Voices of Courage: The Battle for Khe Sanh, Vietnam

Voices of Courage: The Battle for Khe Sanh, Vietnam

Dozens of illustrations and photographs, accompanied by detailed accounts of the battle, offer a vivid narrative of the seventy-seven-day struggle to control the remote Khe Sanh base in Vietnam, during which a severely outnumbered and isolated group of Marines held off an enemy onslaught, in a multimedia history that features firsthand reminiscences by participants on two audio CDs. 30,000 first printing. This large, lavishly illustrated account of the battle of Khe Sanh in the Vietnam War is a notable addition to the literature on this "lost" battle. The marines and air force pilots who fought it resent the "lost" label and point out that their withdrawal was a political decision by the Johnson administration; it was not forced by the North Vietnamese. Indeed, the North Vietnamese suffered many times the American casualty rate while achieving mostly just the diversion of American firepower from other areas--a useful tactic but one with a very high price. On the American side, marines proved adept at the grittiest and most bruising kind of infantry combat, and the air force delivered classic performances (the narrative of which is particularly enhanced by the illustrations here) of the missions of resupply and close support. Both sides can claim to have shown tenacity and courage, though neither could claim a real victory, except of the Pyrrhic kind. Roland Green Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved "Deliver[s] gripping battle accounts and include timelines to keep the battle in perspective with those tumultuous days of the 1960s" -- Leatherneck, September 2005 "This book is extremely well researched, superbly crafted, and filled with graphic details of pitched battles" -- Marine Corps Gazette, September 2005 "This large, lavishly illustrated account . . . . is a notable addition to the literature on this "lost" battle." -- Booklist, August 2005 Douglas Brinkley is a professor of history at the University of New Orleans and is director of its Dwight D. Eisenhower Center for American Studies. Brinkley has authored three New York Times Notable Books of the Year and has written and edited several popular histories. Most recently, Brinkley wrote Wheels for the World: Henry Ford, His Company, and a Century of Progress and Tour of Duty: John Kerry and the Vietnam War. Ronald J. Drez is a decorated veteran of the Vietnam War. He now serves as a lecturer, historian, and research associate at the Eisenhower Center, where he has made it his life's work to preserve the voices of men who fought in World War II. He is the editor of Voices of D-Day (Louisiana State University Press, 1994) and Twenty-Five Yards of War: The Extraordinary Courage of Ordinary Men in World War II (Hyperion, 2001). This is a Marine's view of the struggle for Khe Sanh, South Vietnam. Despite the ignoble defeat of the French 14 years earlier at Dien Bien Phu, what we find is that although this was a long and bloody struggle, the North Vietnamese Army was resoundingly defeated. This production accompanies a well-written and splendidly illustrated book. Stephen Lang narrates these eyewitness accounts with his habitual excellence. His delivery is crystal clear, and his voice authoritative and strong. The accounts themselves are something of a mixed bag. Not surprisingly, their production quality varies. However, all can be understood, and the unevenness adds something to the emotional impact. M.T.F. © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine