Those Gallant Men: On Trial in Vietnam

by John Stevens Berry

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0891411860
• ISBN13: 9780891411864
• Release Date: January 1984
• Publisher: Presidio Press
• Length: 173 Pages
• Weight: 0.68 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Zealous and creative defense lawyering at its best.

This book examines court-martial charges filed against unlikely defendants - a group of professional and dedicated Green Berets during the Vietnam War. The first part of the book profiles the defense counsel. The second, the legal maneuvering for the courts-martial. The author, one of those Defense Counsel, adroitly portrays the frustrations, fears and foibles associated with defending a professional soldier on murder charges. Some might and did say that the victim - a North Vietnamese double agent - deserved to die, afterall this was war and GI's were dying in droves. The intensity of command and prosecution efforts to "break" the defendants, where evidence was weak and circumstantial at best, was shamefull. Berry's ability to capture the feelings that every defense counsel knows, is uncanny. He coins the memorable phrase, "Black Robe Fever" to describe the intellectual regression trial attorneys who become judges go through upon assuming the Bench. Famous personalities appear, the Press gets excited, and yet, who remembers this case? The verdict (you'll have to read the book) spawned the title, "Those Gallant Men" refers equally to the courageous Defense counsel, as well as their clients.