Up Country (89 page)

And Other Matters

When I returned to Vietnam in January 1997, I went with two good friends: One was Dan Barbiero, a childhood friend, and former marine lieutenant with the Third Marine Division. Dan served in Vietnam at almost the same time and place I did—Quang Tri Province, November 1967 to December 1968. We tried to get together when we were there, but the war put time-consuming demands on our calendars.

The other friend who accompanied me in 1997 was Cal Kleinman. Cal served as a medic with the Eleventh Armored Cavalry, also in that memorable year of 1968. Cal is a fellow Long Islander, and we grew up in adjoining towns with rival high school football teams, but we’re both on the same team now.

Cal and Dan knew I was contemplating a novel set in contemporary Vietnam, and they lent extra eyes and ears to my research, and also took good notes and interesting photographs. More important, we were able to discuss and digest what we’d seen and felt each night over a few drinks after sometimes emotionally draining days in places we thought we’d never see again. Thanks, guys, and welcome home.

S
pecial thanks go to a fellow Long Islander, Al DeMatteis, Director of Operations, DeMatteis Vietnam, and President of DeMatteis International Group. Al has lived and worked in Vietnam for many years, and was kind enough to show me the real Hanoi, for which I am indebted to him. He’s a great host, and a wonderful unofficial ambassador of goodwill to Vietnam. It’s American men and women like Al DeMatteis, living and working in Vietnam, who will ultimately bring the two countries together in a way that the politicians can only begin to do.

Also in Hanoi, Dan, Cal, and I were fortunate to be introduced to an American resident of that city, Mattie Genovese, and I thank her for all her insights into the life of an American businesswoman in Vietnam. My fictional character of Susan Weber would not have been possible without the real Mattie Genovese.

I
’d like to thank Lieutenant John Kennedy, Deputy Police Commissioner of Nassau County, for his close readings and suggestions, especially regarding the army Criminal Investigation Division. John has worked with CID men and women and has shared with me some astute observations and facts. John was a big help on
Plum Island
and
The Lion’s Game
and has an astounding amount of knowledge about criminal justice.

This is a good time and place to thank an old friend, Patricia Burke, who has a unique job. Patricia is Vice President of Literary Affairs for Paramount Pictures and was instrumental in bringing my novel
The General’s Daughter
to the attention of Paramount, which led to the motion picture of the same name. Patricia is one of the best read people in the universe, so when I was contemplating this sequel to
The General’s Daughter
, I took the unusual step of pulling her into the editorial process. I never knew if she was flattered or annoyed, but she produced a cogent and coherent memo that served as a good guide for this story. Patricia also recommended
Up Country
to Paramount, which is now in development as a motion picture.

An author should always thank his or her editor, and I’ve been blessed by many editors. First, my editor and publisher, Jamie Raab of Warner Books, and also my editor, friend, and Chairman of AOL Time Warner Book Group, Larry Kirshbaum, and, of course, my longtime editor and wife, Ginny DeMille, who’s still trying to teach me the parts of speech. And last but not least, my assistants, Dianne Francis and Patricia Chichester, who are the first to read, type, correct, and comment on the manuscript. These two ladies are my frontline editors, and if it’s true that no gentleman is a hero to his valet, then certainly no writer is a genius to his typists.

Rather than thank my agent, Nick Ellison, again, I’ll thank his excellent staff. First, his assistant, Megan Rickman, a California girl with a New York attitude. Also, Alicka Pistek, who is Director of Foreign Rights, a talented,
multilingual lady who has done a wonderful job of introducing my novels to the rest of the world.

I’d like to thank, once again, Martin Bowe and Laura Flanagan of the Garden City Public Library, and Dan Starer of Research for Writers, New York City. Research becomes the reality around which all good fiction is built.

Last, but really first, I want to thank the early readers of the manuscript. Someone once said that an author who shows early drafts of his manuscript is like someone passing around samples of his sputum. True enough, but someone’s got to look at the stuff that’s coughed up first. Aside from my wife and my two assistants, I’ve shown my early drafts to Tom Block, childhood friend, novelist, retired US Airways pilot, and co-author with me of
Mayday
, and his wife, Sharon Block, retired US Airways flight attendant and excellent reader.

Finally, I gave the manuscript to Rolf Zettersten, Vice President, Warner Books, who has a reputation of being tough, honest, and thorough—an author’s dream, or nightmare. I thank Rolf for his very close reading and excellent suggestions.

T
he germ of the idea for this novel came from my association with Vietnam Veterans of America. VVA has a program called the Veterans Initiative, whose purpose it is to assist the Vietnamese government in locating their missing soldiers. VVA was most helpful in bringing this program to my attention, and I especially want to thank Marc Leepson, Arts Editor and columnist for
The VVA Veteran
, for providing me specifics on this program.

Regarding the Veterans Initiative program, if anyone reading this has any sort of hard information regarding the fate of a former enemy soldier in Vietnam—letters, identification cards, maps, or similar documents with a name on it—please send it to Vietnam Veterans of America, Inc., Suite 400, 8605 Cameron Street, Silver Spring, MD 20910. Include a brief description of when, where, and how the item was found, and the fate of the individual, i.e., POW, MIA, KIA. VVA will forward this information to Hanoi to assist them in their efforts to locate their 300,000 missing ser-vicemen and women; this will, in turn, encourage Vietnam to continue assisting us in locating the remains of our 2,000 missing in action.

I did, in fact, find a letter on the body of a North Vietnamese soldier in the A Shau Valley in May 1968, and turned it over to VVA some years
ago for forwarding to Hanoi. Hopefully, a family in Vietnam has learned the fate of a missing son, husband, or brother.

S
everal people have made generous contributions to charities in return for having their names used as characters in this novel. They are: Rita Chang (contributor to the Boys and Girls Club of East Norwich”Oyster Bay), John Eagan Jr. (Great South Bay YMCA), Earl E. Ellis (Tilles Center for the Performing Arts), Marc Goodman (Diabetes Research Institute Foundation), Lisa Klose (C. W. Post/Long Island University), Victor Ort (Boys and Girls Club of East Norwich”Oyster Bay), and Janice Stanton (Muscular Dystrophy Association). I hope these men and women enjoy their fictitious alter egos and that they continue their good work for worthy causes.