
Remembering Philip Caputo, who wrote an unflinching Vietnam War memoir
From Fresh Air
Published 5/15/2026
Philip Caputo wrote the 1977 acclaimed and unflinching memoir ‘A Rumor of War,’ about leading a Marine platoon during the Vietnam War. It taught him a painful truth. “I had discovered that I had a capacity to be violent and dark in my actions in a way that totally shocked me,” he told Terry Gross…