references
BOOKS
Allen, Michael J. Until the Last Man Comes Home. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2010.
Bell, Jessie Grover. Here’s How by Who’s Who (Cleveland: Jesse Grover Bell Bonne Bell Inc., 1965).
Bowden, Mark. Hue 1968; A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2017.
Clausewitz, Carl Von. On War. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1976.
Garland, Albert N. A Distant Challenge: The US Infantryman in Vietnam. 1967-1972. Nashville, Tennessee: The Battery Press, 1983.
Halberstam, David. The Best and the Brightest: Kennedy-Johnson Administrations. New York: Modern Library (Penguin Random House), 2002.
Hackworth, David. About Face: The Odyssey of An American Warrior. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1989.
Hastings, Max. Vietnam: An Epic Tragedy, 1945-1975. New York: Harper Collins, 2018.
Karnow, Stanley. Vietnam: A History. New York: The Viking Press, 1983.
Kolb, Richard K. editor and contributing author. Brutal Battles of Vietnam: America’s Deadliest Days 1965-1972. Kansas City: Veterans of Foreign Wars, 2017.
Kitfield, James. Prodigal Soldiers: How the Generation of Officers Born of Vietnam Revolutionized the American Style of War. Washington: Brassey’s, 1995.
Lamb, David. Vietnam Now: A Reporter Returns. New York: Public Affairs, 2002
Lucas, Stephen, The Quotable George Washington: The Wisdom of an American Patriot. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, 1999.
McMaster, H. R. Dereliction of Duty: Johnson, McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Lies That Led to Vietnam. New York: Harper Collins, 1997.
Nolan, Keith. Ripcord: Screaming Eagles Under Siege. New York: Ballantine Books, 2003.
Santoli, Al. Leading the Way: How Vietnam Veterans Rebuilt the US Military-An Oral History. New York: Ballantine Books, 1993.
Sawyer, Ralph D. Sun-tzu, The Art of War. A New Translation. New York: Fall River Press, 1994.
Scales, Robert H. (Brigadier General, US Army Retired). Certain Victory: The US Army in the Gulf War. The Desert Storm Study Project. Washington: Brassey’s, 1997.
Schmitz, David F. Richard Nixon and the Vietnam War. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, 2014.
Sorley, Lewis. A Better War: The Unexamined Victories and Final Tragedy of America’s Last Years in Vietnam. Orlando, Florida; Harcourt Brace & Company:1999.
Wright, James. Enduring Vietnam: An American Generation and It’s War. New York: Thomas Dunne Books, Saint Martin’s Press, 2017.
Yancey, Dianne. The Vietnam War (Turning Points in World History Series). San Diego: Greenhaven Press Inc, 2001.
Yarborough, Thomas R. A Shau Valor: American Combat Operations in the Valley of Death 1963-1971. Philadelphia: Casemate Publishers, 2016.
COMBAT RECORDS AND DOCUMENTS
1st Battalion, 46th Infantry Regiment, Americal Division, Operation Lamar Plain After Action Report, dated 15 August 1969, signed by LTC Craig Coverdale. (This is a partial report.) https://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/reports/images.php?img=/images/1387/1387AAR46091969.pdf
1st Battalion, 501st Infantry Regiment (Airmobile), Combat After Action Report (AAR) for Operation Lamar Plain, dated 15 August 1969.
1st Battalion, 501st Infantry Regiment (Airmobile), Subject: Summary of Combat Operations Attack on a Fortified Position 21-22 May 1969, Operation Lamar Plain, dated 17 June 1969.
1st Battalion, 501st Infantry Regiment (Airmobile), Daily Staff Journals for S2/S3 Staff Sections, 501st Tactical Operations Center (TOC), from 1 March through 15 August 1969.
1st Brigade, 101st Airborne Division (Airmobile), Combat After Action Report (AAR), Operation Lamar Plain, dated 15 September 1969.
1st Brigade Aviation Platoon, 101st Airborne Division. A Mini History July 1965 January 1972, as of 3 January 2016. http://www.vhpa.org/unit/HHC1BDE101ABN.pdf
2nd Brigade, 101st Airborne Division (Airmobile), Combat After Action Report (AAR), Operation Massachusetts Striker, dated 25 May 1969.
101st Airborne Division Fact Sheet, Summary of Actions and Results (Assault on Dong Ap Bia), dated 24 May 1969.
101st Airborne Division, Operational Report - Lessons Learned Period Ending 31 July 1969, dated 9 December 1969.
101st Airborne Division Headquarter letter, Office of the Commanding General to Commanding General, US Army Vietnam, ATTN: AVHT-DST, SUBJECT: Senior Officer’s Debriefing Report, dated 28 May 1969, signed by MG Melvin Zais.
Americal Division. Operational Report for Quarterly Period Ending 31 October 1969, dated 10 November 1969.
Aviation Platoon, HHC, 1st Brigade, 101st Airborne Division, A Mini-History of, July 1965 – January 1972 South Vietnam, 1 January 2019, https://www.vhpa.org/unit/HHC1BDE101ABN.pdf
B Troop, 2nd Squadron 17th Cavalry, Lamar Plain After Action, 16 August 1969.
Wright, John H. Jr. (Major General, US Army). Senior Officer’s Debriefing Report. Letter to Commanding General, US Army Vietnam, ATTN: AVHT-DST. 11 May 1970
Zais, Melvin (Major General, US Army). Senior Officer’s Debriefing Report letter to Commanding General, US Army Vietnam, ATTN: AVHT-DST. 28 May 1969.
US GOVERNMENT, US MILITARY, OR CONTRACTOR PUBLICATIONS
Cosmas, Graham A. CMH Pub 91-7, MACV- The Joint Command in the Years of Withdrawal, 1968–1973. Washington DC: US Army Center of Military History, 2007.
Department of Army, US Army Infantry School. FM-7-20, The Infantry Battalion, Fort Benning Georgia, 1962.
Dorland, Peter and James Nanney. CMH Pub 90- 28- 1, Dust Off: Army Aeromedical Evacuation in Vietnam. Washington DC: US Army Center of Military History, 2008.
Hammond, William H. CMH Pub 91-2B, Public Affairs: The Military and the Media, 1968-1973. Washington DC: US Army Center of Military History, 1996.
Keefer, Edward. Editor, Vietnam, January 1969-July 1970, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969–1976 Volume IV. Washington DC: United States Government Printing Office, 2006.
Mahon, John K., and Romana Danysh. CMH 60-3-1, Infantry, Part 1 – Regular Army (Army Lineage Series). Washington DC: US Army Center for Military History, 1972.
Military History Branch, Office of the Secretary, Joint Staff Headquarters, USMACV. United States Military Assistance Command - Vietnam Command History, Volume 1 -1969. Alexandria, Virginia: Department of the Army, 1969.
National Archives. Vietnam Conflict Extract Data File of the Defense Casualty Analysis Section (DCAS) updated 11 January 2018, https://www.archives.gov/research/military/vietnam-war/casualty-statistics.
National Security Study Memorandum 1, The Situation in Vietnam. Volume VI, Vietnam, January 1969-July 1970, Document 4. Washington DC: US Department of State, January 21, 1969. https://history.state.gov/
Ott, David Ewing. CMH Pub 90-12, Field Artillery, 1954-1973 (Vietnam Studies). Washington DC: US Army Center of Military History, 1975 and 2007.
Pearson, Willard, Lieutenant General. CMH Publication 94-20-1, The War in the Northern Provinces. Washington DC: US Army Center of Military History, 1991.
Rand Corporation. Will to Fight: Analyzing, Modelling, and Simulating the Will to Fight of Military Units. Santa Monica CA: Rand Corporation, 2018.
Tolson, John J. CMH Pub 90-4-B, Airmobility, 1961-1971 (Vietnam Studies). Washington DC: US Army Center of Military History, 1999.
Traas, Adrian G. CMH Pub 76, Transition - November 1968-December 1969: The US Army Campaigns of the Vietnam War. Washington DC: US Army Center of Military History, 2018.
Villard, Erik. CMH Study, The 1968 Tet Offensive Battles of Quang Tri and Hue. Washington DC: US Army Center of Military History, 2008.
Webb, Willard J. The Joint Chiefs of Staff and the War in Vietnam, 1969-1970, from the series, History of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Washington DC: Office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, 2002.
Wilbanks, James H. Vietnam: The Course of a Conflict. Fort Leavenworth: Army University Press, 2018.
WEB REFERENCES
Burns, Ken and Lynn Novick, The Vietnam War: A Film by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick. http://www.pbds.org/kenburns/the-vietnam-war /home/
CIA Fact Book, https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/vm.html.
Filardo, Lou. Searching for Answers to Sharon Lane’s Death in Vietnam. Posted June 10, 2015 at 5:11pm. https://www.cantonrep.com/article/20150610/OPINION/150619917.
General Westmoreland’s Speech, National Press Club in Washington DC, November 21, 1967. https://www.cfr.org/blog/twe-remembers-general-westmoreland-says-end-begins-come-view-vietnam
Kennedy, Edward M. The Hamburger Hill Speech from In His Own Words series, Edward M. Kennedy Institute, May 20, 1969. http://www.tedkennedy.org/ownwords/event/vietnam.html.
Niebuhr, Ryan. 2nd Brigade, 101st AB, Vietnam War History. http://www.2ndbde.org/preface.php
Nixon, Richard M. Address to the Nation on Vietnam, May 14, 1969. Yorba Linda CA: Richard Nixon Foundation. https://www.nixonfoundation.org.
Pyle, Ernie. Excerpt from Ernie Pyle’s column written May 2, 1943 in North Africa, Stars and Stripes website, https://www.stripes.com/.
Summer, Harry (Colonel US Army, Retired). Book Review of Dereliction of Duty by H. R. McMaster, https://www.historynet.com/book-review-dereliction-of-duty-johnson-mcnamara-the-joint-chiefs-of-staff-and-the-lies-that-led-to-vietnam-hr-mcmaster-vn.htm.
Texas Tech University Vietnam Center and Archive, https://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/ . Vietnam maps used in this book may be found via a search of the maps located in the Virtual Archive. See next reference for easier location of maps.
United States of America Vietnam War 50th Year Commemoration, Week of February 23, 1969 https://www.vietnamwar50th.com/education/week_of_february_23/ .University of Texas at Austin, University of Texas Libraries. List of Vietnam Topographic Maps 1:50,000, http://legacy.lib.utexas.edu/maps/topo/vietnam/
Veterans Administration. PTSD: National Center for PTSD. https://www.ptsd.va.gov/
Vietnam Helicopter Pilots Association (VHPA). Helicopter Losses in Vietnam. https://vhpa.org
Author’s Note
My book, Courage Under Fire, is an authentic account of actual combat at battalion level and below. Research consumed more time and effort than writing. Both took five years. Interviews and battle records were used throughout to capture the close-in infantry fight. But the most important thing was remembering what it was like to be in the midst of skilled, well-trained, disciplined, young soldiers who above all else were courageous in battle!
Bibliography for COURAGE UNDER FIRE
ARTICLES
Ables, Roger. Bitter Fighting in Quang Tin: Operation Lamar Plain. The Vietnam Veterans of America Magazine, “The Veteran.” September/ October 2009 Issue.
Kilner, Pete (Lieutenant Colonel, US Army, Retired). Know Thy Enemy: Better Understanding Foes Can Prevent Debilitating Hatred. Washington DC: Association of the United States Army, 2017. https://www.ausa.org/articles/know-thy-enemy.
Two New Offenses Underway. New York Times, May 27, 1969, page 3.