Vietnam Album

Now published for the first time: hundreds of the best color and black and white photos of the Vietnam War from the Army’s own combat correspondents, with oral histories, letters home and a rich selection from first-hand accounts by Philip Caputo, Johnnie Clark, Fred Downs, and others. Here is the soldier’s life in gritty detail, through his own eyes, in his own words, heart to heart and uncensored by the Army: the long muddy patrols, the search and destroy missions, tank and artillery warfare, donut dollies, and life back in base camp—in the rear with the beer. See it through the eyes of those who were there; the dangerous dustoff, the grim calculations of the field hospital, and the cynical stalemate that followed as the long war ground down to an end.\nPublished also for the first time are extensive excerpts from enemy diaries captured during the war, revealing how deeply indoctrinated the soldiers were, and how difficult their lives became. NVA soldiers write about the long trek down the Ho Chi Minh Trail, the terrifying bombing runs, life in the tunnels, and the constant scavenging for food. They gloat about the corruption that brought them the American weapons they used to kill Americans, and American medicine they used to heal themselves.\nWhen the 25th Infantry Division returned to the States in 1971, its five-year photo files were ordered burned, along with other “non-essential” documents. But Burns, who ran the Division publications team in 1969, had been setting aside the best slides and prints for future books and magazines, and when his tour was up he took them over the Air Force photo lab and traded his refrigerator for a set of dupes. And then he forgot about them. Now these amazing pictures come back to tell their story of bravery and tedium, of South Vietnamese corruption and betrayal, and of American heroes sent to serve and suffer in a tragic and frustrating war.