history

At the beginning of 1965, the U.S. seemed on the cusp of a golden age. Americans had been shocked by the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963 but they still exuded a sense of consensus and optimism. Political liberalism and interracial civil rights activism made it appear as if 1965 would find America more progressive and unified than it had ever been before. In 1965 President Johnson succeeded in getting passed through Congress legisation that included Medicare, immigrantion reform, and a powerful Voting Rights Act. But 1965 also ushered in the birth of the tumultuous era we now know as "the Sixties" when American society and culture underwent a major transformation. Civil Rights and voting rights demonstrators were attacked, black leaders were questioning whether non-violent protest was effective, and the Vietnam War escalated. As the mood darkened, the country became deeply divided.

Based deep in the jungles of Vietnam, Alpha Troop, 1st Squadron, 11th Army, was a specialized cavalry outfit equipped with assault vehicles. On the morning of March 26, 1970, they heard on the radio that an American unit four kilometers away had uncovered a hidden North Vietnamese stronghold. The eighty-seven-man American unit was outnumbered, pinned down, and fighting for their lives. Alpha troop's twenty-five-year-old commander, Captain John Poindexter, knew that his unit was the only hope for the trapped company. They fought a fierce battle, at considerable cost, and when it was over, Captain Poindexter tried to make sure his men were recognized for their actions. Thirty years later, he was made aware that the records of the battle, and his awards recommendations, had gone missing. He began his second "battle" to ensure that his brave men's accomplisments would never be forgotten again.

Historians and ordinary Americans have struggled to understand how and why the United States lost the Vietnam War. This book argues that the outcome of the war rested as much on General Vo Nguyen Giap's brilliant and innovative protracted war strategy as on American mistakes. Giap achieved victory in two anti-colonial struggles---first against France (1946-1954), and then against the United States (1954-1975). Giap, a legend of modern military history, was among the fist to realize that war could be won against superior military forces by exploiting the enemy's political and psychological weaknesses. He died in 2013 at the age of one hundred and one.

This is an epic, never-before-told true story of a North Vietnamese Army attack and how the men of this nearly overrun Fire Base survived. In the early morning hours of April 1, 1970, more than four hundred North Vietnamese soldiers charged out into the open and tried to over-run FSB Illingworth. The battle went on, mostly in the dark, for hours. Exposed ammunition canisters were hit and blew up, causing a thunderous explosion inside the FSB that left dust so thick it jammed the hand-held weapons of the GIs. Much of the combat was hand-to-hand. In all, twenty-four Americans lost their lives and another fifty-four were wounded. Nearly one hundred enemy bodies were recovered. It was one of the most vicious small unit firefights in the history of U.S. forces in Vietnam.

The story of a handful of pilots who flew unarmored aircraft within the range of enemy weapons to support troops on the ground during the Vietnam War.

While serving aboard a US Air Force rescue helicopter, Airman First Class William A. Robinson was shot down and captured in Ha Tinh Province, North Vietnam, on September 20, 1965. Robinson was a POW for 2,703 days in multiple North Vietnamese prison camps. No enlisted man in American military history has been held as a prisoner of war longer than Robinson.

Will Bird was working on a farm in Canada in 1915 when the ghost of his brother Stephen, killed by German mines in France, appeared to him in uniform. Rattled, Will rushed home to Novia Scotia and enlisted in the army to take his dead brother's place. He spent two years in the trenches of the Western Front. First published in 1930, Bird's account of the war was hailed as the most authentic account of the war experience at that time. Written in part as a reaction to anti-war novels such as All Quiet on the Western Front, which portrayed the soldier as course-minded, profane, and drinking alcohol to find courage, this book may have influenced Canadian authors such as Robertson Davies and Timothy Findley. Will Bird became a prolific author of history, travel writing, and fiction and is best known for his books on World War I and on the history of Nova Scotia.

At the start of World War I, Arthur Beecroft was a recently qualified British barrister (lawyer) in his twenties. He volunteered for military service and was offered a commission in the Royal Engineers. In 1915 he saw action at Gallipoli. He was lucky to survive and wrote a detailed memoir of his experiences. Discovered by his grandaughter, it has now been published, a century after the events, and perhaps more meaningful today in its discussion of comradeship, devotion to duty, fear, and facing death.

"... highlights the achievements and stories of fifty notable women athletes--from well-known figures like tennis player Billie Jean King and gymnast Simone Biles, to lesser-known athletes like skateboarding pioneer Patti McGee and Toni Stone, the first woman to play baseball in a men's professional league"--Provided by publisher.

On a summer morning in Sarajevo a hundred years ago, Gavrilo Princip took a pistol out of his pocket and started World War I by assassinating the heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. His actions changed the world forever. In this book, the author retraces Princip's steps and shows how the events that took place that day in June 1914 still have an influence in our world today.