We Were Soldiers Once...and Young: Ia Drang - the Battle That Changed the War in Vietnam

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Editorial Reviews:

Product Description
Each year, the Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps selects one book that he believes is both relevant and timeless for reading by all Marines. The Commandant's choice for 1993 was We Were Soldiers Once . . . and Young.
In November 1965, some 450 men of the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, under the command of Lt. Col. Hal Moore, were dropped by helicopter into a small clearing in the Ia Drang Valley. They were immediately surrounded by 2,000 North Vietnamese soldiers. Three days later, only two and a half miles away, a sister battalion was chopped to pieces. Together, these actions at the landing zones X-Ray and Albany constituted one of the most savage and significant battles of the Vietnam War.
How these men persevered--sacrificed themselves for their comrades and never gave up--makes a vivid portrait of war at its most inspiring and devastating. General Moore and Joseph Galloway, the only journalist on the ground throughout the fighting, have interviewed hundreds of men who fought there, including the North Vietnamese commanders. This devastating account rises above the specific ordeal it chronicles to present a picture of men facing the ultimate challenge, dealing with it in ways they would have found unimaginable only a few hours earlier. It reveals to us, as rarely before, man's most heroic and horrendous endeavor.

From the Hardcover edition.

Customer Reviews: Read 11 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars

Realistic, Straight forward Account of Horrendous Battles March 12, 2005
19 out of 19 found this review helpful

First, let's look at what this book is not: It is not beautifully written, it is not the story of one person's experience and it is not dedicated to character building. If you are looking for those things, then look elsewhere.

Now if you are looking for the smell, the horror, the courage and the sacrifice of the battlefield, then you will find it in this work. Moore and Galloway have written a book that will serve as a textbook for generations of people who want to know what war is really like in a very objective manner - the heroism, the great leadership, poor leadership, mistakes, and occasional cowardice. It pulls no punches and takes people and organizations to task where appropriate. It is truly an amazing work and one that should be read by anyone when a debate on going to war is raging.

The book is in three distinctive parts: The fight on Landing Zone X-Ray; The Fight on Landing Zone Albany; and the aftermath of the battles, for both the US involvement in Viet Nam and some of the families affected by it. Moore was the Battalion Commander at X-Ray and gives a very good view of the decisions he made and why he made them. He is able to walk us through the battle and describe the critical actions by both the North Vietnamese and the US forces that turned the tide of this battle and allowed Moore's force to win a victory. There are many first person accounts of different aspects of the battle given by the US soldiers that fought there and also by some of the key North Vietnam leaders.

The second part of the book was about the relief battalion's retrograde back from LZ X-Ray to LZ Albany. Moore was not here so all of the reporting was done thru interviews after the fact. He is pretty scathing in some of his assesments of the decisions being made - although if you do not have military experience you might not find the writing scathing enough for what happened. He describes the complecency by some of the leadership on the movement back, the failure to set out decent security and the indecisiveness in the early moments of the battle. He also points out the slow flow of information from Albany to the higher levels of the US Forces. Albany was fought to a draw with horrendous losses on both sides after a North Vietnamese battalion and the 2/7 Cav had a meeting engagement (which means they ran into eachother in the woods). One lead company was almost completely slaughtered, save a few people that had to do an E&E (Escape and Evasion) in order to get to safety. The book contains three accounts of men that did that.

The final part of the book looked at the political decisions made in the aftermath of the war using declassified top secret memos written by Sec McNamara to illustrate that he knew very early in the war that it could prove to be unwinnable, putting the odds at a US victory at no better than 1 in 2. Also, there are personal accounts from the widows and the children of some of the men that died in the battles. Since I am in Iraq right now with the Army, and I have a two year old daughter, I found these passages particularily moving.

My only gripe with this book, is that your understaning of it is assisted greatly if you have been in the military. Since I am, it is no problem, but for someone walking in with no experience, a lot of the terminology used and the prose itself will make following the story a little more difficult. It reads almost exactly like an After Action Review, which probably is the proper voice for this piece, but some readers will have problems with it - as evidenced by some of the earlier reviews.

The bottom line - very honest, interesting, work. It will help the reader understand battle, and perhaps understand it a little more than they would like to. Highly recommend.

5 out of 5 stars

A Very Vulgar Brawl June 19, 2005
13 out of 17 found this review helpful

WE WERE SOLDIERS ONCE...AND YOUNG, Lieutenant General (Ret.) Harold (Hal) G. Moore's and Joe Calloway's painstakingly detailed history of 1965's Battle of the Ia Drang Valley, should be required reading for anyone interested in war, particularly those who still believe that there is something noble or glorious about men engaging in politically sanctioned slaughter.

This prior comment is no indictment of anyone in particular, especially not the soldiers who fought in the Ia Drang, whether Americans or Vietnamese. Both sides demonstrated uncommon bravery and fortitude under fire. The comment stands however, as an indictment of the waste and horror of battle, the brutishness of men killing each other, and the cost of war in young human lives.

The Battle of the Ia Drang was the first major engagement of United States forces against the People's Army of North Vietnam. It took place over the course of a week at two clearings in the jungle called Landing Zone X-Ray and Landing Zone Albany, and was the first battle deployment of airmobile troops in history.

Incomplete intelligence and ill-advised orders (to find and kill the enemy, rather than to hold enemy territory) resulted in the 1st Battalion of the 7th Infantry, numbering less than 500 men, being airdropped into the red-hot center of NVA-controlled South Vietnam. The Americans were met by more than 2000 North Vietnamese regulars who were defending their major southern command post. Even before the GIs were off their helicopters they came under withering enemy fire. Moore and Calloway are terrifyingly graphic in their descriptions of the ordered chaos which ensued. Although the Americans won the day at X-Ray, they did so at an unconscionable human price. Their stand at LZ Albany, two days later, was little short of disastrous.

Moore cuts the army brass no ice in criticizing the overall strategy behind the Battle of the Ia Drang. It should have been abundantly clear to anyone with eyes to see that the Vietnamese Communists were a superbly trained ground force utterly committed to their cause, willing to fight to the last drop of blood. The human cost of the battle and the nature of the enemy should have forced a massive reconsideration of U.S. means and goals right at the beginning of the greater U.S. committment in Vietnam. That it didn't is a tragedy.

Although I have given WE WERE SOLDIERS ONCE...AND YOUNG five well-deserved stars for its story, the book (at least the mass market paperback edition) suffers from very poor formatting. I have read voraciously for the last 40 years and this is one of the few books I have experienced that is measurably devalued by its atrocious editing.

WE WERE SOLDIERS ONCE...AND YOUNG is not Hal Moore's book, but a history of the 7th Division at Ia Drang. General Moore not only includes his own reminiscences, but those of other survivors, most often directly transcribed from interviews.

The various participants' accounts are not clearly set off from each other by conventions such as indents or font changes. As a result, they often impinge on each other confusingly, and it becomes difficult to determine whose voice is speaking at a given moment.

Since many men are recounting their personal experiences, a single incident (or person) may be introduced and discussed several times. This undifferentiated style gives the reader an impression of weak writing, which it is not. Still, it becomes too easy to lose one's place in what at times appears to be the world's most incredibly convoluted run-on sentence.

But for this editor's flaw, which has nothing to do with the authors or their subject, reading WE WERE SOLDIERS ONCE...AND YOUNG is a shattering experience everyone should share.

4 out of 5 stars

Anatomy of a Battle--And How! June 23, 2005
11 out of 12 found this review helpful

In WE WERE SOLDIERS ONCE...AND YOUNG, the team of Harold Moore and Joey Galloway, have given us a devastating and detailed account of battle
In November 1965, 450 men of the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, were helicoptered into the Ia Drang valley to destroy whatever elements of the NVA they found.
From the time they landed until two days later, they came under constant attack. Colonel Moore formed a perimeter and fought a classic defensive battle, but it was a close run thing. They were probably saved by air and artillery coverage; even so, there are grim scenes of Americans being killed by misplaced napalm and artillery rounds.
The authors have no qualms about recounting the explicit gore of battle. One soldier tried to move another and "it seemed like his entire brain fell out..." And a few lines further, "Rodriguez is hit...His guts are on the ground." Everywhere, the screams and curses of dying men, and once, "Oh my God, forgive me."
One of the righteous complaints of the American soldier was that he was sent into combat with a toy for a main battle rifle, and Moore/Galloway present us with innumerable examples: "I got my hands on one that didn't work. The second one didn't either, nor the third." And "I fired a burst from my M-16 which promptly fell apart." One man..."got another man's M-16 and tried to fire it but it was inoperable. I took his .45 pistol..." and Old Ugly came through for him. The propensity of the M-16 to jam was notorious and "every third man was down in the bottom of the hole with a cleaning rod, cleaning the rifles." One sergeant sighted on an NVA: "He fired at me and I fired back. I got off one round and my M-16 jammed."
If the M-16 was a dirty joke, so was its puny 5.56mm cartridge. "I got him with my first round, saw him drop...and start to crawl forward...I sighted very carefully and saw him jolted by my second round, but he kept coming..." Another soldier: I fired twice. I hit him but he refused to go down, he kept coming and shooting." Many soldiers bought civilian ammunition at their own expense.
Moore's battalion was successful in its defense, and was relieved by Robert McDade's 2nd Battalion. They in turn were marched out to another area (Albany) because the B-52s wanted to bomb around Moore's old area.
On arrival at Albany 2nd Battalion found a gourmet Army meal waiting for them: hamburgers, mashed potatoes, and string beans. Under combat conditions, a meal for the gods.
Unfortunately, on the fifteen mile march, 2nd Battalion had become strung out along the trail, and had entered an area occupied by some two and a half fresh NVA battalions. They knew McDade was coming and set their ambush.
While the lead elements were still eating their hamburgers, the NVA followed the old Sun-Tzu/Mao dictum "When possible, attack the enemy while he is in motion." They attacked the column, fractured it, surround the invidual companies and started to decimate the encircled elements.
Here again, we are treated to page after page of desperate valor and butchery. If there is any major flaw in the book it is probably this kind of repetition. Also, there is such a large cast of characters that, unlike fiction, we can seldom identify with them. After a time the butchery becomes commonplace, and because the participants are unknown, they become only names, and numbers.
Men scattered and tried to make it to other units, while NVA death squads searched for the wounded, and executed them in the tall elephant grass. One soldier, wounded and not expecting to survive, booby-trapped his own body with a grenade, and waited. Artillery save him, but others were not as lucky.
By sunrise next day, one company of 112 men had forty-five dead and more than fifty wounded. Only a dozen could walk. At the end of Albany, only four trucks were needed to carry out the non-wounded, this from some four hundred men who marched in.
2nd Battalion claimed a body count of 403 NVA with an estimated 150 NVA wounded. If these figures are valid then the casualties were about equal, and Albany was a grim standoff.
After the fight, in camp, the survivors were given a victory dance. They had showered but due to some glitch, had not been given fresh clothing. When the local laides got a whiff of the blood, sweat, and feces smell of the uniforms, most of them opted for the powder room.
Ia Drang; who won? Both sides claimed victory. Moore's battalion inflicted losses of about 5-1 on the NVA. When the Americans talk about Ia Drang, they talk about Moore's battle; when the Vietnamese talk about Ia Drang, they talk about the ambush of McDade's battlaion. Perhaps the American army had some reservations about Albany too. McDade retired as a colonel in 1975, while Moore retired as a lieutenant-general.
This is a book that "tells it like it is."

5 out of 5 stars

FRIGHTENINGLY REAL February 10, 2005
8 out of 8 found this review helpful

I saw the movie & thought I would give the book a whirl. This book is extremely well written & frighteningly real. It not only looks at this infamous battle in extaordinary detail but gives the reader an idea of what went on "back home" perhaps from the perspective of the families of the soldiers who fought in the Ia Drang Valley in November 1965. Also included is a small glimpse of some of the political decisions that were made at the time & the consequences of those decisions. This is an excellent read. UNPUTDOWNABLE

2 out of 5 stars

Of some interest June 24, 2007
6 out of 26 found this review helpful

This is an account of the first large scale encounter between the North Vietnamese Army and the Americans. Prior to this battle the Viet Cong had fought against the Army of the Republic of Vietnam.(ARVN) The success of the Viet Cong had led the North Vietnamese to think that they could win the war by conventional means in 1965. They started to send large detachment of troops down the Ho Chi Min trail. The command problems the North Vietnamese faced was that it took literaly months for their troops to travel the length of the trail. The original plan which led to this battle was for the North Vietnamese to blockade a large town and then to ambush the ARVN relief column.

The problem was that whilst the units were moving down the trail America committed large numbers of units to the war. This battle was not only an experiment for the North Vietnamese it also was for the Americans. Previously the French had problems in fighting the Vietnamese. Although they had modern forces their units were slow and the Vietnamese could make decisions about when to give battle. The Americans developed the notion of "Air Cavalary". Helicopter born infantry which could be quickly dropped in areas in which enemy troops were concentrated. This battle was the first combat experiance of Air Cavalary.

Broadly what happened was that the North Vietnamese units failed in their attempt to trap an ARVN column. The Americans dropped an air cavalary unit in an area which had concentrations of the units which had been involved in this attack. The North Vietnamese had a superiority in numbers of troops but no artillery or air support. They decided to attack anyway. There were two distinct battles. One was an attempt to destroy a unit of 400 Air Cavalary troops which initially landed. This was not succesfull as the Americans were able to use artillery and air support to destroy the attacking North Vietnamese. The second was a ambush of American relief forces had been landed and decided to retreat after the completion of the first battle.

The result overall of the engagement was inconclusive although it led to both sides thinking that they could win. The Americans inflicted a kill ration of something like 12 to 1. As a result the American commander thought that he could win a battle of attrition. It was from this battle that the search and destroy missions and body counts came from. The North Vietnamese although came out of the battle thinking that they could win. Despite the lack of artillery support and air support they had badly cut up one American column and they had inflicted casualties on the other.

The book is pretty much an oral history of both battles. Like any oral history it gives a fragmented picture of what went on as it moves from one eye witness account to another. Not surprisingly as the book is written by an American the account has the veneer of heroism over it. Although in any battle there are different types of heroism. Whilst the American troops were clearly brave and the dependence on supply by helicopter meant that the troops on the ground were not supplied with water(preferance was given to ammunition)the North Vietnamese had to fight with light weapons against a vastly better armed enemy.

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