A war away

Tess Johnston has spent her life seeking adventure and excitement and she had plenty of that in Germany before the Wall came down and in China for more than thirty years. But the pinnacle of her experiences was seven years in Vietnam, 1967-74, during the war, where she found even Saigon too tame and snared a job with one of the most famous (or infamous) American wartime leaders, John Paul Vann. In her latest book, Tess recounts stories of her Vietnam years, including her eye-witness account of the Tet Offensive, and what it was like to be one the few American women there during those harrowing years.