A high-stakes, gripping survival novel from Steve Watkins, set during the Vietnam War. The last place on earth Taylor Sorenson wants to be is in Saigon in the middle of the Vietnam War. His mom dragged him here to visit his dad, who's stationed at the US embassy, and Taylor is bored out of his skull. One night, during an embassy dinner, he decides to sneak out to see the Tet celebrations in the city. But before he makes it very far, fighting erupts across all of South Vietnam--and Taylor is captured by the North Vietnamese Army.Realizing he could be an important bargaining chip, the NVA decides to move Taylor to the North. The only way there is the Ho Chi Ming Trail, a series of dangerous paths that snake from South Vietnam through Laos and Cambodia before finally reaching North Vietnam. But thousands have died on the trail, and Taylor doesn't know what's waiting for him at the end.What follows is a harrowing journey during one of the most controversial wars in US history, where one boy is forced to confront the true cost of war, and what it really means to survive.

Taylor is a rebellious teenager with a habit of sneaking out to hang with his anti-war friends, so in January 1968 his mother drags him off to Saigon where his father is attached to the United States embassy; bored (and still rebellious) Taylor sneaks out of the embassy to watch the Tet celebrations, just as the war erupts all over Vietnam and there he is captured by the North Vietnamese Army and sent North as a prisoner and hostage--and during the brutal journey Taylor is forced to confront the realities of war and survival for the first time in his sheltered life.

History comes alive -- with ghosts! In the basement of his family's junk shop, Anderson and his friends Greg and Julie discover a trunk full of old military stuff, including a battered navy peacoat from World War II with a mysterious letter in the pocket. Curious, Anderson takes both home. Only that's not all he brings home . . .Later that night, the owner of the coat and letter appears in Anderson's room - the ghost of a World War II sailor.But who is the ghost and why hasn't he crossed over? And what does he want with Anderson?Soon Anderson, Julie, and Greg are wrapped up in a mystery that's over seventy years old. Can the friends figure out what happened to the ghost before it's too late?

This artfully crafted saga depicts in vivid detail, the arduous journey of a young, impressionable patriot yearning to fulfill his destiny in the turmoil of the 1960's. The author draws you close to him as he encounters stiff challenges to his basic values, his character, as well as his faith in his fellow man. You'll taste the bitter prop blast as you stand in the open door beside him, holding your breath while he soars through the icy sky to the mountainous drop zone below. Discover the true nature of this Nation's most valiant fighting men as he progressively learns what it takes to lead Green Berets into battle. Share the distinct smell of death while he clutches on to the remnants of his tattered soul, constantly violated while he processes the tragedy of life unfolding before him. Witness the sheer resolve he and his men display in their commitment to their country, despite the disrespect and utter contempt shown to them by their own countrymen. This factual rendering allows you to eavesdrop on the innermost workings of a Special Forces A-Team as they train and ultimately prepare for battle. You'll be sprinting with a SOG Recon Team as they desperately work to elude the hordes of NVA soldiers, feeling the impact of explosions and the crackling of rifle fire along the way. This read will provide you with a renewed appreciation of what men endure when they make the commitment to defend their country and their way of life; despite the intimate danger and life-long consequences that accompany that decision. With dialogue that keeps the pages turning, Michael O'Shea transports us directly back to the real American experience in Vietnam. It's been nearly fifty years since the US inserted troops into jungles and villages more than 8,000 miles away. Stories such as Blood on the Risers are important and necessary for today's readers and future generations; veterans like O'Shea are prized for sharing them. Chris Henning - Clarion Review

Winner of the Overseas Press Club Cornelius Ryan Award John Laurence covered the Vietnam war for CBS News from its early days, through the bloody battle of Hue in 1968, to the Cambodian invasion. He was judged by his colleagues to be the best television reporter of the war, however, the traumatic stories Laurence covered became a personal burden that he carried long after the war was over. In this evocative, unflinching memoir, laced with humor, anger, love, and the unforgettable story of Mé a cat rescued from the battle of Hue, Laurence recalls coming of age during the war years as a journalist and as a man. Along the way, he clarifies the murky history of the war and the role that journalists played in altering its course. The Cat from Huéi> has earned passionate acclaim from many of the most renowned journalists and writers about the war, as well as from military officers and war veterans, book reviewers, and readers. This book will stand with Michael Herr's Dispatches, Philip Caputo's A Rumor of War, and Neil Sheehan's A Bright, Shining Lie as one of the best books ever written about Vietnam-and about war generally.

BAPTISM BY FIRE Chris Ronnau volunteered for the Army and was sent to Vietnam in January 1967, armed with an M-14 rifle and American Express traveler’s checks. But the latter soon proved particularly pointless as the private first class found himself in the thick of two pivotal, fiercely fought Big Red One operations, going head-to-head against crack Viet cong and NVA troops in the notorious Iron Triangle and along the treacherous Cambodian border near Tay Ninh. Patrols, ambushes, plunging down VC tunnels, search and destroy missions–there were many ways to drive the enemy from his own backyard, as Ronnau quickly discovered. Based on the journal Ronnau kept in Vietnam, Blood Trails captures the hellish jungle war in all its stark life-and-death immediacy. This wrenching chronicle is also stirring testimony to the quiet courage of those unsung American heroes, many not yet twenty-one, who had a job to do and did it without complaint–fighting, sacrificing, and dying for their country. Includes sixteen pages of rare and never-before-seen combat photos

The Ho Chi Minh Trail was a decisive factor in the defeat of American forces in the Vietnam War. At the peak of its 16 years' operation, the Trail ran through North and South Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. Despite an estimated 4 million tons of U.S. bombs, efforts to stop the transport of supplies to the North Vietnamese Army over the Trail failed, and by 1975 over a million tons of supplies and 2 million troops had been transported along its path. The author and photographer, the first Westerners to traverse the entire length of the Trail, trace the footsteps of the hundreds of thousands who designed, built, used and fought along it. They interviewed villagers along the Trail as well as key military and political figures on both sides of the conflict, including the mastermind, General Vo Nguyen Giap. Their accounts show that this Trail was a remarkable feat of engineering and tactical warfare of the Vietnam War era. Virginia Morris traveled around the world due to her interest in anthropology, history and natural history but later became focused on Asia. She spent two years in Laos, the first working for the United Nations Development Program and the second traveling in remote areas undertaking research for this book. She holds a Ph.D. in Engineering, and is presently a partner in an engineering consultancy in the U.K.

History comes alive -- with ghosts! Anderson finds himself drawn to the old trunk of military relics in the basement of his family's junk shop again. His friends Greg and Julie warn him to stay away from it, but he can't help himself. This time Anderson discovers an old grenade with a strange message scratched into it. But an old grenade is dangerous . . . especially when the ghost of a soldier appears, claiming that it's his lucky grenade from during his service in the Vietnam War. What does this ghost want from Anderson, Greg, and Julie? Is he here for their help - or for something more sinister? It's a race against time as the friends work to solve the mystery!

During the Vietnam War Bao Ninh served with the Glorious 27th Youth Brigade. Of the five hundred men who went to war with the brigade in 1969, he is one of only ten who survived. The Sorrow of War is his autobiographical novel. Kien works in a unit that recovers soldiers' corpses. Revisiting the sites of battles raises emotional ghosts for him and the memory of war scenes are juxtaposed with dreams and remembrances of his childhood sweetheart. The Sorrow of War burns the tragedy of war in our minds.

David Rabe’s award-winning Vietnam plays have come to embody our collective fears, doubts, and tenuous grasp of a war that continues to haunt. Partially written upon his return from the war, Girl by the Road at Night is Rabe’s first work of fiction set in Vietnam—a spare and poetic narrative about a young soldier embarking on a tour of duty and the Vietnamese prostitute he meets in country. Private Joseph Whitaker, with Vietnam deployment papers in hand, spends his last free weekend in Washington, DC, drinking, attending a peace rally, and visiting an old girlfriend, now married. He observes his surroundings closely, attempting to find reason in an atmosphere of hysteria and protest, heightened by his own anger. When he arrives in Vietnam, he happens upon Lan, a local girl who submits nightly to the American GIs with a heartbreaking combination of decency and guile. Her family dispersed and her father dead, she longs for a time when life meant riding in water buffalo carts through rice fields with her brother. Whitaker’s chance encounter with Lan sparks an unexpected, almost unrecognized, visceral longing between two people searching for companionship and tenderness amid the chaos around them. In transformative prose, Rabe has created an atmosphere charged with exquisite poignancy and recreated the surreal netherworld of Vietnam in wartime with unforgettable urgency and grace. Girl by the Road at Night is a brilliant meditation on disillusionment, sexuality, and masculinity, and one of Rabe’s finest works to date.