num_pages: 610
description: In the early hours of January 31 1968 the North Vietnamese launched over one hundred attacks across South Vietnam in what would become known as the Tet Offensive. The lynchpin of Tet was the capture of Hue Vietnam?s intellectual and cultural capital by 10000 National Liberation Front troops who descended from hidden camps and surged across the city of 140000. Within hours the entire city was in their hands save for two small military outposts. American commanders refused to believe the size and scope of the Front?s presence ordering small companies of marines against thousands of entrenched enemy troops. After several futile and deadly days Lieutenant Colonel Ernie Cheatham would finally come up with a strategy to retake the city block by block and building by building in some of the most intense urban combat since World War II.With unprecedented access to war archives in the U.S. and Vietnam and interviews with participants from both sides Bowden narrates each stage of this crucial battle through multiple viewpoints. Played out over 24 days and ultimately costing 10000 lives the Battle of Hue was by far the bloodiest of the entire war. When it ended the American debate was never again about winning only about how to leave. Hue 1968 is a gripping and moving account of this pivotal moment.
language: English
title: Huế 1968: A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam
publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press