work. The voices you hear are those of our 25th Division veterans telling their experiences as they happened to them. This is a great work destined to remain a major resource for future historians who seek to understand the Vietnam War.

A compelling, insightful reflection on an ugly period.

A few years ago I received a letter from Eric Bergerud requesting information regarding my service with the 25th Infantry Division in Vietnam. When I saw that Dr. Bergerud was an academic, with a connection to Berkley, I dismissed the request out of hand. Berkley had been the source of some of the most extreme criticism of the war and the soldiers who served therin. I erred in not responding to Dr. Bergerud's information request.Years fade and conditions change. Change began with one significat event. The Wall went up on the mall in D.C. Its simplicity and haunting design erodes the barriers of time and space. No one who was there can look upon the Wall and fail to see his reflection looking back at him through the names of absent comrades. Now, five years after its initial publication, I have discovered Bergerud's book. Its effect is similar. I cannot recommend this book strongly enough. I know some of the people quoted in it and neither they nor any of the rest of us who served there were made to look as villainous as we have been previously portrayed by the media and academia. My only objection to the book and the only fault I found with it came at the end. I have been present in the field with Field and Company-grade officers, and I have seen General officers on-site.Perhaps it may have been the early stage of the war, but during my participation in it (I was an RTO) my unit, 4/23 Inf., was constantly involved in Battalion sized operations. The Battalion commander, LCL Bzarcz was continuously in the field. I saw the XO, MAJ Crim take a load of shrapnel in his leg and refuse medical evacuation. I walked, with MAJ Hamlin through the world's scariest minefield. Only later did it occur to me that whatever minefield you're in is the world's scariest.One evening GEN Weyand landed inside the Bn. perimeter. In another incident, the Bn. lost several helicopters filled with men from Co. A in the Iron Triangle. While preparing for a rescue operation with the Recon Platoon, I saw! Generals from my own Division, the 1st Infantry Division and the 1st Cavalry Airmobile. To state that these men took no risk, or were somehow imune to it, demeans their integrity and valor. In my experience, such statement is untrue.The book is powerful and insightful. I believe it is must reading for those of us who served there and all others who would attempt to see the war through grunt's eyes.