The cover features Lt.Rick Rescorla, a British-American Vietnam War veteran who served for both countries during the war. Rescorla was uncomfortable about being portrayed as a war hero and chose not to read it when he saw that its cover featured a combat photograph of him. When he learned that the book was being made into a film starring Mel Gibson, he told his wife Susan that he had no intention of seeing it, as he felt uncomfortable with anything that portrayed him or other survivors as war heroes, commenting, "The real heroes are dead."[5] Rescorla later served as the director of security for Morgan Stanley and is credited with saving nearly 2,700 lives during the September 11 attacks, dying in the process.[6]
Reception
The book was a New York Times best-seller. David Halberstam called it, "A stunning achievement—paper and words with the permanence of marble. I read it and thought of The Red Badge of Courage, the highest compliment I can think of."
General H. Norman Schwarzkopf said, "We Were Soldiers Once...and Young is a great book of military history, written the way military history should be written."[7]
Since at least 1993, the book has been on the Marine Corps Commandant's Reading List for Career Level Enlisted.[8][9]
Further reading
Kingseed, Cole C. (1994). "Reviewed work: Giap: The Victor in Vietnam, Peter Macdonald; We Were Soldiers Once... And Young, Harold G. Moore, Joseph L. Galloway; After Tet: The Bloodiest Year in Vietnam, Ronald H. Spector". Naval War College Review. 47 (3): 144–147. JSTOR44637340.
Fitzgerald, John J. (2004). "The Battle of the Ia Drang Valley: A Comparative Analysis of Generals, the Media, and the Soldiers". OAH Magazine of History. 18 (5): 37–43. doi:10.1093/maghis/18.5.37. JSTOR25163721.
Moore, Harold G.; Galloway, Joseph L. (August 1, 2002). We Were Soldiers Once… And Young (Hardcover ed.). Thorndike Press. p. 688. ISBN078624495X.
Moore, Harold G.; Galloway, Joseph L. (June 29, 2004). We Were Soldiers Once… And Young (Mass Market Paperback ed.). Random House. p. 535. ISBN0345472640.
^Vorbach, Joseph E. (1995). "Reviewed work: We Were Soldiers Once... And Young, Harold G. Moore, Joseph L. Galloway". The Fletcher Forum of World Affairs. 19 (1): 189–194. JSTOR45288931.
^Harris, Jonathan B. (1993). "Reviewed work: We Were Soldiers Once and Young: La Drang—The Battle That Changed the War in Vietnam, Harold G. Moore, Joseph L. Galloway". Sais Review (1989-2003). 13 (2): 157–161. doi:10.1353/sais.1993.0037. JSTOR45345614. S2CID153408536.
^Hughes, Wayne P. (1993). "Reviewed work: We Were Soldiers Once...And Young, Harold G. Moore, Joseph L. Galloway". Phalanx. 26 (2): 11–12. JSTOR43961930.
