One of the few Americans who lived in Vietnam during both the French and American involvements describes his experiences as a Foreign Service officer and chronicles the growth of Vietnam from colonialism to today.

Tiger in the Barbed Wire: An American in Vietnam, 1952-1991

History

Simpson, Howard R.

Asia

Brassey's, Inc

The fighting began in November 1953, when French paratroopers seized a small airstrip in northwestern Vietnam. It ended in May 1954 with tens of thousands of Vietminh troops overrunning the besieged garrison. A third of the 15,000 defenders died in combat; fewer than a hundred escaped into the jungle. Thousands more died in captivity. Dien Bien Phu is recognized as one of history's great battles and as a turning point for American policy: the French defeat led to the fateful U.S. commitment to Vietnam. Ironically, the U.S. military repeated many of the French mistakes. American Howard R. Simpson was there as a combat reporter and photographer. His account is a personal one - that of a man who shared meals and wine and danger with the doomed soldiers. A much-published defense expert, Simpson is uniquely qualified to tell the dramatic story of this famous last stand. Aided by interviews with dozens of survivors from both sides - including victorious Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap - his book will rank with Bernard Fall's bestselling Hell in a Very Small Place as a classic work on an event as significant for the United States as it was for France. Dien Bien Phu is being published on the fortieth anniversary of the French defeat and contains rare combat photos by the author and the French Foreign Legion.

Dien Bien Phu: The Epic Battle America Forgot

When Inspector Roger Bastide investigates a corpse dumped in the driveway of the Soviet consulate in Marseilles, he finds himself caught in a complex web of espionage plots and stalked by the KGB

Very Large Consulate

Literature & Fiction

United States

DOUBLEDAY

The Paratroopers of the French Foreign Legion: From Vietnam to Bosnia

Military

University Of Nebraska Press

Tiger in the Barbed Wire is a fast-paced, colorful memoir by one of the few Americans to live in Vietnam during both the French and American wars. In the 1950s, Foreign Service officer Howard R. Simpson patrolled with French paratroopers at Dien Bien Phu, reported on Hanoi's fall to the Vietminh, was a press advisor to ill-fated Premier Ngo Dinh Diem, and was nearly machine-gunned in street fighting during the bloody Revolt of the Sects. In the 1960s, at a time when coups were the order of the day, he was a press advisor to Prime Minister Nguyen Khanh. When he returned to Vietnam recently to observe the shooting of a movie about Dien Bien Phu--a film that will include some of his own experiences--he interviewed the legendary Vo Nguyen Giap, the architect of the North's victory. Over the years, the author came to know many of the French, Vietnamese, and Americans who shaped Vietnam's tragic destiny. This extraordinary life is described in vivid, powerful imagery by a writer whose skills have been honed during a successful second career as a novelist. As Simpson progresses from neophyte to "old Indochina hand, " the reader learns what Vietnam was like during two explosive decades--and what it is like today.

Tiger in the Barbed Wire: An American in Vietnam 1952-1991 (Kodansha Globe)

Biographies & Memoirs

Kodansha USA Inc

Someone Else's War takes you inside the troubled conscience of Robert Fraser, veteran CIA operative, during the traumatic Tet offensive of 1968. A disillusioned member of the notorious Phoenix program, Fraser has been ordered to kill his longtime friend Arnaud Caze, a French agent suspected of working for the North Vietnamese. Reluctantly, hoping for some sign of Caze's innocence that will reprieve both men, Fraser enters the deadly, subterranean world of Vietnam's shadow war. As few other writers can, Simpson enables the reader to see, to taste, to smell - to thoroughly experience - exotic Saigon, a city of widespread fear, hopeless love, and casual killing. This tautly written thriller will leave you stunned as it reveals how the war in Vietnam drained its participants of feeling - as it became Someone Else's War.

Someone Else's War: A Novel

Genre Fiction

Potomac Books Inc.

Reviews the history of the French paratroop units from World War II through the present

Science & Math

Technology

Bush Hat, Black Tie is a novelist's wry, firsthand look at life as an American diplomat. Howard R. Simpson takes the reader on his own challenging assignments in wartime French Indochina, Nigeria, France, wartime South Vietnam, Australia, Papua New Guinea, Algeria, and the United States, as he witnesses the end of the colonial era and serves in the diplomatic front lines of the Cold War. Thoroughly dispelling the stuffy, "striped pants" image of diplomacy, he reveals the often strange, always interesting realities of representing one's country overseas, whether while wearing a bush hat in the battlefields of Indochina or a tuxedo at the Cannes Film Festival. The colorful personalities he encounters along the way range from Dwight Eisenhower and Charles de Gaulle to Alfred Hitchcock and Henry Miller.

Bush Hat, Black Tie: Adventures of a Foreign Service Officer

Leaders & Notable People

POTOMAC BOOKS

From Booklist:Simpson actually covers only the history and present circumstances of the French Foreign Legion's one remaining parachute regiment, the Second. Based in Corsica, its 1,300 officers and men virtually constitute a miniature, highly mobile, elite army, able to conduct both regular and irregular warfare anywhere in the world. Their history, which constitutes the lesser part of the book, includes battles as well known as Dien Bien Phu and as little known as some interventions in sub-Saharan Africa. Their present condition is unique even within the unique military institution that is the French Foreign Legion, and their officers and men show a range of skills, motivations, ethnic origins, and plans for the future that are in the classic legion mold. Simpson writes favorably but not uncritically of his subject, always with great clarity, sometimes with wit. His conclusion, that the Second Legion Parachute Regiment is a possible prototype for future international rapid deployment forces, is worthy of consideration.

Europe

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Simpson, Howard R.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Simpson, Howard R.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Simpson, Howard R.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Tiger in the Barbed Wire: An American in Vietnam, 1952-1991

Dien Bien Phu: The Epic Battle America Forgot

Very Large Consulate

The Paratroopers of the French Foreign Legion: From Vietnam to Bosnia

Tiger in the Barbed Wire: An American in Vietnam 1952-1991 (Kodansha Globe)

Someone Else's War: A Novel

Dien Bien Phu: The Epic Battle America Forgot

The Paratroopers of the French Foreign Legion: From Vietnam to Bosnia

Bush Hat, Black Tie: Adventures of a Foreign Service Officer

The Paratroopers of the French Foreign Legion: From Vietnam to Bosnia