Hearts, Minds, and Coffee
The U.S. army didn’t like Slater Marshall’s opposition to the Vietnam war and assigned him with three other dissidents to Viet Cong territory as a recon unit to support a nearby regiment. They called his group the “quick death squad” because they expected him to die. To survive, Slater followed his own rules and waged peace with the village of Phan Lac, the scene of the deaths of the previous recon unit. He overcame their hostility and forged a friendship.
Months later, when he spotted a North Vietnamese scouting party, he knew the enemy planned an attack against the American base. No one in the army believed his information. The village chief feared that once the offensive began, the firing of mortars and artillery from both sides would destroy his rural community.
To protect an American platoon and save the village, Slater’s team set up an ambush. The plan worked until the enemy rocketed the commander’s helicopter that flew overhead. It crash landed near Slater’s location and sabotaged his plan. The North Vietnamese directed more units toward the downed aircraft and marched toward Slater’s position.
After his team pulled the six men out of the burning chopper, he had to face a fired up enemy with its infantry and mortar squads. With few weapons and a radio, Slater had to improvise to save the villagers, an army platoon, the men in the wrecked helicopter, and their own lives.
Second Chance Against the Third Reich : U.S. Colonel Rescues His Daughter From the Nazis
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Prior to D-Day, Colonel Dirk Hoffman, suffering from shell shock (today known as PTSD), finds out from MI-6 that the Nazis will arrest his estranged daughter. She married an SS major in 1938. Hoffman goes behind enemy lines with the aid of the German Resistance to rescue his daughter and lead their escape from Berlin thereby incurring the rage of an SS general who is obsessed with his capture. Hoffman and his daughter overcome incredible odds and near-death situations to reach the safety of Switzerland only to find that a mole in U.S. Intelligence has set a trap to kill them.
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Reviews for Hearts, Minds, and Coffee
Powerful book
An evocative book which will remain in my mind. I appreciate the skillfully written, stark truths expressed by the author. This book is highly recommended to readers who want knowledge about one perspective of the Vietnam war. Thank you Kent Hinckley for sharing your story.
Making Peace, Not War
How do you write a meaningful story about Vietnam that isn’t filled with body parts and pain? How do you find redemption in a war that has become a symbol of failed politics and wasted lives? Former Intelligence Officer Kent Hinckley has done this in a clear and kindly way, through characters who are believable and humane, including multiple sides of this complex war.
There’s a lot of kindness in “Hearts, Minds and Coffee” that sets it apart from most war novels, especially those that deal with Vietnam. There isn’t much cynicism, and no graphic blood-and-guts. Through his characters, we find realistic moments of anger, and recognition that citizens, even soldiers, can be different from the politicians who create the wars. These are believable characters, soldiers and villagers on opposing sides, who choose humane responses even as they are placed in what seems an endless situation.
By creating Slater Marshall and his special forces team, Hinckley presents a believable main character who is sucked into battle, armed with inferior weapons and misinformation, and who retains his sense of humanity. And he populates the story with memorable squad members, villagers, fly-boys, high ranking officers, grunts, opposing soldiers, and go-betweens of complicated loyalties.
His story also explains Vietnam to me in ways that my old military friends never could. The guys I knew didn’t want to talk about what happened there, and I don’t blame them. How could I understand? My 4-year navy stint ended in 1963, so I hadn’t been in Vietnam, a war I opposed. In 1966, when my old Naval Academy roommate wrote home to describe how he was out building schools in rural villages, I didn’t understand that, either. Was he justifying our country’s existence there, among all the brutality and carnage? Or was he trying to make a positive difference? It didn’t compute.
Hinckley’s novel helps to understand how men and women from my naive and idealistic generation could be consumed by this terrible war, and how some of them did positive things. It provides examples of small kindnesses, common sense, creative decisions within a deeply flawed system, and determination to remain human. And after all these years and wars and shattered lives, it even provides some rays of hope.
I Loved This Story!
Hearts, Minds and Coffee is a great story! A very entertaining wartime adventure read, but also a wonderful story of love, the power of friendship, and one man’s courage to follow the course set by his moral compass while still fulfilling his duty to his fellow soldiers and remaining true to his sworn Oath of Service. Set during the Vietnam War, protagonist and newly minted 2nd Lieutenant Slater Marshall and his reconnaissance team find themselves living on their own, in enemy territory. What follows challenges the reader to ask themselves: “Would I, against all odds and the risk of violent death or Court Marshall, have the courage to work for peace in the midst of war?” Even though Hearts, Minds and Coffee is a work of fiction, the author states that many of the characters and events introduced in this novel were based on actual people and events. It is a surprisingly touching book that will appeal to a wide range of readers. I loved this book!
“I’m going to turn you into a `strack’ soldier.”
California author Kent Hinckley brings a rich background to his debut novel – a novel with a completely different view of the Vietnam War. He served in Army Intelligence in Vietnam, worked for Bank of America international finance in Taipei and Tokyo, worked in the real estate industry for over twenty years emphasizing green technologies, and now lives in San Diego, California.
Whether or not this book is a memoir or simply a very well considered novel is unknown but Kent Hinckley certainly knows how to build a story with a solid basis from childhood to pacifist Vietnam soldier. HEARTS, MINDS AND COFFEE is so very real to those of us who served in Vietnam in the same time frame as this book’s plot will notice all the left unsaid portions in the now famous pantheon of Vietnam novels (Tim O’Brien, Philip Caputo, etc) and that is why this book is destined to rise to that level of anti-war novels.
Kent’s main character is Slater Marshall whose childhood was spent on a farm with an abusive father and a passive mother, a lad who as he grew realized his fear and loathing of injury and killing, join the ROTC in order to afford school, studied Vietnamese, found himself destined for military duty, and being a pacifist at heart he elects to remain in the back support groups. Assigned to Viet Cong controlled territory he discovered a family in a small village and against all odds manages to save the Vietnamese villagers and his fellow Americans and in short becomes the truest kind of hero.
Kent’s manner of pacing this novel is so practiced, so natural, so seamless that his writing betrays his presence of a nascent author in the field of contemporary literature. He is a fine writer, offers an entirely new look to the Vietnam War legacy and his timing could not be better. As the reports mount of the high incidence of PTSD among Vietnam Vets and now repeated among those returning from the various wars in the middle East, it helps the public view war differently – and becomes an homage to those who are placed in war zones physically but whose hearts and minds remain with the afflicted people. Highly Recommended.
Inspiring and interesting read on a war often misunderstood
I’ve read many military books, but this one was quite interesting to me since it was from a different perspective. Slater’s story is one that had me captivated from the start, and it was eye-opening and inspiring to hear of his journey with fellow soldiers in Vietnam. I think this book is a must-read for anyone interested in the Vietnam War, and anyone who wishes to read a tale of one soldier’s quest for peace and understanding.
You will love this book!!
I have read several war related books and also take a couple history classes in college, but never have I read one with quite the same perspective as “Hearts, Minds, and Coffee.”
Slater Marshall is a small town boy from Iowa who is the first in his family to graduate college. Like most graduates he has plans but those are sidetracked when he is drafted into the Vietnam War. Although he is opposed to the war, he finds himself off to boot camp and then shipped off to the jungle. Open with his peaceful beliefs, he is quickly on the bad side of a more traditional commander. The commander sends him along with 3 other soldiers on a mission with little to no expectations of survival. These four men band together and instead of trying to fight for their survival, simply befriend a Viet Cong village named Phan Lac and earn the trust of its villagers.
The story is uplifting and I love that Slater has his peaceful beliefs and is able to actually live them in this crazy scary situation he finds himself in. I thought Kent Hinckley did a fantastic job of developing Slater and making him a believable leader to the band of misfits. I think that even though this may have been a work of fiction, it brings to light the realities of Vietnam and Slater’s unique point of view. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who loves a good war story and I will be passing it along to my Dad in Afghanistan. I received a free copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
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