Reviewed by Sadonna
TITLE: Love In Country
AUTHOR: Richard Gayton
PUBLISHER: Northampton House
LENGTH: 354 pages
RELEASE DATE: September 23, 2024
BLURB:
Of the 2,700,000 Americans who served in Vietnam, likely about 250,000 were gay or bisexual and approximately 4,500 of those were KIA, though no records were kept. This novel is dedicated to them, along with all the other soldiers, sailors, marines, and air force personnel who died there, or brought home the trauma.
In 1968, John Reese and Ian Alexander fall in love after barely surviving the overrunning of their firebase by the North Vietnamese. Reese is falling apart, both from PTSD and fear of exposure, while Ian supports him.
Their relationship is an open secret to their squad, some of whom accept it and others recoil. But Doc, Thumper, and Burd have more important issues: survival. Burd hides his homophobia. Doc has his own issues with religion. Thumper’s overwhelmed with combat, as well as with being a Black soldier in a white-led Army.
Just before Tet, leave is abruptly cancelled for a Phoenix mission to kidnap a village official thought to be a communist operative. In charge will be Captain Heinrick, a student of Asian culture with a traumatic secret: his Vietnamese wife and son were murdered by the VC. Heinrick changes the mission to assassination, which challenges each soldier to decide what is acceptable in war. When he strangles a prisoner, Alexander confronts him. Reese wavers between following orders and defending his lover.
Running headlong into several NVA regiments, the squad faces annihilation in a massive firefight. As they near their target, Heinrick orders a civilian killed to protect their approach. The squad must warn their base of the NVA incursion, and complete the original mission. But Ian, John, and the Captain will clash in a disastrous confrontation as the squad calls on all their skill and courage to try to escape.
REVIEW:
So out of the gate, this is not a romance. There is no happy ending. This shouldn’t be surprising given that this is a story of war in the 1960s featuring queer characters. This is a violent and difficult story that reflects the realities of the US war in Vietnam and the consequences to the soldiers who were there. There is reference to illegal US Military operations. I can appreciate the author’s first sentence in the description of this story. The number of Vietnamese, Cambodian and Laotians casualties lies somewhere between 1 to 3 million The human cost of this quixotic mission is just staggering. This is a largely forgotten and unrecognized fact.
This is the story of one group of infantry and there time in-country. Jonny and Ian meet after ranger school before shipping out. They forge a bond. Johnny is in denial about his sexuality, but Ian sticks to him like glue. Eventually Johnny gives in. Then they are shipped out and they end up in a firefight without a lot of backup. The other members of their platoon are a black guy from the south, Thumper, and a guy from New York whose options were jail or the army, Burd, and their Medic – another closeted kid from Colorado who though because he was a good shot he should join the army. Burd’s lived a violent rootless live and the army is a better alternative than the streets. Thumper has no future in his small southern town. So he joins up.
Needless to say, war is hell. These guys find out pretty quickly. If you’ve seen any of the movies about Vietnam (Platoon, the Deer Hunter, Apocalypse Now, or the movie that this novel is based on), it should be pretty clear who was doing the fighting and the dying. In the US, most of us are acquainted with at least one veteran of this war. It was brutal and unwinnable. Lots of hubris. Lots of pain and death. In the midst of all that, this story tells the tale of one couple who tried to make the best of a bad situation in a time when same sex relationships resulted in court-martial or worse. Unimaginable.
Full disclosure. My degree is in History and I took a course in the US in the 1960s with of course a huge focus on the Vietnam war. I’ve read Stanley Karnow’s book, watched the series, read multiple memoirs and know some vets – some who are still dealing with the aftereffects of Agent Orange, etc. I would recommend this book to others who are interested in another story of this war. The scenes are visceral – like literal movie scenes playing out on the page. It’s really not an easy read. The violence of this conflict was astonishing. Just don’t go looking for a happy ending. There isn’t one. But there is love in this story and the missed opportunities and the future stolen from so many people is pretty heartbreaking. It’s a damn shame what happened to these men.
RATING: 
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