Battles in the Monsoon: Campaigning in the Central Highlands, Vietnam, Summer 1966

New York: William Morrow and Company, 1967. Hardcover. Good/Fair. 408, illus., maps, index, bookplate ins front board, boards spotted & stained, DJ worn & soiled: small tears, small pieces missing, large tear front DJ. Samuel Lyman Atwood Marshall (July 18, 1900 - December 17, 1977) was a chief U.S. Army combat historian during World War II and the Korean War. Known professionally as S. L. A. Marshall, and nicknamed "Slam" (the combination of all four of his initials), he authored some 30 books about warfare, including Pork Chop Hill: The American Fighting Man in Action. During World War II, Marshall became an official Army combat historian, and came to know many of the war's best-known Allied commanders. He conducted hundreds of interviews of both enlisted men and officers regarding their combat experiences, and was an early proponent of oral history techniques. In particular, Marshall favored the group interview, where he would gather surviving members of a front line unit together and debrief them on their combat experiences of a day or two before. Derived from a Kirkus review: The General asserts that the Vietnam war has not been too often reported from the front lines. In order to bring back the real story of the daily war he traveled for three months in the early summer of this year in the jungle and plain where the action is. He chronicles three battles--Vinh Thanh Valley, Bn Gia Map and Tuomorong, the last of which was made famous when the much decorated Captain Carpenter called down napalm on his own lines. Marshall's book traces the heroism of hardened troops fighting malaria, battle fatigue, leeches, and an unseen enemy. And the detailed accounts of the small skirmishes are enhanced by instruction on how they fit into the large scheme of battle. Much of it has grim immediacy as death moves through the ranks of American patrols. One wonders how the Defense Department can issue such low casualty statistics.