The interesting thing about this books is the author's approach to the topic. Written in 1987, Rintoul attempts to give Australian Vietnam veterans a chance to voice their experience of combat. But with scarcely any written context or attempt at analysis, Rintoul instead selects his interviewees and edits their recollections to emphasise the savagry and arbitrariness of the war and the psychic pains of war memories. His subtext is blatantly obvious: in one case, a veteran snorts speed before an interview, another is interviewed in a mental hospital. The inclusion of horrific photographs of Australian landmine casualties on the mortuary slab and images of dead Viet Cong extends this gruesome portrayal of war. Rintoul is clearly tailoring his image of Vietnam veterans to confirm the one portrayed in the mass media before 1987 when he contends that 'many veterans have retreated into a world of almost hysterical bitterness, disillusionment, anger, grief and sickness'. A piece of sensationalised journalism which does nothing but marginalise the experiences of those who fought the war. ( )