A Personal Statement
I did not go to Nam. I was too young (just). I could have arranged to, had I worked at it, but the truth is I didn’t want to.
In the sixties and seventies I had two feelings about the War:
First, I thought the American involvement in Vietnam was wrong, from a moral, political, and military point of view. It’s no reflection on those who fought there; they didn’t make the policy.
Second, I thought communism was a bad thing. I did not support the government of North Vietnam. I simply believed that the U.S. government had no business spending our lives and treasure trying to make other people behave the way it wanted them to.
Nothing has happened since the end of the U.S. involvement in Vietnam to cause me to amend those views.
This book is not an expression of nostalgia for the war I missed; I’m glad I missed it. It is not a working-out of some weird national angst over the War. It isn’t a “Vietnam War book.” It’s a thriller—I hope, anyway—and a WILD CARDS novel. It’s set in 1991, not 1967. I hope people will approach it on its own terms.
VICTOR MILÁN
May 11, 1992