Last Stand at Khe Sanh

April 21, 2014
Journalist Jones (Honor in the Dust) examines one of the most iconic and controversial engagements of the Vietnam War, the 77-day (FebruaryâApril 1968) siege of the 6,000-man U.S. Marine base at Khe Sanh by some 20,000 North Vietnamese Army troops. This is not the first book to look at Khe Sanh, as a number of memoirs and military histories have chronicled the siege's brutal on-the ground-action and bigger picture strategic issues, and Jones gives cursory attention to the larger pictureâwho won, who lost, and why. "Definitive answers" to questions such as the NVA's true objectives at Khe Sanh, he says, "will likely remain elusive." Instead, Jones concentrates on sharing the personal stories of the American Marines in the trenches, leaning heavily on interviews he conducted with veterans and making them the core of a readable narrative that also includes facts and figures from secondary sources and official records. This informative account serves as a testament to those who "heeded the call of their duly constituted leaders" and "went to Vietnam with the best of intentions," earning "a place of honor in American history."