Pharaoh’s Army: Memories of the Lost War

Though the book moves around to some degree, the three parts are loosely divided by time period. Part I describes Wolff’s life prior to joining the military, his reasons for doing so, and his experiences in the relatively safe and quiet Delta up to the Tet Offensive. Part II is about his life following Tet, up to his return to the United States. Part III describes his adjustment back into civilian life.

Chapter 1, “Thanksgiving Special,” and Chapter 2, “Command Presence,” establish Wolff’s background and explain how he came to be an officer in the War. “Thanksgiving Special” describes his environment in the relatively sleepy Delta; the chapter is ostensibly about Wolff and Sergeant Benet’s quest to obtain a television to watch the Bonanza Thanksgiving special and the priority they place on that rather than loosely held morals and promises. “Command Presence” takes the reader back to Wolff’s pre-military days. He begins on a ship but deserts after realizing one of the crew members was out to kill him. He volunteers for the army and is sent through Special Forces and Officer Command School because of his authoritative demeanor. After training and a year in language school, he finds himself in Vietnam, feeling wholly unsuited and inadequate to the job before him.

The remainder of Part I consists of meditations on various aspects of life as a soldier in the Vietnam War. Chapter 3, “White Man,” describes Wolff’s recognition that as a white man living predominantly among Vietnamese soldiers and civilians—he and Benet, a black man, are camped with Vietnamese soldiers, and Mỹ Tho is closed to most American soldiers—his life is a balance between finding his bearings while trying not to stand out too much out of respect and fear for his own safety. He recounts rescuing a dog from some Vietnamese soldiers who planned to eat him. “Close Calls” discusses the ethereal nature of the “close call,” which he differentiates from merely surviving by making mystery and miracle part of its requirements. “Duty” recounts his visit with a Canadian doctor to a village, and his encounter with a young, but extremely worn-down American soldier there. The final chapter in Part I, “A Federal Offense,” takes the reader back to the days before Wolff ships out to Vietnam and a dinner he has with a fellow soldier about to deploy, whose father convinces him to desert.

Part II opens with the Tet Offensive. “The Lesson” describes the chaotic experience of Tet and their efforts to take back Mỹ Tho from the Viet Cong; Wolff concludes that regardless of whether or not it was a military victory, Tet was a tactical victory because it showed the South Vietnamese that the Americans did not care about their lives. In “Old China,” Wolff reunites with a Foreign Service Officer whom he had met in language school and admired. However, he grows to hate the officer, first when he begins to understand that the officer’s charm is actually a display of power and control, and later when the officer tries to have Wolff transferred up north to experience real fighting.

In “I Right a Wrong,” Benet finishes his tour and departs; in Saigon, Wolff accidentally takes him to a whites-only bar prior to his departure; later, after Benet has gone, Wolff tries to make up for it by drunkenly returning to pick fights with its patrons. In “Souvenir,” shortly before his own departure, Wolff allows his intended replacement—a headstrong and arrogant Captain Kale—to fumble through a procedure so he will suffer the consequences of his own hubris. Finally, in “The Rough Humor of Soldiers,” Wolff describes his farewell dinner at Major Chau’s home, during which Kale is set up with Chau’s niece and is subsequently livid after finding out that she is transgender. Meanwhile, Wolff is unwittingly made to eat the same dog he rescued from Vietnamese soldiers back in “White Man.”

Part III is predominantly told in one chapter, “Civilian,” which describes Wolff’s rough adjustment back to life in the United States. He spends some time with his estranged, con-man father while figuring out what he wants to do. He ultimately returns to Washington, D.C,. to be with his mother and brother, and to try to make things work with his ex-fiancée, Vera. He eventually breaks things off with her and spends some time traveling through England. While there, he decides to take the entrance exams for Oxford, and the chapter closes with his matriculation into the university. The final chapter ruminates on George Orwell’s assertion that it is “better still to die in your boots,” with which Wolff vehemently disagrees, and concludes by remembering Wolff’s friend and fellow soldier, Hugh Pierce, who died in the war.