Synopses & Reviews
A true story from the battlefield that faithfully portrays the horror, the madness, and the trauma of the Vietnam War
More than half a million copies of Chickenhawk have been sold since it was first published in 1983. Now with a new afterword by the author and photographs taken by him during the conflict, this straight-from-the-shoulder account tells the electrifying truth about the helicopter war in Vietnam. This is Robert Masons astounding personal story of men at war. A veteran of more than one thousand combat missions, Mason gives staggering descriptions that cut to the heart of the combat experience: the fear and belligerence, the quiet insights and raging madness, the lasting friendships and sudden deaththe extreme emotions of a "chickenhawk" in constant danger.
Review
[Chickenhawk]s vertical plunge into the thickets of madness will stun readers. (Time) Masons gripping memoir ... proves again that reality is more interesting, and often more terrifying, than fiction. (Los Angeles Times) Very simply the best book so far out of Vietnam. (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
Synopsis
The military cult classic with resonance to the wars in Iraq and Vietnamnow back in print When The Centurions was first published in 1960, readers were riveted by the thrilling account of soldiers fighting for survival in hostile environments. They were equally transfixed by the chilling moral question the novel posed: how to fight when the age of heroics is over.” As relevant today as it was half a century ago, The Centurions is a gripping military adventure, an extended symposium on waging war in a new global order, and an essential investigation of the ethics of counterinsurgency. Featuring a foreword by renowned military expert Robert D. Kaplan, this important wartime novel will again spark debate about controversial tactics in hot spots around the world.
About the Author
JEAN LARTÉGUY (1920-2011) isALEXANDER (XAN) WALLACE FIELDING (1918-1991) served as a Special Operations Executive in the British Army in Crete, France, and the Far East. The author of several books, he also translated French works including Pierre Boulle's The Bridge over the River Kwai and Planet of the Apes.ROBERT D. KAPLAN is the author of many acclaimed books on the military, foreign affairs, and travel, including Balkan Ghosts, The Revenge of Geography, and Imperial Grunts.