The Only War We Ve Got

Covers a wide assortment of birds-some noted for their beauty, others for their unusual ways of life--from loons to pigeons, falcons, sparrows, and swans

Originally published: [New York]: Ballantine Books, 1987.

A remarkable memoir of small-unit leadership and the coming of age of a young soldier in combat in Vietnam.' "Using a lean style and a sense of pacing drawn from the tautest of novels, McDonough has produced a gripping account of his first command, a U.S. platoon taking part in the 'strategic hamlet' program. . . . Rather than present a potpourri of combat yarns. . . McDonough has focused a seasoned storyteller’s eye on the details, people, and incidents that best communicate a visceral feel of command under fire. . . . For the author’s honesty and literary craftsmanship, Platoon Leader seems destined to be read for a long time by second lieutenants trying to prepare for the future, veterans trying to remember the past, and civilians trying to understand what the profession of arms is all about.”–Army Times

Pulitzer-prize winning author David Halberstam's eyewitness account of the most critical political period of U.S. involvement in Vietnam--the Kennedy/Diem era--remains as fresh and stimulating today as when it was first published in 1965. In the introduction to this edition, historian Daniel J. Singal provides crucial background information that was unavailable when the book was written.

This is the novel that inspired the acclaimed Burt Lancaster movie, Go Tell the Spartans. The year is 1964--early days in South Vietnam--and the U.S. Army Raiders have garrisoned a town that the French abandoned ten years before. The Viet Cong attack, and the Americans reinforce. They're not about to repeat the mistakes of the French! 'Sad, bawdy, and compelling,' wrote the Detroit Free Press. Prophetic, too, of how the larger war would end.