Title: Before the dawn
Description: Review Written By Bernie Weisz, Historian, Vietnam War, May 6, 2009 Pembroke Pines, Fl USA Contact: BernWei1@aol.com Title of Review: Is This A Scathing Memoir of A Valorous Navy Seal in Vietnam or Empty Bragadoccio? Presented by "Reader's Digest" as: "The powerful true story of a Navy Seal-from elite training to top secret missions in Vietnam," it would appear that this is an account not to be missed. After finishing the entire book, "Before the Dawn" came across as a highly tragic personal account of the Vietnam War. Author Mickey Block traced the painful odyssey he made through the horrors of coming very close to dying in Vietnam and it's torturous aftermath. Block also asserted that this is a true memoir of how as an elite Navy Commando, he was involved in covert combat missions and as a consequence was "emotionally and physically shattered by the bestial insanity of the conflict in Southeast Asia." Block takes you through a vicarious journey with him, encountering the pathetic and sorrowful ordeal of countless adolescent men that came of age in Vietnam. Inarguably, most returned to a world that forced them to face the sobering reality that their youthful innocence had been lost before it's time. 

However, for all of "Before The Dawn's" graphic, brutal frankness, it renders a story that has its question marks. According to B.G. Burkett's book "Stolen Valor," the author claims that: "It is obvious that Block never took SEAL training and did not graduate from the various schools that a potential SEAL must attend." While Block clearly and correctly identifies the tragedies and traumas of that painful period in American history, Burkett asserts that Block admits in one sentence in this book that he did not complete SEAL Training. Furthermore, Burkett accuses "Daring Books," Block's publisher, of exaggerating his military accomplishments to sell his book. While not saying Block is fabricating his entire Vietnam ordeal, Burkett prefers to point culpability at his publisher. In its attempt to sell books, Daring Books exacerbated Block's traumas and blew out of proportion his accomplishments forcing a self fulfilling prophesy on the author: Block had to live up to his billing. 

Block currently lectures to a broad audience on his Vietnam experience, even wearing the Navy SEAL badge lapel pin. Burkett researched this and went to the "National Personal Records Center," which clearly indicated that Block never earned this badge. Needless to say, even if the book is pure fantasy, it still represents a generation's suffering, and in light of what is occurring currently in Iraq, as it offers hope and healing for those who bear the scars of the Vietnam War and for those with PTSD, whose scars don't show. Mickey Block wrote this book in 1988, twenty years after he claimed he was critically wounded by friendly fire while serving with the U.S. Special Forces in 1968 and 1969. His coauthor, William Kimball, was highly qualified to assist Block in writing this memoir, as he himself had firsthand experiences as a mortar man with the 1st Air Cavalry Division and had his own personal ordeal when he was medically evacuated from Vietnam in 1968. 

Even if this book is fantasy, it certainly had the feeling of authenticity. One thing for sure, "Before The Dawn" is not for the faint hearted. Block's description of his near death experience, the torture and other atrocities of war he described witnessing and became calloused to are graphically recounted. Sadistic torture and murder perpetuated by the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese to intimidate the country folk into cooperating with their Communist cause is chronicled. Block also relates his ordeal of parental abuse, losing his girlfriend from the toll of war as well as his dismay of almost being killed at the hands of his own men. Other realistic issues most Vietnam Veterans can identify with are Block's battle with PTSD and this country's ungrateful reception to a returning and severely wounded veteran. Steve Robinson, authored a book in 2002 entitled "No Guts No Glory, Unmasking Navy Seal Impostors." This author expressed himself as follows: "Those who undertake to impersonate US Navy SEALs, for whatever purpose, are a disgraceful insult to every man and woman who ever served honorably in any branch of America's armed forces." Because of the issue of this book being questionably factual or mostly fiction, "Before The Dawn" is troublesome, ruining an enjoyable read that otherwise would carry import with the current body of Vietnam War literature available. The truth, please!
Subjects: Vietnamese Conflict, 1961-1975, Sailors, United States. Navy, United States, American Personal narratives, Veterans, Biography, Vietnam War, 1961-1975
Places: United States
People: Mickey Block (1947-)