About this item
A "thrilling narrative of bravery, bravado, and loss" (Kirkus Reviews) that tells the "gripping story of a handful of marines who formed the last body of Americans to leave Saigon on April 30, 1975" (BOOKLIST ) . In a gripping, moment-by-moment narrative based on a wealth of recently declassified documents and in-depth interviews, Bob Drury and Tom Clavin tell the remarkable drama that unfolded over the final, heroic hours of the Vietnam War. This closing chapter of the war would become the largest-scale evacuation ever carried out, as improvised by a small unit of Marines, a vast fleet of helicopter pilots flying nonstop missions beyond regulation, and a Marine general who vowed to arrest any officer who ordered his choppers grounded while his men were still on the ground. Drury and Clavin focus on the story of the eleven young Marines who were the last men to leave, rescued from the U.S. Embassy roof just moments before capture, having voted to make an Alamo-like last stand. As politicians in Washington struggled to put the best face on disaster and the American ambassador refused to acknowledge that the end had come, these courageous men held their ground and helped save thousands of lives. Drury and Clavin deliver a taut and stirring account of a turning point in American history that unfolds with the heart-stopping urgency of the best thrillers - a riveting true story finally told, in full, by those who lived it.
About the Author
Men's Health Contributing Editor and Military Correspondent Bob Drury has been nominated for three National Magazine Awards and a Pulitzer Prize. He has reported from Iraq, Afghanistan, Liberia, Bosnia, Northern Ireland, and Darfur among other sites. He is also the author, co-author, or editor of nine nonfiction books, including the New York Times bestselling HALSEY'S TYPHOON, LAST MEN OUT, and THE LAST STAND OF FOX COMPANY, the recipient of the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation's 2010 General Wallace M. Greene Jr. Award for nonfiction. His Kindle Single, SIGNATURE WOUND, is available from Amazon, and his latest book, THE HEART OF EVERYTHING THAT IS -- also a New York Times bestseller in hardcover -- was released in paperback by Simon & Schuster Publishing in September, 2014.
