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Youth In Asia: A Vietnam War story is a novel by American author and retired US Army Infantry officer, Allen L. Tiffany. It was first published by Amazon Digital Services, Inc in March, 2015.

Tiffany is a graduate of the University of Kansas with undergraduate degrees in Psychology and Political Science, and a Masters Degree in Creative Writing. He has also attended the graduate school of Business at the University of Texas at Austin.

Tiffany’s military career included six years on active duty and seventeen years in various units of the Army National Guard and Army Reserve. He is a graduate of the Army’s Airborne and Ranger Schools and the Army’s Command and General Staff College. Though he has not been in combat, Tiffany earned numerous awards, including Two Meritorious Service medals and six Army Commendation medals. In addition to having published a number of professional articles in military journals, Tiffany has also published a short story, has been a columnist for a campus newspaper and has been a fiction editor for a small campus literature magazine.

Acknowledgments
The book starts with a three-page summary of the author’s view of the turmoil in American culture and politics between about 1968 and 1974. The author contends that much of this turmoil was set off by the unexpected North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong offensive commonly referred to as The Tet Offensive of 1968, and the resulting realization that South Vietnam and the United States were not winning the war. Tiffany argues that this was a devastating event that set off a decline in the discipline and viability of the American military. He goes on to thank the veterans who “raised him professionally” when he joined the Army in the 1980s, and whom he credits with helping maintain and preserve the integrity of the Army after the Vietnam War ended. He credits several by name: The American Army Generals, Colin Powell and Norman Schwarzkopf. The acknowledgements could be viewed as a setup of both the context and tone of the story.

Plot
The book is a first-person framed narrative. It is presented as a grandfather who served in Vietnam sending a letter to his grandson about his experiences in the 173rd Airborne Brigade in Vietnam’s Central Highlands shortly before the Tet Offensive of 1968. While lamenting growing old, the narrator references Moore’s acclaimed book We Were Soldiers Once, And Young. This book describes two of the biggest early battles fought by the American Army in Vietnam.

After this introduction, “Youth In Asia” depicts the main character (later identified as “Corporal Jacobs”) arriving in Vietnam and joining the 173rd after the bloody battles around Dak To and Hill 875. He shares that while waiting to reach his unit, he reads various upbeat reports about America’s military progress in the war.

Shortly after the narrator arrives and becomes a team leader of three other soldiers, a new man arrives. The new man is nicknamed Elvis (no reference to Elvis Presley). In spite of initial perceptions that he will be a diligent solider, the narrator discovers that Elvis is writing in his diary when he should be maintaining security while they are patrolling. This leads to a confrontation during which the narrator forces Elvis to eat several pages out of his diary before Jacobs confiscates it. Later, the narrator becomes fascinated by Elvis’ diary before they are again sent out on more long patrols. Though the patrols are deep into an area near the Cambodian border (an enemy sanctuary), there is very little contact between the opposing forces. Nonetheless, there is a growing sense of foreboding. While this is happening, Jacobs is beginning to have doubts about the larger mission of America in Vietnam.

Much of the novel depicts a patrol during which Elvis falls asleep in the middle of the night and fails to tell the rest of his team that the unit was moving again. This leaves the narrator in charge of the men separated from their infantry company. While they are furious with Elvis and want to beat him, the narrator controls the situation, demonstrating strong leadership skills. While keeping the rest of the men from harming Elvis, they attempt to return to their base. Along the way, they hear firefights breaking out in the jungle around them as other elements of their unit are engaging the enemy, and they see increasing signs that they have become intermixed with a large enemy force.

A confused and bloody battle develops as the narrator and his small team fight their way through the enemy force toward safety. The narrator, who has been a confident leader to this point, becomes involved in a vicious hand-to-hand fight during which he realizes he does not know how to kill a man with a knife, and afterwards is so shaken he is unable to lead the team for a time. Elvis becomes the unexpected hero, recklessly sacrificing himself to save the team. In doing so, Elvis is wounded, and other American soldiers attempt to come to their aid, one of whom is shot in the raging battle.

The narrator then coldly recounts the unit’s next mission. During that air assault operation, the narrator is injured and describes lying on the Landing Zone until he can be rescued. Evacuated from Vietnam due to his wounds, he soon leaves the Army.

Youth In Asia concludes with the narrator recounting a dinner at which he again sees Elvis a few years later. Elvis is still physically scarred by the wounds from the battle in which he saved the team. Though they are unable to speak to each other or talk about their experiences together, the narrator returns Elvis’ diary to him. The narrator concludes his story by noting that the two men now trade Christmas cards that always arrive late, generally on the anniversary of the battle during which he lost his courage and Elvis rescued the team.

Youth In Asia and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a frequently sited condition associated with soldiers who saw combat in Vietnam. Though PTSD is never mentioned in the text, there are suggestions that the narrator is suffering from PTSD while Elvis – whom the narrator increasingly contrasts himself with through the story – is not suffering from PTSD.

Reception
Youth in Asia has received universally high praise from reviewers on Amazon and Goodreads. As of mid-May 2015, its “star” rating is 4.9 and 4.8 on the two sites, respectively. The lowest rating it has gotten on either site is a “4”. Reviewers include Vietnam Veterans, Amazon-designated “Top 10”, “Top 100”, “Top 1000” and “Vine Voice” reviewers, and other published novelists. Two of the most consistent comments are that it is a realistic presentation of infantry operations in Vietnam, and that the novella is a fast, engaging read.

Background
On his personal website, Tiffany says: ''“I grew up reading the brilliant, gut-wrenching novels and accounts of young American soldiers in the Vietnam War. I absorbed books such as Chickenhawk by Robert Mason, The 13th Valley by John M. Del Vecchio, Pleiku by JD Coleman, The Green Berets at War by Shelby Stanton, If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home by Tim O'Brien, and of course We Were Soldiers Once and Young, by Moore and Galloway. And from an Australian soldier's perspective of the war and Americans at war in Vietnam, I was fascinated by Lex McAuley's When the Buffalo Fight. There were many more, but these are seven that stood out.”'' Tiffany reports that he is going to donate at least half his earnings to organizations such as the WoundedWarriorProject to help fund programs for wounded American veterans.