Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War
Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War
An incredible publishing storywritten over the course of thirty years by a highly decorated Vietnam veteran, a New York Times best seller for sixteen weeks, a National Indie Next and a USA Today best sellerMatterhorn has been hailed as a brilliant account of war” (New York Times Book Review). Now out in paperback, Matterhorn is an epic war novel in the tradition of Norman Mailer’s The Naked and the Dead and James Jones’s The Thin Red Line. It is the timeless story of a young Marine lieutenant, Waino Mellas, and his comrades in Bravo Company, who are dropped into the mountain jungle of Vietnam as boys and forced to fight their way into manhood. Standing in their way are not merely the North Vietnamese but also monsoon rain and mud, leeches and tigers, disease and malnutrition. Almost as daunting, it turns out, are the obstacles they discover between each other: racial tension, competing ambitions, and duplicitous superior officers. But when the company finds itself surrounded and outnumbered by a massive enemy regiment, the Marines are thrust into the raw and all-consuming terror of combat. The experience will change them forever.Matterhorn is a visceral and spellbinding novel about what it is like to be a young man at war. It is an unforgettable novel that transforms the tragedy of Vietnam into a powerful and universal story of courage, camaraderie, and sacrifice: a parable not only of the war in Vietnam but of all war, and a testament to the redemptive power of literature.
- ASIN: 0802145310
- ISBN: 9780802145314
- Brand: Marlantes, Karl
- Manufacturer: Grove Press
The Vietnam War: An Intimate History
The Vietnam War: An Intimate History
From the award-winning historian and filmmakers of The Civil War, Baseball, The War, The Roosevelts, and others: a vivid, uniquely powerful history of the conflict that tore America apart--the companion volume to the major, multipart PBS film to be aired in September 2017.More than forty years after it ended, the Vietnam War continues to haunt our country. We still argue over why we were there, whether we could have won, and who was right and wrong in their response to the conflict. When the war divided the country, it created deep political fault lines that continue to divide us today. Now, continuing in the tradition of their critically acclaimed collaborations, the authors draw on dozens and dozens of interviews in America and Vietnam to give us the perspectives of people involved at all levels of the war: U.S. and Vietnamese soldiers and their families, high-level officials in America and Vietnam, antiwar protestors, POWs, and many more. The book plunges us into the chaos and intensity of combat, even as it explains the rationale that got us into Vietnam and kept us there for so many years. Rather than taking sides, the book seeks to understand why the war happened the way it did, and to clarify its complicated legacy. Beautifully written and richly illustrated, this is a tour de force that is certain to launch a new national conversation.
- ASIN: 0307700259
- ISBN: 0307700259
- Manufacturer: Knopf
Presidents of War
Presidents of War
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From a preeminent presidential historian comes a “monumental and profoundly important” (Ron Chernow) saga of America’s wartime chief executivesBILL GATES’S SUMMER READING LISTTen years in the research and writing, Presidents of War is a fresh, magisterial, intimate look at a procession of American leaders as they took the nation into conflict and mobilized their country for victory. It brings us into the room as they make the most difficult decisions that face any President, at times sending hundreds of thousands of American men and women to their deaths. From James Madison and the War of 1812 to recent times, we see them struggling with Congress, the courts, the press, their own advisors and antiwar protesters; seeking comfort from their spouses, families and friends; and dropping to their knees in prayer. We come to understand how these Presidents were able to withstand the pressures of war—both physically and emotionally—or were broken by them. Beschloss’s interviews with surviving participants in the drama and his findings in original letters, diaries, once-classified national security documents, and other sources help him to tell this story in a way it has not been told before. Presidents of War combines the sense of being there with the overarching context of two centuries of American history. This important book shows how far we have traveled from the time of our Founders, who tried to constrain presidential power, to our modern day, when a single leader has the potential to launch nuclear weapons that can destroy much of the human race.Praise for Presidents of War"A marvelous narrative. . . . As Beschloss explains, the greatest wartime presidents successfully leaven military action with moral concerns. . . . Beschloss’s writing is clean and concise, and he admirably draws upon new documents. Some of the more titillating tidbits in the book are in the footnotes. . . . There are fascinating nuggets on vir... [Read More]
- ASIN: 0307409600
- ISBN: 9780307409607
- Manufacturer: Crown
Vietnam: A History
Vietnam: A History
"A landmark work...The most complete account to date of the Vietnam tragedy." -The Washington Post Book WorldThis monumental narrative clarifies, analyzes, and demystifies the tragic ordeal of the Vietnam war. Free of ideological bias, profound in its undertsanding, and compassionate in its human portrayls , it is filled with fresh revelations drawn from secret documents and from exclusive interviews with participants-French, American, Vietnamese, Chinese: diplomats, military commanders, high government officials, journalists, nurses, workers, and soldiers. Originally published a companion to the Emmy-winning PBS series, Karnow's defining book is a precursor to Ken Burns's ten-part forthcoming documentary series, The Vietnam War. Vietnam: A History puts events and decisions into such sharp focus that we come to understand - and make peace with - a convulsive epoch of our recent history."This is history writing at its best." -Chicago Sun-Times"Even those of us who think we know something about it will read with fascination." -The New York Times
- ASIN: 0140265473
- ISBN: 0140265473
- Brand: Penguin Books
- Manufacturer: Penguin Books
Legend: The Incredible Story of Green Beret Sergeant Roy Benavidez's Heroic Mission to Rescue a Special Forces Team Caught Behind Enemy Lines
Legend: The Incredible Story of Green Beret Sergeant Roy Benavidez's Heroic Mission to Rescue a Special Forces Team Caught Behind Enemy Lines
The true story of the U.S. Army’s 240th Assault Helicopter Company and a Green Beret Staff Sergeant's heroic mission to rescue a Special Forces team trapped behind enemy lines during the Vietnam War, from New York Times bestselling author Eric Blehm. On May 2, 1968, a twelve-man Special Forces team covertly infiltrated a small clearing in the jungles of neutral Cambodia—where U.S. forces were forbidden to operate. Their objective, just miles over the Vietnam border, was to collect evidence that proved the North Vietnamese Army was using the Cambodian sanctuary as a major conduit for supplying troops and materiel to the south via the Ho Chi Minh Trail. What the team didn’t know was that they had infiltrated a section of jungle that concealed a major enemy base. Soon they found themselves surrounded by hundreds of NVA, under attack, low on ammunition, stacking the bodies of the dead as cover in a desperate attempt to survive the onslaught. When Special Forces Staff Sergeant Roy Benavidez heard their distress call, he jumped aboard the next helicopter bound for the combat zone. What followed would become legend in the Special Operations community. Flown into the foray of battle by the 240th Assault Helicopter Company, Benavidez jumped from the hovering aircraft, ran nearly 100 yards through withering enemy fire, and--despite being immediately and severely wounded--organized an extraordinary defense and rescue of the Special Forces team. Written with extensive access to family members, surviving members of the 240th Assault Helicopter Company, on-the-ground eye-witness accounts never before published, as well as recently discovered archival, and declassified military records, Blehm has created a riveting narrative both of Roy Benavidez’s life and career, and of the inspiring, almost unbelievable events that defined the brotherhood of the air and ground warriors in an unpopular war halfway around the world. Legend recounts the courage and commitment of th... [Read More]
- ASIN: B00N6PETF8
- Brand: Crown
- Manufacturer: Crown
The Vietnam War: The Definitive Illustrated History
The Vietnam War: The Definitive Illustrated History
Created in association with the Smithsonian Institution, this authoritative guide chronicles America's fight against Communism in southeast Asia during the 1960s and 1970s, and comprehensively explores the people, politics, events, and lasting effects of the Vietnam War.Honoring those who served in the war at home or abroad, the inside covers of this book feature images of submitted photographs of Vietnam veterans.Filled with more than 500 photographs, The Vietnam War tells the story of Vietnam through powerful images; profiles of the war's most influential figures, such as Henry Kissinger and Pol Pot; and a complete overview of the conduct, strategies, and events in this controversial war, including Ho Chi Minh's rise to power, the Geneva conference, America's intervention, and the Christmas bombings. Gallery spreads feature collections of infantry weapons, artillery, aircraft, and armored vehicles, and diagrams and maps show exactly where battles and key moments happened.A divisive and destructive event, the Vietnam War was the world's first televised war, and photographs from its front lines powerfully convey war's complex reality. Taking a global perspective, The Vietnam War remembers the people who served and features full spreads about prisoners of war, anti-war protest movements, and the significance of the war for black Americans as they struggled for civil rights.A powerful gift for the military enthusiast, The Vietnam War is a stirring visual record of the suffering, sacrifice, and heroism in America's longest and bloodiest conflict of the 20th century.
- ASIN: 1465457690
- ISBN: 1465457690
- Brand: DK
- Manufacturer: DK
THERE IT IS...IT DON'T MEAN NOTHIN': A Vietnam War Memoir
THERE IT IS...IT DON'T MEAN NOTHIN': A Vietnam War Memoir
There it is, and It don’t mean nothin' are two phrases the grunts used to describe their situation in Vietnam. The first covered the insanity, and the second, the result.At the request of his daughters, Charles Hensler set out to write a brief summary of his time in Vietnam. The project evolved into a cathartic journey, resulting in a compelling, heartfelt memoir. Weaving threads of the events back home throughout his personal story, Hensler skillfully sets a scene integral to understanding how he and his compatriots felt in Vietnam in 1968, a year of transition. A year many Americans turned their backs on the war, and in a way, on those who fought in it.Hensler tells his story in a relatable way, creating a memoir with broad appeal. He held several occupations, giving an opportunity to understand many aspects of the war through his eyes. Through these varied roles, he was able to connect with locals on a different level than most troops. His recollection of these unlikely friendships is sincere and real.Hensler deftly paints scenes, some bloody and some beautiful. He reveals conflicted feelings about being in Vietnam, and how his experiences there affected him for years after his tour finished. He tells it all in a conversational tone, reminding us throughout of the personal nature of the project— explaining to his daughters a part of their father they never knew. Hensler’s memoir, in his words, was a journey retaken and in some ways, finally completed.
- ASIN: B07GV4ZPTR
When I Turned Nineteen: A Vietnam War Memoir
When I Turned Nineteen: A Vietnam War Memoir
It's the year 1969.Glyn Haynie served in the U .S. Army with his brothers of First Platoon Company A 3rd Battalion/1st Infantry Regiment 11th Brigade Americal (23rd Infantry) Division.They were average American sons, fathers, husbands, or brothers who'd enlisted or been drafted from all over the United States and who'd all come from different backgrounds. They came together and formed a brotherhood that will last through time.He shares his experiences about weeks of boredom and minutes to hours of terror and surviving the heat, carrying a 60-pound rucksack, monsoons, a forest fire, a typhoon, building a firebase, fear, death and fighting the enemy while mentally, physically, and morally exhausted.
- ASIN: 0998209511
- ISBN: 0998209511
- Manufacturer: Glyn Haynie
Vietnam: An Epic Tragedy, 1945-1975
Vietnam: An Epic Tragedy, 1945-1975
An absorbing and definitive modern history of the Vietnam War from the acclaimed New York Times bestselling author of The Secret War.Vietnam became the Western world’s most divisive modern conflict, precipitating a battlefield humiliation for France in 1954, then a vastly greater one for the United States in 1975. Max Hastings has spent the past three years interviewing scores of participants on both sides, as well as researching a multitude of American and Vietnamese documents and memoirs, to create an epic narrative of an epic struggle. He portrays the set pieces of Dienbienphu, the 1968 Tet offensive, the air blitz of North Vietnam, and also much less familiar miniatures such as the bloodbath at Daido, where a US Marine battalion was almost wiped out, together with extraordinary recollections of Ho Chi Minh’s warriors. Here are the vivid realities of strife amid jungle and paddies that killed two million people.Many writers treat the war as a US tragedy, yet Hastings sees it as overwhelmingly that of the Vietnamese people, of whom forty died for every American. US blunders and atrocities were matched by those committed by their enemies. While all the world has seen the image of a screaming, naked girl seared by napalm, it forgets countless eviscerations, beheadings, and murders carried out by the communists. The people of both former Vietnams paid a bitter price for the Northerners’ victory in privation and oppression. Here is testimony from Vietcong guerrillas, Southern paratroopers, Saigon bargirls, and Hanoi students alongside that of infantrymen from South Dakota, Marines from North Carolina, and Huey pilots from Arkansas.No past volume has blended a political and military narrative of the entire conflict with heart-stopping personal experiences, in the fashion that Max Hastings’ readers know so well. The author suggests that neither side deserved to win this struggle with so many lessons for the twenty-first century about the misuse of military might... [Read More]
- ASIN: 0062405667
- ISBN: 0062405667
- Manufacturer: Harper
Our Vietnam Wars: as told by 100 veterans who served, Volume 1
Our Vietnam Wars: as told by 100 veterans who served, Volume 1
Want to know what Vietnam was really like? Volume 2 is now out. Be looking for Volume 3 this Fall. Great Stuff! Every American should read them to learn what our young men went through.These are not just more war books. Volume 1 contains the personal stories of 100 veterans, men and women, who served there. Real stories. Real people. Caught up in an all too real war. Volume 2 has 60 more, same number of pages, but longer and more intense stories.January 30 marked the anniversary of the Tet Offensive, the seminal event of a war that dominated my generation and affected so many lives in so many different ways. Some of us were drafted. Some enlisted. Some became war heroes, intentional or not, but most of us were just trying to survive. As we all knew, Vietnam was all about luck, good or bad. And there were hundreds of different wars depending on where you were, the year you were there, your service, branch, unit, rank, job, and race. Whether we were truck drivers, helicopter pilots, infantryman, clerk typists, medics, engineers, MPs, sailors out on Yankee station, artillerymen, or cooks, from 1956 to 1976 from the Delta to the DMZ, these stories tell who we were, the jobs we did, our memories of that time and place, how it changed us, and what we did after we came home.That’s the diversity of experience you’ll find in this book. If you were there, you understand. If you weren’t, grab a copy. The stories are like Doritos. Try a few and you won’t be able to stop.Unfortunately, what little our kids and grandkids know of the war comes from books that only focus on one soldier, one unit, and one year, or movies like Oliver Stone’s Platoon and Hamburger Hill, leaving people to think that all we did was crawl through the jungle on the Cambodian border smoking dope. But that wasn’t how most of us spent our year. Hopefully, these books will help correct that narrative.Over 58,200 of us paid the ultimate price, but the war didn’t end when the last US helicopter li... [Read More]
- ASIN: B079P35BT5