The story of one of the most heroic efforts in American military history – a 77-day struggle in early 1968 for the remote Khe Sanh combat base, during which 6,000 perilously isolated Marines withstood the onslaught of a superior enemy force. Drawing on a vast archive of recorded interviews and written material collected over the past twenty years by Ronald J. Drez and the Eisenhower Center for American Studies at the University of New Orleans, Voices of Courage has a narrative written by Drez and Brinkley that interweaves testimonials from the soldiers into a gripping account of every aspect of the battle. The book also includes two audio CDs — 120 minutes of recordings in total — that allows readers to hear expanded accounts from the veterans in their own voices, introduced by legendary screen actor Stephen Lang. The din of political and social controversy surrounding the Vietnam War has often drowned out the voices of the soldiers who fought there. For the first time through this unique multimedia format, American Soldiers will tell their stories from Vietnam.
Dozens of illustrations and photographs, accompanied by detailed accounts of the battle, offer a vivid narrative of the seventy-seven-day struggle to control the remote Khe Sanh base in Vietnam, during which a severely outnumbered and isolated group of Marines held off an enemy onslaught, in a multimedia history that features firsthand reminiscences by participants on two audio CDs. 30,000 first printing.
Publisher
Harper Collins
Published
Sept, 2005
Formats and Editions
Hardback
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Praise for Voices of Courage:
“Deliver[s] gripping battle accounts and includes timelines to keep the battle in perspective with those tumultuous days of the 1960s.” — Leatherneck, September 2005
“This book is extremely well researched, superbly crafted, and filled with graphic details of pitched battles.” — Marine Corps Gazette, September 2005
“This large, lavishly illustrated account . . . . is a notable addition to the literature on this “lost” battle.” — Booklist, August 2005
Book Review:
This large, lavishly illustrated account of the battle of Khe Sanh in the Vietnam War is a notable addition to the literature on this “lost” battle. The marines and air force pilots who fought it resent the “lost” label and point out that their withdrawal was a political decision by the Johnson administration; it was not forced by the North Vietnamese. Indeed, the North Vietnamese suffered many times the American casualty rate while achieving mostly just the diversion of American firepower from other areas–a useful tactic but one with a very high price. On the American side, marines proved adept at the grittiest and most bruising kind of infantry combat, and the air force delivered classic performances (the narrative of which is particularly enhanced by the illustrations here) of the missions of resupply and close support. Both sides can claim to have shown tenacity and courage, though neither could claim a real victory, except of the Pyrrhic kind. Roland Green
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