Publishers Weekly
03/27/2017
In early 1966, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones briefly took a backseat to the number one hit “The Ballad of the Green Berets,” Barry Sadler’s unabashed paean to America’s fighting men during the early, optimistic days of the Vietnam War. Historian Leepson (What So Proudly We Hailed) recounts how Sadler, who lived a hardscrabble life in Colorado before finding direction in the military, wrote the song during his Army Special Forces medical training, polishing it off in a latrine. After a short tour of duty in Vietnam, Sadler hit the road, becoming a one-man “recruiter” for the Green Berets and the war. He had only middling talent and was ill at ease with a performer’s life, and he fell into a nostalgia-tour existence punctuated by poorly received songs that never duplicated his one-hit wonder. He eked out a living as a pulp fiction writer, but his penchant for alcohol, women, and bad company set him spiraling, and eventually he committed murder. Sadler evaded serious jail time but met a bloody end in Guatemala. Leepson mines the recollections of Sadler’s family, friends, and business associates to produce a compelling period piece about a Vietnam veteran who remained a true believer in the war to the end. (May)
Joseph L. Galloway
In this fascinating and thoroughly researched biography, Marc Leepson has delved deeply into the story of Sgt. Barry Sadler, the singing soldier who wrote and performed the "Ballad of the Green Berets" that rocketed up the charts in 1966. Sadler handled soldiering in Vietnam well, but he could not handle the success, money, civilian life, women, and booze that followed. Sadler's one-hit wonder song was perfectly timed for a nation that still supported the war in Vietnam then, but none of the adulation and hero-worship felt right to him.
Richard K. Kolb
Marc Leepson, a noted historian and accomplished biographer, has written the definitive biography of the only Vietnam vet who became a famous musical performer. Barry Sadler's tragic life is recounted in intimate detail, especially his military service, for the first time. In doing so, Leepson masterfully captures the essence of a short-lived cultural icon who was a genuine casualty of his own fleeting fame. This is a timely book that all my fellow Vietnam veterans, as well as any American fascinated by the tumultuous Sixties, will find captivating.
Max Boot
Staff Sgt. Barry Sadler's short life constitutes one of the strangest, saddest, and least known stories of the Vietnam War. Rocketing to fame as the author of "The Ballad of the Green Berets," this high school dropout turned Special Forces medic fell to earth just as suddenly, unable to handle his newfound celebrity. Later in life he would commit murder and support himself as a pulp writer before being murdered under mysterious circumstances in Guatemala. Marc Leepson does full justice to this bizarre and riveting tale.
Dale Dye
Marc Leepson's in-depth plunge into the turbulent life and times of soldier/singer/novelist Barry Sadler is a treat; especially for those of us who were inspired—for good or ill—by his "Ballad of the Green Berets." It takes a writer and Vietnam veteran like Leepson to really dig beneath the surface of Sadler's roller-coaster life and trace the turbulent 60s events that so influenced a larger-than-life personality who was arguably the nation's most well-known veteran of that war. This is much more than an engrossing biography. It's a cautionary tale for generations that raise pop culture figures to iconic status. Nice work, Marc.
Patrick Sheane Duncan
Marc Leepson has written a biography worthy of his subject, full of shoot-outs, murder, mayhem, and the human foibles of a lost soul. Barry Sadler; soldier, musician, pop idol, womanizer, teller-of-tales (on and off the page). This book, like Sadler's life, is never boring, a volatile yarn about fame, fortune, comedy, and as such tales often go, tragedy. The meteoric rise and self-destructive fall of a momentary American icon.
