We Were Soldiers Once...And Young: The Battle That Changed the War in Vietnam [Paperback]

'If you want to know what it was like to go to Vietnam, then you must read this book.'

'There are stories here that freeze the blood... The men who fought at Ia Drang could have no finer memorial'

'Between experiencing combat and reading about it lies a vast chasm. This book makes you almost smell it'

The defining moment of the Vietnam war when the American dream of a quick victory died - hard.

In November 1965, 450 men of the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, under the command of Lt.Col. Hal Moore, were dropped by helicopter into a small clearing in the Ia Drang Valley. They were immediately surrounded by 2,000 North Vietnamese soldiers. Three days later, only two and a half miles away, a sister battalion was chopped to pieces. Together, these actions at the landing zones X-Ray and Albany constituted one of the most savage and significant battles of the Vietnam War. How these men persevered - sacrificed themselves for their comrades and never gave up - makes a vivid portrait of war at its most inspiring and devastating. General Moore and Joseph Galloway, the only journalist on the ground throughout the fighting, have interviewed hundreds of men who fought there, including the North Vietnamese commanders. This devastating account rises above the specific ordeal it chronicles to present a picture of men facing the ultimate challenge, dealing with it in ways they would have found unimaginable only a few hours earlier. It reveals to us, as rarely before, man's most heroic and horrendous endeavour.

Vietnam. November 1965. 450 men of the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, under the command of Lt. Col. Hal Moore, are dropped by helicopter into a small clearing in the Ia Drang Valley and immediately surrounded by 2,000 North Vietnamese soldiers. Three days later, only two and a half miles away, a sister battalion is chopped to pieces in a similarly brutal manner. Together, these actions at the landing zones X-Ray and Albany constitute one of the most savage and significant battles of the Vietnam War and set the tone of the conflict to come.

Now a major motion picture starring Mel Gibson

Lt. Gen. Harold G. Moore retired from the Army as a 3 Star General in 1977 with over 32 years active service. Commissioned a 2nd Lt of Infantry in 1945, he served and commanded at all levels from Platoon through Division. After his retirement from active duty in 1977, Hal became the Executive Vice President of the Crested Butte Ski Area in Crested Butte, CO. During the '80s and early '90s, he researched and wrote a book, We Were Soldiers Once...and Young with his co-author, Joe Galloway then of US News and World Report. The book covers the first major battle of the Vietnam War, the Ia Drang Battle, in which both men participated. Hal was the Battalion Commander on the ground and Joe was a UPI correspondent.

Joe Galloway is a native Texan. At seventeen, he was a reporter on a daily newspaper, at nineteen a bureau chief for United Press International. he spent fifteen years as a foreign and war correspondent based in Japan, Vietnam, Indonesia, India, Singapore, and the Soviet Union. After UPI service in Los Angeles, he spent several years as a feature and Senior Writer in Washington, DC with US News and World Report.