Vietnam

Lieutenant Michael Lee Lanning came to Vietnam as a young man who was confident of surviving the war and eager to perform his duty to his country. After six months in-country, he was promoted to company commander at the very young age of twenty-three, and his sense of duty began to shift from being focused on his nation to preserving the lives of the hundred men in Bravo Company. Lanning and his men faced an enemy who was patient, elusive, and firm in the belief that they could outlast the Americans, just as they had outlasted the French in previous decades. The young commander would face the prospect of sudden, violent death, bone-numbing weariness, and the stench of blood and decaying flesh. He would lose friends and would acquire a cynical contempt for all Vietnamese, both allies and enemies. Vietnam, 1969-1970, the sequel to Lanning's The Only War We Had, is, like its predecessor, taken from the journals the author kept during his tour of duty. In its pages we learn of his pride in his men, the brotherhood he felt with his comrades-inarms, and the appreciation he earned from his superiors and the men in his command for his courage, initiative, and loyalty to the mission.