No one knows for sure how many Canadians fought within the American forces in the Vietnam conflict; estimates range from 5,000 to 40,000. Some, of course, travelled south to volunteer. But one Canadian, Les Brown, was already a legal resident of the United States who simply declined to flee north to safety when his draft number came up. A man who previously had little interest in anything other than surfing, he was drafted into the infantry, and spent his tour with two legendary army units, the 1st Infantry and 101st Airborne. However, by the time of Brown’s tour, in 1970, the army was in general decline, fighting and dying for a country that wanted only a way out of the quagmire of a lost war.

Brown’s description of his Vietnam stint in There It Is will be familiar to readers of Vietnam histories by Philip Caputo or Michael Herr, or even to fans of Oliver Stone. Marked by rampant drug use, unco-operative civilians, an elusive enemy, and endless, fruitless, helicopter-borne forays into a very unfriendly jungle, Brown’s war is the same fight we’ve all seen on screen in Tour of Duty, or Casualties of War, or Full Metal Jacket. The book suffers, simply because Brown’s experience is so in line with our existing understanding of Vietnam.

It’s not that Brown is holding back, for There It Is displays great personal candour throughout. The author is strikingly honest about his own moments of cowardice, his struggle with drugs, and his increasingly desperate attempts to escape the front line. And his depictions of combat are vivid enough that the reader has little problem understanding Brown’s motivations, as unheroic as they might seem. In places, you feel like a therapist listening to the author; that Brown has found personal catharsis in writing is evident in every chapter.

Catharsis rarely makes for great reading, as important as it may be for the author personally. But there is so little in the way of written history about the experiences of Canadians in Vietnam that There It Is is still a welcome addition to the shelf. One hopes to see someday a Barry Broadfoot-style war anthology that includes more Canadian reminiscences of the conflict. As a war memoir, this book may not rise to the level of others’ works; but as a Vietnam memoir from a Canadian perspective – well, it’s the best we’ve got.