West to Cambodia by S.L.A. Marshall

Book #96: West to Cambodia by S.L.A. Marshall is a contemporary non-fiction retelling of US Army small unit action along the Cambodian border in late 1966. I consider myself a fan of Marshall’s narratives, but I think this one read a little choppy and heavy-handed; I’m hoping it is a fluke and that my prior opinions weren’t mistaken. Still, it’s an interesting read and he doesn’t spare the troops he interviewed from an honest assessment of their actions. Men leave equipment behind, miss from point blank range, engage in an hour long firefight with an enemy who wasn’t there, and in the last episode an American company walks headfirst into a bloody, catastrophic ambush. Grade: C+