# Books written by "the enemy?" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 17, 2012, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-written-by-the-enemy/644330 "2012-12-17T18:48:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Atakapa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a8b319/32.png) [@Atakapa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atakapa)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2012, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-written-by-the-enemy/644330/1 "2012-12-17T18:48:35Z")
Care to recommend any books written by people from the side we’re not used to hearing from? For example, I’ve read many accounts by US and Australian Vietnam War veterans, but I’ve never seen anything from the perspective of the NVA and VC. Same for the American Revolution, WWI, etc. I’d be particularly interested in accounts of Iraqi and Afghani insurgents, as well as post WWII Soviets in Afghanistan. The Balkan wars and Checnyan insurgencies would also be appreciated. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2012, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-written-by-the-enemy/644330/2 "2012-12-17T18:55:38Z")
_ **All Quiet on the Western Front?** _ Now, the Germans in that story were not fighting the Americans, but our (future) allies, the French. But I think that still counts. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2012, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-written-by-the-enemy/644330/3 "2012-12-17T19:06:37Z")
Kim Philby wrote an account of his spying, **My Silent War: The Autobiography of a Spy** , printed while he was in exile in the USSR > **[My Silent War: The Autobiography of a Spy: Kim Philby, Phillip Knightly, Graham...](https://www.amazon.com/My-Silent-War-Autobiography-Spy/dp/0375759832)** > > My Silent War: The Autobiography of a Spy \[Kim Philby, Phillip Knightly, Graham Greene\] on Amazon.com. \*FREE\* shipping on qualifying offers. My Silent War: The Autobiography of a Spy They’re “the other side”, not “the enemy”, but there’s an account of the conquest of the Aztecs by Cortez told by the Aztecs, **Broken Spears**. It makes an interesting counterpoint to Bernal Diaz: > **[The Broken Spears: The Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico: Miguel...](https://www.amazon.com/Broken-Spears-Account-Conquest-Mexico/dp/080705500X)** > > The Broken Spears: The Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico \[Miguel Leon-Portilla, Lysander Kemp, J. Jorge Klor de Alva\] on Amazon.com. \*FREE\* shipping on qualifying offers. The Broken Spears: The Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico ---
**Author:** ![Ibanez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a4c791/32.png) [@Ibanez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibanez)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2012, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-written-by-the-enemy/644330/4 "2012-12-17T19:30:39Z")
[One Soldiers War](http://www.amazon.ca/One-Soldiers-War-Arkady-Babchenko/dp/0802118607) by Arkady Babchenko I found to be an excellent but disturbing read. Translated from Russian. It chronicles a russian soldiers experience while serving on the front lines during the Checnyan war who later became a journalist. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2012, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-written-by-the-enemy/644330/5 "2012-12-17T20:42:23Z")
I believe there’s a book that presents the American Civil War from the Southern point of view called Gone With The Wind ---
**Author:** ![chacoguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/50afbb/32.png) [@chacoguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chacoguy)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2012, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-written-by-the-enemy/644330/6 "2012-12-17T20:54:18Z")
[Another Vietnam.](http://www.anothervietnam.com/photos.html) ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2012, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-written-by-the-enemy/644330/7 "2012-12-17T21:35:09Z")
Wicked. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2012, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-written-by-the-enemy/644330/8 "2012-12-17T22:29:16Z")
Guy Sajer The Forgotten Soldier he was a Frenchman who fought in the German army during WWII. > **[The Forgotten Soldier](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Forgotten_Soldier)** > > The Forgotten Soldier (1965), originally published in French as Le soldat oublié, is an account by Guy Sajer (pseudonym of Guy Mouminoux) of his experiences as a German soldier on the Eastern Front during World War II. With reference to the author's ambiguous relationship to war, the book has been called "the account of a disastrous love affair with war and with the army that, of all modern armies, most loved war", being written with the "admiration of a semi-outsider". The English edition was Sa... ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2012, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-written-by-the-enemy/644330/9 "2012-12-17T23:51:15Z")
There’s a ton of WWII German memoirs, fewer Japanese. The best German ones I’ve read: _The First and the Last_ by General of Fighters Adolf Galland _Stuka Pilot_ by Huns Ulrich Rudel _Iron Coffins_ by Herbert Werner A couple of Japanese ones: _Japanese Destroyer Captain by Tameichi Hara Samurai_ by Saburo Sakai These are all very good, all written by men who saw front line combat for most of the war. ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2012, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-written-by-the-enemy/644330/10 "2012-12-18T00:25:01Z")
**The Sorrow of War** will do nicely for the North Vietnamese perspective. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2012, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-written-by-the-enemy/644330/11 "2012-12-18T00:33:21Z")
\*The Far Side of the World \* by Patrick O’Brian has Jack Aubrey and Co. chasing an American frigate preying on Britsh whalers during the War of 1812. The film makers wussed out and made the bad guys French. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2012, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-written-by-the-enemy/644330/12 "2012-12-18T00:39:21Z")
As for nonfiction, there’s _I Was a Kamikaze_ by Ryuji Nagatsuka. Much better than the sensationalistic title would lead you to expect. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2012, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-written-by-the-enemy/644330/13 "2012-12-18T04:18:24Z")
Mein Kampf? ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2012, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-written-by-the-enemy/644330/14 "2012-12-18T04:30:52Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > As for nonfiction, there’s _I Was a Kamikaze_ by Ryuji Nagatsuka. Much better than the sensationalistic title would lead you to expect. He must have been really terrible at it. Another interesting book is _The KGB: The Inside Story_ by Oleg Gordievsky, who was working as a double agent for the British while also assigned as the station chief of the London KGB. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2012, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-written-by-the-enemy/644330/15 "2012-12-18T04:59:53Z")
Soldat is a pretty good book by a German officer. He joined the army prior to the war and served on all fronts and was in the Bunker near the end. Later emigrated to the US. > **[Soldat: Reflections of a German Soldier, 1936-1949: Siegfried Knappe, Ted...](https://www.amazon.com/Soldat-Reflections-German-Soldier-1936-1949/dp/0440215269)** > > Soldat: Reflections of a German Soldier, 1936-1949 \[Siegfried Knappe, Ted Brusaw\] on Amazon.com. \*FREE\* shipping on qualifying offers. Soldat: Reflections of a German Soldier, 1936-1949 ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2012, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-written-by-the-enemy/644330/16 "2012-12-18T06:51:00Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > He must have been really terrible at it. . He and his flight failed to find targets (twice!) and were forced to return to base. The whole group was arrested and sentenced to transcribe imperial indicts as punishment. Instead of the indicts Nagatsuka started a journal about how he felt about the war and his experiences in French (his field of study before being inducted). The book was originally published in France and has never been translated into Japanese. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2012, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-written-by-the-enemy/644330/17 "2012-12-18T07:52:04Z")
[The Wind Blows Away our Words](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2236937.The_Wind_Blows_Away_Our_Words) by Doris Lessing (on the muhadjideen, forerunners of the Taliban) Not exactly “by the enemy” but Lessing does take a position firmly on the side of the Afghans fighting against the Soviet army, in a way that I found quite deeply disturbing, given what we know of later history (the book was written in 1986) - and especially considering that she is a writer I very much respect. Very well worth reading. Take with much salt. ---
**Author:** ![glaeken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@glaeken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glaeken)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2012, 10:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-written-by-the-enemy/644330/18 "2012-12-18T10:15:24Z")
Storm of steel by Ernst Junger is well worth reading. It’s the story of Junger’s experiences in WW1 on the western front from 1915 to 1918. He started the war a private and ended as an officer so you get the full experience of what it’s like to be a grunt and in command. Junger was wounded 14 times so it’s fair to say he saw quite a bit of action. It’s particularly interesting because Junger considered it the time of his life as opposed to other WW1 books I have read that take the more familiar war is hell path. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2012, 10:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-written-by-the-enemy/644330/19 "2012-12-18T10:31:11Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > He must have been really terrible at it. > > Another interesting book is _The KGB: The Inside Story_ by Oleg Gordievsky, who was working as a double agent for the British while also assigned as the station chief of the London KGB. Kamikazis were expected to return if they did not find a target; they were not to sacrifice themselves in vain. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2012, 10:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-written-by-the-enemy/644330/20 "2012-12-18T10:34:04Z")
> [@Aspidistra](#): > > [The Wind Blows Away our Words](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2236937.The_Wind_Blows_Away_Our_Words) by Doris Lessing (on the muhadjideen, forerunners of the Taliban) > > Not exactly “by the enemy” but Lessing does take a position firmly on the side of the Afghans fighting against the Soviet army, in a way that I found quite deeply disturbing, given what we know of later history (the book was written in 1986) - and especially considering that she is a writer I very much respect. Very well worth reading. Take with much salt. The Mujahideen were most certainly NOT the forerunners of the Taliban, for the 7084th time. The Taliban’s formation was partly in reaction to the mess the various factions caused in post Soviet Afghanistan; the very name _Taliban_ suggests that they are not Mujahideen. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-written-by-the-enemy/644330.md?page=2)