Jul 17 2009
North Vietnamese Army Soldier 1958-75 by Gordon L Rottman
North Vietnamese Army Soldier by Gordon L Rottman is part of Osprey’s “Warrior” series, which seeks to provide insights into the daily lives of history’s fighting men and women, detailing their motivation, training, tactics, and experiences. For most Americans, there is a lot of mystery that surrounds our old adversaries in the Vietnam War. Rottman attempts to shed light on this mystery.
The booklet (63 pages) is divided into several sections (mini-chapters if you will) that describe various aspects of the North Vietnamese Army (NVA), such as organization, recruitment, and weapons and equipment. Rottman provides a balanced analysis of the NVA. The average NVA soldier was very similar to the average American soldier. Contrary to what many Americans believed, the NVA soldier was just as likely as an American soldier to be intimidated by the jungle. The NVA soldiers were from cities and farms, thus they did not have any innate skills to deal with the snakes, insects, and other hazards of the jungle.
