"Have you read Dispatches by Michael Herr?"

Yes - it's a rather self-consciously 'hip' piece of writing - and it's worth balancing out the journalistic smugness of Herr with something more gritty from the soldier's point of view. Still, a good read, and of course Apocalypse Now is a stunning film. Incidentally I watched the Director's Cut a couple of years ago and it's an entirely different animal. Far bleaker in many respects. The scene with the old (French) colonials is of particular symbolic interest (we are retreating into the past as we travel up river of course), and the crash scene where the surviving dancers are whoring themselves out to soldiers is deeply dispiriting..