Description: Based on over 100 interviews with veterans, this is the first full critical account and analysis of the last American offensive effort in Vietnam--the failed Firebase Ripcord campaign in 1970.
Brief description: James R. Smither is a Professor of History at Grand Valley State University and is the Director of Grand Valley State University Veterans History Project. He has conducted over 1,000 oral history interviews with military veterans, including over 100 with veterans of the Ripcord campaign. He is co-editor of A Surgeon's Civil War: The Civil War Letters of Daniel M. Holt, M.D. and editor of Death and Life in the Big Red One.
Review Quotes: "We owe a debt of gratitude to the Ripcord veterans and James Smither for The End of the Rope. It's an essential work that deserves to be recognized as one of the most thought-provoking and informative accounts of the Vietnam War."-- "The VVA Veteran"