The Cruelest Summer: The Vietnam War Through American Eyes

In May 1961, in a further effort to support the government of Ngo Dinh Diem in the Republic of Vietnam, U.S. President Kennedy dispatched an American special forces unit to the country. This marked the beginning of the deployment of U.S. combat troops to Vietnam and set the Vietnam War in motion. Lasting more than a decade, the war involved more American troops than any other U.S. conflict after World War II and had an enormous impact. It was also a war the United States lost.

For more than a decade, American soldiers crossed oceans to fight a protracted war in the distant and unfamiliar lands of Southeast Asia. They had to fight ghosts and fire at phantoms. They could not see the enemy, nor could they tell allies from enemies or civilians from combatants. The South Vietnamese soldiers fighting alongside them looked no different from the North Vietnamese troops. When they searched villages, they saw silent, impassive faces tinged with hostility, and could not tell which people were civilians and which were Viet Cong hiding among them. Who was the enemy? Where was the enemy? Gradually, the soldiers realized that their enemy was the very land beneath their feet: the beautiful mountains and the lush rainforests. This was unfamiliar territory, and its silent, slight people were not truly resigned to silence. They made the deep earth cry out with their determination for revenge, becoming a nightmare American soldiers would never forget.

The Most Cruel Summer: The Vietnam War Through American Eyes is a work that withstands risk and pressure, and tells the truth! Over nine years, Philip Caputo used harsh words, frank language, and heartfelt cries to help readers understand the allure and brutality of war, and see the fear and doubts of the soldiers. In starkly truthful prose, he recounts his experiences facing death and the abyss. It is the most gripping and soul-stirring account of the Vietnam War, a stain America has long tried to cover up. The rainforest is chilling, the unknown is terrifying, and the wait is despairing. Every reader cannot help but ask themselves: If I were in their place, what would my chances of survival be? What would I do? These thoughts are inexplicably frightening. The Most Cruel Summer: The Vietnam War Through American Eyes is a chilling book that would bring even the strongest person to tears.