This book is a first-person account of the struggle for Hue, one of the defining battles of the Communist 1968 Tet Offensive, and indeed of the entire war. As a relatively new Marine platoon leader, just arrived in Vietnam, then Lieutenant Warr participated in the 'liberation' of the former capital of the Vietnamese emperors, an event that would have a lifelong searing impact. Twenty-nine years laster, in this book, he tells his story from the perspective of the small unit leader in vivid prose that has lost none of its urgency or pungency in teh passage of time. -from the introduction by Jack Shulimson

1. A Conversation with a Dead Dog -- 2. The Longest Night -- 3. Land Co Village: In the Eye of the Storm -- 4. Phu Bai: Mess Hall Chow -- 5. Wading through Deep Shit -- 6. The Citadel -- 7. Whiskey Boats on the Perfume River -- 8. The BAckdoor Approach -- 9. Phase Line Green -- 10. Coping with Disaster: a Dead Dog Day Afternoon -- 11. Life is Renewed in the City of Death -- 12. The Return of Heavy Firepower -- 13. Snipers' Lair -- 14. The Night Movement -- 15. Coke-Bottle Glasses -- 16. Prisoner of War -- 17. The Effectiveness of Chemical Warfare -- 18. Aftermath, and a Dying Pig -- Epilogue: Commanding Officer's Comments -- Index.