Failure to Atone:

The True Story of a Jungle Surgeon in Vietnam

By Allen Hassan, MD, JD, DVM
As told to David Drum

Failure to Atone: The True Story of a Jungle Surgeon in Vietnam is Dr. Allen Hassan’s unforgettable memoir of his two tours as a civilian doctor in Vietnam. Failure to Atone is a factual account of the heroism, the horror, the lies and the unspeakable atrocities one volunteer physician witnessed on the front lines of a no-holds-barred war. Also containing the recollections of other Volunteer Physicians for Vietnam, Failure to Atone is the first in-depth account of a group of American doctors who volunteered to save civilian lives during a long, difficult war.

As a surgeon working day and night to treat the wounded civilians of South Vietnam, assisted only by a small crew of Navy corpsmen and Vietnamese nurses, Dr. Allen Hassan battled government intimidation, tropical diseases, enemy shelling, insects, dust, primitive sanitary conditions and all varieties of war wounds as he fought to treat an endless stream of patients wounded by the war. The atrocities and brutality he witnessed in Vietnam left him with memories he cannot forget.

"Spread out before me are the writhing, dying forms of approximately 40 very young Vietnamese children. Many are infants, the oldest perhaps five years of age," Dr. Hassan writes of one unforgettable day in Quang Tri Provincial Hospital. "The children all wear plastic medical armbands. They are struggling to stay alive. Many of the children try to move their arms and legs, but blood spurts from small, round wounds in their heads. Each beautiful little boy or girl has an untreated head wound. They have all been shot through the head. I quickly realize that these young children were probably lined up and shot, execution-style."

Even for a tough former Marine sergeant like Dr. Allen Hassan, the experience of performing emergency surgeries day and night in the glare of a horrible, seemingly endless war is a life-changing experience. Failure to Atone is the story of a heroic doctor’s tribulations, his triumphs, and his transformation in the horror and tragedy of war.

THE FAILURE TO ATONE PLEDGE

With the publication of Failure to Atone, we pledge to donate 10 percent of all profits from the book to charitable organizations which help children who have been injured, maimed or displaced by war.

The Failure to Atone Fund was begun in Vietnam on April 30, 2007, with the aim of helping Vietnamese war victims.  Co-chairmen of the fund are Dr. Allen Hassan and Lt. General Nguyen Viet Thanh, a war hero in Vietnam. Both Dr. Hassan and First News-Tri Viet Publishing made substantial donations to initiate the fund. Donations to the Failure to Atone Fund may be made via credit card through our distributor at (800) 431-1579.