Long Binh Jail: An Oral History of Vietnam's Notorious U.S. Military Prison

by Cecil B. Currey

Long Binh Jail was what the troops during the Vietnam War called the U.S. Army Installation Stockade in Long Binh, South Vietnam. This overcrowded military prison was one of the most feared locations in all of Vietnam, the place where Army rule-breakers and dangerous criminals from throughout Vietnam were sent. Within its razor-wire-bound confines were Americans whose offences ran the refusal of orders, drug possession, assault, rape, and murder. Containing up to a thousand prisoners at a time, it was, in effect, the Army's own little penal colony and one sharply divided by race. In 1968, most of its African-American prisoners took over the compound in a riot that was noted around the world as yet anther sign of U.S. forces' sagging morale. Military historian Cecil B. Currey tells the story of Long Binh Jail through interviews of dozens of former guards, prisoners, and adminstrators.

Genres: Military Fiction, Nonfiction, History

193 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1999

Reviews

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lacked continuity at the start but came together. A book that needed to be written. Substantiates the fact that most bad apples are not caused by military service but exist regardless of their circumstances

[Kelsey Riggs · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book needed to be rewritten. Some of the timelines were switching in my head until halfway through the book. Also, there was some bias in the authors interpretations of events. You cannot just say that no matter what, these people would have ended up in jail or that because they felt there was an injustice they had to correct and then lost that they were in the wrong. Everyone involved was under a lot of pressure, in a place they didn't want to be and just far from home. They were thrown into a situation they had no control over, sometimes for a very minor infraction like saying the wrong thing to someone in the heat of an argument (who doesn't do that?).

I do not believe, even though the author uses direct quotes all the way through, that events were represented as fairly as they could have. The story itself is a quick read and interesting if you like these type of history stories, though.