‘Ride the Thunder’: A Vietnam War Story of Honor and Triumph

Inspiring true Vietnam story honored by military website

By Richard Botkin

Everything Americans know about the end of the Vietnam War is wrong, contends Richard Botkin, author of “Ride The Thunder: A Vietnam War Story of Honor and Triumph”and former Marine infantry officer.

Botkin reveals the heroic, untold story of the remarkable collaboration between U.S. Marine Captain John Ripley and South Vietnamese Marine Major Le Ba Binh. In the process, he vigorously dispels the notion that the military situation in Vietnam was lost, even as American war correspondents and policy makers were surrendering to the winds of political and economic pressure.

“For men like Ripley and Binh, who fought long and hard only to have victory pulled from their grasps, ‘Ride The Thunder’ celebrates their heroism, their humanity, their story,” said Botkin.
A military veteran website is singing praises for “Ride The Thunder” and has named Botkin’s inspiring true Vietnam story “2010 Book of the Year.”

Military-Writers.com, a website that lists 3,725 military books by 1,145 current and former service members, has selected Botkin’s book for the honor this year. Military-Writers.com editor Raymond Foster said American Heroes Press, his group of three websites for military, police and firefighters, currently lists 2,200 American heroes and more than 5,000 books. The military site considered 11 books for the honor this year.

Foster said he was thoroughly impressed with “Ride The Thunder.” “We felt that it righted a lot of historical wrongs, as far as people’s perception of the fighting prowess of the American Marine,” he said.

That was the intent, said Botkin.

“From the American side, I think most people have a completely uninformed or misinformed opinion of the Vietnam War,” Botkin said. “Most Americans, including people who served in Vietnam, didn’t appreciate the level of sacrifice of the South Vietnamese. These people love freedom.”

[youtube dtqETBgITvc Ride the Thunder]

Using his keen Marine insight and years of in-depth research, Botkin takes the reader back in time, deep into the heart of the jungle and into the midst of the American-Vietnamese struggle for liberty and freedom.

In the prime of their youth, the two noted warriors were inspired by their fathers to fight for their country’s freedom — one American, Captain John Ripley, and the other South Vietnamese, Major Le Ba Binh. Their destinies would collide in Vietnam.