Endorsements

For the Glory of France rests on the interesting premise that the Vietnam War started in 1945 with the end of the War in the Pacific. If the American government had taken time to listen to the pleas of Ho Chi Minh for friendship and support, he might have become the Tito of Southeast Asia, rather than an archenemy of the United States. Floyd Duncan has done a masterly job fusing fact with fiction to tell this sad tale with seamless precision. His fictional character is a composite of the numerous OSS agents who came to know Ho Chi Minh and his desire to be recognized as free and independent by the greatest nation on the face of the earth.

Former Senator Bob Kerrey of Nebraska. Recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor in Vietnam.

As a survivor of that special and baffling period in history, I long looked forward to reading a good book in a field few historians and even fewer novelists have paid much attention to: the post World War II period in French Indochina. The fact that I was a participant in some of the events that hatched our war in Vietnam a few years later could have something to do with my interest.

Floyd Duncan's new novel For the Glory of France goes a long, long way toward filling that void. It is not only a fascinating story—several of them, actually—but it tied so closely to actual events that I almost felt I was back in Saigon or Hanoi once more. For a more complete appreciation of events leading up to one of the most difficult moments in our own history, and a terrific novel to read, just try For the Glory of France.

Frank M. White, Jr. Major, U.S. Army (OSS) retired.

Those of us who were with the OSS in Vietnam in 1945-46 have never ceased to lament the tragic sequence of events that led our two countries into a cruel and destructive war. In tracing the history of U.S. involvement in Vietnam from its beginnings through the fictional war experiences of father and son, Floyd Duncan brings out all the bitter irony behind a war that should never have been fought.

George Wickes, former member of OSS. Served with Peter Dewey in Saigon and Frank White in Hanoi. Now Professor of English at the University of Oregon.

Professor Duncan evokes an episode in World War II that is one of the most exciting and significant in all that tumultuous period: a story of courage, devotion, sacrifice, slaughter, and ultimate survival against all odds. Since I myself was caught up in that tumult, and, indeed, played a small but significant role in one part of it, I'm able to pay tribute to both the skill and the depth with which the author unfolds a traumatic revelation of that heart-stirring episode.

Charles Fenn, former member of the OSS and author of Ho Chi Minh: A Biographical Introduction.

Floyd Duncan brings into bitter focus the thirty-year tragedy of a war that ended in America's first defeat and killed more than 50,000 Americans. As a member of OSS/Kunming, I worked with Charles Fenn, Archimedes Patti, and many others who urged policy makers to help Ho Chi Minh establish a united Vietnam based on the principles of the American Declaration of Independence. The tragic aftermath of America's choice to support France is vividly depicted in Floyd Duncan's excellently researched book.

Elizabeth P. McIntosh was a member of OSS/CBI. She is the author of two books on the OSS: Undercover Girl and Sisterhood of Spies, the Women of OSS.