The journals of a young man from Nevada who is declared 4-F due to a heart murmur. To serve his country during World War II, he used political connections to get him a job as an encoder for a diplomatic legation in the Belgian Congo. What should have been a complete backwater becomes a sideshow of the war because of the Uranium mine located in the Congo.
This book was barely a 100 pages unforunately. I would have liked to read a bit more. The book is a few vignettes tied together. The author describes a troop transport, the diplomatic corp, hunting water buffalo, spying and malaria. The spying done by the OSS against the Germans is the most engrossing part of the book. It isn't until much later in the author's life that he finds out why the Germans and Americans were fighting for the Uranium. The description of malaria was also engaging.
I'd recommend the book to those interested in the Congo or the building of the atom bomb. ( )