"Unless we each conform, unless we obey orders, unless we follow our leaders blindly — there is no possible way we can remain free." — Frank Burns, from the television comedy M*A*S*H "Matt Kite is another Seattle songwriter who has made some drastic changes. War Stories, the sixth album from Kite's The Whole Bolivian Army, is packed with intense polemics. Kite says he was inspired by research on the Vietnam War and interviews with veterans he has been doing for a book. The vivid album begins with 'Okinawa,' telling of a rape by U.S. soldiers from the victim's perspective. More often, War Stories comes from the perspective of the grunts, and Kite occasionally approaches Tim O'Brien, who wrote The Things They Carried and other unflinching fiction steeped in Vietnam. O'Brien would appreciate some of Kite's writing here ('I wake the day the shooting stops/the door, the Fourth, the engine drops/I wake the only way I can/the eyes, the eyes, I killed a man')." — Tom Scanlon, Seattle Times, June 20, 2003 READING LIST "Bitter Fruit: The Story of the American Coup in Guatemala," Stephan Schlesinger & Stephen Kinzer. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1990. "Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire," Chalmers Johnson. New York: Henry Holt and Co./Owl Books, 2000. "Farewell Darkness: A Veteran's Triumph over Combat Trauma," Ron Zaczek. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1994. In the Realm of a Dying Emperor, Norma Field. New York: Pantheon Books, 1991. "Korea's Place in the Sun," Bruce Cumings. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1997. "Kwangju Diary: Beyond Death, Beyond the Darkness of the Age," Lee Jai-eui. Los Angeles: UCLA Asian Pacific Monograph Series, 1999. "Okinawa: Cold War Island," Chalmers Johnson. Cardiff, CA: Japan Policy Research Institute, 1999. "A Rumor of War," Philip Caputo. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1977. "Vietnam: A History," Stanley Karnow. New York: Penguin Books, 1997. "War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning," Chris Hedges. Public Affairs, Perseus Group, 2002.