ROGUE SOLDIER
“I thought I’d seen everything about the American military experience in Vietnam, but here, 40 years later, Putzel’s dramatic recounting of the exploits of Staff Sergeant Ed Keith during Operation Lam Son 719 were as riveting as anything I’d read.”
— Peter Arnett, winner of the 1966 Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of the Vietnam War for The Associated Press
Ex-war correspondent Dan Southerland looks back:
“A new book written by Michael Putzel … describes how the allies underestimated both the strength of the North Vietnamese forces and the anti-aircraft fire that they would encounter.” –Radio Free Asia
See full article
THE PRICE THEY PAID
HistoryNet’s Vietnam Magazine
“One of the best books yet published on soldiers’ total “Vietnam experience”–intense combat in-country and then dealing with its aftermath once they returned home….Putzel’s compelling, skillfully written book is a ‘must read’ that eloquently and in-depth delivers on the promise of its title and subtitle–the price soldiers paid for their Vietnam combat and how they endured the physical and emotional wounds of the war.”
–From Vietnam Magazine, October 2016, by Jerry D. Morelock, US Military Academy, West Point, Class of 1969
“The best of the best,” said Foreword Reviews.
“We asked our reviewers to choose favorites… These are their responses—the most beloved books among the best we’ve read.”
Price was one of only four works of nonfiction cited by the quarterly that focuses on books published by several hundred independent publishers.
“This vivid account of Vietnam War helicopter battles reveals the bravery of allied forces who encountered insurmountable odds during a time when American political and public support for the war all but ended,” wrote reviewer Karl Helicher. “A haunting portrayal of how PTSD affected men then and now, decades after the war.”
The original Foreword review gave the book 5 Hearts, the magazine’s top rating:
“A Vietnam War correspondent poignantly shares the perilous stories of US chopper pilots and crews and the PTSD that ravaged their lives ever after.” The bravery of C Troop is “vividly portrayed in Michael Putzel’s important The Price They Paid: Enduring Wounds of War…”
Cicero Magazine:
“Michael Putzel’s The Price They Paid gives a gripping account of the war as it was fought by the pilots and crewmen of one U.S. helicopter unit, and shows how those harrowing experiences continued to shape their lives for years after they came home.”
–From Cicero Magazine, May 18, 2015, by Arnold R. Isaacs, author of Vietnam Shadows: The War, Its Ghost, and Its Legacy
The VVA Veteran
“I highly recommend it to anyone who believes that war is a good thing and that carpet bombing is an effective method of attaining world peace.”
–From the VVA Veteran, December 22, 2015, by David Wilson
Magazine:
“The Price They Paid offers insight into what it means for a professional soldier to go to war. What it helps us see best is that war isn’t a state of nature or a moral accident but a job, even a way of life.”
–From Dissent Magazine, Winter 2016, by Ray Scranton
More Reviews and Comments:
“The Price They Paid” by Michael Putzel is superb, one of the finest books of the Vietnam War era… The recounting of the helicopter engagements with the North Vietnamese comprises some of the very best battle reporting I have ever encountered… I felt I was actually present in the moment, as if I were riding on a wild roller coaster but with no assurance that the vehicle would stay on track… the stories of Major Jim Newman – surely one of the most colorful, interesting, capable and ultimately tragic figures in the modern era of warfare – and the other characters in the book were, in turn, heartening and depressing depending on how their military service informed their lives – and deaths – during and after the war… It takes its place as one of very best books on the Vietnam War – and, for that matter, all the other wars in which the US has been engaged over the last many decades.”
–Excerpt from review by “Avid Reader” on Amazon.com
See all reviews on Amazon.com
“This is a powerful book. Putzel’s writing is so good that one sometimes forgets that this is nonfiction.”
–Excerpt from review by Joshua on GoodReads.com
See all reviews on GoodReads.com
Lions Club in Connecticut distributes The Price They Paid throughout local school systems
