Huế 1968 : a turning point of the American war in Vietnam / Mark Bowden.

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A Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist in History

Winner of the 2018 Marine Corps Heritage Foundation Greene Award for a distinguished work of nonfiction

The first battle book from Mark Bowden since his #1 New York Times bestseller Black Hawk Down , Hue 1968 is the story of the centerpiece of the Tet Offensive and a turning point in the American War in Vietnam.In the early hours of January 31, 1968, the North Vietnamese launched over one hundred attacks across South Vietnam in what would become known as the Tet Offensive. The lynchpin of Tet was the capture of Hue, Vietnam's intellectual and cultural capital, by 10,000 National Liberation Front troops who descended from hidden camps and surged across the city of 140,000. Within hours the entire city was in their hands save for two small military outposts. American commanders refused to believe the size and scope of the Front's presence, ordering small companies of marines against thousands of entrenched enemy troops. After several futile and deadly days, Lieutenant Colonel Ernie Cheatham would finally come up with a strategy to retake the city, block by block and building by building, in some of the most intense urban combat since World War II.

With unprecedented access to war archives in the U.S. and Vietnam and interviews with participants from both sides, Bowden narrates each stage of this crucial battle through multiple viewpoints. Played out over 24 days and ultimately costing 10,000 lives, the Battle of Hue was by far the bloodiest of the entire war. When it ended, the American debate was never again about winning, only about how to leave. Hue 1968 is a gripping and moving account of this pivotal moment.

Excerpt provided by Syndetics

Word passed quickly from foxhole to foxhole that they were going. DiLeo felt ? what? ?Relief? wasn?t a strong enough word. He felt a stab of hope, of exhilarating hope. He had seen so much in the past two days. He had helped carry the shattered bodies of the wounded to the helicopters for evacuation. He had seen the man whose warmth comforted him in his hole through a freezing wet night lying stiff and dead. He had seen two men, one of them his good friend, simply erased from existence in an instant. He had been shot, albeit not badly. It had made him feel, not imagine or think, but feel how temporary was his life, and how, from one breath to the next, it could end. This shift in his thinking was subtle but profound. It moved him from fear to acceptance. At a certain point he stopped fearing death or horrible maiming, he just expected it. And now came this: They might get away! It was the first glimmer of hope in two days. He knew that any attempt to move would be dangerous, probably fatal, but that was okay with him. He had come to grips with that. This was a chance. Anything was better than waiting in that hole trying to figure out what to think about in his last moments on earth. He?d rather die trying to live. *** On the appointed day, early in January, Quang left the city with Ngu to supervise the loading. Into the bottom went piles of AK47s, bazooka tubes, and grenades. The egg baskets were planted with ammo. He stayed behind as Ngu set off. Quang could see how nervous he was, so he suggested that he drink some of the moonshine. ?Not enough to get drunk,? he said, ?but enough to look drunk.? Ngu?s face flushed whenever he drank even a little alcohol. So he looked the part as he approached the checkpoints, and played it up. He staggered and bellowed and waved to the guards, offering them his presents, and pleading with them to let him pass quickly, ?Because I am drunk and I?m worried I?m not going to get to Hue on time, and my wife will kill me.? Quang waited back in Kim Do through that entire day. He did not learn until the following afternoon that his ?Uncle? had made the trip safely, and that his men had picked up the shipment. His force now was ready, armed. He could hardly believe it. As he saw it, the miracle proved the truth of Ho?s teachings, that the Party and the army were not enough. Real victory could only come from the people. Excerpted from Hue 1968: A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam by Mark Bowden All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

In early 1968, North Vietnamese and Vietcong forces launched the Tet Offensive, a series of hundreds of attacks throughout South Vietnam, the largest of which took place in the symbolically significant former royal capital of Hue. Bowden (writer in residence, Univ. of Delaware; The Three Battles of Wanat) provides a thorough description of the Battle of Hue by examining the experiences of soldiers and civilians on all sides of the conflict. This work argues that Gen. William Westmorland's fixation on the false notion that the Tet Offensive was a deliberate misdirection from North Vietnam's real target of Khe Sanh led to poor decisions by the U.S. military that resulted in the prolongation of the Battle of Hue. The author makes a strong case that this conflict had a lasting impact on the course of the Vietnam War, the significance of which has yet to be properly analyzed by the historic literature. VERDICT Although the gruesome details of death and dismemberment may prove difficult reading for some, this work provides a fascinating look at the challenges and horrors of urban warfare and is essential for anyone interested in the Vietnam War.-Joshua Wallace, Tarleton State Univ. Lib. Stephenville, TX © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly Review

Veteran journalist Bowen (The Three Battles of Wanat) illuminates the gut-wrenching monthlong slaughter of one of the Vietnam War's bloodiest battles, in which American and North Vietnamese forces fought in the streets of the storied royal capital of Huê'. Washington claimed a tactical victory, but Hanoi gained the psychological edge; the mismatch between official American claims and the dispatches emerging from American journalists undermined the already wavering resolve back home. This is grim storytelling at its finest; Bowen digs deep into the personal recollections of scores of participants to offer evocative portraits of beleaguered Marine grunts and the hapless commanders who sent them to their doom; stoic female Viet Cong commandos; and journalists who captured the unfolding tragedy that belied the infamously inaccurate body counts. But what grips the reader most are the stories of Huê''s trapped civilians, who, during the year's most festive holiday-Tet, the Lunar New Year-are hurled into an explosive maelstrom of fatal score-settling and destruction delivered by their own countrymen. Bowen confronts head-on the horrific senselessness of battle and the toll it takes on people, and he grants Huê' the regard it deserves as a defining moment in a war that continues to influence how America views its role in the world. (June) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Booklist Review

*Starred Review* Huê was Vietnam's capital from 1802 to 1945, giving it great symbolic value. By January of 1968, it had been spared some of the worst violence that plagued other cities in South Vietnam. American intelligence agents anticipated stepped-up Vietcong attacks but viewed American military bases as the likeliest targets. Instead, Huê endured one of the most prolonged, vicious, and politically decisive battles of the Vietnam War. On January 31 (the first day of Tet, the lunar new year), thousands of North Vietnamese and Vietcong troops attacked multiple points and quickly seized most of the lightly defended city. Over the next 24 days, U.S. Marines and South Vietnamese troops retook the city in savage urban warfare that left much of Huê in ruin. Best-selling Bowden (The Three Battles of Wanat, 2016) views this struggle through the experiences and recollections of combatants from both sides. The perspectives of North Vietnamese and Vietcong fighters are especially revealing, confirming that they regarded their struggle as a fight for national independence rather than for communism. After Huê and the wider Tet Offensive, the U.S. looked for a way out of the quagmire, rather than victory. Bowden has created an epic masterpiece of heroism and sacrifice, and a testament to the tragic futility of the American experience in Vietnam.--Freeman, Jay Copyright 2017 Booklist

Kirkus Book Review

A stirring history of the 1968 battle that definitively turned the Vietnam War into an American defeat.On the first day of the Tet Lunar New Year holiday in 1968, Viet Cong and North Vietnamese forces attacked the ancient city of Hue, the one-time capital of Vietnam and the country's third-largest city. American forces scrambled to relieve the U.S. garrison there, amazed, as Bowden (The Three Battles of Wanat, 2016, etc.) writes, to be in an actual city after experiencing only "air bases, rice paddies, and jungle." The battle occasioned not just surprise on the part of the grunts, but also a change in behavior on the part of the attackers, who had orders not just to liberate Hue, but "to look and behave like winners." The tactic, to say nothing of the heavy losses inflicted on American and South Vietnamese forces, did indeed shift perceptions. The author observes that after Hue, it was only a matter of time before America would leave Vietnam, and in the bargain, ordinary American citizens would never again trust their government. Bowden delivers a series of brilliantly constructed set pieces, beginning with a moment of proto-social engineering in which a young, pretty Viet Cong learned about American troop movements in the city by flirting with GIs outside their compound. Devotees of Vietnam movies such as Full Metal Jacket will see several scenes come into real-life focus, with a football hero as commander and companies of troops bearing names like Hotel and Echo rooting out snipers and enemy columns, occasionally violating orders to save themselves by letting loose ground-fired napalm ("They caught hell for thatthe commanders were worried about setting the city on fire") against a smart, entrenched foe. Building on portraits of combatants on all sides, Bowden delivers an anecdotally rich, careful account of the complex campaign to take the city. One of the best books on a single action in Vietnam, written by a tough, seasoned journalist who brings the events of a half-century past into sharp relief. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Mark Bowden has been a reporter at The Philadelphia Inquirer for twenty-one years and has won many national awards for his writing. He is the author of "Black Hawk Down," "Bringing the Heat," "Doctor Dealer", "Killing Pablo: The Hunt for the World's Greatest Outlaw." and, more recently, The Finish: "The Killing of Osama bin Laden", and Hue 1968: A Turning point of the American war in Vietnam. Bowden has also written for Talk, Men's Journal, Sports Illustrated, Rolling Stone and Playboy, among others.

The original series of articles which became "Black Hawk Down" earned him the Overseas Press Club's Hal Boyle Award, and made him a finalist for the NBA in nonfiction.

(Bowker Author Biography)