Don Oberdorfer does a great job in describing the key battle in the Vietnam war. The political decisions made by both sides about the battle are included. The background and key players on our side and their thoughts are described.
The battle of Hue is gone into in some detail, including the killing of thousands of civilians, and some other foreign nationals by the North Vietnamese.
For anyone wondering why we got out of Vietnam, this is a must read. The shift in attitude from the pro war stance of Johnson's "wise men" is gone into in some detail as they move from pro war in Nov '67 to we must negotiate in early '68.
The chronology of events at the end of the book is a great help.
The "We had to destroy the village to save it" comment, by Peter Arnett is told too. Peter Arnett was an anti war reporter from the beginning. In 1965 he wrote a bogus report about our Marines using toxic gas on the VC. It was just tear and pepper gas, and was widely used in Vietnam to clear bunkers and tunnels. It was thought more humane than blowing up the people in the tunnels or bunkers. Arnett reported it as poison gas and made world wide headlines. This is discussed in Utters Battalion, another book.
In this book, he invents a quote "We had to destroy the village to save it" and again it makes world wide headlines.
During the Tet offensive at the battle of Ben Tre, Arnett says an Army Major made the comment. Neither the Major, or any other living person heard the comment.
The story of how Westmoreland came to generate the request of 206,00 more troops is told too.
