Description
Book SynopsisCharged with monitoring the huge civilian press corps that descended on Hue during the Vietnam War's Tet offensive, US Army Captain George W. Smith witnessed firsthand a vicious twenty-five day battle. Smith recounts in harrowing detail the separate, poorly coordinated wars that were fought in the retaking of the Hue. Notably, he documents the little-known contributions of the South Vietnamese forces, who prevented the Citadel portion of the city from being overrun, and who then assisted the US Marine Corps in evicting the North Vietnamese Army. He also tells of the social and political upheaval in the city, reporting the execution of nearly 3,000 civilians by the NVA and the Vietcong. The tenacity of the NVA forces in Hue earned the respect of the troops on the field and triggered a sequence of attitudinal changes in the United States. It was those changes, Smith suggests, that eventually led to the US abandonment of the war.
Trade ReviewMilitary history buffs will have a heyday with this account of the longest continuous battle in the Vietnam War.... Smith, who was stationed in Hue during the battle, provides an intensely realistic description of the horror of warfare and hand-to-hand combat.
A riveting, first-person account of the pivotal 25-day 1968 Battle of Hue.
Smith has put together a harrowing eyewitness account of the largest single engagement of the Vietnam War.... [It is] a disturbing and informative book that would be a welcome addition to any military library.
Smith provides a sense of intimate knowledge as he outlines the desperate nature of the urban combat. His inclusion of South Vietnamese units and the description of the role played stands out in the reporting of the war.
Table of Contents
- Next Stop Vietnam.
- The Lotus Flower.
- Staying Alive.
- To the Rescue.
- Help for the Citadel.
- Facing the Unknown.
- Total War.
- The Tide Turns.
- Live, From Hue.
- The Citadel.
- A Jump Start.
- Beginning of the End.
- Credit the ARVN.
- The Aftermath.
