In the Mouth of the Dragon

On his second tour in Vietnam, U.S. Army Captain John Haseman served 18 months as a combat advisor in the Mekong Delta's Kien Hoa Province. His detailed memoir gives one of the few accounts of a district-level advisor's experiences at the "point of the spear." Often the only American going into combat with his South Vietnamese counterparts, Haseman highlights the importance of trust and confidence between advisors and their units and the courage of the men he fought with during the 1972 North Vietnamese summer offensive. Among the last advisors to leave the field, Haseman describes the challenges of supporting his counterparts with fewer and fewer resources, and the emotional conclusion of an advisory mission near the end of the Vietnam War.