Books: Barrack-Room Ballad

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Calley began talking his book to Writer John Sack months before the trial and continued (with military permission) even after his confinement. The rush into print is probably due to the fact that public opinion still can influence Calley's case. Collaborator Sack has an avowed bias in Calley's favor—in fact, he still faces contempt charges for not testifying at the court-martial. Though Sack claims every word in print is Calley's own he admits, in the introduction, to asking more questions (10,000) than there are sentences in the book. With all its faults the book was worth producing. It brings together in all too fallible human terms the accumulation of small contingencies that helped make an American war in Viet Nam almost impossible to wage.

·Peter Range