Swift Boats at War in Vietnam [Hardcover]

Developed for the Vietnam War (and made famous by the 2004 presidential campaign), Swift Boats were versatile craft big enough to outrun anything they couldnt outfight but too small to handle a moderate ocean chop, too loud to be stealthy, and too flimsy to withstand rocket attack. This is an intimate, exciting history of Swift Boats in Vietnam.LIFE AND DEATH ON THE WATER . . . STORIES FROM THE MEN WHO FOUGHT THE VIETNAM WAR ON THE COAST AND IN THE MEKONG DELTADeveloped specifically for the Vietnam War (and made famous by the 2004 presidential campaign), Swift Boats were versatile craft big enough to outrun anything they couldnt outfight but too small to handle even a moderate ocean chop, too loud to sneak up on anyone, and too flimsy to withstand the mildest of rocket attacks. This made more difficult an already tough mission: navigating coastal waters for ships and sampans smuggling contraband to the Viet Cong, disrupting enemy supply lines on the rivers and canals of the Mekong Delta, and inserting SEALs behind enemy lines. The stories in this book cover the Swift Boats early years, which saw search-and-inspect operations in Vietnams coastal waters, and their later years, when the Swift Boats' mission shifted to the Mekong Deltas labyrinth of 3,000 miles of rivers, streams, and canals. This is an intimate, exciting oral history of Swift Boats at war in Vietnam.GUY GUGLIOTTA, a former Swift Boat officer, worked for more than forty years as correspondent and columnist for UPI, the Miami Herald, and The Washington Post. He is coauthor of Kings of Cocaine and author of Freedoms Cap. Gugliotta was awarded three Bronze Stars. He lives in New York City.JOHN YEOMAN was the skipper of PCF 37 and PCF 692. He also served as tactical commander of combined PCF, SEAL, and helicopter attacks in the canals of the Mekong Delta. After leaving the Navy, he earned an MBA from the University of Chicago and then worked in New York as an investment banker. In the late 1990s, lÏ