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Decent Interval: An Insider's Account of Saigon's Indecent End Told by the Cia's Chief Strategy Analyst in Vietnam | 
 enlarge | Author: Frank Snepp
Publisher: University Press of Kansas
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy Used: $22.95
You Save: $2.00 (8%)
Used (5) from $22.95
Avg. Customer Rating:  9 reviews
Sales Rank: 875865
Media: Paperback
Edition: 25 Anv Sub
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 636
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.2
Dimensions (in): 9 x 6 x 1.7
ISBN: 0700612130
Dewey Decimal Number: 959.70438
EAN: 9780700612130
ASIN: 0700612130
Publication Date: November 2002
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: UNUSED. CLEAN, TIGHT AND UNMARKED.
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Product Description
Widely regarded as a classic on the Vietnam War, Decent Interval provides a scathing critique of the CIAs role in and final departure from that conflict. Still the most detailed and respected account of Americas final days in Vietnam, the book was written at great risk and ultimately at great sacrifice by an author who had believed in the CIAs cause but was disillusioned by the agencys treacherous withdrawal, leaving thousands of Vietnamese allies to the mercy of an angry enemy. A quarter-century later, it remains a riveting and powerful testament to one of the darkest episodes in American history. With a new foreword by Gloria Emerson
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| Customer Reviews: Read 4 more reviews...
 Excellent September 11, 2007
0 out of 4 found this review helpful
I really enjoyed this book and I highly suggest it to anyone interested in military history, or in understanding more about the intelligence community.
 A Soldiers Perspective March 31, 2007
25 out of 39 found this review helpful
I read this book when it was first published and the memories of many of the participants were fresh in my mind. I was struck by his knowledge of so many players in this great tragedy and appreciated his acknowledgement of their many contributions.
This is a book that all students of the Viet Nam war should read and understand what we did. Mr. Snepp did and he tells this story very well. I should know I left Viet Nam in July 1972.
 My God, Snepp exposes Snepp January 18, 2007
56 out of 270 found this review helpful
Frank, you were caught between a noble cause and trying to make yourself look like a hero. You did okay with number one, but miserably with number two. Sure, you got a first hand glimpse at the way the CIA botched up Vietnam, and the book is an interesting look at how interrogation is conducted, among other operations. However, you talked too much about Frank. No one cares about Frank. No one cares if Frank got laid. Frank is supposed to just write about what we do care about. The book is probably worth about four stars for its info, yet with the unreliable narrator, this is negated. The Frank part is worth about negative two stars. Average them out, and you get a one star rating.
A Classic, for good reasons January 7, 2007
34 out of 85 found this review helpful
In the 31 years since the "Fall of Saigon" no book has come out that better explains the events of April 1975 more thoroughly or more engagingly. Snepp had the advantage of actually being not only in Saigon for several years before and during the collapse but of being in the CIA. His insider's view is fascinating and honest. A must read for anyone interested in the topic.
 While Saigon burned... April 20, 2006
47 out of 51 found this review helpful
ABout half way through DECENT INTERVAL one is brought to two conclusions: First of all this is a remarkably honest and straightforward piece of autobiography, and second, the author is without doubt THE Gadarene Swine. One is really not sure whether to laugh or cry at Snepp's cheerful descriptions of life inside the American Embassy in Saigon as the consequences of thirty years of botched military and political intervention came crashing down. At least we now know where the tough go when the going is tough -they go swimming in resort pools, as does our author/hero in between an almost ritualistic round of bar calls & various sorts of implied "involvements" with local and American women. Snepp has no apologies for having made a more or less complete mess of the "intelligence analysis" that he was supposed to be doing -he just points out that so did everyone else. He gets angry at co-workers who abandoned Vietnamese staff-members, spies, and "interrogators" to the mercy of the Viet Cong, or put personal profit above the safety of others -and then turns right around and comments on what a mess the movers made of his apartment when they packed up all his stuff to ship it home (on some of the planes that COULD have carried the people that he expresses concern for!. The writing verges from the mildly annoying to the totally over-blown, and in places it would be truly funny if the whole subject weren't so tragic. I gather that the CIA gave Snepp a hard time after the book came out. His behaviour suggests that SOMEONE had to! I give this book three stars and encourage people to read it because if this is REALLY what goes on in our government agencies one can only shudder at the prospects for the future.
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