Word of Honor is the fifth major novel by American writer Nelson DeMille and the first which involves the Vietnam War.

Time Magazine referred to it as "The Caine Mutiny of the 80s",[1] while Publishers Weekly stated that it is comparable to the classic but has "wider implications".

The novel centers on a Vietnam veteran, Benjamin Tyson, who has made a great life for himself after serving as a lieutenant in the war.

Complex issues of Tyson's culpability arise as DeMille slowly reveals more detail surrounding what really happened.

The novel blends intense and accurate Vietnam War flashbacks[1] with "intelligent and highly charged courtroom melodrama".

Tyson is visited by Chet Brown, a mysterious high-level agent, who advises and warns him to play fair and not attack the Army, thereby further dirtying Vietnam and America's role in it.

Tyson reflects on the kind letter he wrote to the Cane family, speaking of his bravery, and ensuring them that he died quickly without pain.

Tyson meets Major Harper again and tempers run high as he smashes a glass across the wall.

Harper tells him of the two men who told Picard about the story: medic Steven Brandt and soldier Richard Farley.

Tyson decides to swim across the inlet from Picard's to the summer residence his family recently moved into to avoid publicity.

He also meets with Major Harper again, who tells him she has found enough evidence to submit a charge of murder but at the same time suspects the government is tampering with the case.

A groundswell of public sentiment has been building for Tyson, as more and more people feel the war is over and the Army is hanging him out to dry.

It is revealed that two weeks after the Hue Hospital incident, Tyson was wounded by shrapnel and the medic Brandt tried to kill him by injecting a lethal dose of morphine.

A pre-trial Article 32 investigation takes place in which Corva pins Tyson with his medals for bravery in the Hue battle (one was never given to him and Karen Harper just procured it).

She asks Picard why he did not include this and he responds that it was an error of omission that he left out, because it did not fit with Brandt's story.

Corva also gets Brandt to tell the court that Beltran threw a grenade into one room when before he said he couldn't see who did that.

A barrage of questions and dialogue ends with Corva asking, "Did you see Larry Cane shoot anyone?"

Chet Brown meets with Tyson and tells him that if he reads a given statement he will be pardoned and serve no jail time.

In fact, Kelly even reports on hearing Simcox and Farley talking about how Tyson is "too soft of the gooks."

Brandt was then cared for and Tyson returned that night to him and told him that if he did not report back to his platoon he would be court-martialed on a variety of charges.

Colonel Sproule the judge, interrupts him, asking why he did not mention the death of Larry Cane outside the hospital.

Indeed it does, and Nelson DeMille, who served as a lieutenant in Vietnam, knows exactly how to employ his surge within us, but the military scenes have the gunmetal ring of authenticity.

– Time [1] "If fiction can assuage the lingering moral pain of the Vietnam War, it's through the kind of driving honesty coupled with knowledgeability that DeMille (By the Rivers of Babylon) employs here, in a story which, as riveting as The Caine Mutiny but with wider implications, probes the conflicting concepts of honor, duty and loyalty as they relate to an event of the My Lai variety and assesses blame."

– Publishers Weekly [4] "Word of Honor entertains without reaching for moral revelation or subtle psychological effects.

[5] "DeMille has hit a home run.... One is completely gripped by the question of what will happen to the haunted, guilt-resistant, essentially honorable man as his life and loved ones are massacred... Bears favorable comparison with Herman Wouk's The Caine Mutiny... [with its] deep-running themes."

This novel will make every reader stop and think about personal values, the moral issues of guilt or innocence, and culpability in wartime."

It was directed by Robert Markowitz and starred Don Johnson, Jeanne Tripplehorn, and Sharon Lawrence.

Word of Honor was produced by Michael Jaffe, Howard Braunstein, Lance Robbins, Leslie Grief, and Wendy Hill-Tout.