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Book

Vietnam : an epic tragedy, 1945-1975

Call Number

  • 959.7043 H358 (OSH)

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Edition

First edition.

Publication Information

New York, NY : Harper, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, [2018]

Physical Description

xxxiii, 857 pages, 32 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color), maps ; 24 cm

Summary

Vietnam became the Western world's most divisive modern conflict, precipitating a battlefield humiliation for France in 1954, then a vastly greater one for the United States in 1975. Max Hastings has spent the past three years interviewing scores of participants on both sides, as well as researching a multitude of American and Vietnamese documents and memoirs, to create an epic narrative of an epic struggle.

Contents

  • Introduction
  • Beauty and many beasts
  • The "dirty war"
  • The fortress that never was
  • Bloody footprints
  • The twin tyrannies
  • Some of the way with JFK
  • 1963: coffins for two presidents
  • The maze
  • Into the Gulf
  • "We are puzzled about how to proceed"
  • The escalator
  • "Trying to grab smoke"
  • Graft and peppermint oil
  • Rolling thunder
  • Taking the pain
  • "Waist deep in the Big Muddy"
  • Our guys, their guys: the Vietnamese war
  • Tet
  • The giant reels
  • Continuous replays
  • Nixon's inheritance
  • Losing by installments
  • Collateral damage
  • The biggest battle
  • Big ugly fat fellers
  • A kiss before dying
  • The last act
  • Afterward.

Subjects