Jim Morris served three tours in Vietnam with the Special Forces (Green Berets). Serious wounds cut short the second and third. As a major, he retired due to wounds. He has maintained an interest in the Vietnamese mountain peoples with whom he battled, and has worked as a refugee and civil rights activist on their behalf for many years. The first Bernal Diaz Prize for military non-fiction was given to his Vietnam memoir War Stories.

Morris is the creator of the story that was adapted into the film Operation Dumbo Drop, as well as a producer of countless Vietnam War documentary television episodes. He is the author of three nonfiction books and five novels. He has been on MSNBC as a Special Operations commentator.