A book doesn't have to be perfect to be a classic. James Fenimore Cooper's Leatherstocking Tales are a good example. But for its time, this book hit the mark and remains today as an example of what young men go through in the course of exercising their countries political agenda, expecially young men in what was emerging technology in its day--the Huey helicopter. I can still see the scene where they landed in the river to wash the blood and vomit from the deck of their Huey, and I don't think I'll ever forget it. But I too, having been there, was disappointed in the ending. I wish Mason could had done better, but I didn't walk in his moccasins.