Roy Rowan

Solid, Quick Read

"Chasing the Dragon" is a very well-written book. It is easy to read and flows smoothly from one topic to the next. In the book, Roy Rowan recounts his tentative and tumultuous years in China just before the communists officially came to power.

As I read the book, I found three distinct sections. The first section details his experience working for a relief agency right after World War II. Running supply caravans between various cities, Rowan was frustrated by hijackings from both the Nationalists and the Communists. During this first section of the book, Rowan does an excellent job creating visual images of the metropolises and villages, describing their city-walls, beggars, and even their tiny restaurants. The second section details his experience as a journalist, working for Time and Life magazines. Rowan chases stories as well as any journalist. He finds details both big and small for his stories, and Rowan recounts those in "Chasing the Dragon." He describes cities being overrun by Communists and the calm before the storm, the columns of Nationalists who abandoned their positions, and some of the tactics and personalities involved in the fighting. The final section of the book is very short. It tells about Rowan's subsequent trips to China and his attempt to associate modern China with the China he covered before the Communists took power.

One theme that is present throughout the book is the ineptitude of the Nationalists. Not only were they extremely corrupt, pilfering from their own citizens as well as the United States, but they were unable to solve simple economic and social problems, leading to gangsterism, hyper-inflation, and many other problems. Rowan makes the connection between the US support of the Nationalists and the US support of the corrupt governments of Vietnam, a connection that could easily be extended to many other present-day situations.

"Chasing the Dragon" includes a valuable index, something that every non-fiction book should include. It is an easy read about a very difficult topic.… (meer)

One of the most controversial and dramatic incidents in the post-Vietnam period was the retaking of the American cargo ship Mayaguez after it was seized by the revolutionary government forces of Cambodia. The whole truth of what happened during the capture, the attack, the recovery--as well as why President Ford made the decision he did, and the human stories of the crew members themselves. Roy Rowan details the diplomatic effort to obtain the release and tells why the Marines, the Air Force, and the Navy were ordered to attack.… (meer)