Sharon O Lightholder
VIETNAM - THE WAR ZONE DICTIONARY IN THEIR OWN WORDS is the first reference to combine the official terms formally adopted by the United States Department of Defense and its allies in NATO, SEATO, CENTO, and IADB with the unofficial slang, abbreviations, radio codes, pro-codes, hospital jargon, weapon abbreviations, acronyms, euphemisms, and commonly used foreign words and phrases used by the men and women who were there. With over 9,800 entries, this is the only source-defined reference to the linguistic complexity of the Vietnam War. Suited for the historian, linguist, genealogist and armchair reader, it is both a reference and a time capsule of that era. It is an uncensored, unauthorized, and vibrant collection reflecting the complexity of official terms, the primal urgency of the unofficial language, and the adaptations of the English language to new technology, military, and social challenges. Collected and curated by Sharon O. Lightholder, attorney and author, each slang entry was subjected to a verification process by someone from the war zone before inclusion. Each official entry was secured from unclassified documents. Decades in the making, it will serve the test of time and speak clearly from the past into the future. This reference is an important addition to any academic library and history department as well as serving the needs of the general reader interested in the Vietnam War. It offers a new and meaningful contribution to the scholarship of the Vietnam era.
