Colonel W. R. Johnson, USA (ret.) said of Tears Across the Mekong, "In his latest work, Tears Across the Mekong, military author and journalist Marc Yablonka has once again set the bar for authenticity and historical perspective in his latest anthology on the Vietnam era in Southeast Asia.
As related to us by a well thought-out collection of personal interviews with participants who lived through these events, a vivid and compelling story emerges that takes the reader back nearly a half century to describe what it was like to be part of what is now referred to as the 'Secret War in Laos'.

While the Vietnam war and its aftermath have been thoroughly documented in fact and fiction, Tears Across the Mekong offers insights on that war-torn era's impact on the Laotian populace, particularly in its effects on the sturdy and fiercely-loyal Hmong mountain tribesmen, who took up arms on behalf of the U.S. to combat the brutal hardships wrought by the Communist regime that seized control of their historically peaceful nation.
For anyone truly interested in learning more about this tragic period, Marc has delivered a real page-turner that will hold you spellbound as you read the real-life accounts of those who were intimately involved with or victimized by that little-known conflict"

According to the book description of Distant War: Recollections of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, “This is a newly-edited compilation of eighteen years of Yablonka’s reportage on American involvement in Indochina and the people affected by America’s connection to that part of the world. After all those years and numerous articles about an indelible mark on American history published in the likes of the U.S. Military’s Stars and Stripes, Army Times, American Veteran, the Weider History Group publication Vietnam Magazine and others, these stories needed a wider audience for the world to know what they suffered, how most survived, and how they overcame adversity. Distant War: Recollections of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, will be the vehicle to the reader’s understanding of a war and its aftermath that may seem distant now, but what is important is that it will make readers realize—if they haven’t already—that in war, whether in the jungles of Vietnam or the sands of Iraq, in a very real sense, while who wins and who loses is obviously important, what is equally necessary is that good somehow must and shall prevail.”

According to one reader of Distant War: Recollections of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, “Marc Philip Yablonka has written and assembled a darned good book about a long ago war that sometimes gets lost these days in the rumble of more contemporary cannons. In the 40-plus years since I left Vietnam as a Marine Combat Correspondent and an Associated Press war correspondent, I thought I had read everything that could be said about the place I first knew in 1962 as "a dirty little war." I was wrong. Thanks, Marc.”

According to one reader of Distant War: Recollections of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, “This surprising book provides fascinating glimpses into the "distant war" that marred and marked millions of American and Vietnamese lives through poignant, concise profiles. Yablonka, a military journalist, allows his diverse subjects to tell their story, in their words, while gently providing context for each individual's experiences. By combining the biographies of Vietnam veterans, doctors, and humanitarians, Yablonka introduces the reader to a changing Vietnam through the keen eyes and often absurd, always intense experiences of his subjects. As an English teacher who has worked in the 21st century Vietnam and often felt lost, I learned a tremendous amount from this thin, satisfying collection of thumbnail sketches that trace and document the "distant war" and its lingering presence today.”

According to one reader of Distant War: Recollections of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, “Having written four books all or in part about Vietnam, and having edited more than a hundred, I thought I knew pretty much everything about the subject. Marc Yablonka has shown me otherwise. Approaching the war from odd angles, interviewing people who had previously been neglected, bringing the warm light of his compassionate nature to this work, he has produced a new look at Vietnam that shows its human side. Hurrah for Marc Yablonka.”