We Were Soldiers Once...And Young: The Battle That Changed the War in Vietnam

Joseph L. Galloway; Harold G Moore

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0552150266 ISBN 13: 9780552150262

Publisher: Corgi, 2002

'If you want to know what is was like to go to Vietnam as a young American... and find yourself caught in ferocious, remorseless combat with an enemy as courageous and idealistic as you were, then you must read this book. Moore and Galloway have captured the terror and exhilaration, the comradeship and self-sacrifice, the brutality and compassion that are the dark heart of war' THE TIMES

THE MUST READ CLASSIC OF THE VIETNAM WAR

In November 1965, 450 men of the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, under the command of Lt.Col. Hal Moore, were dropped by helicopter into a small clearing in the Ia Drang Valley. They were immediately surrounded by 2,000 North Vietnamese soldiers.

Three days later, only two and a half miles away, a sister battalion was chopped to pieces. Together, these actions at the landing zones X-Ray and Albany constituted one of the most savage and significant battles of the Vietnam War. How these men persevered - how they sacrificed themselves for their comrades and never gave up - is both inspiring and devastating.

General Moore and Joseph Galloway, the only journalist on the ground throughout the fighting, have interviewed hundreds of the men who fought there, including the North Vietnamese commanders, to present a picture of soldiers facing the sort of brutal challenge they would have found unimaginable only a few hours earlier.

It is a spellbinding true portrait of warfare at its most visceral and desperate, which reveals to us, as rarely before, the extraordinary resources man can summon in the darkest of hours.

Review:

"Between experiencing combat and reading about it lies a vast chasm. This book makes you almost smell it" (Wall Street Journal)

"A stunning achievement... I read it and thought of The Red Badge of Courage, the highest compliment I can think of" (David Halberstam)

"The best account of infantry combat I have ever read, and the most significant book to come out of the Vietnam War" (Colonel David Hackworth)

"There are stories here that freeze the blood... The men who fought at Ia Drang could have no finer memorial" (The New York Times Book Review)

"If you want to know what is was like to go to Vietnam as a young American... and find yourself caught in ferocious, remorseless combat with an enemy as courageous and idealistic as you were, then you must read this book. Moore and Galloway have captured the terror and exhilaration, the comradeship and self-sacrifice, the brutality and compassion that are the dark heart of war" (The Times)

Book Description:

The defining moment of the Vietnam war when the American dream of a quick victory died - hard.