Through Smoke-Teared Eyes: The Vietnam War I Fought

To confront the demons of his past, author Johnny F. Pugh relives the year he spent as an army rifleman battling unseen guerilla fighters in one of the most dangerous places during the Vietnam War, the Iron Triangle.

Through his stories and poetry, he shows how it felt to be trapped in a kill zone, enemy bullets just inches from his face, and the mind-numbing terror experienced after being thrown by a land mine explosion while fighting off bloodsucking leeches, vicious mosquitoes, and stifling heat and humidity.

Through Smoke-Teared Eyes offers an engaging, sometimes bilingual, account of the close friendship Pugh shared with his fellow squad members, learning from them critical survival skills and his own identity as a Chicano. After witnessing numerous atrocities against the Vietnamese peasants at the hands of the American military, he is forced to question his own role as a participant in this bloody war.