Across The Fence

The Secret War In Vietnam

Edición de la obra Across The Fence

Written By Bernie Weisz Vietnam War Historian May 12, 2010 Pembroke Pines, Fl. e mail:[email protected] Title of Review: This book must be read in one sitting! Gut-wrenching!, In searching for this book, I wondered if the "take-away" was in effect. Being a salesman myself, I know the effectiveness of using this technique to get someone to reach deep in their pockets to pay for a service or product that most people will immediately brush off as way too expensive. The "take-away" is a situation where you have an item of limited quantity or high price for sale and it's very rare, hard to get, it's creator is deceased, and it's not in production or defunct, etc. Finding the existence of John Stryker's book "Across The Fence", I was desperate to read it. I tried all local libraries. No result. I tried national libraries through "interlibrary loan". No go. I tried to buy it through the internet. The least expensive copy was over $100. Was the "take-away" in effect? Was it "that good" that it was worth $100? Then I read on the internet that Mr. Meyer wrote a sequel called "On The Ground". The results to obtain this was worse. No library nor internet seller carried this. I wanted to read this bad. I had read John Plaster's book "SOG", Frank Greco's book "Running Recon", Sedgewick Tourison's book "Secret Army, Secret War", William Shawcross's comprehensive "Sideshow" and finally Joe Parner's thrilling "SOG Medic-Stories from Vietnam and Over the Fence". Reading more on the internet, I came by the fact that John Meyer is currently an editor for the "North County Times" in Oceanside, Ca., where he writes occasional columns. First I tried to contact the publisher of his two books, "Real War Stories", only to find that they are defunct. Then, I called information in California and asked for the North County Times. Calling the newspaper, I asked with trepidation for Mr. Meyer. After a minute, a friendly voice came on the phone and said "can I help you?". Needless to say, after a very amicable conversation, financial arrangements were made, a check was sent, and lo and behold, I was the proud owner of both of Mr. Stryker's treasured books! You can read the other reviews to find out "a taste of this book", but I will add that Mr. Meyer's first book should be read with a 3-4 hour time block reserved. I planned on reading only a few paragraphs before I went to sleep, but the last page was finished as the sun was coming up several hours later! I was very shocked to read Mr. Meyer's mention in his introduction of David A. Maurer's book "The Dying Place", put out by Dell Publishing in 1986. I read that book that year and still own it. I do remember that when I read Mr. Maurer's book I reflected that he had a tremendous imagination and truly his writings were pure fiction and could have never happened. That book, very close to Meyer's, is about the Army who choose 2 Green Beret officers who had total disregard for their personal safety and total hatred for any "rules of engagement" who get paired up with a team of South Vietnamese and Chinese mercenaries who on a Studies and Observation Group mission get dropped from the belly of a Huey chopper loaded to the teeth with C4 explosives and Claymore mines into the NVA's supposedly untouchable stronghold in the highlands of Laos with one mission in mind-kill as much of the enemy as you can! I was shocked to read the parallels between the two books and now know that many of Mauer's anecdotes in his book are more than just "stories". During the Vietnam War, only people in the inner circles of the military knew of SOG operations, and as Mr. Meyer points out, it was on a "need to know" basis. Meyer's job as a member of SOG was to go into "hot areas" that supposedly our military was barred from entering under the "rules of engagement", and those areas is exactly what "Across The Fence" means, i.e. going into areas prohibited, such as running reconnaissance missions across the border of South Vietnam into the North Vietnamese Army's sanctuaries in Laos, Cambodia and North Vietnam. This was, undoubtedly, the absolute most dangerous job during the war, nor was there one as secretive. In fact, this book almost never came into existance, as Meyer writes: "the thought never occurred to me to write about my time in South Vietnam and across the fence, especially since I had signed a government document in 1968 pledging to never write or talk publicly about SOG for 20 years". Another impediment to the publication of this book was the anti-Vietnam climate whereupon this nation, after the killings of Kennedy, M.L. King, the My Lai Massacre, Watergate, the issues of amnesty to draft-dodgers, heroin addicted ex-G.I's and the "Agent Orange" disaster, as Mr. Meyer put it: "The anti-Vietnam Veteran sentiment in the country at the time made it difficult to find a publisher who would buy the concept of a Vietnam book that dealt with real people striving against unbelievable odds in a politically han