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PRESS RELEASE: NAM, The Story of a Generation (Vietnam) by Mel Smith

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| PRESS RELEASE | Nam the novel, Story of the Vietnam Generation

NOVELIST MEL SMITH GIVES READERS A “FULL DOSE” OF THE VIETNAM WAR EXPERIENCE IN NAM, THE Story of a Generation

GLENEDEN BEACH, Ore., Aug 9, 2017 — At one point in Mel Smith’s novel Nam, The Story of a Generation, Vietnam War veterans Joe and Cam ponder the perceptions of their service. “The World War II generation,” Joe says, “never appreciated what we did in Nam…. We didn’t fight hard enough. We didn’t support the government of the people…didn’t know the meaning of sacrifice…like they did in doubya, doubya two.” So unfair. [Read more…] about PRESS RELEASE: NAM, The Story of a Generation (Vietnam) by Mel Smith

Mel Smith, Author

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Mel Smith, AuthorREAD A SAMPLE | SHARE | BUY

Mel Smith was born August 15, 1948 in Helena, Montana. He grew up in a blue-collar neighborhood very similar to the one described in “NAM, The Story of a Generation”, on the edge of town, with dirt streets, no sewer service, and one street light on the corner.

He joined the Naval Reserves in the fall of 1966 and started his active duty in July, 1968. He was assigned to the destroyer U.S.S. Taylor out of Pearl Harbor, just after it was deployed on a six month West Pacific tour. On his tour with the Taylor, he was a member of the deck force, the tough ship maintenance division. He transferred to the U.S.S. DeHaven out of Long Beach, California, which left two months later on its own West Pacific tour. On the DeHaven he had the position of Postal Clerk and took over the ship’s post office, the best enlisted duty on the ship. Like all servicemen, he was given an early out in April of 1970, as Nixon was winding down Vietnam.

He returned to Montana State University and completed a B.S. in Film and Television, graduating in June 1973.

Mel Smith currently lives in Arizona with his wife, Alane. He has three children and three grandchildren. He runs his own advertising company, AdSmith and writes in his free time. [Read more…] about Mel Smith, Author

“NAM, The Story of a Generation” a novel by Mel Smith

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It was war… not the kind waged in the 21st century, with terrorists; but war with armies and uniforms and borders and national interests. It’s all encompassing, conscripted, waged, politicized, and lied about. It’s cruel, bloody, noisy, messy, rife with mistakes, deadly, gross, inhuman, and unfair. It is never played on an even plain, righteous, warranted, or clear-minded. Every war is mankind’s biggest mistake and what makes it worse is that the men caught up in it are the innocents; the losers, in this case, sold an unrealistic ideal, a patriotic slogan, a vision of greatness in sacrifice they eventually found wanting.

War has a face that’s different depending on your vantage point. Who wins and who loses may not be right, or virtuous, and those who fight are always on the losing side.

In the Vietnam War two ideologies met with predictable results.

The Vietnamese fought not for communism, but for nationalistic goals. Vietnam had been occupied by foreigners for a thousand years, since before Ghangis Kahn. The latest to occupy were the French, then the Japanese, then the French again. The Vietnamese national who led Vietnam’s rebel forces in dispatching the Japanese, also fought the French and the Americans. He was a true Vietnamese patriot; and he was a communist.

Through the Americans, readers will see the conflict of serving and going to war with little understanding of the consequences their commitment would have. Most of these young kids served without a clear vision of America’s interest in Vietnam or a strident reason for putting their lives on the line. Of course, the draft made service mandatory, but our American characters joined the service of their own accord.

NAM (a novel), The Story of a Generation deals with the fallout that happens to both sides of the war and asks questions that never can be truly understood: Why did we fight and what was gained and lost from the war?