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Vietnam Zippos
American Soldiers' Engravings and Stories 1965-1973

A book by Sherry Buchanan, based on the collection of Bradford Edwards
Reviewed by Christian Nelson, VietNow National Editor
University of Chicago Press

I remember my own Zippo lighter. By the time I left for Vietnam, I'd been carrying Zippo lighters around for quite awhile. How could you go riding around in your car, or go out fishing all day, or sit in a hillbilly bar all night without a Zippo? No cheap crap for my friends and me. And then, just before I left for Vietnam, my brother gave me a Zippo as a good luck piece. It was a brushed-chrome Zippo, just like the other one I had, but this one was engraved with something like, "Vietnam 1969" along with a personal message.

At the time, I had no idea Zippo lighters were a big deal in Vietnam, but it didn't take long to find out. Once I got over there, I started noticing that a few of the guys I knew were also carrying Zippos around, and the Vietnamese were selling fake versions in the stores downtown.

The engraved inscription on my Zippo was tame. Very tame. But as photos in this fascinating book, based on the Zippo collection of Bradford Evans show, many of the inscriptions went way beyond, "Good luck," or just someone's name. Those Zippo lighters we carried were definitely cool, but they never looked as good as they do in the clear, perfectly exposed photos that fill this book.

The guys serving in Vietnam weren't shy about putting their feelings on their Zippos. One of my favorite Zippo engravings shown in the book reads, Da Nang 66-67: Please Don't Tell Me About Vietnam Because I Have Been There. Another one that told the true story of the war in just a short phrase reads, Vietnam 69-70: It Don't Mean Noth'in. (Spelling left as original.)

My favorite quote from the book goes like this, and it pretty much predicts the feelings many Vietnam veterans will get as they page through this book of long-lost memories: "Look at these lighters, man, I haven't seen these for a long time, really a long time. Shit, I lost mine or it was stolen, difficult to remember, but I do remember the inscription I had on it: I Love Hoa, was on one side, she was my girl for a while, and on the other it said: Water? Don't Drink the Stuff – Fish F*** In It You Know. I wonder where that damn Zippo is now? On some other table for sale or maybe a cyclo driver has it in his pocket, never will know, will I?"

OK, so that wasn't my quote, but it could have been. I lost my Zippo somewhere. Don't know where. I also had a girlfriend there for awhile, and her name was Hoa (pronounced Whah). And I also didn't drink the water there.

Another engraving that struck home for me reads: You & Me God. Lovers Fighters and RAG Boatriders. And then there's the immortal: We The Unwilling Led By The Unqualified To Kill The Unfortunate Die For The Ungrateful. If you can find a more true quote about being in Vietnam, let me know – I don't think you'll find one. But buy a copy of this book, and I'm sure you will enjoy looking at the inscriptions on all those Zippos, and you might just find one that beats my favorite. A wonderful book.

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