Published to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Tet Offensive

This new paperback edition brings back into print a book that became an essential source for a 2006 study of the battle by the U.S. Army's Center of Military History. It takes a critical look at what went wrong in early 1968 during one of the first engagements of Tet, when a U.S. infantry battalion was ordered to attack a large North Vietnamese force near Hue City without air or artillery support.

The tragic military foul-up resulted in over 60 percent casualties for the 2d Battalion, 12th Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division, when the soldiers were surrounded by the enemy and began running out of ammunition. The bold decision by battalion commander Lt. Col. Richard Sweet to break out with his remaining soldiers under cover of darkness saved this encirclement from being a total disaster.

Author Charles Krohn, the unit's intelligence officer at the time, provides a much-needed analysis of what took place and fills his account with details that have been confirmed as factual by other survivors. Krohn examines the battalion's involvement in two other major attacks for lessons learned when vital systems break down—lessons, he says, that are timeless and applicable anywhere.

This book is published in cooperation with the Association of the United States Army.