The Hardest Place: The American Military Adrift in Afghanistan's Pech Valley (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780812985221)

COLBY AWARD WINNER - "One of the most important books to come out of the Afghanistan war."--Foreign Policy

"A saga of courage and futility, of valor and error and heartbreak."--Rick Atkinson, author of the Liberation Trilogy and The British Are Coming

Of the many battlefields on which U.S. troops and intelligence operatives fought in Afghanistan, one remote corner of the country stands as a microcosm of the American campaign: the Pech and its tributary valleys in Kunar and Nuristan. The area's rugged, steep terrain and thick forests made it a natural hiding spot for local insurgents and international terrorists alike, and it came to represent both the valor and futility of America's two-decade-long Afghan war.

Drawing on reporting trips, hundreds of interviews, and documentary research, Wesley Morgan reveals the history of the war in this iconic region, captures the culture and reality of the conflict through both American and Afghan eyes, and reports on the snowballing missteps--some kept secret from even the troops fighting there--that doomed the American mission. The Hardest Place is the story of one of the twenty-first century's most unforgiving battlefields and a portrait of the American military that fought there.

Author: Wesley Morgan
ISBN-10: 0812985222
ISBN-13: 9780812985221
Publisher: Random House Trade
Language: English
Published: 03/01/2022
Pages: 688
Format: Paperback
Weight: 1.20lbs
Size: 8.30h x 5.50w x 1.60d