Very few of the many books about the Vietnam War fully address why the fighting was conducted in such a cruel manner, why it was prolonged far past its logical end, or what, ultimately, went wrong. American literature has been reluctant to emphasize the fact that between 3.5 and 5 million Southeast Asians died—many of them peasants—that the majority of the bombs dropped from American planes landed on South Vietnam—our ally and an impoverished agricultural society—or that the use of napalm ...

A classic, must-read Vietnam war memoir about the unforgettable story and unflinching portrait of a young soldier's journey from the roads of upstate New York to the jungles of Vietnam.…and a hard rain fell, has been updated for its 20th anniversary with a new afterword on the Iraq War and its parallels to Vietnam. John Ketwig's message is as relevant today as it was twenty years ago."A magnetic, bloody, moving, and worm's-eye view of soldiering in...

A classic, must-listen Vietnam war memoirThe classic Vietnam war memoir, ...and a hard rain fell is the unforgettable story of a veteran's rage and the unflinching portrait of a young soldier's odyssey from the roads of upstate New York to the jungles of Vietnam. Updated for its twentieth anniversary with a new afterword on the Iraq War and its parallels to Vietnam, John Ketwig's message is as relevant today as it was twenty years ago."A magnetic, ...

“I was always happy to see first light.By first light it was over . . . for a while.”–from Down SouthThere were a lot of ways to get killed in Vietnam. You could get “zapped,” “dinged,” “burned,” “popped,” “smoked,” or “wasted.” Marine 2nd Lt. William H. Hardwick was familiar with all of them because, unlike most USMC artillery officers–who waged their war from bunkers inside protected compounds–Hardwick as a forward observer fought ...

The New York Times BestsellerSidney Hillman Foundation Award Winner"Heartbreaking, terrifying, and enraging. It belongs to the literature of men at war." —Los Angeles Times Book ReviewThe 40th anniversary edition of the classic Vietnam memoir—featured in the PBS documentary series The Vietnam War by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick—with a new foreword by Kevin Powers. The Pulitzer Prize-wi...

"The 2nd Battalion of the 7th Cavalry had the dubious distinction of being the unit that had fought the biggest battle of the war to date, and had suffered the worst casualties. We and the 1st Battalion."A Yale graduate who volunteered to serve his country, Larry Gwin was only twenty-three years old when he arrived in Vietnam in 1965. After a brief stint in the Delta, Gwin was reassigned to the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) in An Khe. There, in the hotly contested Central Highla...

BAPTISM BY FIREChris Ronnau volunteered for the Army and was sent to Vietnam in January 1967, armed with an M-14 rifle and American Express traveler’s checks. But the latter soon proved particularly pointless as the private first class found himself in the thick of two pivotal, fiercely fought Big Red One operations, going head-to-head against crack Viet cong and NVA troops in the notorious Iron Triangle and along the treacherous Cambodian border near Tay Ninh.Patrols, ambu...

A thoughtful, reflective narrative of a reluctant soldier that captures the rhythms of life in war as well as the boredom and chaos of Vietnam.At the height of the Vietnam War, Charles Carr left graduate school to serve in the army in Southeast Asia, knowing that if he didn't, another man would go—and possibly die—in his place. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion of the 47th Infantry (Mechanized) in the northern Mekong Delta for a tour of forcing himself through r...

In 1968 James T. Gillam left college and was drafted into the Army. Within a month he transformed from an uncertain sergeantwho tried to avoid combatto an aggressive soldier killing his first enemy and planning and executing successful ambushes in the jungle. Gillam was a regular point man and occasional tunnel rat who fought below ground an arena that few people knew about until after the war ended. He became a savage strangling a soldier in hand-to-hand combat inside a lightless tunnel. ...

"Vietnam was a fantasy life of gunfire, blood,heat, and superhuman toil."By late 1969, the end of the war was just over the horizon. But for Ches Schneider, a drafted schoolteacher turned infantry grunt in the deadly Central Highlands, it was just beginning. This story of a Missouri boy, told with grit and honesty, describes the stark transition from the normalcy of schooldays to the life-and-death drama endured daily in Vietnam's bloody jungles.As a soldier in the 1...

No one in Vietnam had to tell door gunner and gunship crew chief Al Sever that the odds didn’t look good. He volunteered for the job well aware that hanging out of slow-moving choppers over hot LZs blazing with enemy fire was not conducive to a long life. But that wasn’t going to stop Specialist Sever.From Da Nang to Cu Chi and the Mekong Delta, Sever spent thirty-one months in Vietnam, fighting in eleven of the war’s sixteen campaigns. Every morning when his gunship lifted off, of...

In just ten months in Vietnam, he was overrun, shot up, but not underworked—he survived fifty-four missions as point man. He has one hell of a story to tell.You didn't get into the Rangers without volunteering, and you didn't stay on point unless you liked it. But after watching most of his buddies die in a firefight when his LRRP team was overrun by the NVA, Kregg Jorgenson volunteered to serve on a Blue Team in the Air Cavalry, racing to the aid of soldi...