Death Valley: The Summer Offensive, I Corps, August 1969

From a dedicated chronicler of the Vietnam War comes a vivid, insightful, grunt-level campaign history set against the backdrop of the troop withdrawal and the upheavals in American society. “The sounds and smells of the battlefield almost leap out from the printed page.”—Maj. Gen. John W. Barnes, U.S. Army (Ret.), New York City Tribune “Author of the well received Battle for Hue and Into Laos, [Keith William] Nolan once again captures the stark reality of combat in Vietnam. He tells the story of the 7th Marine Regiment and the 196th Brigade of the Army’s ‘Americal’ Division as they engaged the 2d Division of the North Vietnamese Army in the mountains and valleys southwest of Da Nang. This was the first major engagement after the announcement of the U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam, and it occurred at a time when problems with drug abuse, race relations, and shifting morality were endemic in American society and the nation’s military. Nolan’s account not only takes in the combat operations, but also reflects some of these larger issues of the war.”—USNI Proceedings