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by Richard Tregaskis (Author)
The first definitive eyewitness account of the combat in Vietnam, this unforgettable, vividly illustrated report records the story of the 14,000 Americans fighting in a new kind of war. Written by one of the most knowledgeable and experienced of America's war correspondents, Vietnam Diary shows how we developed new techniques for resisting wily guerrilla forces. Roaming the whole of war-torn Vietnam, Tregaskis takes his readers on the tense U.S. missions-with the Marine helicopters and the Army HU1B's (Hueys); with the ground pounders on the embattled Delta area, the fiercest battlefield of Vietnam; then to the Special Forces, men chosen for the job of training Montagnard troops to resist Communists in the high jungles.
Mr. Tregaskis tells the stirring human story of American fighting men deeply committed to their jobs-the Captain who says: "You have to feel that it's a personal problem-that if they go under, we go under;" the wounded American advisor who deserted the hospital to rejoin his unit; the father of five killed on his first mission the day before Christmas; the advisor who wouldn't take leave because he loved his wife and feared he would go astray in Saigon. And the dramatic battle reports cover the massive efforts of the Vietnamese troops to whom the Americans are leaders and advisors.
"Mr. Tregaskis has written a lot of diaries and witnessed a lot of warfare in the past twenty-odd years. If this book isn't up to Guadalcanal Diary and some of his others for stirring true-life adventure, well, the fault may not be entirely his own; Vietnam is a tedious, frustrating kind of war, especially for the 14,000 Americans involved in it. He was there from early October, 1962, to early January, 1963, and in those months he had an enormous amount of experience: flying with Army and Marine Corps helicopters and Vietnamese fighter planes, and slogging around in the rice paddies and jungles with the Arvins (Vietnamese infantry). As an intimate and unadorned account of what so many of our career soldiers and draftees (quite possibly you will know one of the hundreds mentioned by name) are going through day by day over there, this can be wholeheartedly recommended." -Kirkus Reviews, 1963.
