Gordon G Smith

Vietnam War from an Australian View
5 out of 5 stars
By JoJo Maxson on Amazon on October 13, 2017
I found Men With a Mission a very fascinating read. I am used to reading, or watching, about the Vietnam War from the American view, this novel is from an Australian viewpoint. Gordon Smith keeps the story going from one mission to the next as their bond for each continues to grow.
Major Jack Roberts collects a small team to work secret missions in the Australian military service, only a handful of people even know of their teams’ existence. Joe, Emile, and Bill trained at the same time, but when they got to Saigon, they added a female agent, Kim-ly. They worked well together as a team, but even though they were able to gather the information needed, they found it was disappointing to see the corruption within the ranks. The war in a country opens its doors to corruption from those sent in to protect and serve.
Interesting Book
5 out of 5 stars
By V.E. on AMAZON July 12, 2017
Men With a Mission: Trained, Vigilant, Confident. By Gordon Smith tells the story of three very different men who are conscripted to join the service in The Australian Defence Force. The three men are specifically chosen due to their being able to work with a vast array of people, one of them is Christian, one is Jewish, and the other is Muslim. Almost immediately the men are taken away from their assigned regiment as it travelled to Vietnam and taken to an isolated island for their own distinguished training. With their special training, they are to become intelligence officers. This is a fascinating look at a time in history and cultures not often covered by traditional military books. With the three different perspectives of the three men, this is an enlightening read and a thorough examination of corruption, human rights and criminal activities.
 

It was Amazing
5.0 out of 5 Stars
by pegboard on Goodreads 13 October 2027
I found Men With a Mission a very fascinating read. I am used to reading, or watching, about the Vietnam War from the American view, this novel is from an Australian viewpoint. Gordon Smith keeps the story going from one mission to the next as their bond for each continues to grow.
Major Jack Roberts collects a small team to work secret missions for the Australian military service, only a handful of people even know of their teams’ existence. Joe, Emile, and Bill trained at the same time, but when they got to Saigon, they added a female agent, Kim-ly. They worked well together as a team, but even though they were able to gather the information needed they found it was disappointing to see the corruption within the ranks. The war in a country opens its doors to corruption from those sent in to protect and serve.

Enlightening read
5.0 out of 5 Stars
By Chelsey McQuitty on Amazon July 16, 2017
I don’t really see this as a romance novel, so buyer, don’t base your choice on the category the book has been placed in. Don’t get me wrong though, if you love military stories then this is certainly a great on to get into. I don’t know a lot about Australian military history, so this was a pretty interesting read to me for this reason. There are many other great reasons though, particularly the perspectives in which the book was written. I love the diversity covered as it really opened my eyes to some new ways of seeing things. Apart from that, there are so many things in this book that will have you gritting your teeth. The corruption and human indecency really hold true for the time and subject. It’s very interesting to get into such details, but the author makes the entire content of the book a page-turner. I will certainly hope to see more military novels from the author in the future.

Reviews
Mission for Life, a Mission for Death. A Journey that had to be taken.
5 out of 5 stars
By Rich on Amazon July 18, 2017
"Men With A Mission" by Gordon Smith is an enlightening and entertaining book about the Vietnam War and the involvement of some very dedicated and patriotic men and women that enlist in the Australian regular army but are soon sorted out and trained for Covert Operations. Sent to observe and gather information, a group of four men—three of different faiths: Islam, Judaism, Christianity, and an Agnostic—prove to be efficient and indispensable as a team and in their service to their government and the war effort. Within a short while, the group expands to eight others: three of which are highly capable women. Though overlooked and deemed unsuitable for active service in the regular army, these newest recruits are more than capable of meting out to the enemy whatever is deemed necessary.
Within a short while, and has garnered the praise and attention of their superior officers, all of them are soon recruited by the U.N. to help with the burgeoning refugee problem and assigned to investigate and report on war crimes.
This book is well written and authored with authority. This was a very good book and a quick read.

A Journey into corruption and humanity
5.0 out of 5 stars
Review by Jimmy Ray on Amazon September 12, 2017
Men with a mission is a story of three men from Australia who enlist in the military and are then chosen for special training for a series of missions. When they have completed their training, they are sent to Vietnam to began a series of secret mission monitoring both the Good guys and the bad guys for illegal activities and atrocities committed. A great story that sheds light on some of the antics that took place in Vietnam. This is a great story about a team of talented military men. The journey is both enlightening and frightening at the same time. A good read that will let you explore the world of Vietnam and what it was like at that time for this talented team.

I Liked it
3.0 out of 5 Stars
By Debra Cohen Amazon October 10, 2017
Major Jack Roberts has been asked by Australia's defence department to form an elite group of servicemen to complete certain tasks. He chooses three men of varying backgrounds: Bill, a Christian, Joe, a Jew and Emile, a Muslim. He chose men who showed they could work with a diverse group of people. They were also joined by Kim-Ly Ngo who became the fifth member of their team. Kim-Ly was the daughter of a Vietnamese farmer who was educated in France. She agreed to help them as long as what she did benefited her country. The men received secret training, and they were tasked with seeking out corruption, criminal activity and human rights violations. They even provided assistance to refugees.
Their service begins around the time of the Vietnam war and follows the men, and their girlfriends (and wives) throughout the war and immediately after. Their efforts are recognised by the United Nations high commission for refugees and Australia Government. And the unit becomes a UN investigating unit collecting evidence of human rights violations.
It was evident while reading this book that the Author did a HUGE amount of research for this Novel. Having said that, I wish there was more blending of the facts with the characters and the story. At times I felt as if I were reading a nonfiction book and not a book of fiction. I believe over the time, the Author will master this. This book is educational and gives the reader a glimpse into some of the ways Australia was involved in the war, specifically in the helping of refuges and human rights violations. The book also provides the reader with insight as to some of the things taking place during the war - apart from fighting. Being American, I have only heard of America's side of the Vietnam war, this book showed another perspective and other countries' efforts. 

A fascinating theme - shows lots of promise
3.0 out of 5 Stars
By Charles A. Ray on September 18, 2017, on Amazon
With the introduction of conscription in 1960, and the increasing possibility of its involvement in the conflict in Indo-China along with its ally, the United States, the Australian Defence Ministry recognised the need of a special unit within its armed forces to conduct ‘off the books’ missions to support national interests and security. Major Jack Roberts, who had served as an observer during the partition of Vietnam following World War II, was selected to command and train this special unit.
Roberts chose as the first members of his team, a group of diverse young men and a beautiful and patriotic young Vietnamese woman, and trained them on an isolated island.
Men With a Mission by Gordon Smith is the story of Roberts’ activities from the beginning of what we know as the Vietnam War through the immediate post-war period. It addressed the increasing American involvement and the problems faced by the Western allies as they struggled to deal with a culture and the war they failed to understand. Incidents of misbehaviour of US-backed forces in Vietnam, the actions leading up to the Khmer Rouge takeover of Cambodia, and the ‘secret’ war in Laos are all presented in rich detail. Against this backdrop of cultural misunderstanding, political corruption, and the long war, the team’s activities, and their subsequent history unfolds.
While the theme of the book is somewhat epic and extremely educational, the fact that it’s presented as a semi-fictional (I found it hard to distinguish fact from fiction). It suffers from the ‘telling’ of the story rather than ‘showing’ the reader what happened through the dialogue and actions of the protagonists. Some of the most moving incidents, for example, lose a lot of their impact due to the lack of a ‘personal’ focus that would come from them being portrayed through the eyes of those involved.
Done in a more action-oriented style, this book could easily be transformed into a movie in the style of ‘Full Metal Jacket,’ or ‘Apocalypse Now.’ The author has a good command of the language and has obviously done a lot of research. Having served as a soldier in the war during the 60s and 70s, and a diplomat in China, Thailand, Vietnam, and Cambodia from 1983 to 2005, I can attest to the accuracy of many of the incidents portrayed. Changing the style of presentation would make this not just an interesting book, but one that would fill many of the gaps in the history of the region and its conflicts that currently exist.
I received a free copy of this book. While I give it high marks for the theme and research that went into it, the excessive ‘telling,’ forces me to give it three stars. I hasten to add, however, that this is an author with great promise, and look forward to reading future offerings.

Another Part of the Vietnam Conflict Revealed
4.0 out of 5 stars
By Malcolm Dewey on Amazon October 1st, 2017
A new perspective on the Vietnam war era. Most history that I have read about this conflict is from the US viewpoint. This is the first I've read from the Australian military involvement - a fresh topic so interesting to find out more about this team. A good read.… (lisätietoja)