Mourning Headband for Hue
An Account of the Battle for Hue, Vietnam 1968
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3.0 • 1 Rating
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
“An intimate―and disturbing―account of war at its most brutal, told from the point of view of civilians trying to survive the maelstrom.” —Publishers Weekly
Vietnam, January, 1968. As the citizens of Hue are preparing to celebrate Tet, the start of the Lunar New Year, Nha Ca arrives in the city to attend her father’s funeral. Without warning, war erupts all around them, drastically changing or cutting short their lives. After a month of fighting, their beautiful city lies in ruins and thousands of people are dead. Mourning Headband for Hue tells the story of what happened during the fierce North Vietnamese offensive and is an unvarnished and riveting account of war as experienced by ordinary people caught up in the violence.
“A visceral reminder of war’s intimate slaughter.” —Kirkus Reviews
“[A] searing eyewitness account . . . It makes for an intimate―and disturbing―account of war at its most brutal told from the point of view of civilians trying to survive the maelstrom.” —VVA Veteran
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
First published in 1969, this searing eyewitness account of the fighting in the Vietnamese city of Hue during the 1968 Tet Offensive is republished here in a new translation with a long introduction and annotated footnotes. In late January of 1968, the 30-year-old Ca, a well-known Vietnamese writer living in the U.S., was visiting family in the beautiful former imperial city for Tet, the Lunar New Year holiday. On January 31, the first night of Tet, the North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong invaded Hue, holding the city for nearly a month. Civilians were caught in the cross fire after American Marines and South Vietnamese forces counterattacked. Adding to the horror, the invading forces summarily executed as many as 2,800 men and women who worked for the South Vietnamese government and the Americans, or were otherwise suspected of being ideologically impure. Ca relates countless moments of terror she and her extended family members suffered and shares stories told to her by others who faced similarly dire circumstances. It's an intimate and disturbing account of war at its most brutal, told from the point of view of civilians trying to survive the maelstrom.
