AFTER TET - “THE BLOODIEST YEAR IN VIETNAM 1ST ED H/C DUSTJACKET 1993 390 PG's

Description: Photographs and description throughout Ad: Offered for auction is an ORIGINAL 1ST EDITION HARD COVER BOOK WITH DUSTJACKET - MYLAR COVER - COPYRIGHT DATE OF 1993, 390 Clean Pages and in Excellent or Better condition as photos show, possibly unread. The book is titled as follows: AFTER TET - “THE BLOODIEST YEAR IN VIETNAM” by RONALD H. SPECTOR The 1st Edition Hardcover book was published in 1993 by The Free Press, a Division of Macmillan, Inc., New York and Published in the United States. Below I have added the following information on the book: Information on the dustjacket, the table of contents, photographs and typed a portion of the Preface. AFTER TET - In the wake of the Tet Offensive in January and February 1968, Lyndon Johnson announced the cessation of bombing against North Vietnam and America’s determination to seek peace. As negotiations began in Paris, most Americans believed the war was winding down and, indeed, almost over. Yet ironically the year that followed the Tet Offensive saw the fiercest battles of the Vietnam War. Now, on the twenty-fifth anniversary of that bloodiest year, Ronald Spector has written a brilliant narrative account of the harrowing events that rarely reached American television screen but largely determined the war’s course and outcome. The terrible battles of 1968 condemned America and North and South Vietnam to five more years of war precisely because they were costly and inconclusive. These bloody but indecisive operations could not break, but could only perpetuate, the war’s diplomatic and military deadlock. For the rank-and-file soldier, the war raged on. Drawing upon recently declassified government documents, accounts by GIs, and his own eye-witness experience as a Marine in Vietnam that year, noted military historian Ronald Spector describes the vicious struggle in the jungles, mountains, and rice paddies. He shows how the bloodiest year epitomized every aspect of the war - from individual bravery to military doggedness to political vacillation - as both sides mounted increasingly expensive and desperate offensives. He reveals the experience of the soldiers caught between an ambivalent American government and an intransigent North Vietnamese leadership. Exploring the lesser known aspects of the war, Spector describes in detail the deterioration of American military race relations, the growth of the drug culture, the riots in U.S. military prisons, and even the experience of South Vietnam soldiers and Viet Cong. Describing the bloodies tyear from all angles - the personal, military, and political, the American and the Vietnamese - this comprehensive history will stand as one of the most important books ever written about the American military experience in Vietnam. RONALD H. SPECTOR:Ronald H. Spector is Professor of History and International Affairs at George Washington University. He served as Director of Naval History for the U.S. Navy and is the author of the classic work on the Pacific War, Engle Against the Sun (Free press, 1984) The table of contents are as follows: PrefaceAcknowledgmentsIntroductionChapter 1 “I Want to Speak to You Tonight of Peace in Vietnam”Chapter 2 “You Don’t Know How Lucky We Are to Have Soldiers Like This” Chapter 3 “You’re Going Home in a Body Bag”Chapter 4 “Born in the North, to Die in the South”Chapter 5 “Corruption Is Everywhere”Chapter 6 The Relief of Khe Sanh and After, April 1968Chapter 7 The May Offensive: Dai DoChapter 8 Lessons of the May OffensiveChapter 9 “The People in the Middle”Chapter 10 The August OffensiveChapter 11 The End of Racial HarmonyChapter 12 In the Rear with the Gear, the Sergeant Major, and the BeerChapter 13 The War for the CountrysideChapter 14 “it is the Right Thing to Do”EpilogueAppendix 1: KIA Rate for Maneuver Battalions Jan 67-Sept 6 as Compiled by ODS Systems AnalysisAppendix 2: U.S. Casualties for February May 1968 as Compiled by the White House Situation RoomNotesA Note on SourcesIndex PREFACE On January 17, 1968, my 25h birthday, I received my orders for Vietnam. At that time I had completed boot camp a Parris Island and had just finished advanced infantry training a Camp Geiger in North Carolina. None of us was particularly surprised to receive orders for Vietnam. We had been well briefed on what to expect by our instructors a Camp Geirger, all of whom appeared to have three Purple Hearts and to speak in a monotone of expletives. We expected the worst, and Vietnam would seldom disappoint us. Six weeks later, on my last home leave, I sat with my family in front of the television and watched Walter Cronkite deliver his personal assessment of the situation in Vietnam. It seems now more certain than ever that the bloody experience of Vietnam is to end in a stalemate… to say that we are closer to victory today is to believe, in the face of the evidence, the optimists who have been wrong n the past. To suggest that we are on the edge of defeat is to yield to unreasonable pessimism. To say that we are mired in stalemate seems the only realistic, yet unsatisfactory conclusion. One month later we left camp Pendleton, California, for Vietnam. Our planes landed in Hawaii to refuel, and we wandered around the large terminal looking for snacks and beer. In the newspaper racks, the headlines read, “LBJ TO ADDRESS NATION ON VIETNAM WAR.” It was march 31, 1968. The following morning I was awakened by another Marine’s portable radio in our transit barracks on Okinawa. I thought I heard a news broadcaster say that the President had stopped the bombing of North Vietnam and called for peace talks. I went back to sleep. Later I recalled the broadcast, but the news seemed so surrealistic, I decided it had been a dream. It was not until we landed in Vietnam two days later that I learned that the President had indeed made these historic announcements, as well as declining to run for another term. This book is an account of the nine months following President Johnson’s march speech. While a number of authors have attempted to tell the story of the American experience in Vietnam through chronological narratives spanning the years 1965-1973, this book attempts to interpret that experience through a close examination of a single year, a year that witnessed the largest and most costly battles of the war. NOTE: Preface continues in book. There are no notes or attachments in the book. All 390 pages are clean. The bindings are tight. The dustjacket is in very good to excellent condition as photos shows and has not been clipped as photo shows. A mylar cover is present to protect the dustjacket. I would consider the book almost unread (possibly unread) and in very good to excellent condition as photos show. The book size is 9 ½” x 6 ½ x 1 3/8 ” inches. I will accept PAYPAL and other Ebay payment methods. Items will be shipped Media Mail mail usually next day after payment of Paypal, packaging and mail $ 4.49.

Price: 24.95 USD

Location: Gorham, Maine

End Time: 2025-01-14T23:10:20.000Z

Shipping Cost: 4.49 USD