A Vietnam War battalion commander with the 199th LIB recounts the intense combat he saw during the Tet Offensive and NVA attacks in this candid memoir.This visceral combat memoir chronicles the height of the Vietnam War from the nervous period just before the Tet Offensive through the defeat of that campaign and into the lesser-known yet equally bloody NVA offensive of May 1968. On January 30, 1968, Saigon and nearly every provincial capital in South Vietnam came u...

This Revolutionary War history analyzes the Continental Army's extensive use of guerilla tactics—the beginning of modern Special Ops.When the American Revolution began, the colonial troops had little hope of matching His Majesty's British and German legions. Indeed, Washington's army suffered defeat after defeat in the first few years. But the Americans had a trump card: a reservoir of tough, self-reliant frontier fighters willing to contest the King's men with unc...

A detailed chronicle—including eyewitness accounts—of the year American Patriots turned the tables on the British in the US War of Independence.In 1781, the future of America hung by a thread. British troops occupied key coastal cities, from New York to Savannah. After several harsh winters, the American army was fast approaching the breaking point. Mutinies began to emerge in George Washington's ranks, and it was only the arrival of French troops that provided a r...

On the ground, in the air, and behind the lines, grunts made life-and-death decisions every day—and endured the worst stress of their young lives.It was the tumultuous year 1968, and Robert Tonsetic was Rifle Company commander of the 4th Battalion, 12th Infantry in Vietnam. He took over a group of grunts demoralized by defeat but determined to get even. Through the legendary Tet and May Offensives, he led, trained, and risked his life with these brave men, and this is the thrilling...

As a young enlisted man, Randy Kington served on the front line with some of the first Marine combat units in Vietnam in 1965 and 1966. Kington describes his transformation from boy to man and the training that allowed him to survive nine months of some of the fiercest fighting of the Vietnam War. The good times of comradeship and of helping the underprivileged are contrasted with the life and death experiences that involved three major battles, countless ambushes, and search and destroy m...

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...

Charles Gadd served in Vietnam in late 1967 and 1968 and had experiences very similar to what most enlisted men endured. He describes the mud, blood, leeches, loss of friends, and low morale due to constant harassment by guerrillas. The author, a squad leader with the 101st Airborne, was wounded twice and saw nearly constant action in the Central Highlands. This memoir is a vivid and accurate description of the Vietnam War.*“I must explain that this story is writte...

This is the story that inspired the acclaimed Burt Lancaster film, Go Tell the Spartans. It's 1964--early days in South Vietnam--and the U.S. Army Raiders have garrisoned a town that the French abandoned ten years before. The Viet Cong attack; the Americans reinforce. They're not about to repeat the mistakes of the French! "'Sad, bawdy, and compelling," wrote the Detroit Free Press. Prophetic, too, of how the larger war would end. Revised 2015 edition.

The Vietnam War as seen through the eyes of a GI who served as a translator/interrogator with Psychological Operations while in Vietnam during the war. The book tells of his experiences and his thoughts on the war.

In early February of 1968, at the beginning of the Tet Offensive, Private First Class Gregory V. Short arrived in Vietnam as an eighteen-year-old U.S. Marine. Amid all of the confusion and destruction, he began his tour of duty as an 81mm mortarman with the 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, which was stationed at Con Thien near the DMZ. While living in horrendous conditions reminiscent of the trenches in World War I, his unit was cut off and constantly being bombarded by the North Vietna...

In the fall of 1969, Gary Bray landed in South Vietnam as a recently married, freshly minted second lieutenant in the U.S. Army. His assignment was not enviable: leading the platoon whose former members had committed the My Lai massacre—the murder of hundreds of Vietnamese civilians—eighteen months earlier. In this compelling memoir, he shares his experiences of Vietnam in the direct wake of that terrible event.After My Lai documents the war’s horrific effects on both side...

A remarkable memoir of small-unit leadership and the coming of age of a young soldier in combat in Vietnam.'"Using a lean style and a sense of pacing drawn from the tautest of novels, McDonough has produced a gripping account of his first command, a U.S. platoon taking part in the 'strategic hamlet' program. . . . Rather than present a potpourri of combat yarns. . . McDonough has focused a seasoned storyteller’s eye on the details, people, and incidents that best communicate a visc...