The Village

Intro; Cover; Praise; Books by Bing West; Title Page; Copyright; Dedication; Contents; Foreword by James R. Schlesinger, Former Secretary of Defense; Author's Preface; Dedication; Book I The Setting; 1; 2; 3; 4; 5; Book II Night Patrols; 6; 7; 8; 9; 10; 11; Book III Defeat; 12; 13; Book IV "Work Very Hard-Never Look Tired"; 14; 15; 16; Book V The Challenge; 17; 18; 19; Book VI Acceptance; 20; 21; 22; 23; 24; 25; 26; 27; 28; 29; 30; 31; Epilogue:; Simon & Schuster Proudly Presents The Pepperdogs; 1968 The true story of seventeen months in the life of a Vietnamese village where a handful of American Marines and Vietnamese militia lived and died together attempting to defend it. In Black Hawk Down, the fight went on for a day. In We Were Soldiers Once & Young, the fighting lasted three days. In The Village, one Marine squad fought for 495 days—half of them died. Few American battles have been so extended, savage and personal. A handful of Americans volunteered to live among six thousand Vietnamese, training farmers to defend their village. Such "Combined Action Platoons" (CAPs) are now a lost footnote about how the war could have been fought; only the villagers remain to bear witness. This is the story of fifteen resolute young Americans matched against two hundred Viet Cong; how a CAP lived, fought and died. And why the villagers remember them to this day.