Customer Reviews

Marines in Hue City: A Portrait of Urban Combat, Tet 1968

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MARINES IN HUE CITY is an outstanding book and with its many detailed photos gives the reader a never before seen insight in the brutal battle of the city of Hue in 1968.

This book provides the reader with a detailed pictorial history of the Marines who took part in the fighting. Almost like a diary of war. With its many explanations and maps this book take the reader to a excellent level of history and knowledge. I does not only tell the story of the Marines in picutes but also the story of the men behind the camera.

The book contain not only pictures and the story of the battle but also a detailed background of the part of Viet Nam war that lead up to the battle and the Tet offensive.

Sometimes you can almost feel the battle seen through the camera lens. Short seconds of life and death captured in a frozen moment for the rest of us to watch for ever. To learn and not to forget.

This is the most comprehensive photo portrait of the Battle for Hue City in print; with an accurate description in words of the conflict. All veterans of this Tet 1968 battle should have a copy as well as any library that covers military history.

Having been in Hue in early January 1968, the subject book clearly displays the devastation that occurred in February and March 68. This book is best read after reading Hamel's companion book, Fire In The Streets. The pictures complete the story.

Marines in Hue City was not as good as I thought it would be. It gave a very broad overview of what was happening in the effort the Marines were doing to capture the control of the City.
The book only gave a cronology of what the Marine officers ordered the Marines to do. The Marines did do what was ordered for them to accomplish. The author did not get down to the level of the enlisted men's efforts and accomplishments in the battle for control of Hue.
In other books of the Viet Nam war the authors have given a more personal discription of what goes on in the heat of battle.
Reading this book is like reading an instruction manual of how to do something.

This is a picture book showing urban warfare during the Vietnam War when the Vietcongs launched a surprise attack on Hue and fought with the Marines for control of Hue City.
There is a nice mix of black and white and colour photos. These photos are not of great artistic quality, being taken from various combat situations but show clearly the desperate street fighting that took place. Note that this book focuses solely on the Marines' point of view.

I noted with disdain the author's brief analysis in summing up General Giap's tactical capability, dismissing him as a plodding school teacher who learned by sacrificing the blood of thousands of his soldiers whilst at the same time, playing up General Westmorland's highly distinguished military career before Vietnam. He did not mention Giap's victory at Dien Bien Phu, nor did he mention Westmorland's ridiculous bodycount strategy. It is this kind of blinkered mentality that demeans the audience for these types of books.