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Hackworth, David H., and Eilys England. Steel My Soldiers' Hearts. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002. 444pp. $27.95
There are so many books about the Vietnam War and the Vietnam experience that the message of one more risks being lost amidst a vast ocean of tragic tales told with great pain. However, Hackworth and England have provided something more than a reminiscence of an Army combat unit in the post-Tet Offensive world of Vietnam; they have presented readers with a tactical reform primer for infantry. All the information is there in stark GI English, beginning with the first sentence of chapter 1 (not repeated here out of delicacy), and finishing up with the last sentences of the last chapter: "We now need to fight smart as much as we need to get even. There is no other choice. We do it right or we lose. We win-or we die." Hackworth and England are referring to the new war against terrorism in the post-9/11 world. The quotation applies to the current day, and it applied to Hackworth's nightmare battalion in the Mekong Delta in 1969.
His unit was the 4th Battalion,...