It seems only right that the first Vietnam War novel would come out about the same time as Gulf of Tonkin resolution. Robin Moore got as close to the Green Berets as possible, going through jump school and special forces training to build trust with his subjects, and not be liability in the field. He definitely did go to Vietnam, and spend several months in a very secret war that most people didn't even know about.

The blend of first-hand reporting, war stories, and outright fiction is strongest when it sticks closest to Moore's personal experience. The defense of an isolated outpost, patrols, and helicopter med-evacs all have that live wire electricity of great reporting. The war stories are weirder: being the only white man commanding a Montagnard warrior band in Laos, or recruiting a female agent to honeypot a VC spy, and don't capture the psychological dimension of the characters. The last section of the book is an outright fantasy about setting up a guerrilla network in North Vietnam. Many attempts along these lines were made, and they universally ended in disaster against the Communist police state of the north.

Moore has some great little word portraits of the Special Forces and their Montagnard allies, a period look at sophisticated new weapons like the claymore mine and AR-15 rifle, and nothing but derision for the South Vietnamese and the remaining French. A fascinating bit of history, but one that has not aged well.