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We Were Soldiers Once... and Young: Ia Drang--The Battle That Changed the War in Vietnam Paperback – April 16, 2002

by Harold G. Moore (Author)

1,062 customer reviews

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Each year, the Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps selects one book that he believes is both relevant and timeless for reading by all Marines. The Commandant's choice for 1993 is
We Were Soldiers Once . . . and Young.

In November 1965, some 450 men of the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, under the command of Lt. Col. Hal Moore, were dropped by helicopter into a small clearing in the Ia Drang Valley. They were immediately surrounded by 2,000 North Vietnamese soldiers. Three days later, only two and a half miles away, a sister battalion was chopped to pieces. Together, these actions at the landing zones X-Ray and Albany constituted one of the most savage and significant battles of the Vietnam War.

How these men persevered--sacrificed themselves for their comrades and never gave up--makes a vivid portrait of war at its most inspiring and devastating. General Moore and Joseph Galloway, the only journalist on the ground throughout the fighting, have interviewed hundreds of men who fought there, including the North Vietnamese commanders. This devastating account rises above the specific ordeal it chronicles to present a picture of men facing the ultimate challenge, dealing with it in ways they would have found unimaginable only a few hours earlier. It reveals to us, as rarely before, man's most heroic and horrendous endeavor.

We Were Soldiers Once... and Young: Ia Drang--The Battle That Changed the War in Vietnam

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In the first significant engagement between American troops and the Viet Cong, 450 U.S. soldiers found themselves surrounded and outnumbered by their enemy. This book tells the story of how they battled between October 23 and November 26, 1965. Its prose is gritty, not artful, delivering a powerful punch of here-and-now descriptions that could only have been written by people actually on the scene. In fact, they were: Harold Moore commanded the men of the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, who did most of the fighting, and Joseph Galloway was the only reporter present throughout the battle's 34 harrowing days. We Were Soldiers Once... combines their memories with more than 100 in-depth interviews with survivors on both sides. The Battle of Ia Drang also highlights a technological advance that would play an enormous role in the rest of the war: this was perhaps the first place where helicopter-based, air-mobile operations demonstrated their combat potential. At bottom, however, this is a tale of heroes and heroism, some acts writ large, others probably forgotten but for this telling. It was a bestseller when first published, and remains one of the better books available on combat during the Vietnam War. --John J. Miller

From Publishers Weekly

On Nov. 14, 1965, the 1st Battalion of the 7th Cavalry, commanded by Lt. Col. Moore and accompanied by UPI reporter Galloway, helicoptered into Vietnam's remote Ia Drang Valley and found itself surrounded by a numerically superior force of North Vietnamese regulars. Moore and Galloway here offer a detailed account, based on interviews with participants and on their own recollections, of what happened during the four-day battle. Much more than a conventional battle study, the book is a frank record of the emotional reactions of the GIs to the terror and horror of this violent and bloody encounter. Both sides claimed victory, the U.S. calling it a validation of the newly developed doctrine of airmobile warfare. Supplemented with maps, the memoir is a vivid re-creation of the first major ground battle of the Vietnam War. Photos.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

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Product details

Paperback: 528 pages
Publisher: HarpPeren (April 16, 2002)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0060975768
ISBN-13: 978-0060975760
Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 1.3 inches
Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 1,062 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #871,683 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1571 in Books > History > Military > United States > Vietnam War
- #9369 in Books > History > Asia
- #43598 in Books > History > Americas

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Dramatic review of history.

ByL. Harveyon September 15, 2017

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

This story is so sad, very well written. It shows us the true grit of that generation of men (which is my generation). I had family members who went off to serve their country. Thankfully, they all came back but some of them came back so changed from the trauma that they were not the same boys who left. I remember that era so well as I was in high school and some of my schoolmates quit school to go. Some of them came back and some didn't. I would recommend this book especially today.

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Griping

Bysteve allisonon May 11, 2017

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

If you read this book it will bring you to tears. 58000 young men died in this war. Many who died were just teen aged. Einstein said if everyone refused to fight there would be no war. How true

0CommentWas this review helpful to you?YesNo

Glad I Was 4F!

ByCap Mundayon March 22, 2013

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

This book kept me up nights. Haunting how so many names kept returning to the narrative.

I avoided this stupid war due to a back injury as a kid. Friends were not so lucky, and returned with a different view of life. Good? Bad? Stressed for sure. This wonderful narrative of America's wake up call battle totally absorbed me. A larger set of battle maps, or maps that could be enlarged would have helped, but at the end of the book, the picture was so well painted in my mind that they visual aids were unnecessary.

The complete picture was provided by Col. Hal Moore, from training of our airmobile troops through battle post mortum with interviews of top NVA commanders and high level LBJ cohorts.

At the end of the day, I was right when I protested the war at the Oakland induction center. McNamera gave the US a 1:3 chance of success in memos to LBJ. But the soldiers! Wow, how proud I am of our troops and their officers. Great book.

0Comment One person found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

Ia Drang Combat RLE

ByRodney E.on March 12, 2017

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

A reality of deadly combat vividly narrated by involved veterans and the senseless slaughter of human lives. All young soldiers killed in their prime in a combat mission mandated by the uninformed.
This book explains U.S. military tactics deemed appropriate in other wars but sorely inadequate in the field of Vietnam. Outstanding combat history!

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This is a fantastic story of some courageous men and a great leader

BySparkon July 26, 2015

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

This is a fantastic story of some courageous men and a great leader. I am proud to say that I had the opportunity to briefly meet Lt. Col. Hal Moore. This book is a riveting story of the fighting in the Ia Drang Valley in the early days of the Viet Nam War. More importantly to me it provided a clearer picture for me as to why the whole Viet Nam war became such a fiasco. After recounting the fighting endured by his battalion, Col. Moore devotes a chapter on "Reflections and Perceptions" or as I would call "Lessons Learned". I highly recommend this book.

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woulda coulda shoulda

Byformersolodier and once youngon January 13, 2012

Format: Mass Market PaperbackVerified Purchase

'We were soldiers..' is a story that every military and, especially, political leader must read before committing US tropps to battle. For me, it brought back memories and reminded me of people I knew who were there 46 years ago. The most significant point in this story and, in my mind, why the war lasted so much longer than it could, should, would have, is made in the realization by Hal Moore and the 1st Cav commander Harry Kinnard that the US had forever surrendered offensive initiative to the PAVN because they were not permitted to follow the battered PAVN units into Cambodia and destroy their ability to fight. Given the safe sanctuary of Cambodia the PAVN could replace, refit and rest their soldiers in complete security and chose the time of their next attacks which it did on the same grounds many times over the next years.

If the political leaders- Johnson and McNamara among others- had not been so timid and concerned more about public relations than their troops and had alowed US units to follow and defeat in total the PAVN wherever it was, there can't be any doubt of a much swifter resolution to the war and saved many US toops from death and life long injuries. Instead, the war lasted another seven years with thousands of deaths and injuries.

In the end the thing Johnson and his cohorts feared most- the loss of public support for them and the war - did happen and on a much greater scale than they feared. To me that is one the greatest ironies of their failed strategy.

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Required Reading on Vietnam and War

ByStephen Harton December 18, 2013

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I read this book many years ago and saw the Mel Gibson movie on the Battle of the Ia Drang. I recently took the opportunity of adding it to my Kindle library and re-read it.

I'm a Vietnam veteran and I must say that upon reading it this time (last time was ten or so years ago) I had a different reaction. The first time I read it as a good, well written War Story in which the good guys beat the bad guys and then (which was unknown to me at the time I read it) subsequently got slaughtered as a result of inept leadership.

This time around I found myself looking at this battle in a different way; thinking about how useless the loss of so many young Americans truly was. I'm older now and tho I'm still proud of my Service in a difficult time, maybe it's the constant wars we've fought since Vietnam, but Moore/Galloway's story made me extremely sad.

I think folks who've never been to War should read this book and relate the terrible events described here to our more recent conflicts, and then understand that our Servicemen and women are no longer young draftees whose exposure to War was limited to the most part for twelve or thirteen months. They are full time professional fighting men and women who are sent and resent to the battlefields to face the elephant time and again.

We Were Soldiers is as good a work about War as you'll find. Read it and reflect. And shed a tear or two.

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A Must Read

ByChris N.on July 15, 2017

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Easy and fast read. This book does a great job of really showing the human emotions and element of the Ia Drang battle. A must read for anyone who either wants to learn more about the Vietnam conflict or what war is really like for soldiers in the thick of it.

If you've watched the movie, you will not be disappointed by reading the book.