Last Stand at Khe Sanh

Walk into the deepest gorge in the Wall of Names facing the Vietnam memorial’s trio of bronze soldiers, and gaze into the reflection on the dark granite as your fingers touch the grooves. Jones shares many of their stories while unraveling the shrouded mysteries of what happened at Khe Sanh, as well as the political decisions surrounding the siege. In these pages, we see the battleground through the eyes of those who fought at Hill 881, Hill 861, Lang Vei, Hill 64, Khe Sanh Combat Base, and all points in between. Jones recaptures the mounting tension felt with the threat of another Dien Bien Phu brand of annihilation. While politicians debate about the costs and commitment of holding ground, America’s youth pays the butcher’s bill.

Jones not only unveils the bloody drama from the soldiers’ perspective, he grants us insight into the political pressure driving the decisions: “As Khe Sanh began, and then Tet, and the fighting, dying, bombing, and destruction reached unprecedented levels, McNamara and Johnson found themselves in a nightmare of their own making.” In the end, Khe Sanh held because of the fortitude of our troops despite the blunders made by their superiors.