New York Times Bestseller: A “powerful and epic story . . . the best account of infantry combat I have ever read” (Col. David Hackworth, author of About Face). In November 1965, some 450 men of the First Battalion, Seventh Cavalry, under the command of Lt. Col. Harold Moore, were dropped into a small clearing in the Ia Drang Valley. They were immediately surrounded by 2,000 North Vietnamese … surrounded by 2,000 North Vietnamese soldiers. Three days later, only two and a half miles away, a sister battalion was brutally slaughtered. Together, these actions at the landing zones X-Ray and Albany constituted one of the most savage and significant battles of the Vietnam War. They were the first major engagements between the US Army and the People’s Army of Vietnam.
How these Americans persevered—sacrificing themselves for their comrades and never giving up—creates a vivid portrait of war at its most devastating and inspiring. Lt. Gen. Moore and Joseph L. Galloway—the only journalist on the ground throughout the fighting—interviewed hundreds of men who fought in the battle, including the North Vietnamese commanders. Their poignant account rises above the ordeal it chronicles to depict men facing the ultimate challenge, dealing with it in ways they would have once found unimaginable. It reveals to us, as rarely before, man’s most heroic and horrendous endeavor.
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Factual, accurate account of the initial experience of the first major US Army combat experience in Vietnam. A wake-up call for what we were getting into and terrific insight into how our young soldiers would react to combat.
A true story of American heroes. I couldn’t put the book down. Must read for history and military buffs.
Realistic and brutal description of our early years in Vietnam. The cost in human lives and suffering made the war in Vietnam a tragic and misguided mistake.
“War is hell!” And the battle of the Ia Drang Valley was as close to hell on earth as any soldiers could ever get. Joseph Galloway was there as a reporter and ended up actually being a participant. This story, as co-authored with Hal Moore, not only tells the story of the battle, but shows why war is never glorious and should not be engaged in. …
Great action and feel for the battle. Too much information almost about every soldier. I found myself skipping through the countless biographies to the actual battle descriptions. Also, I would have liked to read more about the Vietnamese soldiers. How did they have the motivation to endure such horrendous loss and keep fighting?
Informative about a sad time in our history.
Accurate account of one of the first battles in the beginning of the Viet Nam war. Very descriptive, a real eye opener to the government micro managing a “police action” and not declaring it what it was.
I still have the paperback copy. I bought this book several years ago (in paperback) and soon after learned that the movie was about to be released in just under a month. I began to read at every spare moment. On breaks at work, as late into the night as I dared… then the movie opened and I was only a quarter of the way into the book. I ‘put …