Widely acknowledged as the definitive history of the Siege of Khe Sanh, the book tells the whole incredible story of one of the most pivotal and bloody battles of the Vietnam War. Historian John Prados and Khe Sanh survivor Ray Stubbe skillfully recount the brutal seventy-seven days of combat as well as the larger political context that formed the all-important backdrop to battlefield events. From the first direct hit on the fifteen-hundred tons of ammunition stockpiled in the U.S. compound, though the day and night patrols, pounding mortar fire, and shifting battle lines, the words and deeds of the men of Khe Sanh are brought to life through a combination of extensive documentation and eyewitness accounts from both sides of the conflict. Unique among books about the war, the comprehensiveness of this study will satisfy the most demanding specialist. Its sense of drama and action and its use of on-the-scene testimony will intrigue the general reader.