Hue 1968

A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam

De: Mark Bowden

Narrado por: Joe Barrett

Duración: 18 h y 45 m

Resumen del Editor

Not since his New York Times best seller Black Hawk Down has Mark Bowden written a book about a battle. His most ambitious work yet, Huế 1968, is the story of the centerpiece of the Tet Offensive and a turning point in the American War in Vietnam.

By January 1968, despite an influx of half a million American troops, the fighting in Vietnam seemed to be at a stalemate. Yet General William Westmoreland, commander of American forces, announced a new phase of the war in which "the end begins to come into view". The North Vietnamese had different ideas. In mid-1967, the leadership in Hanoi had started planning an offensive intended to win the war in a single stroke. Part military action and part popular uprising, the Tet Offensive included attacks across South Vietnam, but the most dramatic and successful would be the capture of Huế, the country's cultural capital. At 2:30 a.m. on January 31, 10,000 National Liberation Front troops descended from hidden camps and surged across the city of 140,000. By morning, all of Huế was in Front hands save for two small military outposts.

The commanders in country and politicians in Washington refused to believe the size and scope of the Front's presence. Captain Chuck Meadows was ordered to lead his 160-marine Golf Company against thousands of enemy troops in the first attempt to reenter Huế later that day. After several futile and deadly days, Lieutenant Colonel Ernie Cheatham would finally come up with a strategy to retake the city, block by block and building by building, in some of the most intense urban combat since World War II.

With unprecedented access to war archives in the US and Vietnam and interviews with participants from both sides, Bowden narrates each stage of this crucial battle through multiple points of view. Played out over 24 days of terrible fighting and ultimately costing 10,000 combatant and civilian lives, the Battle of Huế was by far the bloodiest of the entire war. When it ended, the American debate was never again about winning, only about how to leave. In Huế 1968, Bowden masterfully reconstructs this pivotal moment in the American War in Vietnam.

©2017 Mark Bowden (P)2017 Audible, Inc.

Reseñas de la Crítica

"Narrator Joe Barrett's voice, always scratchy, careworn, and haggard, has just the sound this book needs to carry it forward. He sounds like an old boot and offers no quarter when detailing the battle's ravages, both in terms of men and American strategy." (AudioFile)

Beware of men w/ theories that explain everything.

“Beware of men with theories that explain everything.”
― Mark Bowden, Hue 1968: A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam

I told my kids the other day that they were both indirect results of Vietnam. My wife's father, now dead, had a draft number of one, so enlisted so that he would have a better chance of chosing HOW he would enter the Vietnam War. He came in at the end of Vietnam and became a professional soldier and officer (green-to-gold). The Army trained him with helicopters and tanks, and he retired a decade ago as a Colonel. My own father, concerned too with the draft, enlisted in the Navy. He also made a career of the military and we met my wife's family when our families were both stationed in Izmir, Turkey in the late 80s and early 90s. I doubt very much if either of our fathers would have become officers and made careers out of the military without Vietnam. It is weird to think of the imacts of Vietnam 50 years+ after the fact.

The Battle of Huế was fought 50 years ago in Jan/Feb of 1968 as part of the Tet Offensive. It was the biggest, bloodiest, and most pivitol single battle of the Vietnam War. Both sides claim success and both claims can probably be easily criticized. It was the turning point for the US in both our perception of the War. Bowden captures, through exensive interviews and research, the claustrophobia, filth, and horror of door-to-door combat. If anyone walks away from this with less stature, it is probably General Westmoreland who went to his grave over-estimating those NVA soldiers killed, and underestimating US casualties, and ignoring the civilians killed. One of the sharpest, deadliest quotes of the book summarizes my feelings about General Westmoreland:

“Never had a general so effectively willed away the facts.”

I have brothers who fought in both Afghanistan and Iraq. Everyday, I wish we paid closer attention to Vietnam so we would have avoided getting ourselves into another protracted war in a country most of our citizens know little about. Understanding Vietnam (and understanding what got us and kept us there) requires knowing DETAILS. Bowden helps to uncover aspects of this war I knew about, but at a granular level I appreciated. If this book did anything else, it made me start planning a trip to Vietnam. I'd love to see Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang, and of course -- Huế.

Engaging and thought provoking

An in-depth look at the Battle of Hue from both sides of the fighting. Put together from what seems like various interviews, the author brings a very human face to a very brutal battle between US/ARVN forces and the Vietcong and North Vietnamese Army.

It is a little long, but I don't think that takes away from it. A good read if you want to take a journey on one of the lesser talked about battles in Vietnam.

Even with all distractions the Marines persevere

Perhaps this victory is where the war was lost. The Marines, however did not loose

bookgirl

I enjoyed this book. i grew up in 60s and Vietnam was part of everyday life. Hearing about individual soldiers' experiences made it clear why the US was fated to loose this war. Should be required reading for high school history classes.

The Vietnam Soldiers’ Story

This meticulously researched account of the Tet Offensive and its most significant battle for the city of Hue, would be better titled The Soldiers’ Story.

We don’t hear the Generals’ rationalizations or the Politicians’ fairytales, but rather the hour by hour experiences of the grunts who would live and die in the mud, stench, noise and blood of the front lines. We feel their confusion and fear. We watch them kill and we watch them die. Bowden helps us get to know them not as numbers or statistics but as young kids thrown into an impossible situation told to make the best of it and try to get out in one piece.

This is the strength of the book. Its humanity. Its understanding. We get the logistics of the battle, the topography of Hue. Maybe sometimes in mind-numbing detail, but only to set the scene for the experiences of the combatants, on both sides.

I was expecting more of an historical and political analysis than I got. Because of the controversial nature of the conflict and my own memories of the issues I assumed that would be the author’s focus. Bowden chose a different path letting the readers draw their own conclusions about the meaning and significance of Tet and Hue. I think he chose well.

Don’t read this long, detailed book to justify your beliefs about Vietnam. Read it for its raw journalistic value and its empathy for the men and women who bled on the streets of Hue and set two sides on the road to ending the War.

Good narrative.

Mark Bowden was not alive 50 years ago when the battle of Hue was fought, and he makes his story an introductory one for his own generation, explaining the basics of the Vietnam War and making a good case that that the Battle of Hue was indeed the turning point of the whole ill-fated enterprise. I served a tour as a soldier in Vietnam in 1965-66, a couple of years before the Tet Offensive of which the Hue battle was just one part, albeit an important one. I've also visited Hue, in 2006, so I could relate the geography better than most readers. I listened to the book on a trip to China and found it a very good way to pass the travel time. Bowden's analysis is comprehensive and convincing, with lots of attention to the strategic level misunderstandings of the enemy, the war, and in particular the evidence for his thesis that the American public was deliberately misled about the progress of the conflict and the likelihood for a positive outcome. It's a little weak on the ground level troops' experience and individual traumas. Deaths are recounted matter-of-factly. Bowden is no soldier himself, and that shows. Barrett's narration is professional and dispassionate. I recommend the book.

A comprehensive overview of Hue during Tetin 1968

Another great book by Mark Bowden, though much grander in scope than previous reads Killing Pablo and Blackhawk Down. The story not only articulately captures the blow by blow of the Northern Vietnamese Tet offensive capture of the ancient city of Hue during the Vietnam Conflict. More than the story of Hue, Bowden highlights inherent issuance with America's position in the conflict-at home and in Vietnam. Take away's for me include; never underestimate your adversary, verify the data you use to make decisions and trust the assessment of eyes on the ground and not the impressions of leadership far removed from the front line. The book is a great read/listen.

Insightful and haunting.

One of the most insightful and haunting books on war that I've ever read.

Prescient

A thorough account of an event that should be required reading for anyone who advocates for American intervention anywhere outside our own borders.

A thorough and intriguing retelling of the turning point of Vietnam

This is the second book I’ve read by Mark Bowden and I love his approach to historical non-fiction. I am most impressed by his diligence in telling all sides of the story. This book does a great job of looking at soldiers from all sides, American, Vietcong, and Vietnamese. It also tells it from different levels of combatants and policy makers. From leaders in Washington, Vietnam, generals, and infantry you get a great picture of what and why of what was occurring.

Borden’s admonition in the epilogue will stick with me especially as foreign policy seems to becoming more prescient. He says to be wary of anyone selling a complete understanding of foreign conflicts. He also says that American involvement in foreign conflicts should only occur out of direct threat and as a coalition with other countries.