Project Alpha: Washington's Secret Military Operations in North Vietnam [Mass Market Paperback]

Sedgwick Tourison (Author)

Book Description

Series: Project Alpha | Publication Date: July 15, 1997

The Mission: Penetrate North Vietnam
In the early days of the Vietnam conflict, American strategists in the Pentagon, the White House, and the CIA were desperate to contain "the Communist menace." In an operation codenamed Plan 34-Alpha, covert agents from South Vietnam were recruited for dangerous land sea, and air missions.

The Team: A Relentless Fighting Machine
Drawing on recently declassified documents, and on the first-person interviews of a man who was there, Project Alpha tells the harrowing stories of a unique breed of warrior and the daring battles they fought. A chronicle of deception, betrayal, and exceptional bravery, it is the inside account of some of the most extraoridinary operations in the history of modern warfare.

Finally, The Full Story Can Be Told.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Sedgwick "Wick" Tourison joined the U.S. Army in 1958 after graduating from Girard College in Philadelphia. Eleven years later he was appointed the army's first interrogation warrant officer. Of his twenty years in intelligence, eight involved duties in Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam. From 1983 to 1988 Wick served with the Defense Intelligence Agency in the Special Office for POW/MIA Affairs. In November 1991 he was invited to join the staff of the Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs, where he served as an investigator until January 1993.

Wick's first book, Talking with Victor Charlie (Ivy Books, 1991), provided the first in-depth description of interrogation operations in Vietnam during 1965 to 1967. He has also contributed to Inside the VC and the NVA (Fawcett Coumbine, 1992). In addition, Wick has written numerous articles in Vietnamese for publications in the Washington, D.C. area and in Orange County, California. He has appeared on CNN's Newsmaker Sunday and has been frequently quoted on POW/MIA matters in local and national news.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks (July 15, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312962622
• ISBN-13: 978-0312962623
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,452,368 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I'm Very Glad This Book Was Written, October 12, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Project Alpha: Washington's Secret Military Operations in North Vietnam (Mass Market Paperback)

Thank you Sedgwick Tourison for shedding light on a group of South Vietnamese patriots I would have never otherwise known about. They truly paid a heavy price for their patriotism. I wish to God that some of their North Vietnamese captors could have been on the receiving end of the Geneva Convention.

5.0 out of 5 stars Veitnamese special agents droped behind enemy lines, November 21, 2011

By 

Geoffrey P. I. - See all my reviews

This review is from: Project Alpha: Washington's Secret Military Operations in North Vietnam (Mass Market Paperback)

South Vietnamese special agents trained and parachuted behind North Vietnamese lines
this book takes you through the training, and development of these South Vietnamese
Alpha teams and takes you through the fates of each as North vietnamese intelegence
members were captured latter in the war who intercepted them. The author has
done the Vietnamese community a great community service in being able to explain the
fate of missing family members who were lost in these opperations. This is a trajic tale.

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What isn't Secret is Confused, June 23, 2001

By 

Dave Mann (Brentwood, TN USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Project Alpha: Washington's Secret Military Operations in North Vietnam (Mass Market Paperback)

Of course there are secret operations; every country and military has them. But guess what, US Military "Secret Operations" in Vietnam is an oxymoron just like the term "Military Intelligence". Screwed up from day one, the various hare-brained schemes of the ninty-day wonders and fast-rising young turks in Saigon swiftly became more and more silly, more compromised, and eventually, worthless. This book is well written, informative and gives those of us who were in Vietnam an insight into one more reason we were not able to win the war. If you have any interest in how military secret operations are done these days, read this book. They may have tried to do a "Operation Double Cross" like the British did so well in 1940, but internecine politics, inter-service rivalry, and just plain pig-headedness got in the way. Buy the book and read it, now! That's An Order, Soldier!