There are many books about the Vietnam War. There is only one about the tenacious and dedicated soldiers who served North Vietnam. This is it.
Inside the VC and the NVA is not about how the Americans lost the war but how the communists won it. America and her allies believed that manpower, firepower, logistics, and technology in and of themselves were sufficient to guarantee victory in Vietnam. This book describes how, to their advantage, the communists placed their trust in the oldest and most reliable tool of warfare: the individual soldier.
The authors, with their six-and-a-half years' combined experience on the ground in Vietnam, bring to this absorbing volume a personal observation, accuracy and honesty that is denied to the academics who never smelled gunpowder or suffered the hardships of the soldier's life during wartime. Using interviews, personal diaries and letters, a wealth of documents captured on the battlefield, and the latest revelations of the government of Vietnam, the authors show why the communist Vietnamese were able to outlast America's ten-year effort in Southeast Asia and finally seize all of Vietnam. History, leadership, recruiting and training procedures, morale, discipline, organization, tactics, and fighting ability--all of the factors that affected the NVA and VC are revealed and explored in depth.
And there are surprises. For example, most of the North Vietnamese were not native jungle fighters, as commonly assumed, but came from farms, villages, and cities. And the reasons for their strategic successes are clearly underscored: by fighting only when conditions were favorable to themselves, the VC/NVA were able to create an air of invincibility in the eyes of their enemies, the local populace, and themselves.
Comments from American generals and soldiers round out this exhaustive portrait of the enemy. And finally, the sad aftermath of the Vietnam War is presented, showing that the communists may have won the war, but, tragically, never achieved peace for their beleaguered nation.