2. 1. DISPATCHES: A JOURNEY INTO THE VIETNAM NIGHTMARE
2. A WITNESS IN HELL
2.1. Breathing in
2.2. Hell sucks
2.3. Khe Sanh
2.4. Illumination rounds
2.5. Colleagues
2.6. Breathing out
3. DISPATCHES AND ITS LANGUAGE
4. VIETNAM: THE WAR OF THE ROCK AND ROLL ERA
5. DISPATCHES AND THE CINEMA
6. CONCLUSION

3. 1. DISPATCHES: A JOURNEY INTO THE VIETNAM NIGHTMARE
John Le Carré -who wrote «The spy who came in from the
cold»- said once that Dispatches «was the best book he had
ever read on men and war in our time».
Dispatches, which was written by American journalist
Michael Herr (New York, 1940), describes the author’s
experiences as a war correspondent for Esquire and Rolling
Stone in Vietnam between 1967 and 1969.
The book, which was first published in 1977, involves a
journey into the Vietnam War in which the author avoids military
or strategic terms. He just writes about his vividmemoirs and tries
to express this painful conflict through the soldiers,
photographers and correspondents’ points of view.
When Dispatches was sold out it turned into one of the first
pieces written about the Vietnam War. The book is included in
the New Journalism school. Many of his anonymous stories have
been contemplated in the screenplays of movies like Apocalypse
Now, by Francis Ford Coppola, and Full Metal Jacket, by Stanley
Kubrick.

4. 2. A WITNESS IN HELL
Michael Herr arrived in Vietnam in November 1967 just when Dak
To battle –one of the bloodiest- was in all of its fierce. During his period
at war he travelled all around the country, sharing his life with soldiers
and being witness of all the insanity of the conflict. Furthermore, he
became great friend of other colleagues like Tim Page, Larry Burrows,
Sean Flynn, Dana Stone or John Cantwell. Many of them got killed.
Finally, he returned home after ’69 summer, when he was only 28 years
old. Dispatches condenses the sickly atmosphere of war in six chapters:
Breathing in, Hell sucks, Khe Sanh, Illumination rounds, Colleagues and
Breathing out. In the majority of the cases, the chapters are integrated
by little stories or articles.

5. 2.1. Breathing in
In «Breathing in» Herr describes a handful of stories that
supposed a first contact with war and its madness. The author narrates
his arrival at the Vietnam War in the middle of Dak To withdrawal. He
also speaks about the conflict background, the paper of the United
States during the pre war period and the life in Saigon, which was
considered the «pearl of orient» during the colonialist time and which
war turned into a capital of vice, allowing the growth of a paradise for
gangs, black market dealers and pimps.
On the other hand, Herr writes about his own fears, his abuse of
drugs and his hallucinating experiences motivated by stress and
tiredness. In addition, «Breathing in» includes a description of soldiers’
superstitions.

6. 2.2. Hell sucks
This chapter takes its name from a graffiti written in the helmet of a
corporal.
«Hell sucks» takes place in the Tet Offensive, launched by North
Vietnamese Army and Vietcong guerrilla during the 1968 Lunar New
Year celebrations. Herr spent most of this period covering the combats
in the imperial city of Hue, home of the Nguyen dynasty until 1945. The
author describes the brutal curfews between marines and communist
troops in the middle of Hue historical patrimony, which was almost
destroyed by bombs. He refers to the heavy number of casualties in
both sides and explains, without any concession, this episode that
finally was supposed to have been won by the USA but that caused an
insuperable hit on the moral back home.

7. 2.3. Khe Sanh
«Khe Sanh» is the longest chapter of the book. The 21 January
1968 the marine camp of Khe Sanh, placed in the North of South
Vietnam, was attacked by communist forces, beginning a siege that
carried on until 8 April. Herr spent several weeks at the camp, living
with soldiers in unhealthy bunkers filled with rats and rubbish. It is
said that during the battle about two hundred grunts lost their lives
and thousands of Vietnamese were killed by bombing and shelling.
What is more, the fringes of Khe Sanh camp became the most
bombed place in the world after the Second World War. Herr
criticises the decisions taken by the Government of the United
States and the military commanders, who thought that in Khe Sanh
was happening the same that had occurred in Dien Bien Phu at
1954, when the French were defeated during the Indochina War.
This chapter shows the way of life under the siege through the
experiences of Mayhew and «Day Tripper», two grunts who strike
up a friendship with Herr.

8. 2.4. Illumination rounds
Herr analyses in this episode the relationships between
Americans and Vietnamese that were established during the war
period. He goes into the differences between westerners and Asians
and writes about the USA role, which varied between the door
gunner proud of killing fifty Vietnamese and the surgeon who
operated during long hours the wounded by the bombs thrown by
his own fellow countrymen.

9. 2.5. Colleagues
«Colleagues» is a description of journalism in Vietnam. Herr
explains the differences between independent correspondents –like
him- and the ones who were working for traditional media. This
episode gives a detailed information about reporters’ life in Vietnam
and speaks about figures like photographer Larry Burrows, who died
in 1971 when his chopper was shot down over Laos, or the
Australian correspondent John Cantwell, killed in 1968 at Saigon.
Anyway, Herr spends a lot of time speaking about
photographers Tim Page, Sean Flynn and Dana Stone, probably his
best friends at war. Tim Page, who arrived in Vietnam when he was
only 20 years old, was wounded on several occasions. The last one
caused heavy damages on his brain. Nowadays, he still carries on.
Probably, one of the most moving stories in Dispatches is the
one which speaks about Sean Flynn and Dana Stone. Sean Flynn,
who was son of Hollywood actor Errol Flynn and Lili Damita, left his
life as an actor to become a war photographer.
On April 6 1970, he disappeared while he was covering the combats
in Cambodia along with Dana Stone. Both of them are still
disappeared nowadays.

10. 2.6. Breathing out
The last chapter is based on Herr’s experiences after his return
back home. The author speaks about his constant nightmares
related with what had happened and with all the spooky things he
had seen during the war. It is a kind of essay in which he exorcizes
the monsters of a bad trip called Vietnam.

11. 3. DISPATCHES AND ITS LANGUAGE
Probably, one of the most attractive things about Dispatches is
its language. Michael Herr employs a direct language, lacking any kind
of fuss. Every time, he reflects the violence of war on the hard side of
spoken words. At times, the narration acquires peaks of intensity that
are able to express the feeling of nervousness and the tautness of the
situations described. He also tries to catch the different accents of the
characters, depending on their origins. It gives the book a mouthful of
realism that connects with
the eagerness of showing what really happened and who were the ones
that were there trying to deal with that situation.

12. 4. VIETNAM: THE WAR OF THE ROCK AND ROLL ERA
«Out on the street I couldn’t tell the Vietnam veterans from the rock
and roll veterans. The sixties had made so many casualties, its war and its
music had run power off the same circuit for so long they didn’t even have
to fuse». (Michael Herr, Dispatches)
Michael Herr usually refers to rock and roll in Dispatches. The book
not only speaks about war, it gives an outstanding view of the subculture of
the second half of the sixties.
Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention,
Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Rolling Stones or Bob Dylan swarm
around stories of war. Their lyrics work as a connection between the
«world» (the one at home) and Vietnam. It is also a way of escaping which
sometimes is related by Herr with the consumption of substances during his
periods in Saigon or China Beach, far from the combats.

13. 5. DISPATCHES AND THE CINEMA
After its publication, Dispatches served as a
source of inspiration during the creation of the
screenplays for Apocalypse Now and Full Metal Jacket.
Many of the characters presented on both films are
inspired on stories described by Herr’s book. It is known
that the author contributed with Coppola to the redaction
of several passages for Apocalypse Now. However, he
brought all of his talent to his friend, British director
Stanley Kubrick, during the writing of Full Metal Jacket
script, which takes place in
the battle of Hue.

14. 6. CONCLUSION
Dispatches keeps your attention from the beginning until the
end. In my opinion, its peculiar style of narration and its naturalism
allows you to construct a close idea of how this period was.
Furthermore, it gives you the opportunity to know the way of life of
photographers and correspondents during the war, with any
romanticism or disturb vision as it usually happens. The book is
thought-provoking and sometimes heavy going because of the
vocabulary, full of jargon or slang expressions. To sum up, despite
the fact that, at times, its reading turns a bit difficult, I believe that it
is a masterpiece of American contemporary literature.
Here is a playlist of the songs mentioned by Michael Herr in Dispatches.
(http://grooveshark.com/#!/playlist/Dispatches+Songs+From+A+War/65586624)