A masterful account of the last great engagement of the Vietnam War in which American forces participated. Drawing on a wealth of sources, military historian AndradÇ (Ashes to Ashes: The Phoenix Program and the Vietnam War, not reviewed) offers a tellingly detailed rundown of the 1972 Easter Offensive, which pitted more than 14 divisions of North Vietnamese Army (NVA) regulars against the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) and its dwindling corps of American advisors on widely separated battlefields near the so-called Demilitarized Zone, in the Central Highlands, and a few kilometers northwest of Saigon. Before getting down to business on the NVA's three-front bid for a decisive military triumph, AndradÇ provides big-picture perspectives on the tactical and strategic objectives of all the combatants, in particular the US, which was close to ending its in- country presence. Having set the stage, the author delivers savvy briefings on the campaign's major actions and sideshows, from the fall of Quang Tri (a provincial capital just south of the DMZ that was eventually recaptured) through the fierce defensive efforts that saved An Lock, Hue, Kontum, and other vital outposts from being taken by communist troops. In addition to high-caliber combat reportage, he supplies astute commentary on anti-tank weaponry, ARVN's unwieldy chain of command, close-air support, Hanoi's preoccupation with seizing territory, the Paris peace talks, and much more. Covered as well are the contributions made by legendary US Army officer (later Foreign Service official) John Paul Vann and a host of lower-profile Americans to what proved to be an interim victory for their South Vietnamese comrades in arms. Offering the first comprehensive coverage of an important chapter in the long, sorry tale of US involvement in Vietnam, AndradÇ does his subject proud and sets a high standard for any who follow. (Maps, not seen)
Pub Date: Jan. 31, 1995
ISBN: 0-7818-0286-5
Page Count: 600
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorkerstaff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
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