Audiobook8 hours
Ballad of the Green Beret: The Life and Wars of Staff Sergeant Barry Sadler from the Vietnam War and Pop Stardom to Murder and an Unsolved, Violent Death
Written by Marc Leepson
Narrated by David de Vries
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
()
About this audiobook
The top Billboard Hot 100 single of 1966 wasn't The Rolling Stones' "Paint It Black" or the Beatles' "Yellow Submarine"-it was "The Ballad of the Green Berets," a hyper-patriotic tribute to the men of the Special Forces by Vietnam veteran, US Army Staff Sergeant Barry Sadler. But Sadler's clean-cut, all-American image hid a darker side, a Hunter Thompson-esque life of booze, girls, and guns. Unable to score another hit song, he wrote a string of popular pulp fiction paperbacks that made "Rambo look like a stroll through Disneyland." He killed a lover's ex-boyfriend in Tennessee. Settling in Central America, Sadler ran guns, allegedly trained guerrillas, provided medical care to residents, and caroused at his villa. In 1988 he was shot in the head in Guatemala and died a year later. This life-and-times biography of an American pop culture phenomenon recounts the sensational details of Sadler's life vividly but soberly, setting his meteoric rise and tragic fall against the big picture of American society and culture during and after the Vietnam War.
Author
Marc Leepson
Marc Leepson has written features and book reviews for many publications, including The New York Times, Preservation, Smithsonian, The Washington Post, and The Sun (Baltimore) and is a contributor to the Encyclopedia Americana. He lives with his family in Middleburg, Virginia.
Related to Ballad of the Green Beret
Related audiobooks
Gangster Squad: Covert Cops, the Mob, and the Battle for Los Angeles Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Blonde Rattlesnake: Burmah Adams, Tom White, and the 1933 Crime Spree that Terrorized Los Angeles Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Reluctant Warrior: A Marine's True Story of Duty and Heroism in Vietnam Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5U.S. Army Green Beret Missions: A Timeline Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Long War: The Inside Story of America and Afghanistan Since 9/11 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Longest Kill: The Story of Maverick 41, One of the World's Greatest Snipers Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Joker One: A Marine Platoon's Story of Courage, Leadership, and Brotherhood Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sniper: American Single-Shot Warriors in Iraq and Afghanistan Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Yank: The True Story of a Former US Marine in the Irish Republican Army Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Among the Headhunters: An Extraordinary World War II Story of Survival in the Burmese Jungle Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Big Boy Rules: America's Mercenaries Fighting in Iraq Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Operation Shakespeare: The True Story of an Elite International Sting Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Operation Devil Horns: The Takedown of MS-13 in San Francisco Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Good to Go: The Life And Times Of A Decorated Member Of The U.S. Navy's Elite Seal Team Two Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5American Spartan: The Promise, the Mission, and the Betrayal of Special Forces Major Jim Gant Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Guardian: Life in the Crosshairs of the CIA's War on Terror Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOne Bullet Away: The Making of a Marine Officer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pale Horse: Hunting Terrorists and Commanding Heroes with the 101st Airborne Division Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Abandoned in Hell: The Fight For Vietnam's Firebase Kate Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5U.S. Marshals: Inside America's Most Storied Law Enforcement Agency Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Bounty Hunter 4/3: From the Bronx to Marine Scout Sniper Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Vietnam War in American Childhood Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5No Room For Error: The Covert Operations of America's Special Tactics Units From Iran to Afghanistan Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Ripcord: Screaming Eagles Under Siege, Vietnam 1970 Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Taliban Safari: One Day in the Surkhagan Valley Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDead Body Calls: One Cop's Experiences With Homicides, Suicides, Fatal Accidents, and Natural Deaths Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Warrior Elite: The Forging of SEAL Class 228 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Wars & Military For You
The Diary of Anne Frank Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Book of Five Rings Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Korean War: A History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ghosts of Honolulu: A Japanese Spy, A Japanese American Spy Hunter, and the Untold Story of Pearl Harbor Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Kill Anything That Moves Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Heart of Everything That Is: The Untold Story of Red Cloud, An American Legend Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5War Against All Puerto Ricans: Revolution and Terror in America's Colony Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Mysterious Case of Rudolf Diesel: Genius, Power, and Deception on the Eve of World War I Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Shortest History of Israel and Palestine: From Zionism to Intifadas and the Struggle for Peace Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Watchmaker's Daughter: The True Story of World War II Heroine Corrie ten Boom Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Countdown 1945: The Extraordinary Story of the Atomic Bomb and the 116 Days That Changed the World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Rape of Nanking: The History and Legacy of the Notorious Massacre during the Second Sino-Japanese War Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5On Palestine Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Dirty Tricks Department: Stanley Lovell, the OSS, and the Masterminds of World War II Secret Warfare Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Templars: The History and the Myth: From Solomon's Temple to the Freemasons Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Operator: Firing the Shots that Killed Osama bin Laden and My Years as a SEAL Team Warrior Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5You're Stepping on My Cloak and Dagger Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Last Kingdom Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Four Battlegrounds: Power in the Age of Artificial Intelligence Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Killing Patton: The Strange Death of World War II's Most Audacious General Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin - Book Summary: How U.S. Navy SEALS Lead And Win Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Invisible Generals: Rediscovering Family Legacy, and a Quest to Honor America's First Black Generals Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Ballad of the Green Beret
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
3 ratings0 reviews