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Books > History > Asian / Middle Eastern history > From 1900 > Postwar, from 1945 > Vietnam War
This is an account of the battle of Kham Duc, one of the least
known and most misunderstood battles in the American Phase of the
Second Indochina War (1959 to 1975). At the time it was painted as
a major American defeat, but this new history tells the full story.
The authors have a unique ability to reassess this battle - one was
present at the battle, the other was briefed on it prior to
re-taking the site two years later. The book is based on exhaustive
research, revisiting Kham Duc, interviewing battle veterans, and
reading interview transcripts and statements of other battle
participants, including former North Vietnamese Army (NVA)
officers. Based on their research, the authors contend that Kham
Duc did not 'fall' and was not 'overrun'. In fact, it was a
successful effort to inflict mass attrition on a major NVA force
with minimum American losses by voluntarily abandoning an
anachronistic little trip-wire border camp serving as passive bait
for General Westmoreland's 'lure and destroy' defensive tactics, as
at Khe Sanh.
As a linguist with the U.S. Navy Fleet Support Detachment in Da
Nang, Herb Shippey was assigned to air reconnaissance during the
Vietnam War. Flying with fellow "spooks" over the Gulf of Tonkin
and Laos, his duty was to protect American aircraft and ships
threatened by MiG 21 fighter jet activity. Shippey's introspective
memoir recounts dangerous missions aboard non-combat aircraft
(EC-121 Warning Star, P-3 Orion, A-3 Sky Warrior), rocket attacks
and typhoons, and the details of his service, some of them
classified for forty years.
The 'missile with a man in it' was known for its blistering speed
and deadliness in air combat. The F-104C flew more than 14,000
combat hours in Vietnam as a bomber escort, a Wild Weasel escort
and a close air support aircraft. Though many were sceptical of its
ability to carry weapons, the Starfighter gave a fine account of
itself in the close air support role. It was also well known that
the enemy were especially reluctant to risk their valuable and
scarce MiGs when the F-104 was escorting bombers over North Vietnam
or flying combat air patrols nearby. The missions were not without
risk, and 14 Starfighters were lost during the war over a two-year
period. This was not insignificant considering that the USAF only
had one wing of these valuable aircraft at the time, and wartime
attrition and training accidents also took quite a bite from the
inventory.
While the F-105 Thunderchief and F-4 Phantom got most of the glory
and publicity during the war in Vietnam, the Lockheed F-104
Starfighter was not given much chance of surviving in a 'shooting
war'. In the event, it did that and much more. Although built in
small numbers for the USAF, the F-104C fought and survived for
almost three years in Vietnam. Like its predecessor the F-100, the
Starfighter was a mainstay of Tactical Air Command and Air Defence
Command, with whom it served with distinction as an air superiority
fighter and point defence interceptor. This small, tough and very
fast fighter, dubbed 'The Missile with a Man in It', was called
upon to do things it was not specifically designed for, and did
them admirably. Among these were close air support and armed
reconnaissance using bombs, rockets and other armaments hung from
its tiny wings, as well as its 20 mm Vulcan cannon, firing 6000
rounds per minute. The jet participated in some of the most famous
battles of the war, including the legendary Operation "Bolo," in
which seven North Vietnamese MiGs went down in flames with no US
losses. Even as it was fighting in Vietnam, the Starfighter was
being adopted by no fewer than six NATO air forces as well as Japan
and Nationalist China. It was later procured by Jordan, Turkey and
Pakistan. The latter nation took the Starfighter to war with India
twice in the 1960s, and it also saw combat with Taiwan.
The story of the Starfighter in Vietnam is one of tragedy and of
ultimate vindication. For decades the F-104's contribution to the
air war in Vietnam was downplayed and its role as a ground attack
machine minimised. Only in recent years has that assessment been
re-evaluated, and the facts prove the Starfighter to have been able
to do its job as well or better than some of the other tactical
aircraft sent to the theatre for just that purpose.
Get out! Run! We must leave this place! They are going to destroy this whole place! Go, children, run first! Go now!
These were the final shouts nine year-old Kim Phuc heard before her world dissolved into flames―before napalm bombs fell from the sky, burning away her clothing and searing deep into her skin. It’s a moment forever captured, an iconic image that has come to define the horror and violence of the Vietnam War. Kim was left for dead in a morgue; no one expected her to survive the attack. Napalm meant fire, and fire meant death.
Against all odds, Kim lived―but her journey toward healing was only beginning. When the napalm bombs dropped, everything Kim knew and relied on exploded along with them: her home, her country’s freedom, her childhood innocence and happiness. The coming years would be marked by excruciating treatments for her burns and unrelenting physical pain throughout her body, which were constant reminders of that terrible day. Kim survived the pain of her body ablaze, but how could she possibly survive the pain of her devastated soul?
Fire Road is the true story of how she found the answer in a God who suffered Himself; a Savior who truly understood and cared about the depths of her pain. Fire Road is a story of horror and hope, a harrowing tale of a life changed in an instant―and the power and resilience that can only be found in the power of God’s mercy and love.
From Andrew Wiest, the bestselling author of The Boys of '67:
Charlie Company's War in Vietnam and one of the leading scholars in
the study of the Vietnam War, comes a frank exploration of the
human experience during the conflict. Vietnam allows the reader a
grunt's-eye-view of the conflict - from the steaming rice paddies
and swamps of the Mekong Delta, to the triple-canopy rainforest of
the Central Highlands and the forlorn Marine bases that dotted the
DMZ. It is the definitive oral history of the Vietnam War told in
the uncompromising, no-holds barred language of the soldiers
themselves.
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