The Devil's Secret Name

A former Green Beret who fought alongside the Montagnards in Vietnam, Morris, an editor at Berkley Books, was unsuccessful in his attempt to rejoin them after the U.S. pullout, but later helped rescue a number of the tribespeople and bring them to this country. This is but one element in the entertaining chronicle of the author's travels in Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, Israel, Lebanon and El Salvador, mostly on assignment for Soldier of Fortune magazine. His goal was to get close to the fighting in hot spots on three continents, soak up local color and have as much fun as he could. The prose is hardboiled, but Morris also pokes fun at himself, especially over his compulsion to recapture the exhilaration of combat. One of the things he learned is that he is not the gung-ho warrior he once was, either in body or spirit. The book closes on a controversial note as Morris argues that most Third World wars are part of a Soviet global effort to gain control of the world's vital resources and sea lanes, that this strategy constitutes not only a continuation of the Vietnam War but is World War III itself, and that if the West continues to ignore this monumental process the U.S.S.R. will eventually be the sole superpower.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Morris, a staff writer for Soldier of Fortune magazine, has written a combination travelogue/memoir of a number of wars, current and past, in which he has either fought or reported. Mostly he just introduces a number of nice and not-so-nice shooters, but there is a blunt message: there is only one war of national liberation, not many, centrally orchestrated by the Soviets through client soldiers and media manipulation. Not a new idea, and not particularly well developed, but the macho nostalgia and the Third World countries are wonderfully realized. Morris is not an uncritical admirer of anti-Communist soldiers, and he makes severe professional judgments on the guerrilla armies he has seen. Though the book is quite disjointed, it will find a place with similar titles. Daring Books has carved a specialized niche in the burgeoning military book market with its stories, generally of the Vietnam War. Morris is the author of the nonfiction War Story (LJ 2/1/79), about the Green Berets.
- Edwin B. Burgess, U.S. Army TRALINET Ctr., Fort Monroe, Va.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.