Last Stand at Khe Sanh
Gregg Jones
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Khe Sanh was a pivotal battle in the Vietnam War. Over a terrible period of
77 days, 6000 valiant Americans held off an NVA force five times their size.
The enemy suffered terrible losses, and for that reason those brave Marines claimed victory. However, while large numbers of U.S. soldiers were engaged in the battle, the Viet Cong launch the Tet Offensive, a coordinated attack across the entire country that almost turned the tide of the war.
For that reason, the VC said the win was theirs.
It was a complicated battle involving political and cultural elements. In his book, Gregg Jones looks at all the pieces, analyzes them and presents a comprehensive and chilling picture of what happened on that bloody battlefield back in 1968. As part of his moving intro, the author explains why he wanted to write about this specific battle: Ultimately, I wanted to write something about the Vietnam War that would rise above the rancorous politics that had poisoned America during the conflict and
in the decades since. I wanted to write a book that would capture the experience of ordinary young Americans thrown into these extraordinary events in Vietnam, a tragic sideshow of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. I decided to tell the story of the legendary confrontation at Khe Sanh in early 1968--the human story of the young Americans who were thrust into this pivotal moment in the Vietnam War.
A foreign correspondent and investigative reporter, Jones has written about civil wars in Sri Lanka and Cambodia as well as insurgencies in Burma, Indonesia, India and the Philippines. He spent years in Vietnam as a reporter, and
this story bears all the earmarks of somebody with an extraordinary eye, keen pen and passionate heart.
Originally published on Curled Up With A Good Book at www.curledup.com. © Steven Rosen, 2014
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