Over the Beach
The Air War in Vietnam
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
"The Right Stuff without the hype, Yeager without the ego."—Washington Post Book World
"While the jet-jockey competitiveness, the undercurrent of fear, the victories and foul-ups of jet sweeps have been described many times, few such chronicles have done it so grippingly and with such a ring of accuracy. Mr. Grant explores the emotions felt not only by the men in battle but by the wives and others left behind, and the questions the war raised in their minds. To put in larger context the war's impact on individual participants, the author periodically reviews the high-level struggles over how to fight the air war. "What is most impressive is to find an analysis so clearly stated, so seemingly on track in locating the weak spots in the policies of various political and military officials....Written in a straightforward yet stylish prose, Over the Beach carries tremendous conviction."—Richard Witkin, New York Times Book Review
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
As a Time correspondent, Grant (Survivors frequently visited the fighter pilots who flew missions over North Vietnam from the carrier Oriskany, and interviewed many of them anew after the war. The material he collected, combined with diligent research and considerable journalistic talent, comprises a first-class account of an important aspect of the war that has not received major attention. The pilots are portrayed in a dimensional way rarely found in war literature, and Grant conveys vividly what it was like to live through intense anti-aircraft fire, dogfights with MIGs, downing and rescue (as well as downing and capture) and psychic burnout. This is more than an air-combat book, however: the author follows the course of disagreements between the high command and Defense Secretary Robert McNamara over the usefulness of the air war, the reaction of the pilots to charges of bombing civilian areas, the struggle of a pilot's widow to confirm that he has been killed and then to reconcile herself to his death. First serial to Vietnam Veterans of America; Military Book Club dual main selection.
