In this compelling and meticulously researched book on the Vietnam War era, David Gerhardt blends his riveting firsthand experience with documented facts. The result is a historical war memoir offering a comprehensive perspective on one of America's most notoriously divisive eras and brutal armed conflicts. Whether they fought in it, demonstrated against it, or subsisted through the tumultuous times, Vietnam belonged to the baby boomer generation. These historical times were defined with drugs, sex, rock bands, assassinations of public figures, and riots in cities and on college campuses. From the war's politics to the twists and turns of the Ho Chi Minh Trail, this compelling account weaves history and statistics with pulse-pounding stories of survival, creating a fabric of understanding for a nation still trying to reconcile this dark and bloody chapter of America's past. Beginning with boot camp and ending with the postwar brutalities of communist regimes in Southeast Asia, including the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia-led by the evil Pol Pot-this unique account of the Vietnam War years is replete with sardonic tales of "boom-boom" girls, snakes, drugs, and some twisted soldier humor. As part of the last marine combat platoon, Gerhardt is the perfect one to tell it.