The Vietnam War produced a plethora of literature that chronicled the cultural, political and societal ramifications of a military conflict that ultimately divided a nation.  Perhaps the most relevant of all the literature is that penned by those who were actually on the front lines and in the jungles and tunnels of Vietnam.  These memoirs, non-fiction, and fiction writings lent an authentic voice to other accounts that Americans gleaned through edited news accounts.   As O’Nan succinctly states, “In American Vietnam literature, as perhaps nowhere else, it often seems the author’s authority comes not from his or her work, but simply from being there."