The story is intricately and closely woven around the bitter history of the Vietnam War. Nelson DeMille, being an infantryman of US Army during the Vietnam War, tries to bring out the United States' attitude towards the Vietnam War and the ongoing ant-USA communist government. As I think the story is somewhat pro-American. Nevertheless its a well organized story which covers many aspects of Vietnam, such as its war history, constitution, simple but organized lifestyle of the Vietnamese people.
The Plot Paul Brenner, a veteran, gets an email from his former commanding officer Colonel Karl Hellman, asking him to meet him at Washington's monument to the Vietnam dead.This wall contains the names of the soldiers killed in action during Vietnam War with a single exception. One of the soldiers, a young lieutenant, did not die in action. He was gunned down by his captain. Suddenly, thirty years later, Hellman wants Brenner to go back to Vietnam and find the only eye witness to the crime.
Brenner finds out that Vietnam is not the place he left all those years ago. He heads upcountry with his beautiful and smart 'guide', Susan Weber, who prefers to keep some secrets to herself. As he heads North in pursuit of his target, he realizes that his search is far bigger than just finding one man ..............
Criticism
The story is wonderfully organized and moves at a breathtaking pace. The complexity of the identity and behavior of Susan We
ber adds something more to the curiosity of the perplexed reader. The writer also succeeds in bringing out the simple life style of the Vietnamese village folk who cherish peace of mind and soul than anything else. Those innocent people never wanted a war which was to last for nearly thirty years. They never wanted their loved ones to get killed in millions. It was the puppet government of South Vietnam(during those days) and their ally the US who made them fight for their own land. In my point of view there is nothing wrong in fighting against a force who tries invade your own territory. But the pathetic aspect of this story is Nelson DeMille, as most of the Americans, tries to condemn the people of North Vietnam as inferior creatures. The image of Paul Brenner and Susan Weber, whose motherland is thousands of miles away from Vietnam, insulting the locals, specially a high official like Colonel Minh, is not nice at all. Someone may argue that this simply demostrate the bravery of the Americans, but is it true bravery or vanity?But when we consider all those facts as a whole "Up Country" is an interesting read.
Note : Nearly 58,000 US soldiers died during the Vietnam War, while on the other side nearly 1,396,000 got killed(both South and North Vietnamese).
But there remains the so called unanswered question of "who won the Vietnam War? " Most of us know the answer but many don't like to accept it. Nelson DeMille is also not quite clear in providing an answer for that question.
