Battle for Hue: Tet 1968

¶ … Battle for Hue: Tet 1968 by Keith William Nolan. Specifically it will contain a critical review of the book. Nolan's book is an in-depth look into the Battle of Hue during the Tet Offensive in 1968 in Vietnam.

Author Keith Allan Nolan is a prolific author who writes almost exclusively on the Vietnam War. He published his first article on the war when he was sixteen, and his first book on the war when he was nineteen. He has a degree in history from Webster University, and lives in Missouri with his family, where he works part-time in libraries and writes. He has written ten books on the Vietnam War. His father was a history professor and served in the Marine Corps (but not during Vietnam). He was also extremely interested in military history, and passed this interest on to his son (Al Hemingway. "Author Seeks to Help Complete Vietnam Puzzle." VFW Magazine. March 2001. (http://members.aol.com/KWNolan/Viet.html).The author has become an expert on Vietnam, and considers writing about the war his "full-time" career.

Nolan's book tells the history of the Battle of Hue, but it attempts to show the real-life experiences and struggles of the men who fought in the battle - this is his thesis for writing this book. He notes in his introduction, "This book is mostly about them, the battle as seen through the eyes of the grunts" (x). The book supports this thesis in a variety of ways, from in-person interviews and accounts from men who fought in the battle to exhaustive research regarding the battle and how it was fought. Unfortunately, the author does not include notes, and his Bibliography is shorter than his Glossary, so his research could have been more in depth and exhaustive to make this a more interesting and effective book. He does include maps and photographs that help the reader envision the surroundings, the participants, and the layout of the battles fought in Hue during February 1968.

The organization of the book is more or less chronological. The author gives some background, and then launches into a detailed description of the month-long battle of Hue. Each chapter is a different chapter in the battle, from the taking of certain buildings to consolidating sections of the city under Marine control. It uses a narrative style, and it reads rather scholarly, despite the author's attempts to inject some of the participant's thoughts and dialogue into the book. In fact, there are so many "characters" acronyms, and jargon that sometimes it is difficult to make out exactly what is happening and who is doing what. For example, the author writes, "They were to effect a link-up with General Truong in the ARVN HQ which, like the MACV compound, was under heavy attack" (19). It is clear that many of the people who will read this book are military personnel or familiar with the jargon, but to the lay reader, passages such as these (and there are many), make it difficult to read and comprehend this book.

It is interesting to note that the author feels he is biased in the book, and that he was "too young" to have written it at the time. He says in an interview, "I am still somewhat embarrassed by it, believe it or not,' Nolan said. 'I was really too young when I wrote it. Ironically, it still remains my best-selling book'" (Al Hemingway. "Author Seeks to Help Complete Vietnam Puzzle." VFW Magazine. March 2001. (http://members.aol.com/KWNolan/Viet.html).This bias does show up in the pages of the book - it is very clear that the author admires these men, even to the point of making them heroes when in fact they were not. For example, in this description he makes the Marine seem a bit like Rambo in his reaction to injury. He writes, "The M-60 opened up again. Carter steeped through the rubble, found his 3.5, and started putting out rounds" (51). There is no doubt these men were brave in battle and took the brunt of what the war had to offer, but the author often seems to place them on a pedestal or look up to them so much that he is clearly biased toward their actions and thoughts. He notes he was conservative at the time, and has become more cynical about the war and how it was conducted. Perhaps a little more of that cynicism could have made this book less biased and more irrefutable.

The author uses both primary and secondary sources, and many first-person accounts from soldiers who actually fought in Hue to make sure his book covers all aspects of the attacks. However, there is one aspect that is missing in this book, and that is the lack of information and interviews from the other side. There are no Vietnamese or Vietcong references or interviews to balance the book. A look into at least some of the opposition and their reactions to the battles in Hue would have made this a more balanced account, and would have added richness and texture to the book, as well.

While the author attempts to portray most of the Marines as extremely upright and moral, he does show that war can affect a man's heart and soul. After viewing some dead Vietnamese, one solider wonders if they were civilians or Vietcong infiltrators. The author notes, "Few of the grunts could have cared less either way" (67). He explains that thought process as a reaction to the Vietcong killing their buddies, but still, their lack of remorse humanizes and dehumanizes them at the same time. This could be one of the weak points of the book, but instead, it shows the inhumanity and horror of war even more vividly than the descriptions of the dead and wounded.