49 years after the fact, a compelling story is told in a book by an experienced journalist and prolific writer. The book was 5 years in the making as the author conducted intensive interviews of many of the surviving participants from both sides of the conflict. Both sides included heavily armed, well-trained infantrymen: the North Vietnamese Army on the invaders side, and the ARVN soldiers and American Marines on the other. The dates included January 31, 1968 to February 25, 1968. The battle was fought house-to-house in the large built-up city that housed 140,000 civilians.
Other books have been written about this urban battle. Eric Hammell, a noteworthy historian, wrote his book about 30 years ago, almost before the smoke dissipated. The late writer, Keith William Nolan, wrote several histories concerning Vietnam battles, including Hue City. None pursued the topic like Mark Bowden. Mr. Bowden had the benefit of time; time to absorb the conflict and its ultimate ending, with Communist forces taking over the entire country, unifying the two halves under one flag; one Communist flag.
Initially, the Marine commander(s) and the MACV commander, Gen. William Westmoreland, did not have enough information to respond adequately to what turned out to be the longest siege of a city during the entire war. The battle was the most important of all the battles during the Tet Offensive of 1968. Carefully planned and meticulously carried out, the fighting in Hue began with clandestine infiltration of the city by soldiers disguised as civilians. As locals prepared for the holiday period, many ARVN military members went home to be with their family. A truce was declared that would make the prepositioning of attackers even easier. On January 31st, the NVA made their intentions known by bombarding key facilities in the city and sending troops to those locations to set up control points and make an impression on the local civilian population. Part of the Communist strategy included an uprising of local support for the northern attacking groups.
Word of the attack was slow to reach the Marine at his headquarters in Phu Bai, a few miles south of the city. The first response was a single rifle company: A Co., 1st Batt/ 1st Marine Regt. They barely reached the southern outskirts when they were hit with concentrated fire and mortar barrages, accepting many casualties in the first minutes.
Soon, it was a battle royal as the ARVN commander's HQ became surrounded and under intense pressure.
By the time the city was again under control of the South Vietnamese army and the US Marines,
thousands of civilians had been killed, many singled out because of their local roles and because they worked for the Marines or the government in Saigon(Ho Chi Mihn City).
The political impact of the battle reached across the Pacific all the way to the White House, where Lyndon B. Johnson wrestled with the rising tide of home front dissent against the war, and his own inner conflict as he searched in vain for a solution. He decided a few weeks after the battle to withdraw his name from the ballot for the upcoming presidential election in November.
The NVA withdrew temporarily to their Laotian rest areas, and regrouped before launching their Spring Offensive in late April.
Mr. Bowden deserves great credit for incorporating the stories of many citizens of Hue who survived to tell their story and to the military leaders of the NVA who survived to tell their stories. He weaves these personal accounts together to give the reader the most complete picture of the conflict to date. Despite the 50 year gap, the stories are told with fresh insight gleaned from documents, books, and memoirs unknown just a few years ago.
5 Stars-*****: worth the time and the money.
