House to House: Playing the Enemy's Game in Saigon, May 1968 - Rilegato

Nolan, Keith

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 0760323305 ISBN 13: 9780760323304

Casa editrice: Zenith Pr, 2006

Riassunto

Republic of Vietnam, May 1968: The battles of the Tet Offensive were over, and the Paris Peace Talks were about to begin. Yet, the battlefield situation remained tense. Shocked by the intensity and massive scale of the North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong’s Tet Offensive, allied commanders kept waiting for the other shoe to drop in the aftermath of the lunar New Year’s nationwide attacks against South Vietnam’s urban centers.

Just days before the opening of the peace talks, that other shoe finally dropped. While they had no chance of securing victory on the battlefield with their second wave of urban attacks, the communists expected to wreak substantial psychological damage, making apparent to the American public, if not to the U.S. military high command, the folly of fighting a foe that was seemingly immune to combat losses.

The second wave of attacks became known as the Mini-Tet Offensive. The name was a misnomer as far as the intensity of the combat was concerned. Although the communists concentrated on fewer targets than they had during Tet, Mini-Tet was the costliest two-week period of the Vietnam War in terms of American casualties.

Saigon was the Mini-Tet’s primary target. In addition to penetrating the Cholon section of the capital, the enemy attacked the capital city’s southern suburbs of District 8. In response, four battalions from the 9th Infantry Division were dispatched from their Mekong Delta battlefields to clear out the invaders. What resulted was a brutal house-to-house street fight.

Tenacious Viet Cong guerrillas dug in like termites, building bunkers inside and between houses, and knocking holes in adjoining walls so snipers could steal unseen from one building to another. There was no provision for retreat; the Viet Cong were on a suicide mission.

On the other side were equally tenacious American infantrymen who had to adapt themselves to city fighting after previously operating in the rice paddies of the Delta. The battle for southern Saigon lasted a week; the U.S. Army’s only prolonged urban combat of the entire Vietnam War.

The battle ended in a Pyrrhic victory for the soldiers of 9th Infantry Division. They had fought with raw courage, earning numerous decorations, including four Distinguished Service Crosses, in the course of pushing the Viet Cong out of District 8. However, in fighting that eerily foreshadows American combat in Iraqi cities, the engaged battalions destroyed the neighborhoods they liberated. This destruction, and the attendant civilian casualties, resulted in an official investigation of the 9th Infantry Division for its sledgehammer application of artillery and air strikes within the capital of South Vietnam.

Su questo libro

Recensione:

This is one great book and is truly a masterpiece of the Vietnam War. Nolan has outdone himself with this description of the war fighting efforts of the 9th Infantry Division during May 1968. --Military

This is no simple battle book, but rather a well-researched and superbly written account of the actions and experiences of the American soldiers, sailors and airmen who were caught up in the fighting in and around Saigon immediately before and during the VC assault of May 5-15, 1968. As with the battle itself, the bulk of the book centers on the companies and commanders of the 9th ID, but the author also describes the experiences of MACV staff officers caught in their quarters in town by roaming VC units on the offensive s first day. The book s most important element is its focus on the people involved, from Maj. Gen. Julian Ewell, the 9th ID commander, down to the soldiers. This book is their story one of heroism, discipline and ill-discipline, chaos, sacrifice and personal loss. It is a simple, sincere and balanced narrative of those men, their battles and what they did for each other. No chest-beating here, but the reader will identify with the participants, particularly at the end when the Army s actions after the battle seemingly rebut its sacrifices and diminish its accomplishments by post-action finger-pointing and the positioning of careerists to benefit form the actions of those not blessed from above. Theirs was not a perfect battle, but it was a courageous one. House to House is a compelling record of their actions, and one that no serious or casual student of the Vietnam War should miss. --Vietnam Magazine

L'autore:

Keith W. Nolan studied the Vietnam War for twenty-five years and has published articles on the subject in Leatherneck, the Marine Corps Gazette, Proceedings, and Vietnam magazine. He is also the author of eleven Vietnam War combat histories, all of which have been Military Book Club selections.

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Zenith Pr
• Data di pubblicazione: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0760323305
• ISBN 13: 9780760323304
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Numero di pagine: 368