The B-52 Overture
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3.7 • 3 Ratings
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
The Vietnamese stole their land. The NVA raped their daughters. The Green Berets knew them as the most fearless and loyal warriors in the land....
They were the Montagnards, who called themselves "Sons of the Mountains" and always fought to the death. In this incredible memoir of wall-to-wall combat in the jungle near the Laotian border, Special Forces Lieutenant Don Bendell recounts the saga of the A camp of Dak Pek, 242. On those death-strewn hilltops in 1969-70, a handful of Green Berets and an army of 'Yards held off the entire might of North Vietnamese regulars—until even their courage and fighting skill could not staunch the flow of blood and tears.
THE ENEMY HAD THEIR SPIES.
THE ALLIES HAD THEIR COWARDS.
BUT ON A BLOODY MOUNTAINTOP IT WAS A HANDFUL OF GREEN BERETS AND AN ARMY OF COURAGEOUS MONTAGNARDS—FACING THE ENTIRE 2ND DIVISION OF THE NVA.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This fast-paced but poorly organized war memoir covers the little-known activities at Dak Pek, an isolated corner of Vietnam inhabited by the Montagnards, mountain tribespeople who were exploited and hated by all Vietnamese, and, according to former Special Forces Captain Bendell ( Crossbow ), saved by the American Green Berets. Dak Pek served as a base for U.S. border operations into Laos; thus, the North Vietnamese and local Vietcong targeted it, eventually taking over the camp but perishing in a B-52 carpet bombing strike. Bendell's stories of combat and life at Dak Pek are dramatic, but several lack transitions--one tale of his being taken prisoner is never even resolved. Moreover, liberal use of verbatim dialogue and interior monologue is suspect. Vietnam buffs, however, may overlook these faults and glean some insights into the brave, fierce Montagnards, many of whom fought with the Americans. Bendell describes the history of the Montagnard resistance movement and confesses to childhood dreams ``about being the white man taken in by a proud tribe of warriors''; he took a Montagnard lover and now serves as an adviser to the movement.
