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Books > Humanities > History > American history > From 1900 > Postwar, from 1945 > Vietnam War
In the 77 days from 20 January to 18 March of 1968, two divisions
of the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) surrounded a regiment of U.S.
Marines on a mountain plateau in the northwest corner of South
Vietnam known as Khe sanh. The episode was no accident; it was in
fact a carefully orchestrated meeting in which both sides got what
they wanted. The north Vietnamese succeeded in surrounding the
Marines in a situation in many ways similar to Dien Bien Phu, and
may have been seeking similar tactical, operational, and strategic
results. General William C. Westmoreland, the commander of the
joint U.S. Military Assistance Command Vietnam (COMUSMACV),
meanwhile, sought to lure the NVA into the unpopulated terrain
around the 26th Marines in order to wage a battle of annihilation
with air power. In this respect Khe Sanh has been lauded as a great
victory of air power, a military instrument of dubious suitability
to much of the Vietnam conflict. The facts support the assessment
that air power was the decisive element at Khe Sanh, delivering
more than 96 percent of the ordnance used against the NVA. This
work focuses mainly on fixed-wing close air support, or the support
provided by jet and propeller-driven conventional aircraft, to the
general exclusion of rotary-wing aircraft, also known as
helicopters. There are several reasons for this, none of which are
meant to belittle the contributions or heroism of the Marine, Army,
and Air Force helicopter pilots who fought in the hills around Khe
Sanh. First, until the arrival of the AH-1G Cobra in April 1969,
there was no helicopter designed for dedicated close air support of
Marines in Vietnam. The primary gunship during the battle of Khe
Sanh was the UH-1E outfitted with machine guns and rocket launchers
for the escort of unarmed helicopters. These helicopters were
sometimes used for the direct support of ground troops with
suppressive fires and were frequently used as forward air
controllers, spotting and marking targets for fixed-wing aircraft
with heavier ordnance. These roles are appropriately discussed
alongside the contributions of the fixed-wing aircraft, but as a
general rule, analysis remains focused on the heavier attack
aircraft.
An insightful and personal memoir that shares not only the
technical aspects of naval service, but also the joys and sorrows,
the separations, fears, sacrifices, and the heady feelings of a job
well done. Hal Sacks ("Captain Hal" to those of us who served under
his command) tells his terrific story beginnning with Officer
Candidate School and Korea in 1953, going on to Vietnam in 1968 and
beyond. A fabulous read - for lovers of great storytelling along
with history buffs and military aficionados.
The Tuesday Club tells the story of thousands of Vietnam Veterans
who continue to fight a war that never ends. That war, the war
within, is called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The Tuesday Club
gives an insider's view of the therapy rooms of VA's across the
United States. It tell the horror, the fear, the grief, and the
compassion, of a war that alienated an entire generation of men and
women from families, each other, and the nation. The Tuesday Club
tells the story of the real heroes of Vietnam, those who survived,
and daily carry the burden of the trauma of war. "The Tuesday Club,
they call themselves, a group of valiant men, Their membership is
quite unique, God help those who must attend." Marinell Miller,
Ph.D. PTSD Clinical Team Hampton Veterans Affairs Medical Center
Hampton, Virginia
The Vietnamese stole their land. The NVA raped their daughters. The
Green Berets knew them as the most fearless and loyal warriors in
the land.... They were the Montagnards, who called themselves "Sons
of the Mountains" and always fought to the death. In this
incredible memoir of wall-to-wall combat in the jungle near the
Laotian border, Special Forces Lieutenant Don Bendell recounts the
saga of the A camp of Dak Pek, 242. On those death-strewn hilltops
in 1969-70, a handful of Green Berets and an army of 'Yards held
off the entire might of North Vietnamese regulars-until even their
courage and fighting skill could not staunch the flow of blood and
tears.
For the conscripts of who experienced the Vietnam 'police action',
the way the world was seen, shaped, and understood was
irretrievably changed by war. In his gentle, humorous and moving
memoir, Ted George gives voice to the experience that changed the
course of his life - and the lives of so many men - forever.
The Marines in Vietnam, 1954 - 1973, an anthology and Annotated
Bibliography, based on articles that appeared in the U.S. Naval
Institute Proceedings, Naval Review, and Marine Corps Gazette, has
served well for 14 years as an interim reference on the Vietnam
War. In 1974, events in Vietnam and the appearance of additional
significant articles in the three periodicals have made both the
anthology and bibliography somewhat dated. This expanded edition
extends the coverage of the anthology to 1975 and the entries in
the bibliography to 1984.
This is the eighth volume of a projected nine-volume history of
Marine Corps operations in the Vietnam War. A separate functional
series complements the operational histories. This volume details
the activities of Marine Corps units after the departure from
Vietnam in 1971 of III Marine Amphibious Force, through to the 1973
ceasefire, and includes the return of Marine prisoners of war from
North Vietnam. Written from diverse views and sources, the common
thread in this narrative is the continued resistance of the South
Vietnames Armed Forces, in particular the Vietnamese Marine Corps,
to Communist aggression. This book is written from the perspective
of the American Marines who assisted them in their efforts. Someday
the former South Vietnamese Marines will be able to tell their own
story.
This is the eighth volume in a planned 10-volume operational and
chronological series covering the Marine Corps' participation in
the Vietnam War. A separate topical series will complement the
operational histories. This particular volume details the gradual
withdrawl in 1970-1971 of Marine combat forces from South Vietnam's
northernmost corps area, I Corps, as part of an overall American
strategy of turning the ground was against the North Vietnamese and
Viet Cong over to the Armed Forces of the Republic of Vietnam.
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