The Saigon Guns - by John Thomas Hoffman

Book Synopsis

Few Americans know the facts about the final year of US combat operations in South Vietnam. As political will to sustain the fight shrank and the US withdrew most of their ground forces, the Soviets and North Vietnamese sought battlefield success to strengthen their negotiating position at the Paris peace talks. In March of 1972, North Vietnam invaded the South with five armored divisions, massive artillery support, and modern Soviet anti-aircraft weapons, intended to sweep any remaining US military aviation support to South Vietnam from the skies. But the Soviets and their North Vietnamese proteges had miscalculated.

The remaining US aviation forces, along with the US Air Force and US Navy and Marine aviation assets, would not be easily removed from the battle. For the US forces still in-country, this is an untold story of heroism, dedication, and refusal to yield the battlefield despite being largely considered by US political leaders as "expendable."

Review Quotes

"This is one of the best books I've read in years. It is destined to be a classic of the Vietnam War. The author writes in a style that makes you feel you are right there with him, quite an achievement for a first book. The book covers the heroic exploits of Army Aviation in stopping the North Vietnamese Easter 1972 offensive against South Vietnam. You will read of the largest Army Aviation mission in history to support the South Vietnamese counter offensive and the destruction of the Soviet long range artillery that threatened Saigon. It also covers the extensive Army Aviation combat after the official statement that all Army combat operations had ceased in June in line with President Nixon's public statement. The men of these aviation units were denied all decorations for heroism and their records were purged of anything that confirmed their presence in South Vietnam after June 1972. On their way home, these men were stripped to their shorts and dog tags and all their personal possessions confiscated (against the law) to include their aviators' logbooks so that they would have no record of their service in Vietnam. Many would be denied VA treatment because there was no proof of the ir service. They were given surplus PX clothes to pick through for their miserable flight home. Despite the government's contemptible treatment of honorable men, the most shameful in our history, it is the story of dedication to duty performed with great skill and bravery. Anyone interested in Army aviation, the Vietnam War, or the art of war in general should buy this book. I cannot recommend it too highly. This is a book you will want to share with your friends."

--Peter Tsouras. Lt Col., USA, Retired, former Intelligence Officer and author of numerous books on military history

"John's book on his experience in Vietnam is monumental. The level of detail and emotion brought me right back to the right seat of an OH-6a. I can even remember how to do self-defense flying (in case your pilot, usually a nineteen-year-old warrant officer, is hit). Perhaps the most important part of this memoir is the striving for justice for the men of the units then and later as unrecognized veterans. I am certain that any reader will be filled with outrage. I am also confident that John has created a true history and documented a legacy that deserves attention."

-Captain Casmir Garczynski, Artillery Officer, RVN 1971-1972

"It's a bit of a cliché to declare a new book one that readers will not be able to put down. Nonetheless, John Hoffman's Saigon Guns: A True Story of Aerial Combat in the Fall of 1972 is without question that kind of book. With unflinching, eyewitness precision, Hoffman has written an unforgettable, utterly crucial book that collars readers from its very first chiseled sentence to its last. Saigon Guns-at once an autobiography, history, and a treatise on military strategy and unimaginable valor in service to America-is written in prose every bit as imagistic, nuanced, and textured as the most riveting fiction. Indeed, much of it is so mind-blowingly harrowing-so sweepingly adventurous, death defying, and overflowing with bigger-than-life characters-that readers must remind themselves that Hoffman's account all really occurred. It's an extraordinary, breathtaking book."

-Joseph Bathanti, North Carolina Poet Laureate (2012-2014); Co-founder of the Charles George VA Medical Center Creative Writing Program (Asheville, NC)