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A Dragon Lives Forever
- War and Rice in Vietnam's Mekong Delta
- Narrated by: Robert Ferraro
- Length: 18 hrs and 12 mins
- Categories: Biographies & Memoirs, Military & War
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In October 1969, Captain William Albracht, the youngest Green Beret in Vietnam, took command of a remote hilltop outpost called Fire Base Kate, held by only 27 American soldiers and 150 Montagnard militiamen. He found their defenses woefully unprepared. At dawn the next morning, three North Vietnamese Army regiments - some 6,000 men - crossed the Cambodian border and attacked.
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Publisher's Summary
In June 1969, Tom Hargrove arrived in Vietnam as a first lieutenant in the US Army. But he wasn’t just there to make war against the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese armies. Hargrove was also there to introduce improved rice varieties into the war-torn region.
This unique memoir tells of Hargrove’s efforts to improve the everyday lives of the Vietnamese, even as he was calling in B-52 strikes against opposition forces. It also relates the story of his return to Vietnam in 1988 and 1990 to observe the progress of the “green revolution” he had helped initiate with the introduction of “miracle rice”.
In a dramatic twist, his guide on both visits had been a local Viet Cong political officer: a man who could have had Hargrove killed. The rice had improved the lives of the people of the land and preserved the life of Tom Hargrove, though he hadn’t known it at the time.
This account of the US Army’s attempts to win the hearts and minds of the Vietnamese people - an attempt that failed strategically but ultimately achieved its humanitarian goals - is a vital contribution to the ongoing history and literature of the Vietnam era. Hargrove’s dramatic juxtaposition of the sword and the plowshare brings into sharp contrast the paradox of this pivotal time in history.
The book is published by Texas A&M University Press. The audiobook is published by University Press Audiobooks.
“Tom Hargrove delivers the most accurate depiction of those special Aggies that I've ever seen, exploring why they were driven to serve and, all too often, die for freedom.” (Rick Perry, Governor of Texas)
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What listeners say about A Dragon Lives Forever
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- morwar
- 10-09-20
Boring
Weak storyline; kept going on about the same subject over and over. Very repetitive.
As a positive note it gives an insight into the development of modern rice varieties.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- styles66
- 05-06-20
Not very riviting
I love reading/listening to the military history especially Vietnam. However I found this book very dull and not easy to follow. The flow of the book is the authors time in Vietnam, Writing a novel about his experiences, and modern day. At times it's pretty hard to fathom out which time frame the book is droning on about. Also rice cultivation (which is a large part of the book) isn't that interesting.