Small Unit Action in Vietnam, Summer 1966

New York: Arno Press, Inc, 1981. Book Club Edition of reprint edition. Hardcover. Good/Good. xviii, 142 pages. Illustrations. Map, Glossary of Marine Small Arms. New Introduction by Brigadier General Edwin H. Simmons, USMC (Ret). DJ has slight wear and soiling. Francis J. "Bing" West (May 2, 1940) is an American author and former Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs during the Reagan Administration. His 2004 book The March Up: Taking Baghdad with the First Marine Division, written with United States Marine Corps General Ray L. Smith, received the 2004 William E. Colby Award, as well as the 2004 General Wallace M. Greene, Jr. Award given by the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation. West writes about the military, warfighting, and counterinsurgency. In the Vietnam War, he fought in major operations and conducted over a hundred combat patrols in 1966-68. For the United States Marine Corps, he wrote the training manual Small Unit Action in Vietnam, describing how to fight in close combat. He was also an analyst at the RAND Corporation. This publication is based upon first-hand, eyewitness accounting of the events described. It is documented by notes and taped interviews taken in the field and includes lessons learned from the mouths of the Marines who are currently fighting in Vietnam. It is published for the information of those men who are serving and who will serve in Vietnam, as well as for the use of other interested Americans, so that they may better understand the demands of the Vietnam conflict on the individual Marine.The origin of this publication lies in the continuing program at all levels of command to keep Marines informed of the ways of combat and civic action in Vietnam. Not limited in any way to set methods and means, this informational effort spreads across a wide variety of projects, all aimed at making the lessons learned in Vietnam available to the Marine who is fighting there and the Marine who is soon due to take his turn in combat.