Living and Breathing: Just Another Day in Vietnam

By Keith M. Nightingale and Col (Ret) Keith M. Nightingale

Book Overview

"The account is riveting, heart-pounding and mind-racing--just as the battle was for those who fought it..." -- ARMY Magazine

Keith Nightingale's accomplishments in both military and civilian life largely contribute to the excellence of Just Another Day in Vietnam as a memoir of unusual depth as well as breadth.

Uniquely adopting a third-person omniscient point of view, Nightingale eschews the "I" of memoir in favor of multiple perspectives and a larger historical vision that afford equal time and weight to ally and enemy alike. Examples of the many perspectives based on real-life characters include: Hu, a VC "informant" whose false information led the Rangers straight into the jaws of a ferocious ambush; General Tanh, the COSVN commander; Major Nguyen Hiep, the 52d Ranger Commander; and Ranger POWs later returned by the North.

Nightingale moreover offers the point of view of an American advisor to elite Vietnamese troops, a vital perspective regrettably underrepresented in the literature of Vietnam, including Burns' documentary. Added to this are well-informed conjecture of enemy psychology; insight into the dedication and often misunderstood role of the elite Vietnamese Ranger forces; the intelligence acquired from debriefing captured Rangers, whose captors had told them that the entire battle had been a carefully staged attack planned by COSVN as part of a larger Total War strategy developed by the leadership of the North Vietnamese Army; and an eyewitness account by a gifted author who is a rare survivor of one of the most vicious--and heretofore forgotten--battles of the war.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1636243029
• ISBN13: 9781636243023
• Release Date: March 2023
• Publisher: Casemate
• Length: 264 Pages
• Weight: 1.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 8.9"