Published only four years after the fall of Saigon, War Story was the first Vietnam War memoir to be published, and has been held up repeatedly as one of the best personal accounts of the war, if not any war ever written. A professional soldier who began military school at 11, Morris always wanted to be a soldier and joined the Army and then the Special Forces, where he rose to the rank of major. He volunteered for three tours in Vietnam and received four Purple Hearts and four Bronze Stars among numerous other decorations before a medical discharge cut his military career short. Written with candor, War Story is both informative and entertaining, despite the often brutal and harrowing nature of his exploits in Vietnam and Jim Morris describes the war of stealth fought by his troops and their Montagnard allies the NVA in fascinating detail.