Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War

After reading 3,500ish pages I reached a breaking point. I set aside the remaining volumes of  the Pentagon Papers and began reading Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War.
Much to my surprise this book has been very highly recommended. As I have been reading each volume of the Pentagon Papers it has become quite clear that the politics of war is true insanity.

Sebastian Junger in the New York Times wrote “one of the most profound and devastating novels ever to come out of Vietnam—or any war.”

And Mark Bowden who wrote Black Hawk Down commented “(it is) so authentic, so moving and so intense, so relentlessly dramatic, that there were times I wasn’t sure I could stand to turn the page…There have been some very good novels about the Vietnam War, but Matterhorn is the first great one, and I doubt it will ever be surpassed.”

What struck me in The Matterhorn that has been echoing in my mind about the Pentagon Papers was the intentional misleading of enemy killed.  At the end of the third chapter a firefight with canon fire killed two NVA soldiers. However as author Karl Marlantes described in the post battle briefing the number of enemy dead was increased as it was sent further up the chain of command.

In the end the total number of enemy killed was raised to 10 — all based on assumption that the NVA drag away dead comrades from the battlefield.  As described in The Pentagon Papers the early efforts to focus on “body counts” as a measure of success is loudly echoed here as well.

Was the accepted rational when American troops locate dead enemy soldiers, then senior officers “automatically” increased that body count. Insanity.  This passage in chapter three clearly supports reports from the Pentagon Papers regarding the military’s approach to reporting American success in the war. And in the end it was all a lie.

Additional merit for Matterhorn:

• Matterhorn debuted on the New York Times bestseller list in April (2010)
• Ranked #7 Fiction in Time Magazine’s Best Books of the Year (2010)
• A New York Times Notable Books of the Year (2010)
• It won the 2011 William E. Colby Award
• An ALA Notable Book (2010)
• Won the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award (2011)
• Won the Indies Choice Book Award (2011)