In 1971, Ronald J. Glasser, MD, published 365 Days, a best-selling book based on his experiences as an Army doctor during the Vietnam War. William Styron, writing in the Washington Monthly, called it "a moving account about tremendous courage and often immeasurable suffering...[a] valuable and redemptive work." Thomas Lask, in the New York Times, said, "Its quiet eloquence [and] factual precision...make it a book of great emotional impact." 365 Days has been translated into nine languages and its widely considered one of the classic volumes on America's involvement in Vietnam. This month, Glasser, a Minneapolis physician, will publish his seventh book, Wounded: Vietnam to Iraq. In his foreword, Glasser writes, "These stories are true. I was part of some of them; the rest belonged to others. What was so troubling was not what I saw or heard, but that it all kept happening again and again... As for me, none of this was written out of pique or anger, but to give those caught up in this terrible enterprise something all their own, something they could give to others and say, 'this is what happened.'" Lieutenant General Hal Moore, a battalion commander in Vietnam and the coauthor of We Were Soldiers Once...and Young, says of Wounded, "Ron Glasser has written a compelling, riveting, and truly great book, which America needs now. Superbly researched and heart-rending....Well done."

Blog Entries by Ron Glasser

Vietnam and Iraq: A Twice-Told Tale; Again, We Did Know Better

Posted July 23, 2007 | 02:40 PM (EST)


"Robert McNamara (secretary of defense) reflecting on the decisions of the spring and early summer of 1965 (decisions that sent us into war in Vietnam) recalled that "we were sinking into quicksand." It was, however, a quicksand of his and the president's making -- a quicksand of lies."
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Going Back Again and Again to Fight Our and Mr. Bush's War

Posted November 12, 2006 | 04:02 PM (EST)


Over a year ago, General Barry McCaffrey in testimony before Congress stated that the military was being stretched too thin and that if things didn't change the army would begin to unravel by this summer. It is not the summer yet, but the military is close to the breaking point....

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Women at War

Posted June 27, 2006 | 05:32 PM (EST)


Three things you should know -- but don't -- about the war in Iraq and Afghanistan

In a very real way, this war -- despite the more than 2500 killed and greater than 30,000 wounded -- remains a mystery to the vast majority of America. Part of this amnesia is...

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Looking Back at My Lai

Posted June 15, 2006 | 04:54 PM (EST)


During 1969, in the midst of the Vietnam War, I wrote "The Burn Ward" (365 Days), an account of the struggle on The Burn Ward of the Kishine Army Hospital in Japan, to save the lives of the 18 and 19 year old soldiers severely burned in a war that...

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