Precious Freedom - by James Bradley (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Precious Freedom: A Novel of the Vietnam War explores this question through a powerful and meticulously researched story inspired by real events.

In 1967, nineteen-year-old Chip Zobel enlists in the Marines, answering his government's call to defend democracy in South Vietnam. But what he finds on the ground shakes his faith: rotting clothes, drinking from Agent Orange-tainted puddles, constant ambushes, a brutal case of malaria--and the realization that many of the Viet Cong he's fighting are actually South Vietnamese locals.

Back home, Chip's mother, Betty, initially a staunch supporter of the war, begins to question its morality after her son deploys. His father, Hank, also grows skeptical, uncovering US military reports that compare Ho Chi Minh to George Washington--leading his people to freedom.

Meanwhile, in a quiet Vietnamese hamlet, fifteen-year-old May watches as a US Marine kills her father. She flees to the forest and joins a Viet Cong training camp. Three months later, she makes her first kill as a sniper--eventually killing four more Americans with her rifle. Unbeknownst to her, her path will ultimately cross with that of Chip Zobel--the Marine who killed her father.

James Bradley wrote Precious Freedom to honor all who served in Vietnam and to help a new generation understand the war's complex truths.

This is a story that America has never been told.

Review Quotes

(for Flags of Our Fathers)

"Unforgettable ... one of the most instructive and moving books on war and its aftermath that we are likely see." - The New York Times

"The best battle book I ever read ... These stories, chronicling the time the six men who raised the flag at Iwo Jima enlisted, their training, and the landing and subsequent struggle, fill me with awe." - Stephen Ambrose

"A powerful book whose vivid and horrific images do not easily leave the mind ... [Flags of Our Fathers] relates the brutalizing story of Iwo Jima with a fine eye for both the strategic imperative and the telling incident."- The Boston Globe

"Brings a heartfelt personal dimension to this penetrating and insightful look at an American icon ... Flags of Our Fathers captivates as the story behind a famous photo; a story that lives on in a son's heart."- National Review

"Graphically, horrifically, and heroically told ... Not only a gripping true story but also an inspirational book, a tale about ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances." - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

"Bradley's gripping narrative, vivid descriptions, and heartfelt style make this a powerful story of courage, humility, and tragedy ... The book packs both a literary and historical punch ... Highly recommended." - Library Journal

(for Flyboys)

"In Flyboys, James Bradley combines his tenacious detective skills with his gifts as a master storyteller to produce a tragic epic of two empires. I wept not only for the American pilots, but for all the millions of people who died needlessly in the Pacific War." - Iris Chang

"Bradley has written a clear-eyed, heartfelt approach to a little-known corner of the 20th century's largest and most violent upheaval, while at the same time shining a light on some of that generation's finest." - Denver Post

"Flyboys is not just a true story of courage but a frightening reminder of the savagery human beings are capable of and of the terrible moral choices nations at war must make."- Houston Chronicle

"Bradley tackles head-on the thorny issues of Japan's wartime villainy and America's problematic response ... A gripping story." - Los Angeles Times

"An unforgettable story about eight forgotten World War II flyers and a ninth who became the 41st president of the United States. Heroism and the horrors of war collide over the South Pacific, and Bradley weaves a compelling tale. Like his previous work ... Flyboys will be a part of the historical record for years to come." - Pages

"A powerful, compelling look at a tragic time in our history." - W.E.B. Griffin

"Bradley has once again given us the human face of a war ... a triumph of careful listening ... and most of all ... empathy." - Hampton Sides, author of Ghost Soldiers

(for The Imperial Cruise)

"Mr. Bradley does not simply cite Roosevelt's egregious talk. He presents this much-ignored aspect of Roosevelt's thinking with sharp specificity and then goes on to make a much more damaging point, angrily and persuasively connecting Roosevelt's race-based foreign policy miscalculations in Asia. His these in The Imperial Cruise is startling enough to reshape conventional wisdom about Roosevelt's presidency." - Janet Maslin, New York Times

"A provocative study ... What is fascinating about Bradley's reconstruction of a largely neglected aspect of Theodore Roosevelt's legacy is the impact that his racial theories and his obsession with personal and national virility had on his diplomacy. Engrossing and revelatory, The Imperial Cruise is revisionist history at its best." - Ronald Steel, New York Time Book Review

"This is a book to admire and, it must be said, to enjoy ... The Imperial Cruise is breezy and engaging ... The heart of the Bradley argument is that Roosevelt's forgotten corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, the one that warned the Old World that the United States, and not European nations, would intervene if Western Hemisphere nations had unstable economics and owed large debts, emboldened Japan to become an aggressor nation in the run-up to World War II." - David M. Shribman, Boston Globe

"A page-turner ... eye-opening." - Mike Householder, Associated Press

(for The China Mirage)

"The backstory to one of the world's most important relationships - the United States and China." - NPR's Morning Edition

"A vivid, bracing, and careful study .... There are lessons to be learned about war and peace, and Bradley's valuable book offers a warning about past and future unnecessary entanglements." - History News Network

"Bradley has produced another gripping historical account with ramifications for today's world."- World Affairs Council

"Bradley argues that a better understanding of China could have helped America to avoid war with Japan in 1941 and subsequent wars in Korea and Vietnam. Verdict: A superlative read that is highly recommended to experts and novices alike." - Library Journal (starred review)

"Bradley...argues that this positive, pre-WWII view of China was false and led the US into several policy errors, including the needless provocation of Japan... Bradley's work is insightful and entertaining." - Publishers Weekly

"Uncovers the nineteenth-century plan to create a 'New China' and 'Americanize Asia'...In this relentless critique of wrongheaded thinking by government officials who did not speak the Asian languages and had little hands-on experience, Bradley focuses especially on the foreign policy of the two Roosevelts ... Bradley delivers a strenuous expose about the initial building of the 'rickety bridge of fellowship crossing the Pacific." - Kirkus Reviews

About the Author