Alan Armstrong has released Wolf By The Ears a novel about America’s abandonment of Cambodia’s Khmer Republic and its fall to Pol Pot’s murderous Khmer Rouge. Critically acclaimed by the war’s participants and by distinguished historians and journalists.
In early 1974, Major David DeRussy is ordered back to Cambodia for a second tour as an assistant army attaché. His orders: Observe the military situation, get inside the heads of senior Cambodian commanders, gauge fighting effectiveness, and send assessments back to Washington. Three dilemmas face him: How is he to answer Cambodians who ask him whether America is going to run away? The Khmer Rouge are out to kill him. Every Cambodian soldier can see that, dead or alive, he would make excellent trading material with the enemy. Who can he trust on the battlefield? Last, but most important: How can he keep faith with his comrades in arms when it appears that Washington isn’t not going to do the same?
These problems are not hypothetical. We have American service members abroad who live with these conundrums every day. This is a war story and a love story that foreshadows a tragedy of hideous magnitude. It is also a morality play. No matter the pressure, we are the only ones who can sacrifice our personal honor. Available on Amazon.