Military history: post-WW2 conflicts Books

Book SynopsisIn his latest publication, William L. O'Neill presents a concise critical history of the New Left, the thinking, people, and events that helped shape the 1960s in America, and its principal heir, the Academic Left.Table of ContentsForeword V Preface IX Chapter One: The Rise of SDS 1 Birth of the New Left 3 SDS Takes the Stage 7 Chapter Two: SDS: Decline and Fall 28 Chapter Three: Hippies and Yippies 45 The Counterculture 45 The Yippies 46 HUAC and The Yippies 54 The End of the Yippies 57 Chapter Four: Fadeout 60 Why the New Left Failed 66 Chapter Five: The Academic Left 79 Speech Codes 84 Multiculturalism 89 Affirmative Action 92 Sexual Harassment 100 Postmodernism 103 Conclusion 106 Bibliography Essay 11 Index 117

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Book SynopsisThis provocative in-depth book focuses on the experiences of the infantry soldier in Vietnam. More than 60 Army and Marine Corps infantrymen speak of their experiences during their year-long tours of duty.

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Book SynopsisBAPTISM 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, ambushes, plunging down VC tunnels, search and destroy missions-there were many ways to drive the enemy from his own backyard, as Ronnau quickly discovered. Based on the journal Ronnau kept in Vietnam, Blood Trails captures the hellish jungle war in all its stark life-and-death immediacy. This wrenching chronicle is also stirring testimony to the quiet courage of those unsung American heroes, many not yet twenty-one, who had a job to do and did it without complaint-fighting, sacrificing, and dying f

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Book SynopsisHarpia Publishing is proud to announce the launch of a new title for 2017, EMB-312 Tucano: Brazil's turboprop success story, set to become the definitive English-language reference work on this revolutionary Latin American aerospace product. Written by an expert in the field, this book recounts the story of Embraer's EMB-312 turboprop trainer, the first aircraft in its class to offer a cockpit and controls equivalent to its fighter contemporaries, as well enough power to match the high-speed manoeuvres of comparable jet trainers. Cheap to fly, capable of operating from unprepared runways and with limited maintenance requirements, the Tucano was Embraer's first design to be built under license outside Brazil, and more than 660 units were produced for service in 16 countries, seven of which have taken it into combat. Although it is best known as a trainer, this remarkable aircraft has also provided front-line air defence in countries including Paraguay and Honduras. After almost 30 yeTrade ReviewThis book describes the success story of the EMB Tucano and is a joy to read as well as a marvelous photo book showing the Tucano in all its executions and paintings that were used by the different air forces it served." - 5 stars * Aviationbookreviews.com *Modellers will find this publication valuable in the extreme for any Tucano build project, and personal accounts breathe extra life into what is an already fascinating, but previously ignored subject. Highly recommended. * Airfix Model World *

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewA deeply moving and clear eyed account of the Syrian conflict from a scholar who has lived its harsh realities on the ground and in exile. Domicide dispels the fiction of a post-conflict Syria, reminding us that the violence continues unabated, just in different configurations, in the wake of war. Azzouz poignantly describes how predatory states weaponize urban reconstruction, enacting new waves of violence in an effort to re-write history and erase communities. Moving us away from the endless mourning of monumental destruction, Domicide tells the bigger story of loss, the deliberate destruction of home. An important book that impels readers to rethink the entire category and contradictions of heritage work that will uncomfortably challenge all of us seeking to capture a world of conflict. * Lynn Meskell, University of Pennsylvania, USA *A harrowing account of everyday violence in contemporary Syria. Azzouz painfully narrates the displacement, dispossession, and compounded grief that Syrians have endured with the loss of home and the social and material fabric that holds it together. In Domicide, we see how Syrians have reimagined and recreated home, against all odds, both inside Syria and in exile. A timely and must-read book. * Rosie Bsheer, Harvard University, USA *A passionate and informed analysis of the deliberate policy pursued by the Asad regime in destroying the built environment of Homs and other Syrian cities. Azzouz’s narrative bears witness to this policy of domicide and also to the courage and dignity with which Homsis defend their city and reconstruct its memory. * Khaled Fahmy, Tufts University, USA *An important contribution to studies of the human costs of the ongoing Syrian civil war ... [and] a call to action, for the clarity Azzouz lays bare of the systematic and deliberate way Homs has been targeted will inspire a new wave of resilience, and the will to rebuild better. * The New Arab *Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Foreword, by Lyse Doucet Preface Introduction 1. Domicide: Slow violence, division and destruction 2. War on home: In search of a place to call home 3. Domicide and representation 4. Domicidal reconstruction 5. Domicide in war and peace Bibliography

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Book SynopsisInspired by his own service, a career that traced the rise and fall of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria from 2014-2021, one US veteran of the war against ISIS has set out to explore how decisions are made in the heat of the moment and particularly in the face of the enemy.

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Book SynopsisFull career arc of a Marine--from lowly grunt to decorated air officer--spanning 1987 to 2013.

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Book SynopsisHow nuclear weapons helped drive the United States into the missile age. The intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), designed to quickly deliver thermonuclear weapons to distant targets, was the central weapons system of the Cold War. ICBMs also carried the first astronauts and cosmonauts into orbit. More than a generation later, we are still living with the political, technological, and scientific effects of the space race, while nuclear-armed ICBMs remain on alert and in the headlines around the world. In The Bomb and America's Missile Age, Christopher Gainor explores the US Air Force's (USAF) decision, in March 1954, to build the Atlas, America's first ICBM. Beginning with the story of the guided missiles that were created before and during World War II, Gainor describes how the early Soviet and American rocket programs evolved over the course of the following decade. He argues that the USAF was wrongly criticized for unduly delaying the start of its ICBM program, endangeringTable of ContentsPreface Introduction 1. Weapons of the Future 2. The Bomb and the Military in the Postwar World 3. Missiles in the Postwar Years 4. Tentative Steps on Rockets 5. Missiles in Question 6. Truman Moves on Missiles 7. The Revival of Ballistic Missiles 8. ICBMs Get the Go-Ahead 9. Deploying ICBMs 10. The Space Race Historiographical Essay: The Atlas in HistoryNotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisAuthor David Oliver describes the development and production of the Harrier from the original Kestrel project.

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Book SynopsisVivid first-hand accounts of American and British soldiers in the front line of the Korean War, giving insight into their recruitment, training, casualties and captivity as well as combat experience.

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Book SynopsisWhen the world held its breath It is more than 25 years since the end of the Cold War. It began over 75 years ago, in 1944 long before the last shots of the Second World War had echoed across the wastelands of Eastern Europe with the brutal Greek Civil War. The battle lines are no longer drawn, but they linger on, unwittingly or not, in conflict zones such as Syria, Somalia and Ukraine. In an era of mass-produced AK-47s and ICBMs, one such flashpoint was Korea Without warning, at 4.00 a.m. on 25 June 1950, North Korean artillery laid down a heavy bombardment on the Ongjin Peninsula, followed four hours later by a massive armoured, air, amphibious and infantry breach of the ill-conceived post-war border that was the 38 north line of latitude. At 11.00 a.m., North Korea issued a declaration of war against the Republic of Korea. Three days later, the South Korean capital, Seoul, fell. The attack upon Korea makes it plain beyond all doubt that Communism has passed beyond the use of subversion to conquer independent nations and will now use armed invasion and war. A week after his reaction to the North Korean invasion, US President Harry S. Truman, in compliance with a UN Security Council resolution, appointed that iconic Second World War veteran, General Douglas MacArthur, commander-in-chief of forces in Korea. The first in a six-volume series on the Korean War, this publication considers those first few fateful days in June 1950 that would cement north south antagonism to this day, the pariah state that is communist North Korea a seemingly increasing threat to an already tenuous global peace.

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Book SynopsisIn the first volume in this series on the Korean War, North Korea Invades the South, North Korean ground forces, armour and artillery crossed the 38th Parallel, and, in blitzkrieg style, rolled back UN and South Korean forces down the Korean peninsula. Despite the US and South Korea committing army, air force and navy units, supported by forces from Australia, Britain, New Zealand, France and Canada, by 31 July, eleven enemy divisions were concentrated in a disconnected line from Ch?nju to Y?ngdong. Along the south coast, North Korean divisions pushed eastward towards Masan. To the east and centre of the peninsula, the enemy closed in on Kimch'?n and the Naktong River line. On the east coast, three North Korean divisions secured the Y?ngd?k-P'ohang axis, placing them within mortar range of the UN airfield at Y?nil. Reeling, the UN forces desperately defended the 140-mile-line lodgement area that incorporated the port of Pusan. Supreme commander of UN forces, General Douglas MacArthur, had his back to the sea, facing thirteen enemy infantry divisions, two new tank brigades and an armoured division. On 1 September, North Korean forces launched their strongest offensive to date, and in the first two weeks of the month, American casualties became the heaviest of the war. Of particular concern to General Walker was the danger of losing the town of Taegu in the centre. The resultant loss of the strategic Taegu-Pusan railway would be catastrophic. MacArthur and Washington were running out of options, but the Pusan Perimeter had to be defended at all costs.

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Book SynopsisOn March 30, 1972 some 30,000 North Vietnamese troops along with tanks and heavy artillery surged across the demilitarized zone into South Vietnam in the opening round of Hanoi's Easter Offensive. By early May South Vietnamese forces were on the ropes and faltering. Without the support of U.S. combat troops - who were in their final stage of withdrawing from the country - the Saigon government was in danger of total collapse and with it any American hope of a negotiated settlement to the war. In response, President Richard Nixon called for an aggressive, sustained bombardment of North Vietnam. Code-named Operation Linebacker I, the interdiction effort sought to stem the flow of men and material southward, as well as sever all outside supply lines in the first new bombing of the North Vietnamese heartland in nearly four years. To meet the American air armada, North Vietnamese MiG fighters took to the skies and surface-to-missiles and anti-aircraft fire filled the air from May to October over Hanoi and Haiphong. With the failure of its Easter Offensive to achieve military victory, Hanoi reluctantly returned to the negotiating table in Paris. However, as the peace talks teetered on the edge of collapse in mid-December 1972, Nixon played his trump card: Operation Linebacker II. The resulting twelve-day Christmas bombing campaign from 18-30 December unleashed the full wrath of American air power. More than 2,200 attack sorties, including 724 B-52 sorties alone, were flown by Air Force and Navy aircraft delivering 15,287 tons of bombs that laid waste to the North Vietnamese capital. Railyards, military storage depots, power stations, and bridges, as well as radar and communication sites, airfields, and anti-aircraft defences were pummelled day and night. Linebacker II would prove to be decisive: a ceasefire agreement was signed on 23 January 1973.

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Book SynopsisInchon, a dramatic Cold War event: in the first two volumes in the author's series on battles of the Korean War, North Korean ground forces, armour and artillery cross the 38th Parallel into South Korea, inflicting successive ignominious defeats on the ill-prepared US-led UN troops, pushing them ever southward into a tiny defensive enclave the Pusan Perimeter on the tip of the Korean Peninsula. General Douglas MacArthur, Second World War veteran of the South East Asia and Pacific theatres, meets with considerable resistance to his plans for a counteroffensive, from both Washington and his staff in South Korea and Japan: it is typhoon season, the approaches to the South Korean port city of Inch'?n are not conducive to amphibious assault, and it will leave the besieged Pusan Perimeter in great danger of being overrun. However, the controversial MacArthur's obstinate persistency prevails and, with a mere three weeks to go, the US X Corps is activated to execute the invasion on D-Day, 15 September 1950. Elements of the US Marine Corps land successfully on the scheduled day, and with the element of surprise on their side, immediately strike east to Seoul, only 15 miles away. The next day, General Walker's Eighth US Army breaks out of Pusan to complete the southerly envelopment of the North Korean forces. Seoul falls on the 25th. MacArthur's impulsive gamble has paid off, and the South Korean government moves back to their capital. The North Koreans have been driven north of the 38th Parallel, effectively bringing to an end their invasion of the south that started on 25 June 1950.

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Book SynopsisThe combatants in the three Vietnam wars from 1945 to 1975 employed widely contrasting supply methods. This fascinating book reveals that basic traditional techniques proved superior to expensive state of the art systems. During the Indochina or French' war, France's initial use of wheeled transport and finally air supply proved vulnerable given the terrain, climate and communist adaptability . The colonial power gave up the unequal struggle after the catastrophic defeat at Dien Bien Phu. To stem the advance of Communism throughout the region, the Americans stepped in to support the pro-Western South Vietnam regime and threw vast quantities of manpower and money at the problem. The cost became increasingly unpopular at home. General Giap's and Ho Chi Minh's ruthless use of coolies most famously on the Ho Chi Minh Trail proved resistant to carpet-bombing and Agent Orange defoliation. The outcome of the final war between the Communist North Vietnam and the corrupt Southern leadership, now with minimal US support, was almost a forgone conclusion. The Author is superbly qualified to examine these three wars from the logistic perspective. His conclusions make for compelling reading and will be instructive to acting practitioners and enquiring minds.

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Book SynopsisA collection of war stories closely based on the author's experiences flying scout/observation helicopters in Vietnam. Story telling was a daily evening occurrence for the solo scout pilots. These stories, called TINS, an irreverent pilot acronym for this is no shit,' allowed the solo pilots to learn from each other's experiences and mistakes. The TINS within this collection reveal the brotherhood that developed between pilots and their crew chiefs in combat. The solo pilots relied on their courage, swapping stories and a bit of luck to survive.

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Book SynopsisThe Marines of First Battalion, Ninth Marines earned their macabre moniker 'The Walking Dead' in the Vietnam War. _Into Helmand with the Walking Dead_ follows the experiences of two Marine infantrymen from 1/9 fighting in Afghanistan. Following the 11 September attacks in 2001, Operation Enduring Freedom catalysed the longest war in United States history. The lives of thousands of Afghans, Americans, and many others were forever altered due to the ensuing war. The book is a brutally honest portrayal of life and death in the Marine infantry both at war in Afghanistan and upon returning to the home front, where issues of reintegration and suicide become a reality. This is the tale of the young Americans who became infantrymen and conducted America's foreign policy in its most ruthless and straight-forward manner. But war, in and of itself, is only playing a small part. The culture and environment from which they re-entered civil society would leave them uncertain, and confused as to the cataclysm they had just left. This book is a testimony to their experience and the legacy of war on their generation.

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Book SynopsisThis book describes how the United States Air Force tactical reconnaissance units operated from the end of World War II until the 1970s. This was an immensely active period that also included major conflicts in Korea and Vietnam. It was also a period of rapid technological development in aircraft and photographic techniques. The book includes the following: Introduction: The post war period in Europe and the East. The Korean Conflict and the role of the 67th TRW from 1950 to 1954\. The role of the highly secret RF-86 missions over Red China and the Soviet Far East in the early to mid '50s. Also the RB-57A missions out of Bitburg and Yokota flying clandestinely over the Soviet Union and the RF-100A missions that were flown over the Soviet Union from Turkey, Rhine Maine and Yokota. United States Air Forces in Europe. The Cuban Missile Crisis and the role of the RF-101 Voodoos and RB-66s. Colour Profiles done by Robbie Robinson.

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Book SynopsisThe United States could have won the war in Vietnam if only President Lyndon Johnson had let his air generals do what they wanted...if only we had intervened massively...if only we had pursued our campaign against the Viet Cong infrastructure. These propositions and others, advanced by apologists for the American defeat in Vietnam (many of them the very generals and officials responsible for prosecuting the war), are fast becoming conventional wisdom. In The Hidden History of the Vietnam War, John Prados meets them head on. His straightforward narrative does not aim to be a comprehensive history; instead he focuses on key strategies, events, and personalities in the struggle. Mr. Prados's book draws from a broad range of evidence, including archival documents and official military government reports. By avoiding the atomized individual accounts that have characterized much of the nonfiction on Vietnam, and selecting crucial issues and battle actions, he succeeds in illuminating the high points of the Vietnam experience and puncturing the popular mythologies of the war.Trade ReviewPerceptive...Prados probes deeply and with knowledgeable insights into the war. -- George McT. Kahin, author of InterventionLike sudden shafts of light, these well-aimed essays illuminate all areas of the hidden history of the war...thoroughly exciting and complex. -- Lloyd C. Gardner, author of Approaching VietnamThe Hidden History of the Vietnam War is a model of lucid writing and fair judgment which tells us things we need to know. -- Thomas Powers, author of Heisenberg's War

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Book SynopsisAs the dreadful reality of the coalition's defeat in Iraq begins to sink in, one question dominates Washington and London: Why? In this controversial new book, Jonathan Steele provides a stark and arresting answer: Bush and Blair were defeated from the day they decided to occupy the country. Steele describes the centuries of humiliation that have scarred the Iraqi national psyche, creating a powerful and deeply felt nationalism and spreading cultural landmines along the road to winning Baghdad. Steele shows for the first time how the invasion and occupation were perceived by ordinary Iraqis, whose feelings and experiences were completely ignored by Western policymakers. The result of such arrogance, Steele demonstrates, was a failure that will forever resonate with such dark chapters of American and British history as the Vietnam War and the Suez Canal crisis. Blending vivid reportage, informed analysis, and sweeping historical narrative, Defeat is the definitive post-mortem on this pivotal catastrophe.

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Book SynopsisMilitary memoirs abound, but few prove to be trustworthy accounts free of spin, bravura, or military glitter. John Merson’s War Lessons takes a rare reflective approach to this pressing issue of our time. In vivid, unadorned prose, he interweaves his own experiences in war with thoughtful assessments of how to prevent it. He highlights the daily experience of combat from the perspective of both the foot soldier and the villager in whose home the war is being fought. When he leaves Vietnam, Merson begins an odyssey that brings him back eight times. The book limns this process as a poignant personal voyage and the author struggles to understand why young people are drawn to war, how it changes those who fight it, why its destructive effects persist on both sides, how former enemies reconcile, and how soldiers wanted to be treated and remembered by the citizens who send them to war. War Lessons also offers hope, suggesting strategies for young people to help the world reclaim its humanity through healing actions such as participating in UN peacekeeping programs, working to prosecute war crimes, and protecting refugees.

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Book SynopsisThe author, a veteran, is professor and chief of general surgery for the University of Mississippi Medical Center. Details the struggles at five iconic American battles: Bataan, Anzio, Bastogne (World War II); Chosin (Korea); Khe Sanh (Vietnam). Most readers do not think about what happens to wounded soldiers; this book is as gripping and moving as any great military history, yet it revolves around the immediate care of soldiers who have suffered in combat. All of the medical personnel discussed are often within in yards of the fighting. In many ways, this book provides a much better sense of actual combat than any fighting soldier's memoir. Here, often in little to no light, often crawling on the ground, doctors try to assess who can be saved amidst the carnage. In some cases, they must attempt to provide medical care with no supplies. Nurses, doctors, and corpsmen are all discussed in each battle and how they worked together, living and dying alongside the soldiers they were charged with healing. As technology advanced, soldiers who would have died in previous wars were now saved, but as the author reveals through the recollection of doctors, the medical staff were as scarred as the men they had kept alive were they really doing the soldiers a service? Soldiers who would have to carry on with a disfigured face, without an arm, leg, pissing in a bag, or more? This is a very powerful book, well written, passionate, and provides the balance what the actual sacrifices are to traditional military histories.

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Book SynopsisThe Marine Corps Way of War examines the evolving doctrine, weapons, and capability of the United States Marine Corps during the four decades since our last great conflict in Asia. As author Anthony Piscitelli demonstrates, the USMC has maintained its position as the nation’s foremost striking force while shifting its thrust from a reliance upon attrition to a return to maneuver warfare. In Indochina, for example, the Marines not only held territory but engaged in now-legendary confrontational battles at Hue, Khe Sanh. As a percentage of those engaged, the Marines suffered higher casualties than any other branch of the service. In the post-Vietnam assessment, however, the USMC ingrained aspects of Asian warfare as offered by Sun Tzu, and returned to its historical DNA in fighting “small wars” to evolve a superior alternative to the battlefield. The institutionalization of maneuver philosophy began with the Marine Corps’ educational system, analyzing the actual battle-space of warfare—be it humanitarian assistance, regular set-piece battles, or irregular guerrilla war—and the role that the leadership cadre of the Marine Corps played in this evolutionary transition from attrition to maneuver. Author Piscatelli explains the evolution by using traditional and first-person accounts by the prime movers of this paradigm shift. This change has sometimes been misportrayed, including by the Congressional Military Reform Caucus, as a disruptive or forced evolution. This is simply not the case, as the analyses by individuals from high-level commanders to junior officers on the ground in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere, demonstrate. The ability of the Marines to impact the battlefield—and help achieve our strategic goals—has only increased during the post-Cold War era. Throughout The Marine Corps Way of War: The Evolution of the U.S. Marine Corps from Attrition to Maneuver Warfare in the Post-Vietnam Era, one thing remains clear: the voices of the Marines themselves, in action or through analysis, describing how “the few, the proud” will continue to be America’s cutting-edge in the future as we move through the 21st Century. This new work is must-reading for not only every Marine, but for everyone interested in the evolution of the world’s finest military force.

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Book SynopsisValor in Vietnam focuses on 19 stories of Vietnam, stories of celebrated characters in the veteran community, compelling war narratives, vignettes of battles, and the emotional impact on the combatants. It is replete with leadership lessons as well as valuable insights that are just as applicable today as they were 40 years ago. This is an anecdotal history of America’s war in Vietnam composed of firsthand narratives by Vietnam War veterans presented in chronological order. They are intense, emotional, and highly personal stories. Connecting each of them is a brief historical commentary of that period of the war, the geography of the story, and the contemporary strategy written by Dr. Lewis“Bob” Sorley, West Point class of 1956, and author of A Better War. Valor in Vietnam presents an historical overview of the war through the eyes of participants in each branch of service and throughout the entire course of the war. Simply put, their stories serve to reflect the commitment, honour and dedication with which America’s veterans performed their service. About the Author Allen B. Clark graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1963. Two years later, in 1965, he volunteered for service in Vietnam and was assigned to the Fifth Special Forces Group. He was wounded in an early-morning mortar attack on the Dak To Special Forces camp on June 17, 1967, that necessitated the amputation of both legs below his knees. He lives outside Dallas in Plano, Texas, and is the author of Wounded Soldier, Healing Warrior.Trade Review…an interesting read and potentially a source book for some gaming scenarios. * Wargames, Soldiers, and Strategy *

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Book SynopsisU.S. Army Captain Kimberly N. Hampton was living her dream, flying armed helicopters in combat and commanding D Troop, 1st Squadron, 17th Cavalry, the armed reconnaissance aviation squadron of the 82nd Airborne Division, when in January 2, 2004, whilst flying above Fallujah, Iraq, searching for an illusive sniper on the rooftops of the city, the helicopter crashed, killing her. A little past noon her helicopter was wracked by an explosion; a heat-seeking air-to-ground missile had gone into the exhaust and knocked off the helicopter’s tail boom. Kimberly’s Flight is the story of Captain Hampton’s exemplary life. This story is told through nearly fifty interviews and her own e-mails to family and friends, and is entwined with Ann Hampton’s narrative of loving and losing a child. About the Authors Award-winning journalist Anna Simon has been a reporter with The Greenville News in South Carolina since 1990. She received the South Carolina Press Association’s first place award for Reporting in Depth in 2009, and is a past recipient of multiple awards in education reporting, the press association’s Judson Chapman Award for Community Service, and other news and feature writing awards. Kimberly’s mother, Ann Hampton, first met Anna Simon immediately following her daughter’s death, when Ms. Simon wrote a series of stories for The Greenville News about Kimberly. Ann has travelled twice to Iraq, most recently in November 2010 as a Gold Star Mom in a“Hugs for Healing” program where American and Iraqi mothers grieving the deaths of their children worked side-by-side on humanitarian projects.

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Book SynopsisThis work describes U.S. Marine Corps helicopter operations, including their actions and evolution, throughout the Vietnam War. The book is divided into parts spanning the three stages of the Corps’ combat deployment: “Buildup (1962–1966),” “Heavy Combat (1967–1969),” and “The Bitter End (1975).” Each part includes chapters devoted to “telling the story” of Marine helicopters from the individual to the strategic level. Vietnam has often been called our“first helicopter war,” and indeed the U.S. Marine Corps, as well as Army, had to feel its way forward during the initial combats. But by 1967 the combat was raging across South Vietnam, with confrontational battles against the NVA, on a scale comparable to the great campaigns of WWII. In 1968, when the Communists launched their mammoth counteroffensive, the Marines were forced to fight on all sides, with the helicopter giving them the additional dimension that proved decisive in repelling the enemy. The author, a Vietnam veteran, uses his experiences as a company commander to bring the story to life by weaving personal accounts, after-action reports and official documents into a remarkably readable narrative of service and sacrifice by Marine pilots and crewmen. The entire story of the war is here depicted through the prism of Marine helicopter operations, from the first deployments to support the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) against the Viet Cong through the rapid United States buildup to stop the North Vietnamese Army, until the final withdrawal from our Embassy. Colonel Dick Camp, a Purple Heart recipient, served 26 years in the U.S. Marine Corps before retiring in 1988. Upon retirement he served as the Deputy Director, U.S. Marine Corps History Division and as the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation, Vice President for Museum Operations at the National Museum of the Marine Corps, Quantico, Virginia. Currently residing in Fredericksburg, Virginia, he is the author of ten books and over 100 magazine articles on various military related subjects.Trade Review“Assault from the Sky is an extraordinary tribute...bears Camp’s witness of the escalation of battle and ...documents the skill, capacity, and commitment of those Marine pilots and crews, both officer and enlisted. This book is a significant reportage of and gracious tribute to that group of men... Assault is enhanced immeasurably by the interspersing of an album of black and white vintage photos. It is a book of military history and personal stories, techniques and tactics in the context of personal truths.” * Veterans Law Journal *Assault from the Sky is a well-researched, detailed history of Marine helicopters from the time the first ones arrived in Vietnam in 1962 all the way through to the helicopter-heavy evacuation of Saigon in 1975. * The VVA Veteran *

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Book SynopsisAs the Soviet Union teetered on the edge of collapse during the late 1980s, and America prepared to claim its victory, a bloody war still raged in Southern Africa, where forces from both sides vied for control of Angola. The result was the largest battle on the dark continent since Al Alamein. The socialist government of Angola and its army, FAPLA, had only to wipe out a massive resistance group, UNITA, secretly supplied by the U.S, in order to claim full sovereignty over the country. A giant FAPLA offensive so threatened to succeed in overcoming UNITA that apartheid-era South Africa stepped in to protect its own interests. The white army crossing the border prompted the Angolan government to call on their own foreign reinforcements—the army of Communist Cuba. Thus began the epic battle of Cuito Cuanavale, largely unknown in the U.S., but which raged for three months in the entirely odd match-up of South African Boers vs. Castro’s armed forces, which for the first time in the Cold War proved what it could achieve. The South Africans were no slouches at warfare themselves, but had suffered under a boycott of weapons since 1977. The Cubans and Angolan troops had the latest Soviet weapons, easily delivered. But UNITA had its secret U.S. supply line and the South Africans knew how to fight. Meantime the Cubans overcame their logistic difficulties with an impressive airlift of troops over the Atlantic, while the Boers simply needed to drive next door.Trade Review'... a detailed examination of the battle of Cuito Cuanavale that will assist military historians concerned to understand the value of specific armaments in determining the outcomes of proxy wars in the Cold War era.' -- Ian David Stewart, Michigan War Studies Review * Michigan War Studies Review *

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Book SynopsisOriginally published in 1991, this classic work has now been revised and updated with additional photos. It is the story of how, in Vietnam, an elite group of Air Force pilots fought a secret air war in Cessna 0-2 and OV-10 Bronco prop planes—flying as low as they could get. The eyes and ears of the fast-moving jets who rained death and destruction down on enemy positions, the Forward Air Controller made an art form out of an air strike—knowing the targets, knowing where friendly troops were, and reacting with split-second, life and death decisions as a battle unfolded.The expertise of the low, slow FACs, as well as the hazard attendant to their role, made for a unique birds-eye perspective on how the entire war in Vietnam unfolded. For Tom Yarborough, who logged 1,500 hours of combat flying time, the risk was constant, intense and electrifying. A member of the super-secret“Prairie Fire” unit, Yarborough became one of the most frequently shot-up pilots flying out of Da Nang—engaging in a series of dangerous secret missions in Laos. In this work, the reader flies in the cockpit alongside Yarborough in his adrenaline-pumping chronicle of heroism, danger and wartime brotherhood. From the rescuing of downed pilots to taking out enemy positions, to the most harrowing extended missions directly overhead of the NVA, here is the dedication, courage and skill of the fliers who took the war into the enemy's backyard.

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Book SynopsisIn our wars since 2001 the term “front line” has long since lost its meaning, and the true combats have waged throughout the countries we’ve invaded, especially along the supply routes. Our opponents have not been able to stand with conventional forces, but instead attack inside our lines, their presence everywhere, if not always discernible. Into this mix of behind-the-lines attacks, combat logistics have played a larger role than ever. In Afghanistan particularly, the long convoy routes have been vulnerable to the same kind of surprise attacks suffered by the Soviets in past decades, the British 150 years ago, and Alexander the Great 2,000 years ago. The combats surround, and in that godforsaken landlocked land, the means to supply a Western army has to be undertaken with blood and sweat, once the quick panacea of airpower is overtaxed.When he joined the Marines, Jeff Clement was not a high-speed, top-secret recon guy. A logistician instead, he led combat convoys across treacherous terrain in southern Afghanistan through frequent enemy attacks in order to resupply US and British positions. As such he and his vehicles were a constant target of the resistance, and each movement was a travail, often accompanied by thundering blasts as the insurgents paved their way with IEDs. Each movement was fraught with danger, even as each objective had to be met. As a Marine Corps lieutenant, he deployed to Afghanistan twice, and always found a learning curve, as men previously on the ground were more savvy, and the insurgents, there for the duration, were savvier still. The Lieutenant Don’t Know provides a refreshing look at the nitty-gritty of what our troops have been dealing with in Afghanistan, from the perspective of a young officer who was perfectly willing to learn, and also take responsibility for his units in a confusing war where combat was not merely on the “front,” but all around, and looking over all their roads.

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