In a remote mountain stronghold in 1968, six thousand US Marines awoke one January morning to find themselves surrounded by 20,000 enemy troops. Their only road to the coast was cut, and bad weather and enemy fire threatened their fragile air lifeline. The siege of Khe Sanh-the Vietnam War's epic confrontation-was under way.
For seventy-seven days, the Marines and a contingent of US Army Special Forces endured artillery barrages, sniper fire, ground assaults, and ambushes. Air Force, Marine, and Navy pilots braved perilous flying conditions to deliver supplies, evacuate casualties, and stem the North Vietnamese Army's onslaught. As President Lyndon B. Johnson weighed the use of tactical nuclear weapons, Americans watched the shocking drama unfold on nightly newscasts. Through it all, the bloodied defenders of Khe Sanh held firm and prepared for an Alamo-like last stand.
Now, Gregg Jones takes readers into the trenches and bunkers at Khe Sanh to tell the story of this extraordinary moment in American history. Last Stand at Khe Sanh captures the exceptional courage and brotherhood that sustained the American fighting men throughout the ordeal. It brings to life an unforgettable cast of characters-young high school dropouts and rootless rebels in search of John Wayne glory; grizzled Korean War veterans; daredevil pilots; gritty platoon leaders and company commanders; and courageous Navy surgeons who volunteered to serve in combat with the storied Marines.
Drawing on in-depth interviews with siege survivors, thousands of pages of archival documents, and scores of oral history accounts, Gregg Jones delivers a poignant and heart-pounding narrative worthy of the heroic defense of Khe Sanh. Gregg Jones, journalist and Pulitzer Prize finalist, is the author of the highly acclaimed Honor in the Dust: Theodore Roosevelt, War in the Philippines, and the Rise and Fall of America's Imperial Dream. For thirty years he has been a foreign correspondent and investigative reporter, writing for the Los Angeles Times and other US and British newspapers. He lives in Addison, Texas. "In Jones' recounting of the 77-day siege, we see the battle from the trenches and the bunkers mostly through the eyes of the grunts on the ground."-New York Post undefined-Publishers Weekly "A story worth remembering."-Kirkus "A commanding history of the longest battle of the Vietnam War presents the questions that history cannot answer.... In Last Stand at Khe Sanh, Gregg Jones recounts the battle with the naked honesty of the combatants who told him their stories. He interviewed ninety men who fought at Khe Sanh and scoured all other sources-books, reports, official records, films, recorded testimony-to produce a commanding history, so detailed it reads in places like a novel...But Jones is a journalist (he was eight years old when the battle took place) and true to his calling: his own writing, as distinct from the men he quotes, is from beginning to end devoid of emotional language...His cool, matter-of-fact approach makes the horror of the battlefield searing."-Washington Independent Review of Books "[Jones] skillfully draws the reader close to individual Marines at Khe Sanh...engrossing book...Jones, however, takes readers an important step further after Khe Sanh is saved and abandoned...in a moving epilogue, readers meet up again with several defenders and learn how their battle experiences shaped their lives moving forward."-Dallas Morning News "Jones spins his tale so deftly and effectively that he draws you immediately into the battle-so much so that you become fully engaged...the result of Jones' efforts is a classic that echoes the passion of Erich Maria Remarque's World War I novel, All Quiet on the Western Front; Leon Uris' Battle Cry, a World War II classic; and the intensity of the 1992 book about the Vietnam War We Were Soldiers Once...and Young by Lieutenant General Harold G. Moore, US Army (Ret) and war journalist Joseph L Gallowa
