Moving from the White House to the B-52 cockpits to the missile sites and POW camps of Hanoi, The Eleven Days of Christmas is a gripping tale of heroism and incompetence in a battle whose political and military legacy is still a matter of controversy.
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 / 5.0
A participant:
As a pilot who flew those missions, I enjoyed the book and had some painful memories of those days.
Real SAC operations:
This is a totally accurate view of the B-52 bomber operations leading up to and during the bombing of Hanoi. It shows what the bomber pilots were feeling and how SAC screwed up life for them. Totally real; I was there too.
An excellent book:
I am very impressed with this book. It is a combination of history, great story telling, and analysis of the huge air battle fought over N. Vietnam during Nixon's "Christmas bombing." And if you like the mighty B-52, its even better. It gives a brief background of SAC, and how LeMay's thinking carried over into the Vietnam War. He was, like anyone, flawed at times, and he left SAC in something of a tight spot. It only did things one way. Flexibility was lacking when it would have been very helpful. The... more info
From the Vietnamese point of view:
Throughout the years I've read so many books written in English about the Vietnam War and I notice that they all so biased in favor of the U.S in virtually every aspect. From the Vietnamese point of view, this operation is called "Dien Bien Phu Tren Khong", which means "Dien Bien Phu in the air". This is a great victory for the Vietnamese side because they were able to force the U.S to agree to the demand that the Vietnamese had been demanded throughout the entire war, the demand was to withdraw all troops... more info
