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Informationen zum Autor Edward F. Murphy is a U.S. Army veteran of the Vietnam War. He is the author of a three-volume series on Medal of Honor recipients: Heroes of WWII , Korean War Heroes , and Vietnam Medal of Honor Heroes , as well two highly acclaimed Vietnam War histories: Dak To and Semper Fi—Vietnam . He lives in Mesa, Arizona. Klappentext While the seventy-seven-day siege of Khe Sanh in early 1968 remains one of the most highly publicized clashes of the Vietnam War, scant attention has been paid to the first battle of Khe Sanh, also known as "the Hill Fights.” Although this harrowing combat in the spring of 1967 provided a grisly preview of the carnage to come at Khe Sanh, few are aware of the significance of the battles, or even their existence. For more than thirty years, virtually the only people who knew about the Hill Fights were the Marines who fought them. Now, for the first time, the full story has been pieced together by acclaimed Vietnam War historian Edward F. Murphy, whose definitive analysis admirably fills this significant gap in Vietnam War literature. Based on first-hand interviews and documentary research, Murphy's deeply informed narrative history is the only complete account of the battles, their origins, and their aftermath. The Marines at the isolated Khe Sanh Combat Base were tasked with monitoring the strategically vital Ho Chi Minh trail as it wound through the jungles in nearby Laos. Dominated by high hills on all sides, the combat base had to be screened on foot by the Marine infantrymen while crack, battle-hardened NVA units roamed at will through the high grass and set up elaborate defenses on steep, sun-baked overlooks. Murphy traces the bitter account of the U.S. Marines at Khe Sanh from the outset in 1966, revealing misguided decisions and strategies from above, and capturing the chain of hill battles in stark detail. But the Marines themselves supply the real grist of the story; it is their recollections that vividly re-create the atmosphere of desperation, bravery, and relentless horror that characterized their combat. Often outnumbered and outgunned by a hidden enemy—and with buddies lying dead or wounded beside them—these brave young Americans fought on. The story of the Marines at Khe Sanh in early 1967 is a microcosm of the Corps's entire Vietnam War and goes a long way toward explaining why their casualties in Vietnam exceeded, on a Marine-in-combat basis, even the tremendous losses the Leathernecks sustained during their ferocious Pacific island battles of World War II. The Hill Fights is a damning indictment of those responsible for the lives of these heroic Marines. Ultimately, the high command failed them, their tactics failed them, and their rifles failed them. Only the Marines themselves did not fail. Under fire, trapped in a hell of sudden death meted out by unseen enemies, they fought impossible odds with awesome courage and uncommon valor.PART ONE In the Beginning Chapter One On a hot, humid day in late September 1966, Lt. Gen. Lewis W. Walt wore a deep scowl across his broad face. The commander of the III Marine Amphibious Force (MAF), which incorporated all Marines in South Vietnam, Walt held strong opinions on how his troops should be used to win the war. When that did not happen, the barrel-chested, volatile head of III MAF got angry. Walt’s subordinates at III MAF’s headquarters in Da Nang had no doubt the old man was in a foul mood that day. They trembled as he barked into his telephone, snapped orders to his aides, and demanded instant answers to complex questions. Those who served under Walt knew all about his temper. They knew that it did not take much to set him off. Recently, the most frequent catalyst for Walt’s fury was his superior, U.S. Army general William C. Westmoreland, the head of the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV). West...
