UNITED STATES AUTHOR · FICTION · UNITED STATES
James H. Webb
Also known as: James Henry Webb Jr., James H Webb
James Henry Webb Jr. (born February 9, 1946) is an American politician and author. He has served as a United States senator from Virginia, secretary of the Navy, assistant secretary of defense for reserve affairs, counsel for the United States House Committee on Veterans' Affairs and is a retired Marine Corps officer. Webb has been a member of the Democratic Party since 2006, having initially been a Republican. He was the first Democratic senator to be elected in Virginia since 1994 and is the most recently elected senator who did not serve as governor of Virginia.
GATE CITY IS more than four hundred miles from Arlington, down the long spine of mountains that marks Virginia's western border.
— from Born fighting
Most acclaimed
The Vietnam War
When Senator Edward Kennedy declared, “Iraq is George Bush’s Vietnam,” everyone understood. The Vietnam War has become the touchstone for U.S. military misadventures—a war lost on the home front although never truly lost on the battlefront. During the pivotal decade of 1962 to 1972, U.S. involvement rose from a few hundred advisers to a fighting force of more than one million. This same period saw the greatest schism in American society since the Civil War, a generational divide pitting mothers and fathers against sons and daughters who protested the country’s ever-growing military involvement in Vietnam. Meanwhile, well-intentioned decisions in Washington became operational orders with tragic outcomes in the rice paddies, jungles, and villages of Southeast Asia. Through beautifully rendered artwork, The Vietnam War: A Graphic History depicts the course of the war from its initial expansion in the early 1960s through the evacuation of Saigon in 1975, and what transpired at home, from the antiwar movement and the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. to the Watergate break-in and the resignation of a president. Praise for The Vietnam War "The Vietnam War: A Graphic History is an innovative way to present a complex period in American history. Using actual dialogue with illustrations of the personalities involved, it brings the people and the events to life." --Philip Caputo, author of A Rumor of War "Dwight Jon Zimmerman and Wayne Vansant have created a truly graphic history of America's tragic misadventure in Vietnam. They show the mistaken assumptions, failed policies, and hubris that doomed American efforts to prevent a Communist takeover of South Vietnam. At the same time, they maintain a balanced presentation that leans to neither the prowar nor the antiwar side in this country's most divisive conflict." --James M. McPherson, author of Battle Cry of Freedom "An emotionally moving combination of graphics and text clearly describing the events that led up to a war and years of bloodshed, which threatened the unity of the American people." --Joe Kubert, author of Fax from Sarajevo and Yossel
Vietnam's forgotten army
2008
Vietnam's Forgotten Army: Heroism and Betrayal in the ARVN chronicles the lives of Pham Van Dinh and Tran Ngoc Hue, two of the brightest young stars in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN). Both men fought with valor in a war that seemed to have no end, exemplifying ARVN bravery and determination that is largely forgotten or ignored in the West. However, while Hue fought until he was captured by the North Vietnamese Army and then endured thirteen years of captivity, Dinh surrendered and defected to the enemy, for whom he served as a teacher in the reeducation of his former ARVN comrades. An understanding of how two lives that were so similar diverged so dramatically provides a lens through which to understand the ARVN and South Vietnam?s complex relationship with America's government and military. The lives of Dinh and Hue reflect the ARVN's battlefield successes, from the recapture of the Citadel in Hue City in the Tet Offensive of 1968, to Dinh's unheralded role in the seizure of Hamburger Hill a year later. However, their careers expose an ARVN that was over-politicized, tactically flawed, and dependent on American logistical and firepower support. Marginalized within an American war, ARVN faced a grim fate as U.S. forces began to exit the conflict. As the structure of the ARVN/U.S. alliance unraveled, Dinh and Hue were left alone to make the most difficult decisions of their lives.