Born of War

Born of War, David E. Feldman, Writers Club Press, 2001

Based on a true story, this novel is the story of Henry Neiberg, a native of Brooklyn who volunteers to join the army in World War II. He isn't sure if Frances, his girlfriend, will wait for him, because she feels that Henry, lacking a social conscience, is not the sort of man she wants to marry.

Henry is not happy when he finds that he has been sent to the "backwater" of China as a glorified accountant in the 14th Army Air Corps (the Flying Tigers) near Kunming. It's a place where the black market is thriving. Everything is for sale, including American aid for the Nationalist troops and items sent from home, and everyone wants a piece of the action. Despite official warnings to the contrary, Henry and his buddy, Jake Singer, become friends with Mr and Mrs Ai, owners of a local dumpling shop, and manage to get involved in internal Chinese politics.

The Americans are told about the Communists, who have started to liberate parts of China in the north from the Nationalists (America's official ally). The Communists do a much better job of (for want of a better term) winning the hearts and minds of the people than the Nationalists, for whom the words "corrupt" and "incompetent" come to mind. With Nationalist spies never far away, The Ai's and the other local Communist sympathizers begin to think that Henry and Jake are much more open-minded than the usual jingoistic Americans. They are then introduced to others higher up in the "organization." Among those who ask intelligent and probing questions about life in America not covered in the news media are Chou En-Lai and Mao Tse-Tung.

The author does a fine job from start to finish. He gets away from the usual war novel stereotypes, it shows how if anybody "lost" China to the Communists, it was the Nationalists, and it's an interesting story about one person's emotional growing up. It is more than worth reading.