Field gear and inert weapons and ordnance have long been popular items with militaria collectors. The Vietnam War by its very nature offers an incredible range and variety of these items for the interested collector. The North Vietnamese and their puppet troops of the National Liberation Front (Viet Cong or VC) relied primarily on communist allies (Russia, China, North Korea, Cuba and various Eastern Bloc countries of the era) for their weapons and field gear. For this reason, Vietnam represents a microcosm of gear from all of this century's wars, dating back to World War I, as well as a wide range of improvised weapons and equipment. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the variety of hand grenades used by the enemy, including Russian, Chinese, North Korean, Eastern European, French, Japanese and even modified, captured U.S. grenades. Although impossible to completely catalog the extreme variety of weapons and field gear used by the PAVN and VC, author Edward Emering has made a determined effort to present a wide overview of the weapons and field gear used from the late-1950s through the modern era. He has been aided in his goal by obtaining access to the world class collection of the National Vietnam Veterans Art Museum, located in Chicago, Illinois and by material from a number of extensive private collections. This book will help both the serious collector as well as those individuals interested in acquiring only a token piece of history to avoid potentially costly mistakes. A value guide is included.

The Viet Cong have long remained a mystery even to those who fought against them during America's longest and most divisive war. They have been given many acronyms and slang names by the American fighting men; included among them are V.C., Charlie and other less complimentary terms. They have been portrayed in many guises by the American press and popular Hollywood films. None, however, have really addressed the Viet Cong in human terms. This work will strip away the myth and mystery which surrounds the Viet Cong and, through the medium of their own candid photography, present them in human terms. They were everything we were - resourceful, cunning, adaptable, and most of all, human. As did our own American soldiers, they endured life in some of the harshest, most inhospitable terrain on earth. In doing so, they exhibited the will to sacrifice and be sacrificed for the collective goal of unification. Little did they know that we were serving the hidden agenda of the Politburo in Hanoi. In the end, they, like many of our soldiers, were betrayed and abandoned. This book portrays the Viet Cong as seen through their own photography. A cultural obsession, photographs were taken wherever and whenever possible. On many occasions, Allied forces were able to capture such photos. It is from such sources that these photographs are made available, most for the first time ever, to the general public.

The Orders and Decorations of the "enemy" during the Vietnam War have remained shrouded in mystery for many years. References to them are scarce and interrogations of captives during the war often led to the proliferation of misinformation concerning them. To confuse the situation even more, these awards were bestowed by the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), known then as the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV), and the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam (NLF), and a myriad of political and local organizations. Covered ar those Orders and Decorations now considered official by the SRV, as well as many of the obsolete awards bestowed by the DRV and the NLF. It also discusses many of the commemorative, political and local awards. Includes value guide.

The campaign and commemorative medals of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps frame an interesting evolution in our country's military development and willingness to use this power on a worldwide basis. It traces their roots from our own Civil War to assuming the stature of the world's super power. This work provides an in depth overview of not only the history and development of each campaign medal, but also the historical significance of the events surrounding the establishment of each medal. Informative and insightful glimpses of some of the main characters in this history, like Dewey, Sampson. DeLong, Butler, Hanneken, Peary and Byrd are threaded through this work. The book traces the events and their corresponding medals through our current involvement in the Bosnia peacekeeping mission. The book also covers, in great detail, several of the more important commemorative medals which were often struck on a limited basis to account for the lack of appropriate official federal awards. In many cases, these commemorative medals reflect exacting craftsmanship and unusual design features when compared to the campaign medals. All medals are exquisitely photographed in color with the exception of a few of the rare commemorative medals, which are reproduced in black and white. The work also covers a number of interesting foreign awards which have accompanied the award of a number of U.S. campaign medals. This work, which is well organized and easy to read, proves to be an interesting and informative reference work for the collector of these Navy and Marine Corps medals. A value guide is included. Ed Emering is also the author of Orders, Decorations and Badges of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (available from Schiffer Publishing Ltd.).