10,000 Days of Thunder
A History of the Vietnam War
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4.0 • 1 Rating
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- £9.99
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- £9.99
Publisher Description
It was the war that lasted ten thousand days. The war that inspired scores of songs. The war that sparked dozens of riots. And in this stirring chronicle, Pulitzer Prize- winning journalist Philip Caputo writes about our country's most controversial war -- the Vietnam War -- for young readers. From the first stirrings of unrest in Vietnam under French colonial rule, to American intervention, to the battle at Hamburger Hill, to the Tet Offensive, to the fall of Saigon, 10,000 Days of Thunder explores the war that changed the lives of a generation of Americans and that still reverberates with us today.
Included within 10,000 Days of Thunder are personal anecdotes from soldiers and civilians, as well as profiles and accounts of the actions of many historical luminaries, both American and Vietnamese, involved in the Vietnam War, such as Richard M. Nixon, General William C. Westmoreland, Ho Chi Minh, Joe Galloway, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Lyndon B. Johnson, and General Vo Nguyen Giap. Caputo also explores the rise of Communism in Vietnam, the roles that women played on the battlefield, the antiwar movement at home, the participation of Vietnamese villagers in the war, as well as the far-reaching impact of the war's aftermath.
Caputo's dynamic narrative is highlighted by stunning photographs and key campaign and battlefield maps, making 10,000 Days of Thunder THE consummate book on the Vietnam War for kids.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and Vietnam veteran Caputo (A Rumor of War) pulls no punches in this portrait of the Vietnam War. In his introduction, Caputo movingly depicts the war's impact on him personally, but also objectively presents the events. "The Vietnam war has three dubious distinctions: It was the longest and most unpopular war in American history and the only war America ever lost," he begins. After setting the stage with the heating up of the Cold War, Caputo begins a three-part exploration of the Vietnam War's origins: French colonialism, the dividing of Vietnam, and America's intervention. The design packs a visual wallop: a strong full-page photographic or cartographic image appears opposite a clean and succinct discussion of the topic (usually one theme per spread), while a sidebar offers "quick facts," such as the six presidents involved in the war (from Truman to Ford), or explanations of terms like "Viet Cong." The full-page and inset photographs are dramatic and often haunting (e.g., a marine crouched in a pagoda on the Ho Chi Minh Trail). Caputo's balanced approach offers evidence of atrocities and humanity on both sides of the conflict. He documents how American soldiers developed unique combat techniques for guerilla warfare and for the terrain, such as the use of special forces, helicopters and
