United States Marine Corps in Vietnam (Images of War)

By: Michael Green

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Synopsis: A pictorial history “jam packed full of excellent visual and textual history of US Marine Corps operations in the Vietnam War” (AMPS).With the American-supported South Vietnamese government verging on collapse in early 1965, President Lyndon Johnson decided to commit conventional ground forces in the form of a United States Marine Corps brigade of approximately 3,000 men on March 8, 1965. So began a massive and costly ten-year commitment. At its height in 1968, the USMC had 86,000 men in South Vietnam. Almost a half million Marines would eventually rotate in out of South Vietnam during their typical one-year tours of duty. In the end, the fighting during well-known battles at Con Tien, Chu Lai, Hue, Khe Sanh, and Dong Ha—and thousands of now forgotten smaller-scale engagements—would cost the USMC 13,070 killed in action and 88,630 wounded, more casualties than they suffered during the Second World War. In this book, well-known military historian Michael Green, using hundreds of dramatic images, tells the gallant story of the Marines’ contribution to an unwinnable war; the battles; their equipment, from rifles to helicopters and jets; and the strategy adopted by the Corps.