Ripcord, Keith W. Nolan
Ripcord, Keith W. Nolan
List: $29.99 | Sale: $21.00
Club: $14.99

Ripcord
Screaming Eagles Under Siege, Vietnam 1970

Author: Keith W. Nolan

Narrator: George Spelvin

Unabridged: 16 hr 49 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 03/30/2021


Synopsis

On April 10, 1970, Hill 927 was occupied by troopers of the Screaming Eagles of the 101st Airborne Division. By July, the activities of the artillery and infantry of Ripcord had caught the attention of the NVA (North Vietnamese Army) and a long and deadly siege ensued. Ripcord was the Screaming Eagles's last chance to do significant damage to the NVA in the A Shau Valley before the division was withdrawn from Vietnam and returned to the United States.

At Ripcord, the enemy counterattacked with ferocity, using mortar and antiaircraft fire to inflict heavy causalities on the units operating there. The battle lasted four and a half months and exemplified the ultimate frustration of the Vietnam War: the inability of the American military to bring to bear its enormous resources to win on the battlefield. In the end, the 101st evacuated Ripcord, leaving the NVA in control of the battlefield. Contrary to the mantra "We won every battle but lost the war," the United States was defeated at Ripcord. Now, at last, the full story of this terrible battle can be told.

About Keith W. Nolan

Keith W. Nolan is one of the foremost historians on the Vietnam War and the author of the highly-regarded Battle for Hue, The Magnificent Bastards, Into Cambodia and, with Dwight W. Birdwell, A Hundred Miles of Bad Road.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Eric_W on April 18, 2015

Ripcord is the eponymic analysis of the attack on the Screaming Eagles firebase installation in Vietnam in 1970. it exemplifies many of the structural problems with the way the war was conducted.  For example, the commander of the company assigned to Hill 805, Capt. Hewitt, was a young 25 year-old ......more

Goodreads review by Mike on December 01, 2012

This is a book I have been giving to battalion commanders enroute to battalion command for the past few years. It is the story of 2-506th and their fight over Firebase RIPCORD late in the Vietnam War, a period characterized by "Vietnamization" and Pacification. This incident was still talked about a......more

Goodreads review by Darren on October 07, 2012

This book is one of the very best accounts of combat I have ever read. This book is as good as "We Were Soldiers Once and Young". I wish everyone that has ever been told that "we lost the war in Vietnam because the politicians made us fight it with one had tied behind our back" would read this book.......more

Goodreads review by C on September 04, 2019

After receiving a suggestion for this book years ago, I finally read it recently during a span of international travel. I'm glad I did, but it's a heartbreaker. Taking place at the tail end of combat operations in Vietnam, this is a tragic story of an Army that had lost its way. Faulty estimates of......more

Goodreads review by Seth on January 03, 2008

Kieth William Nolan is the foremost Vietnam War historian that I know, and every single one of his books is excellent, to a niche audience of serious Vietnam historians. Ripcord is no exception, filled with precise individual action accounts it details the 101st Airborne struggles for a few tiny hil......more