1. Why did you write The Bridges of Vietnam?
A: During my first tour, I was assigned to travel throughout South Vietnam. I was receiving no mail at the time, so I mailed daily journals to my wife to let her know where I was and that I was all right. Years later I realized these journals contained a gold mine of information about the war as seen by a 33-year-old Marine captain who had been selected for major. So I researched for two years, and added notes and a chronology of the war. That made The Bridges of Vietnam.
2. What makes your book different from other books about the Vietnam war?
A: First, I wrote it with no pre-conceived goal in mind except to present the facts as I experienced them. Second, I added explanatory footnotes to the journals I had written. Third, I capped it off with a carefully researched chronology of the entire war. These three factors give the reader a combination of my little view and the big picture. Eerily, they match.
3. Besides the obvious differences in strategy, tactics and the enemy, what's different between the Vietnam War and today's wars in Afghanistan and Iraq?
A: Rapid communications at every level. In today's warfare, troops e-mail their friends and families in almost real time. They use hand-held Global Positioning System devices to find almost exactly where they are and where their comrades are. Commanders can see the entire battlespace and can switch scenes instantly.
Now a major reason I was assigned to travel anywhere I wanted to in Vietnam was because that was one of the J-2's best communications tools. In The Bridges of Vietnam, I explain a situation, for example, where we were searching for American POW in a certain area. Simultaneously, a long range patrol was operating nearby on an unrelated mission. And meanwhile we were expecting a B-52 strike soon. My travels helped tie communications in such cases together.
Finally, let's look at the genesis of The Bridges of Vietnam. We not only didn't have e-mail; I wasn't even getting snail mail. So, as I explain in the book, I wrote my wife a daily journal and mailed it from anyplace I could as I hitch-hiked by air throughout the country, so she, at least would know I was all right.
4. You were sent to "visit every major ground unit in the country. Go to Special Forces camps, ground reconnaissance units, armored cavalry units, and waterborne reconnaissance units. Search everywhere for intelligence sources. Don't get bogged down by dog-and-pony shows staged for colonels and generals." What qualifications did you have for such an assignment?
A: My boss, Cmdr. Ted Fielding, was a UDT specialist who had earned the equivalent of the Victoria Cross working behind the lines with the Brits in the Korean War. I was fresh out of a tour of duty in the 1st Recon Battalion. Ted's boss picked us both because he recognized we had the ability to do what we in fact did. The prescient statement Col. John T. Little made about "dog and pony shows," however, is what did the trick. Our rank was at the level that majors and below would talk to us cold-turkey because we were out there in ranks with them. And the farther we got down the chain of command, the more we learned.
5. Were you spat on or called a "baby killer" when you returned from Vietnam?
A: No. In fact, I was assigned to represent the Marine Corps in Northern Nevada, and for almost three years I spoke to many groups in the area. I was always treated with respect and the press was honest in their reports. It might be because the people in that part of the U.S. were more conservative than in other parts of the country. I wasn't even reviled when I notified mothers that their sons had died or had been terribly wounded.
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6. You made casualty calls? How were you received?
A: Often the parent would curse President Johnson or the war. But invariably the mother would turn to a fireplace mantle or a table and pick up a photo of her son in his dress blues. She would say, "He was a good Marine."
7. You say you could travel anywhere in the country you felt would help you accomplish your mission. How exactly did you travel.
A: The Bridges of Vietnam reveals that I had a set of permanent travel orders. Sometimes, when it was going to be difficult, Col. Little got special ones signed by the J-2, a brigadier general. I learned all the aerial port routines, and found a half-dozen other ways to hitchhike on an airplane or helicopter. Most people couldn't do this because they were under control of their superiors, but I wasn't tied down that way.
8. That sounds like you could have gotten wounded or even killed somewhere and your boss wouldn't know about it.
A: That's exactly why I wrote daily journals to my wife and mailed them where ever I could. In addition, my boss knew my expected date and time of return, so he didn't get worried until that passed.
9. The Bridges of Vietnam reveals that you had an Australian captain as a companion during your travels in country.
A: Peter McDougall. Great warrior. Hard as nails. He had been conducting counterinsurgency operations in Malaya for two-years shortly before joining me in Vietnam, so he knew the business.
10. Where can listeners get a copy of The Bridges of Vietnam?
A: They can go to Amazon.com or barnesandnoble.com, or they can go directly to the publisher, University of North Texas Press, c/o their distributor, Texas A&M University Press, at www.tamu.edu/upress/BOOKS/2001/edwards.htm.
