CALLED TO FIGHT A NEW KIND OF WAR, THEY BECAME A NEW BREED OF WARRIOR.

In 1965, the U.S. Marines landed in Vietnam. It was supposed to be just another deployment. America was going to do what the French before them could not--clean up that dirty little brush war in South Vietnam. But, new to the front lines, the Marines were experiencing the smoke and bloodshed of war for the first time. That year, the war's carnage became frighteningly real to television audiences back home--but the Marines were already displaying the fighting courage of experienced heroes. They had quickly learned the...

Winner: American Society of Journalists and Authors Outstanding Book Award, General Nonfiction, 2006.

Here, culled from extensive interviews and research, is the achingly dramatic story of the end of the Vietnam War as told from both sides of the conflict. Included are never-before-revealed accounts from people of every level involved in the war: NVA and Viet Cong soldiers, U.S. embassy personnel, guerilla commanders, civilians, generals, double agents? and leaders from both sides including former president Gerald Ford and North Vietnamese military commander General Tran Van Tra....