America's Last Vietnam Battle: Halting Hanoi's 1972 Easter Offensive (Modern War Studies) [Paperback]

Dale Andrade (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2001 | Series: Modern War Studies

In the spring of 1972, North Vietnam launched a massive military offensive designed to deliver the coup de grâce to South Vietnam and its rapidly disengaging American ally. But an overconfident Hanoi misjudged its opponents who, led by American military advisers and backed by American airpower, were able to hold off the North's onslaught in what became the biggest battle of a very long war. Dale Andradé rescues this epic engagement from its previous neglect to tell a riveting tale of heroism against great odds. "One of the best books on the Vietnam War."--Washington Post Book World Dale Andradé, a historian at the U.S. Army Center of Military History, is the author of Ashes to Ashes: The Phoenix Program and the Vietnam War and coauthor of Spies and Commandos: How America Lost the Secret War in North Vietnam.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A fascinating read and outstanding contribution." -- Infantry Magazine

"A masterful account of the last great engagement of the Vietnam War in which American forces participated." -- Kirkus Reviews

"Andradé gives us the full panorama of this important campaign and does it in a style of classic military history." -- Journal of Military History

"Andradé's book on this brutal and bloody struggle fills an important gap in the history of the Vietnam War." -- Foreign Affairs

"One of the best books on the Vietnam War." -- Washington Post Book World

"The NVA soldiers' war was also terrible, and Andradé's story of it is long overdue." -- Military Review

About the Author

Dale Andradé, a historian at the U.S. Army Center of Military History, is the author of Ashes to Ashes: The Phoenix Program and the Vietnam War and coauthor of Spies and Commandos: How America Lost the Secret War in North Vietnam.

Product Details

• Paperback: 528 pages
• Publisher: University Press Of Kansas (October 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0700611312
• ISBN-13: 978-0700611317
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,040,572 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Book Ever Written about the 1972 Easter Offensive, January 19, 2006

By 

Ricky Zamarripa (Ft Benning) - See all my reviews

This review is from: America's Last Vietnam Battle: Halting Hanoi's 1972 Easter Offensive (Modern War Studies) (Paperback)

Mr. Andrade places you right in the frontline with South Vietnamese and US adivsors trying to stop the North Vietnamese "Blitzkreig" of 1972. If you still believe that the US and her allies in Vietnam fought mostly a communist peasent guerilla force armed with flintlocks and a few bags of rice, you're saddly misinformed unless you read this book!

This is one of a VERY few books which deal mostly with ARVN ground combat and about the bravery of individual South Vietnamese troops fighting NVA armored forces.

After you read this book, you will know what most ex-ARVN and many US Viet-vets have known for a long time-The North Vietnamese employed tactics and weapons which would've been more familiar to Guderian or Zhukov, not Che' or Mao.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Decent Interval up Close, February 3, 2004

By 

William Nathan Alexander (Cambridge, Massachusetts, Massachusetts United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: America's Last Vietnam Battle: Halting Hanoi's 1972 Easter Offensive (Modern War Studies) (Paperback)

A terrific book that covers the heroic efforts of the remaining US advisors and their ARVN compatriots to resist the North Vietnamese invasion of '72. The narrative is thrilling and Andrade's mastery of detail is marvelous.

This book has helped open the way for revisionist understanding of what actually happened to South Vietnam after the US withdrawal, two years earlier. The simple assumption that the ARVN was incompetent, which was in part used to justify the US pullout, needs reexamination.

The heroism of the ARVN and the remaining US advisors is finally brought to light. Perhaps Andrade in the future can bring us an account that focuses on the role of the ARVN during this same period--and how it performed without adequate support from the United States. It would be interesting to find out how much of the "incompetence" myth remains.

Thank you Dale Andrade.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding Book, September 3, 2002

By 

John Drill, COL, USA, Ret (Valencia CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: America's Last Vietnam Battle: Halting Hanoi's 1972 Easter Offensive (Modern War Studies) (Paperback)

Andrade has eloquently captured the details and meaning of the final campaign involving US Forces. In particular, he wonderfully details the herculaean effort of John Paul Vann and his outstanding Deputy, BG George Wear, USA. I served at Pleiku under these men, and sincerely appreciate Andrade's superb tribute to them--well done, Mr Andrade.