Synopses & Reviews
As Vietnam’s former imperial capital, Hue occupied a special place in the hearts of the Vietnamese people. Over decades of conflict, it had been spared the terrible effects of war. But that all changed on January 31, 1968, the eve of Tet—the lunar new year, Vietnam’s most important national holiday.
Tet had previously been marked by a mutual cease fire, but this time the celebrations and hopes for a happy new year were shattered. All of South Vietnam erupted in a cataclysm of violence as the North Vietnamese Army and the Viet Cong launched a massive military and political offensive. The American embassy in Saigon came under siege and Vietnam’s ancient capital city was captured nearly in its entirety.
The only forces immediately available to counterattack into Hue were two Marine infantry companies based ten miles south of the city. For the next four weeks, as the world looked on, fewer than two thousand U.S. Marines fought street by street and building by building, virtually without air support, to retake the symbols of Hue’s political and cultural importance. It was savage work. Ground gained was often measured in yards, with every alley, street corner, window, and garden adding to the butcher’s bill. In the end, the Marines retook the city, but scores of Americans and thousands of Vietnamese civilians died there. This pictorial is a testament to their will and their sacrifice.
Eric Hammel is a critically acclaimed military historian and author of more than thirty combat histories, including several others on the U.S. Marine operations in Vietnam, such as Fire in the Streets, the definitive narrative account of the battle for Hue City. He lives in Northern California.
Review
Leatherneck, June 2007
“As military historians go, Hammel stands among the very best. His 30-plus volumes dutifully record great Marine battle epics … In reading Marines in Hue City, Marine veterans of the battles of Fallujah, and other Iraq city fighting, will relate through the photographs included in this coffee-table-sized volume … Hammel does an outstanding job of combining the account of the battle with a bevy of new, never-before-published photographic images.”
Synopsis
The Vietnam War is often pictured as a jungle conflict, punctuated by American troops fighting in rural hut-filled villages. But in the 1968 Tet Offensive, the war spilled out of the jungle into the streets of Hue City. The battle for Hue became one of the most important of the war, a month of grueling house-to-house fighting through buildings and around civilians. The Marines in Hue City documents the intense urban combat in Hue with many never-before-seen photographs, including over one hundred in full color.
Synopsis
"As military historians go, Hammel stands among the very best. His 30-plus volumes dutifully record great Marine battle epics ... In reading Marines in Hue City, Marine veterans of the battles of Fallujah, and other Iraq city fighting, will relate through the photographs included in this coffee-table-sized volume ... Hammel does an outstanding job of combining the account of the battle with a bevy of new, never-before-published photographic images." Leatherneck"Marines in Hue City tells the story of the four-week Battle of Hue with concise prose and many strongly evocative photographs. Many are official USMC photos; others are never-before-published pictures taken by individual Marines. It all adds up to an excellent account of one of the Vietnam War's most pivotal battles." The VVA Veteran
Over decades of conflict in Vietnam, Hue, the former imperial capital, had been spared. But everything changed on January 31, 1968, the eve of the lunar new year--a national holiday long marked by a mutual ceasefire--when the North Vietnamese launched a massive offensive. In the cataclysm of violence that convulsed South Vietnam during the now-infamous Tet Offensive, Hue was overrun--and the only forces available to counterattack were a handful of Marine infantry companies based eight miles south of the city.
This photographic history chronicles the savage battle that followed as, for four excruciating weeks, the Marines of Task Force X-Ray fought house to house and street by street to retake the city so central to the Vietnamese culture and psyche. Through photographs taken in the heat of the action, readers will follow one of the wars most important campaigns, as ground gained is measured in painstaking inches and every alley, every street corner, every window might be the last.
Synopsis
A photographic history of the harrowing house-to-house campaign by the Marines of Task Force X-Ray to retake Hue after the Tet Offensive.
Synopsis
“As military historians go, Hammel stands among the very best. His 30-plus volumes dutifully record great Marine battle epics … In reading Marines in Hue City, Marine veterans of the battles of Fallujah, and other Iraq city fighting, will relate through the photographs included in this coffee-table-sized volume … Hammel does an outstanding job of combining the account of the battle with a bevy of new, never-before-published photographic images.”
Leatherneck
“Marines in Hue City tells the story of the four-week Battle of Hue with concise prose and many strongly evocative photographs. Many are official USMC photos; others are never-before-published pictures taken by individual Marines. It all adds up to an excellent account of one of the Vietnam War’s most pivotal battles.”
The VVA Veteran
Over decades of conflict in Vietnam, Hue, the former imperial capital, had been spared. But everything changed on January 31, 1968, the eve of the lunar new year--a national holiday long marked by a mutual ceasefire--when the North Vietnamese launched a massive offensive. In the cataclysm of violence that convulsed South Vietnam during the now-infamous Tet Offensive, Hue was overrun--and the only forces available to counterattack were a handful of Marine infantry companies based eight miles south of the city.
This photographic history chronicles the savage battle that followed as, for four excruciating weeks, the Marines of Task Force X-Ray fought house to house and street by street to retake the city so central to the Vietnamese culture and psyche. Through photographs taken in the heat of the action, readers will follow one of the wars most important campaigns, as ground gained is measured in painstaking inches and every alley, every street corner, every window might be the last.
About the Author
Eric Hammel is a well respected military historian and the author of thirty works of military history including the critically acclaimed Pacific Warriors: the U.S. Marines in World War II: a Pictorial Tribute, Chosin, a multivolume history of Guadalcanal, and Fire in the Streets, the definitive narrative account of the battle for Hue City. He lives in Northern California.
Table of Contents
Contents
Author’s Note
Acknowledgments
Glossary and Guide to Abbreviations
Maps
Chapter 1—Marines Fight in Cities and Towns
Chapter 2—General Offensive—General Uprising
Chapter 3—Assault on Hue: January 30–31, 1968
Chapter 4—Send in the Marines: January 31, 1968
Chapter 5—Stabilizing the Lodgment: February 1–2, 1968
Chapter 6—The Six-Block War: February 3–6, 1968
Chapter 7—Scenes from the South Side: February 7–March 8, 1968
Chapter 8—Battles for the Citadel: February 1–9, 1968
Chapter 9—Reinforcing the Citadel: February 10–12, 1968
Chapter 10—Marines in the Citadel: February 13–20, 1968
Chapter 11—The Flagpole: February 21–24, 1968
Epilogue