The End of the Line: The Siege of Khe Sanh

by Robert Pisor

Book Overview

A war correspondent's searching account of a crucial battle in the Vietnam War. It was the most spectacular battle of the entire war. For 6,000 trapped marines, it was a nightmare; for President Lyndon Johnson, an obsession. For General Westmoreland, it was to be the final vindication of technological weaponry; and for General Giap, the architect of the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu, it was a spectacular ruse masking troops moving south for the Tet...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393322696
• ISBN13: 9780393322699
• Release Date: February 2002
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.6" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

well written history is far better than any fiction

i haunt used book stores, thrift shops and the swap meet for good books. to my amazement i found a whole shelf of vietnam books at one of my favorite thrift stores. it had to be a professor's library from our local state university, simply the best and lots of it. i picked up this book from the pile at a little past midnight that day, after scanned the few bags of books i had scored. i didn't put it down or leave my reading chair for the time it took me to read it, slowly and carefully, savoring each page. i can't recommend the writing or even the topic of Vietnam too highly. it is a pivotal event in US history, even more than i knew when i started working on this pile of books. just get it and be prepared to loose a little bit of sleep over it, well worth the time and effort.

A Valiant fight, A well-written history

This is an excellent book, on many levels. It tells the story of Khe Sanh, and the siege of the valiant Marines who held the hill against staggering odds, a story I vaguely remember from my youth, seeing headlines in the morning paper and hearing on the nightly news.It may also be one of the best books on Vietnam. I say that because the author, Bob Pisor, intersperses the action befalling the Marines at Khe Sanh with straightforward reporting on the overall conduct of the war in Vietnam: General Westmoreland, constantly pleading for more and more men, just one more build-up of forces, before victory is achieved.In addition, we also read about the battle, and the war, from the view from the North Vietnamese, who always wondered about our conduct of the war. For example, the North Vietnamese wondered why so few soldiers, of all those in Vietnam, actually were in the field, engaged in combat. This reporting provides interesting viewpoints.I highly recommend this book, both for its specific information about the valiant fight put up by the Marines, and for its overall reporting of the Vietnam war. Can be a hard-to-find book, but it is well worth the effort. I highly recommend this work.

Lang Vei explanation

This is an excellent book. I was in Special Forces at the time, and did not understand the anger some SF had at the Marines when this event occurred. The abandonment of the SF at the Lang Vei camp, in spite of prior agreements that the Marines would come to the rescue if the SF camp was attacked is explained here. I was also intrigued that the Marines at Khe Sanh got rid of their M16's and got back the M14 when the M16's Jammed. Also interesting was the fact that the US had a battle plan of the TET offensive and choose to not believe it was a real document.The terrible conditions at Khe Sanh are explained in detail. The forcing the Marines to defend the hill when the Marines said it was a bad place to fight is explained too. The changes of rationalization of the hill fight, from the original it is of no value, to, it must be held, to it is of no value, just prior to bulldozing the fort back to dust is explained too.A great read.

An essential read regarding the Tet Offensive.

A very good peice of literature that gave a true sense of what the U.S. Marines that where there serving their country where involved with. I also apreciated the point of veiw from the NVA/VC, as well as the overveiw of the French errors at Dien Bien Phu.

Excellent

As a Marine who was in I Corps I can report that Mr. Pisor has portrayed an accurate discription of life at Khe Sanh. Probably one of the best documents published about the VietNam war.