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Books > Humanities > History > American history > From 1900 > Postwar, from 1945 > Vietnam War
American military special operations forces-Rangers, SEALs, and
others-have become a well-recognised and highly respected part of
our popular culture. But whom do these elite warriors look to in
their times of greatest need: when wounded on the battlefield, cut
off deep behind enemy lines, or adrift in the expanse of the
world's oceans? They look skyward, hoping to catch a glimpse of
their own personal guardian angel: a U.S. Air Force pararescue
jumper (PJ) who lives, and sometimes dies, by the motto that others
may live. Taking Fire provides an up-close look into the heroism
and mystique of this little known segment of the Air Force Special
Tactics community by focusing on one of the most dramatic rescues
of the Vietnam War. It was June 1972 and Capt. Lynn Aikman is
returning from a bombing mission over North Vietnam when his F-4
Phantom is jumped by an enemy MiG and shot down. He and his
backseater Tom Hanton eject from their crippled aircraft, but
Hanton lands near a village and is quickly captured by local
militia. Badly injured during the ejection, Aikman lands some
distance from the village, and there is a chance that he can be
recovered if American rescuers can reach him before the enemy does.
Now on the ground and drifting in and out of consciousness, Captain
Aikman looks up and suddenly sees his guardian angel in the form of
USAF Pararescue Jumper Chuck McGrath. As Sergeant McGrath is
preparing to hook the downed pilot to a hoist line, he sees it fall
to the ground. Hostile fire on the hovering Jolly Green Giant
rescue helicopter has damaged the hoist mechanism causing the
operator to cut the line. While circling A-1 Skyraiders strafe the
militia to keep them away from Aikman and McGrath, the helicopter
crew races to come up with a plan. It's getting dark, and they'll
only have one chance. Taking Fire is an exciting, highly dramatic
story of life and death over North Vietnam. Much more than a
chronicle the events of 27 June 1972, the book gives the reader an
up-close look at the little known world of the U.S. Air Force's
elite aerial rescue force.
The M113 is the most widely used and versatile armoured vehicle in
the world. Fielded in 1960 as a simple 'battlefield taxi', over
80,000 M113s would see service with 50 nations around the world and
55 years later, many thousands are still in use. In addition to its
original role of transporting troops across the battlefield,
specialized versions perform a multitude of other functions
including command and control, fire support, anti-tank and
anti-aircraft defence, and casualty evacuation. This new fully
illustrated study examines the service record of the M113 from its
initial fielding through to the end of the Vietnam War. It will
also describe the many US, South Vietnamese, and Australian
variants of the M113 used in the Vietnam War as well as information
on tactics, unit tables of organization and equipment, and a
selection of engagements in which the M113 played a decisive role.
During Hank Zeybel's first tour in Vietnam he flew 772 C130 sorties
as a navigator. He volunteered for a second tour, requesting
assignment to B26s so he could "shoot back." When B26s were removed
from the inventory, he accepted a Spectre gunship crew slot, flying
truck-busting missions over the Ho Chi Minh Trail. He describes the
terror of flying through heavy AA fire over the trail, and the
heroics of the pilots in bringing their crews through. Away from
the war he recalls leave back in the US, his elderly father
bewildered by his war-hardened attitude and black sense of humor.
Contextualising his time with Spectre gunships, he compares his
experiences with those of other airmen, like Phil Combies and Robin
Olds, and his broader Air Force career - he joined upon graduating
university in 1955 and his first operational assignment was as a
B47 Stratojet navigator-bomber at Strategic Air Command - trained
to drop thermonuclear bombs with precision. From 1957 to 1963, he
logged over two thousand hours as a radar-bombardier in B47
Stratojets and B52 C-models. In this memoir of Vietnam, his Air
Force career and his second career as a journalist and writer,
Zeybel's admiration of the skill and bravery of pilots - many of
whom who he depended on for his very survival - shines through his
desciptions of combat missions and being "along for the ride."
Hanoi's Road to the Vietnam War opens in 1954 with the signing of
the Geneva accords that ended the eight-year-long
Franco-Indochinese War and created two Vietnams. In agreeing to the
accords, Ho Chi Minh and other leaders of the Democratic Republic
of Vietnam anticipated a new period of peace leading to national
reunification under their rule; they never imagined that within a
decade they would be engaged in an even bigger feud with the United
States. Basing his work on new and largely inaccessible Vietnamese
materials as well as French, British, Canadian, and American
documents, Pierre Asselin explores the communist path to war.
Specifically, he examines the internal debates and other elements
that shaped Hanoi's revolutionary strategy in the decade preceding
US military intervention, and resulting domestic and foreign
programs. Without exonerating Washington for its role in the advent
of hostilities in 1965, Hanoi's Road to the Vietnam War
demonstrates that those who directed the effort against the United
States and its allies in Saigon were at least equally responsible
for creating the circumstances that culminated in arguably the most
tragic conflict of the Cold War era.
This is the definitive story of one of the longest and most
controversial conflicts in US history. Created in association with
the Smithsonian Institution, this authoritative history of the
Vietnam War examines the key figures and events of the conflict,
and its lasting effects on the world. This history book for adults
combines compelling text with maps and archive photography, A Short
History of the Vietnam War is an all-encompassing showcase of every
aspect of the fighting and the wider political landscape, from the
struggle for civil rights to the treatment of prisoners. Inside the
pages of this retelling of America's bloodiest conflict, you'll
discover: - Vivid, moving, and informative details of the Vietnam
war, including eyewitness accounts and iconic photographs - A clear
and compelling account of the conflict, in short, self-contained
events from the Battle of Ia Drang to the Tet Offensive and The
Khmer Rouge - Biography spreads highlighting major military and
political figures - Features on everyday life in the war offering
additional context - Stunning image spreads displaying weapons, spy
gear, and other equipment that defined the war - Maps and feature
boxes provide additional information on major events during the
conflict Detailed descriptions of events, from Operation Passage to
Freedom to the evacuation of the US embassy in Saigon, are brought
to life with eyewitness accounts and iconic photographs. Gallery
pages present collections of infantry weapons, artillery, aircraft,
and armoured vehicles, while diagrams and maps show exactly how
battles and decisive moments unfolded, and biographical entries
provide essential insight into the roles of significant individuals
from Henry Kissinger to General Thieu. The perfect read for the
military history enthusiast, A Short History of the Vietnam War is
a stirring visual record of the suffering, sacrifice, and heroism
that occurred in America's bloodiest ever conflicts.
In 1967-68, the United States Marine Corps (USMC) was on the front
line of the defence of South Vietnam's Quang Tri province, which
was at the very heart of the Vietnam conflict. Facing them were the
soldiers of the North Vietnamese Army (NVA), men whose organization
and equipment made them a very different opponent from the famous,
irregular Viet Cong forces. From the 'Hill Battles' in April 1967
to the struggle for the city of Hue (January-March 1968) this
bloody campaign forced the two sides into a gruelling trial of
strength. The USMC held a general technological and logistical
advantage - including close air support and airborne transport,
technology, and supplies - but could not always utilize these
resources effectively in mountainous, jungle, or urban environments
better known by their Vietnamese opponents. In this arresting
account of small-unit combat, David R. Higgins steps into the
tropical terrain of Vietnam to assess the performance and
experience of USMC and NVA forces in three savage battles that
stretched both sides to the limit.
The year is 1970; the war in Vietnam is five years from over. The
women's movement is newly resurgent, and feminists are summarily
reviled as "libbers." Inette Miller is one year out of college-a
reporter for a small-town newspaper. Her boyfriend gets drafted and
is issued orders to Vietnam. Within their few remaining days
together, Inette marries her US Army private, determined to
accompany him to war. There are obstacles. All wives of US military
are prohibited in country. With the aid of her newspaper's editor,
Miller finagles a one-month work visa and becomes a war reporter.
Her newspaper cannot afford life insurance beyond that. After
thirty days, she is on her own. As one of the rare woman war
correspondents in Vietnam and the only one also married to an Army
soldier, Miller's experience was pathbreaking. Girls Don't shines a
light on the conflicting motives that drive an ambitious woman of
that era and illustrates the schizophrenic struggle between the
forces of powerful feminist ideology and the contrarian forces of
the world as it was. Girls Don't is the story of what happens when
a twenty-three-year-old feminist makes her way into the land of
machismo. This is a war story, a love story, and an open-hearted
confessional within the burgeoning women's movement, chronicling
its demands and its rewards.
Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Edition Widely regarded as a classic on
the Vietnam War, Decent Interval provides a scathing critique of
the CIA's role in and final departure from that conflict. Still the
most detailed and respected account of America's final days in
Vietnam, the book was written at great risk and ultimately at great
sacrifice by an author who believed in the CIA's cause but was
disillusioned by the agency's treacherous withdrawal, leaving
thousands of Vietnamese allies to the mercy of an angry enemy. A
quarter-century later, it remains a riveting and powerful testament
to one of the darkest episodes in American history.
Photo reconnaissance played a significant role during the Cold War,
however it remained unknown to the public for many years because
its product and methods remained classified for security purposes.
While the U-2 gets most of the credit, low-level photo
reconnaissance played an equally important role and was essential
to target selection and bomb damage assessment during the Vietnam
War. Moreover the contribution of naval aviation photo
reconnaissance to the bombing effort in Vietnam is largely an
untold story. This book highlights the role of the unarmed
supersonic RF-8A/G photo-Crusader throughout the war, and also the
part played by its F-8 and F-4 escort fighters. Veteran and
historian Kenneth Jack pieces together the chronological history of
photo recon in the Vietnam War between 1964 and 1972, describing
all types of missions undertaken, including several Crusader vs.
MiG dogfights and multiple RF-8 shootdowns with their associated,
dramatic rescues. The narrative focuses on Navy Photo Squadron
VFP-63, but also dedicates chapters to VFP-62 and Marine VMCJ-1.
Clandestine missions conducted over Laos began 1964, becoming a
congressionally authorized war after the Tonkin Gulf incident in
August 1964. VFP-63 played a role in that incident and thereafter
sent detachments to Navy carriers for the remainder of the war. By
war's end, they had lost 30 aircraft with 10 pilots killed, six
POWs, and 14 rescued. The historical narrative is brought to life
through vivid first-hand details of missions over intensely
defended targets in Laos and North Vietnam. While most books on the
Vietnam air war focus on fighter and bombing action, this book
provides fresh insight into the air war through its focus on photo
reconnaissance and coverage of both versions of the Crusader.
In 1968, twenty-one-year-old Fred McCarthy transitioned from the
monastic life of a seminary student to that of a U.S. Army
helicopter gunship commander in Vietnam. Despite preparation from a
family tradition of decorated combat service, a strong sense of
patriotism, a love for aviation, and a desire for adventure, he got
far more than he bargained for. Written after 50 years of
reflection, reading, and study, this memoir tells both a universal
story about war, adventure, and perseverance and, also shares the
intensely personal experience of the Vietnam War and its legacy for
those who fought in it. McCarthy describes many of his missions,
reflects on the nature of being a combat helicopter pilot, and
processes the experience through his poetry, letters home, and
reflective analysis.
By the end of the American war in Vietnam, the coastal province of
Phu Yen was one of the least-secure provinces in the Republic of
Vietnam. It was also a prominent target of the American strategy of
pacification - an effort, purportedly separate and distinct from
conventional warfare, to win the 'hearts and minds' of the
Vietnamese. In Robert J. Thompson III's analysis, the consistent,
and consistently unsuccessful, struggle to place Phu Yen under
Saigon's banner makes the province particularly fertile ground for
studying how the Americans advanced pacification and why this
effort ultimately failed. In March 1970, a disastrous military
engagement began in Phu Yen, revealing the enemy's continued
presence after more than three years of pacification. Clear, Hold,
and Destroy provides a fresh perspective on the war across multiple
levels, from those making and implementing policy to those affected
by it. Most pointedly, Thompson contends that pacification, far
from existing apart from conventional warfare, actually depended on
conventional military forces for its application. His study reaches
back into Phu Yen's storied history with pacification before and
during the French colonial period, then focuses on the province
from the onset of the American War in 1965 to its conclusion in
1975. A sharply focused, fine-grained analysis of one critical
province during the Vietnam War, Thompson's work demonstrates how
pacification is better understood as the foundation of U.S.
fighting in Vietnam.
In 1968, at the age of 22, Karl Marlantes abandoned his Oxford
University scholarship to sign up for active service with the US
Marine Corps in Vietnam. Pitched into a war that had no defined
military objective other than kill ratios and body counts, what he
experienced over the next thirteen months in the jungles of South
East Asia shook him to the core. But what happened when he came
home covered with medals was almost worse. It took Karl four
decades to come to terms with what had really happened, during the
course of which he painstakingly constructed a fictionalized
version of his war, MATTERHORN, which has subsequently been hailed
as the definitive Vietnam novel.
WHAT IT IS LIKE TO GO TO WAR takes us back to Vietnam, but this
time there is no fictional veil. Here are the hard-won truths that
underpin MATTERHORN: the author's real-life experiences behind the
book's indelible scenes. But it is much more than this. It is part
exorcism of Karl's own experiences of combat, part confession, part
philosophical primer for the young man about to enter combat. It It
is also a devastatingly frank answer to the questions '"What is it
like to be a soldier?"' "What is it like to face death?"' and
"'What is it like to kill someone?"'
From the defeat of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam at Ap Bac to
the battles of the Ia Drang Valley, Khe Sanh, and more, Storms over
the Mekong offers a reassessment of key turning points in the
Vietnam War. Award-winning historian William P. Head not only
reexamines these pivotal battles but also provides a new
interpretation on the course of the war in Southeast Asia. In
considering Operation Rolling Thunder, for example-which Head dubs
as "too much rolling and not enough thunder"-readers will grasp the
full scope of the campaign, from specifically targeted bridges in
North Vietnam to the challenges of measuring success or failure,
the domestic political situation, and how over time, Head argues,
"slowly, but surely, Rolling Thunder dug itself into a hole."
Likewise, Head shows how the battles for Saigon and Hue during the
Tet Offensive of 1968 were tactical defeats for the Communist
forces with as many as 40,000 killed and no real gains. At the same
time, however, Tet made it clear to many in Washington that victory
in Vietnam would require a still greater commitment of men and
resources, far more than the American people were willing to
invest. Storms over the Mekong is a blow-by-blow account of the key
military events, to be sure. But beyond that, it is also a measured
reconsideration of the battles and moments that Americans thought
they already knew, adding up to a new history of the Vietnam War.
This book explores how and why Vietnam loomed so large for Humphrey
as vice president from 1964 through the 1968 election campaign
against Richard Nixon. It assesses how Humphrey's loyalty to Lyndon
Johnson, who emerges as the villain of the story in many ways,
would negatively affect his political ambitions. And it engages the
disconnect between Humphrey's principles and the intricate politics
of his convoluted relationship with the president and his
unsuccessful presidential campaign. It is a complex and frustrating
narrative, the results of which would be tragic, not only for
Humphrey's presidential aspirations, but also for the war in
Southeast Asia and the future of the United States.
Even if you don't know much about the war in Vietnam, you've
probably heard of "The Hanoi Hilton," or Hoa Lo Prison, where
captured U.S. soldiers were held. What they did there and whether
they were treated well or badly by the Vietnamese became lasting
controversies. As military personnel returned from captivity in
1973, Americans became riveted by POW coming home stories. What had
gone on behind these prison walls? Along with legends of lionized
heroes who endured torture rather than reveal sensitive military
information, there were news leaks suggesting that others had
denounced the war in return for favorable treatment. What wasn't
acknowledged, however, is that U.S. troop opposition to the war was
vast and reached well into Hoa Loa Prison. Half a century after the
fact, Dissenting POWs emerges to recover this history, and to
discover what drove the factionalism in Hoa Lo. Looking into the
underlying factional divide between prowar "hardliners" and antiwar
"dissidents" among the POWs, authors Wilber and Lembcke delve into
the postwar American culture that created the myths of the HeroPOW
and the dissidents blamed for the loss of the war. What they found
was surprising: It wasn't simply that some POWs were for the war
and others against it, nor was it an officers versus enlisted men
standoff. Rather, it was the class backgrounds of the captives and
their precaptive experience that drew the lines. After the war, the
hardcore hero holdouts-like John McCain-moved on to careers in
politics and business, while the dissidents faded from view as the
antiwar movement, that might otherwise have championed them,
disbanded. Today, Dissenting POWs is a necessary myth buster,
disabusing us of the revisionism that has replaced actual GI
resistance with images of suffering POWs - ennobled victims that
serve to suppress the fundamental questions of America's drift to
endless war.
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