Book six of six

Eight missions, and what each one cost

The Deadliest Missions of the Vietnam War. Eight missions, one to a chapter: who went, what they were sent to do, how it went, and what it cost.

~~$35~~$19 One book, yours to keep

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Secure checkout by Stripe. Your PDF downloads the moment you pay, and the link is emailed to you as well.

150 pages
Archival photographs
Reads on any device

Why this book

The missions a documentary gives two minutes

A campaign is written as arrows on a map. A mission is smaller and more exact: a named crew or a named unit, one objective, and a clock that starts when the aircraft lift or the boats cast off. This book takes eight of them and stays with each one until the last man is out, or is not.

Why a helicopter ambulance crew kept going back for a camp buried in fog after two crews had already been turned away.
What it meant to fly down a river valley into the guns around one bridge, the one the pilots called the Dragon's Jaw.
How a small recon platoon held a hilltop through a night against a far larger force, and what it cost them.
What the men waiting on both banks of a stream thirty meters wide did to a column of armored boats.
Why a helicopter was put down inside the walls of a prison camp on purpose, and what the raiders found inside.
What happened on Koh Tang in May 1975, when the war was supposed to be over.

What is inside

Eight chapters, eight missions

Each chapter takes one mission and stays with it: who went, what they were sent to do, how it went hour by hour, and what it cost.

One
Dustoff
An unarmed helicopter ambulance, a valley full of fog, and wounded men who could not wait. January 1968.
Two
The Dragon's Jaw
Fighter bombers against one bridge and the guns ringed around it. April 1965.
Three
Hill 488
A recon platoon on a bare hilltop, surrounded from dark until noon the next day. June 1966.
Four
Lang Vei
A Special Forces camp overrun in the night, and the men still alive inside it at first light. February 1968.
Five
Rach Ba Rai
A column of armored boats up a narrow stream, with the enemy dug in on both banks. September 1967.
Six
The Son Tay Raid
A helicopter put down inside a prison wall on purpose, months in the planning. November 1970.
Seven
Bat 21
One airman down in the path of an invasion, and the men sent to bring him out. April 1972.
Eight
Koh Tang
Marines put ashore on a small island off Cambodia after the war was said to be over. May 1975.

On the record

Every chapter closes with the sources it was built from

This is researched narrative history, not testimony. No interviews were conducted for it, no dialogue has been reconstructed, and no first-person account appears in it that is not attributed to a named published source. It was written from published and public record sources: the official histories of the services, unit records and after-action reports, oral history collections and published memoirs. Those sources are listed at the end of the chapter that used them, and gathered again in the bibliography at the back, so you can go from any page to the records behind it and read them for yourself. Where the sources disagree, the disagreement is printed rather than resolved.

The photographs are genuine archival records: official United States government works held by the National Archives, reproduced with their archive numbers printed in the book, and altered in nothing but tone and cropping. The cover artwork is the one exception. It is AI-generated and depicts no real person, unit, place or event.

The same research feeds the Vietnam Firsthand YouTube channel.

Before you buy

The things people ask

What exactly do I get, and when?

The complete book as a PDF, with the archival photographs in place. You download it on the next page, the moment the payment clears, and a copy of the link is emailed to you as well so you can come back to it later. Nothing ships and nothing waits.

Can I read it on my phone?

Yes. A PDF opens on a phone, a tablet, a laptop and most e-readers without any extra app, and you can make the text larger on any of them. You can also print it at home or at a copy shop if you would rather read it on paper.

Is this a true account, or a novel?

It is non-fiction. Every chapter is built from documented sources and closes with the list of them, so you can go and look at any of it yourself. Nothing in it is invented and nobody in it is a composite.

I am not a military reader. Will I follow it?

Yes. It is written at ground level for readers with no military background. Where a term or a piece of equipment matters, it is explained on the spot rather than left to a glossary.

What if the file will not open, or I never get the email?

Write to us and it gets fixed, or refunded. A failed delivery, a duplicate charge or a file that will not open is always put right. Read the refund policy.

The book

Read it tonight

Eight missions, one to a chapter. The figures as the official histories print them, the men as the sources describe them, and a list at the end of every chapter of where all of it came from.

~~$35~~$19 One book, yours to keep

Get the book now

Secure checkout by Stripe. Your PDF downloads the moment you pay, and the link is emailed to you as well. Because delivery is immediate, the EU 14-day withdrawal right does not apply once your download begins. Read the refund policy.

Secure Stripe checkout
Instant download
PDF, reads on any device

The line

The rest of the line

Six books in all: two guided journals a veteran fills in himself, and four histories of the war he came home from. All six are finished and on sale, each one a PDF you download the moment you buy it.