Joseph R. Barry

Basking in the Cold War Joseph R. Barry

"What happens when a naïve eighteen year old newly minted U. S. Marine is dropped into the ancient, exotic, (also erotic) and distinctly foreign environment of the Far East? This book relates the experiences and adventures that occurred during the young man?s journey to coping with the Cold War.

There is no blood and guts here. No laudable heroism or sacrifice attends this young American?s memoirs. He served his country as did tens of thousands of other Americans during the jittery period of the Cold War, with honor, loyalty, steadfastness, readiness, and as much tomfoolery and peccadilloes as could be conjured up.

Although the hilarity and devilment described in the book belong in the past, the effect of this period of coping with a strange and powerful culture became a permanent part of character development. Our young American boy would be an entirely different man should he never had been one of America?s guardians manning the far off ramparts during that perilous time.

That is precisely why this book was written. The members of the American armed forces of the Cold War have not been honored for their service. Some were ruined by being uprooted to these foreign shores, others found fulfillment, none were unaffected. It could easily have been otherwise. One false move, one mistake, could have plummeted the United States and all their Cold War warriors into the chaos of war again and many of the names of men found within these pages might have ended up carved into the cold marble of a war memorial. It did not happen and so this book is presented with pleasure and happy memories. It is hoped that the reader will enjoy basking in the Cold War.
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