Just Another Day in Vietnam (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781612007854)

Living and Breathing is a graphic, blow-by-blow, non-fictional account of the Vietnam war from all sides.

Keith Nightingale's accomplishments in both military and civilian life largely contribute to the excellence of Just Another Day in Vietnam as a memoir of unusual depth as well as breadth.

Uniquely adopting a third-person omniscient point of view, Nightingale eschews the "I" of memoir in favor of multiple perspectives and a larger historical vision that afford equal time and weight to ally and enemy alike. Examples of the many perspectives based on real-life characters include: Hu, a VC "informant" whose false information led the Rangers straight into the jaws of a ferocious ambush; General Tanh, the COSVN commander; Major Nguyen Hiep, the 52d Ranger Commander; and Ranger POWs later returned by the North.

Nightingale moreover offers the point of view of an American advisor to elite Vietnamese troops, a vital perspective regrettably underrepresented in the literature of Vietnam, including Burns' documentary. Added to this are well-informed conjecture of enemy psychology; insight into the dedication and often misunderstood role of the elite Vietnamese Ranger forces; the intelligence acquired from debriefing captured Rangers, whose captors had told them that the entire battle had been a carefully staged attack planned by COSVN as part of a larger Total War strategy developed by the leadership of the North Vietnamese Army; and an eyewitness account by a gifted author who is a rare survivor of one of the most vicious--and heretofore forgotten--battles of the war.

Author: Keith M. Nightingale
ISBN-10: 1612007856
ISBN-13: 9781612007854
Publisher: Casemate
Language: English
Published: 10/29/2019
Pages: 264
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.25lbs
Size: 9.10h x 6.10w x 1.10d