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"Pham Xuan An was a Communist agent whose espionage adventures - under the cover story of a celebrated war correspondent in the Western Media -- were as brilliant for Hanoi as they were shattering for Washington during the tumultuous days of the Vietnam War. He has been dubbed "the perfect spy" and affectionately referred to by some as "the spy who loved us". Not quite. Journalist and Southeast Asian specialist Luke Hunt prises this story open. He knew and interviewed An for many years, along with many friends and colleagues in journalism who knew him best in war, on the journalistic beat and amid the collapse of South Vietnam"--Provided by publisher.
During the Vietnam War, the Viet Cong were frequently unable to hold their own in stand-up fights against US and allied forces who were superior in strength, firepower, mobility, and logistics. They relied instead on traditional guerrilla warfare tactics including small-scale hit- and-run attacks, ambushes, terrorist actions, and precision attacks against bases. These included one of the oldest of guerrilla weapons – the boobytrap. Booby traps could be made in large numbers in village workshops and jungle camps using locally available materials as well as modern munitions. The VC were adept at making booby traps 'invisible' in the varied terrain of Vietnam, often emplacing them in locations and surroundings totally unexpected by their enemies. Booby traps could be incredibly simple or startlingly complex and ingenious, ranging from pointed sticks to command-detonated submerged floating river mines. Besides a wide variety of booby traps, they also used land and water mines, both contact/pressure-detonated and command-detonated. Between January 1965 and June 1970 11 percent of US troop deaths in action and 17 percent of injuries were by caused booby traps and mines. This fascinating title explores not only the wide variety of booby traps employed by the Viet Cong, but also their various uses in halting, stalling, or locating an enemy, and the many evolutions these traps underwent in order to retain the element of surprise. Written by a Vietnam veteran with first-hand experience of such traps, this is an engaging look at one of the most frightening aspects of guerrilla warfare.
Following Churchill's directive to 'set occupied Europe ablaze,' the SOE and later its American sister organization, the OSS, were deployed across the continent. Outnumbered, surrounded and in great peril, these brave agents were armed with a wide variety of devices to help them achieve their objectives, including numerous pieces of sabotage equipment and cunning booby traps. This book examines these different pieces of equipment and the technicalities involved in deploying them effectively, as well as discussing the specialist equipment developed by Special Forces units, including the SAS Lewes Bomb. Touching on some of the stranger developments, such as explosives disguised as lumps of coal, the author goes on to describe the German clearance techniques that were developed to avoid these dangers. Complete with specially commissioned artwork and period diagrams together with detailed descriptions of the dangerous missions of Allied agents, this book is a fascinating insight into the secret war behind enemy lines.
This memoir relates the author's experiences during his year-long tour of duty in the early days of American involvement in Vietnam. Serving in Bravo Company of the 1st Infantry Division, Ray Pezzoli provided protection for engineers constructing the deep water port in Cam Ranh Bay. From July 11, 1965, through June 22, 1966, he dealt with the ever-present threat of Viet Cong guerilla attacks, never knowing whether the Vietnamese natives he met might be friends or enemies. And as an Army reporter, he recorded some of his experiences in print and photographs. From guard duty to bathing practices, Pezzoli describes the daily life of soldiers with the keen eye of a journalist while also questioning the wisdom of extensive media involvement during wartime. Unique to his story is the dual perspective of infantryman and journalist; Pezzoli never forgot his military objective, and tallied at least 11 kills. The memoir provides a moving narrative not only of his service but of his culture shock on returning to America. An appendix provides additional information about Vietnam, including its history before and after American involvement. The author's photographs from the time are included.
When the Vietnam War punctured the myth of American military invincibility, Hollywood needed a new kind of war movie. The familiar triumphal narrative was relegated to history and, with it, the heroic legacy that had passed from one generation to the next for more than two hundred years. How Hollywood helped create and instill the American myth of heroic continuity, and how films revised that myth after the Vietnam War, is what Armando José Prats explores in Hollywood’s Imperial Wars. The book offers a new way of understanding the cultural and historical significance of Vietnam in relation to Hollywood’s earlier representations of Americans at war, from the mythic heroism of a film like Sands of Iwo Jima to the rupture of that myth in films such as The Deer Hunter, Apocalypse Now, and Platoon. As early as the mid-1940s, Prats suggests, fears aroused by the Cold War were stirring anxieties about sustaining the heroic myth—anxieties reflected in the insistent, aggressive patriotism in films of the period. In this context, Prats considers the immeasurable cultural importance of John Wayne, the cinematic apotheosis of wartime valor and righteousness, whose patriotism was nonetheless deeply compromised by his not having served in World War II. Prats reveals how historical and cultural anxieties emerge in well-known Vietnam movies, in which characters inspired by the heroes of the Second World War are denied the heroic legacy of their fathers. American war movies, in Prats’s analysis, were forever altered by the loss in Vietnam. Even movies like American Sniper that exalt war heroes are marked as much by the failure of the heroic tropes of old Hollywood war movies as by the tragic turn of actual historical events. Tracing what Prats calls the “anxiety of legacy” through the films of the World War II and post–Vietnam War periods, this book offers a new way of looking at both the Hollywood war movie and the profound cultural shifts it reflects and refracts.
Medic Criss Hinson had been in Vietnam for only four days when unauthorized, he joined a flight in need of a medic to help transport wounded back to Da Nang. The plane was hit by machine gun rounds and forced to land in nearby rice paddies. Its passengers included four Green Berets, who along with Criss and the other men aboard had to fight a deadly battle with a Viet Cong patrol to reach a Marine outpost. Because of his varied skills and performance under pressure, for the rest of his tour in Vietnam, Criss was part of many dangerous missions, some outside the military’s standard rules and regulations, and eventually he became a go-to medic for the legendary Air America. With wit, brash humor, vivid expression, and richly expressed feeling, Unauthorized Acts takes the reader on a roller coaster ride of missions, rescues, field duties, hospital assignments, and sudden shocking horror juxtaposed against the ordinary or ridiculous. Hinson recreates the war from a fresh and unusual perspective that is revealed to the reader in a sometimes unsettling, hilarious, or often profoundly moving way.
Vietnam was the first war America lost on the ground. In this fascinating account, historian Nigel Cawthorne traces the conflict from its inception to its traumatic end. He looks at the political events that led tot he war and examines its impact upon both the Americans and the Vietnamese, whose battle for the independence of their country was to leave lingering scars upon the American psyche. Vietnam: A War Lost and Won is an even-handed assessment of a conflict whose wounds would take a generation to heal.
How familiar is this? You attend a reunion and inevitably several members recollecting a significant event begin arguing over when that event actually occurred. As you listen to them debating over the circumstances you realize that neither has a clue as to the facts or sequence of events. Since 2003 I have attended Third Battalion Third Marines Viet Nam Era reunions and listened to my fellow warriors of Lima Company recollecting stories of our glory days. I noticed that every year the details of events became more and more obscure. Of course one could consult the official Command Chronologies, but not everyone has access to them. Even if you do have access to this information, it takes time to wade through all the data; a task that the average individual would find tedious. Some of the copies of the Command Chronologies are almost unreadable due to poor quality reproduction methods used. Wouldn't it be helpful if all the information was assembled in one area and available for quick reference? This project was an answer to that problem. I started with the Lima Company roster for the end of February 1967, which listed all the members of Company Lima that participated in the battles with the North Vietnamese Army during the first five days of March for which we acquired the tag of "Ripley's Raiders". I then determined the Marine who had been with the unit the longest and the Marine who had been there the least length of time. My goal for this project was to chronicle all the entries I could find on Lima Company during their tours of duty. This required compiling information for a period of twenty eight months: December 1966 thru March 1968. I included the names of all other members of Lima Company during this time frame to act as memory joggers for the reader. I accessed the National Archives on line and in thirteen months transcribed everything I could find from the Command Chronologies into one chronological record of the events experienced by the members of Ripley's Raiders.
The United States military did not lose the Vietnam War! The South Vietnamese government lost the Vietnam War. With many inaccurate books, biased statements, lack of understanding, and facts, I decided to write a Vietnamese history book with emphasis on the Second Indochina War. This book will correct many of those misconceptions about the Vietnam War, answer controversial questions, and give readers a microcosm and basic dynamics of the Vietnam War. I recorded and archived highlights of the Vietnam War and the accounts of American military heroes whose sacrifices and heroic exploits might otherwise be lost to history. The poignant, riveting, and the gripping reality of war and the demons and misfortune of the Vietnam veterans will be depicted in the book. This book is intended for a variety of audiences: veterans, family members, gold star mothers, organizations, agencies, clubs, college students, faculty, and history buffs. Search-and-destroy operations in South Vietnam will be described in comprehensive detail and why President Johnson later changed the name of search-and-destroy operations to reconnaissance in force. This book will show that the worst atrocity of the Vietnam War occurred in the United States when America shunned and discriminated against its Vietnam War veterans and gold star mothers! This book is a first-person account of high school teenyboppers suddenly answering the call for duty and turning into elite combat warriors virtually overnight. Vietnam War veterans saw and experienced horrific savage and direct combat repeatedly that humans aren't intended to see. Testimonies of seasoned combat Airborne Infantry soldiers, Pathfinders, and Special Forces whose average age was twenty-one will be depicted through empirical vignettes. These first-person vignettes will describe the carnage of firefights, mortar attacks, the stench of human decay and flesh torn and broken, and the camaraderie and bonds of men at war. Do not judge these warrior-leader heroes unless you have walked a mile in their jungle boots through a jungle in a combat environment. Remember, once upon a time, we were all like you! Myths of the Vietnam War will be refuted, rebutted, and debunked. Agent Orange and other herbicides used in the Vietnam War will be discussed. This book will help all veterans, their families, and America to better understand and come to some closure and aid in catharsis. We are awesome! It is chic and vogue to be a Vietnam veteran now.