The Mammoth Book Of The Vietnam War

By 1969, following the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu, over 500,000 US troops were `in country? in Vietnam. Before America?s longest war had ended with the fall of Saigon in 1975, 450,000 Vietnamese had died, along with 36,000 Americans. The Vietnam War was the first rock ?n? roll war, the first helicopter war with its doctrine of `airmobility?, and the first television war; it made napalm and the defoliant Agent Orange infamous, and gave us the New Journalism of Michael Herr and others. It also saw the establishment of the Navy SEALs and Delta Force. At home, America fractured, with the peace movement protesting against the war; at Kent State University, Ohio National Guardsmen fired on unarmed students, killing four and injuring nine. Lewis?s compelling selection of the best writing to come out of a war covered by some truly outstanding writers, both journalists and combatants, includes an eyewitness account of the first major battle between the US Army and the People?s Army of Vietnam at Ia Drang; a selection of letters home; Nicholas Tomalin?s famous `The General Goes Zapping Charlie Cong?; Robert Mason?s `R&R?, Studs Terkel?s account of the police breaking up an anti-war protest; John Kifner on the shootings at Kent State; Ron Kovic?s `Born on the Fourth of July?; John T. Wheeler?s `Khe Sanh: Live in the V Ring?; Pulitzer Prize-winner Seymour Hersh on the massacre at My Lai; Michael Herr?s `It Made You Feel Omni?; Viet Cong Truong Nhu Tang?s memoir; naval nurse Maureen Walsh?s memoir, `Burning Flesh?; John Pilger on the fall of Saigon; and Tim O?Brien?s `If I Die in a Combat Zone?.

Twenty true stories of covert military operations, from raids into Laos by elite unit MAC-V-SOG to cut the Ho Chi Minh trail during the Vietnam War to the US Navy SEAL 6 operation Neptune's Spear in Abbottabad which resulted in the death of Osama bin Laden. Lewis shines a light on the 'shadow war' units that conduct clandestine operations and tells in full and fascinating detail the most daring missions of the last fifty years, from the the Sayeret Mat'Kal/Mossad 'Wrath of God' mission to assassinate those behind the Munich Olympic massacre of Olympic athletes to the Delta Force mission in Somalia using Black Hawk helicopters which went so tragically wrong.

Over a hundred eyewitness accounts of the reality of combat from some of the finest writers of the last century and our own. Lucid, vivid, complex images of conflict, from Walt Whitman on the American Civil War to contemporary reporting from Afghanistan. The collection includes Martha Gellhorn on the Battle of the Bulge, Michael Herr at Khe Sanh, David Rohde's and Anthony Shadid's Pulitzer-winning accounts of Bosnia and Iraq respectively, Christina Lamb's famous account of being under fire from the Taliban, Robert Fisk on being attacked in Afghanistan, and Nicholas Tomalin's 'The General Goes Zapping Charlie Kong' (one of the inspirations for Apocalypse Now) among many other pieces of exceptional war reporting.

From the start of the 20th century to the most recent major offensives, here are fifty accounts of the battles that made the modern world, described in superb detail by historians and writers including John Keegan, Alan Clark, John Strawson, Charles Mey, John Pimlott, and John Laffin. All the major conflicts are covered, from two world wars, through Korea, Vietnam, Bosnia, Chechnya, to Iraq and Afghanistan. Among the battles featured are: the Somme, Passchendaele, Battle of Britain, Stalingrad, El Alamein, Monte Cassino, Omaha Beach, Iwa Jima, Dien Bien Phu, Ia Drang, Hamburger Hill, Desert Storm, Kabul, Baghdad, and Basra.

Heroism and horror are the keynotes of this gripping new collection of war writing. Includes analyses by celebrated historians, letters home by ordinary GI's, high-adrenalin accounts by front-line combatants and memorable reportage by top war correspondents.

Gathers accounts of America's Revolutionary and Civil wars, the Napoleonic Wars, the Boer War, both World Wars, and the Vietnam War

Using memoirs, letters, and diaries from common soldiers, the author introduces readers to warfare during the Napoleonic Age, covering the battlefields in Europe and America during the French Revolution, as well as the Napoleonic Wars and the the War of 1812. Original.