Vietnamese Phrase Book; Department of the Army Pamphlet, No. 20-611

Washington DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1962. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Hardcover. xv, [1], 176 pages. This work contains English-Vietnamese translations of the words and phrases most likely needed by Special Forces personnel on a mission to this language area. This work is divided into nine sections plus an alphabetized vocabulary. The sections are: Initial Encounter with Locals, Security; Orientation; Accidental Encounter with Deserters; Basic Information on the Potential of Locals for Organization of Guerrilla Units; Enemy Lines of Communication; Drop Zones; Food, Sanitation, and Weather; and Social. Vietnamese is one of the most spoken languages in the world, with around 90 million native speakers. It is the official language of Vietnam and is also widely spoken in places where the Vietnamese have immigrated, such as the United States, France and Australia. Vietnamese grammar is very simple: nouns and adjectives don't have genders, and verbs aren't conjugated. Vietnamese is a tonal language; the meaning of a word depends on how high or low your voice is. Vietnamese is not related to Chinese, though it contains many loan words from Chinese due to centuries of Chinese rule in Vietnam, and even used Chinese-like characters as its writing system, called "ch Nôm", until Vietnam was colonised by the French. Vietnamese spelling is more or less phonetic, and generally similar to Portuguese (which it is based on). Once you figure out how to pronounce each letter and tone, you have a pretty good idea of how to pronounce Vietnamese, which has very few exceptions compared to English.

Special forces and special operations forces are military units trained to conduct special operations. NATO defines special operations as "military activities conducted by specially designated, organized, trained, and equipped forces, manned with selected personnel, using unconventional tactics, techniques, and modes of employment". Special forces emerged in the early 20th century, with a significant growth in the field during the Second World War, when "every major army involved in the fighting" created formations devoted to special operations behind enemy lines. Depending on the country, special forces may perform some of the following functions: airborne operations, counter-insurgency, "counter-terrorism", foreign internal defense, covert operations, direct action, hostage rescue, high-value targets/manhunting, intelligence operations, mobility operations, and unconventional warfare. The term special forces in the United States refers to the U.S. Army's forces, while the term special operations forces (SOF) refers to all units. Condition: Very good.

Keywords: Vietnam War, Special Forces, Phrase Book, Reference Work, Department of the Army Pamphlet, Drop Zones, Lines of Communication, Guerrilla Warfare, Deserters, Security, Language, Linguistics

[Book #73192]

Price: $35.00