About Face: The Odyssey of an American Warrior

Front Cover
Simon and Schuster, Apr 15, 1990 - Biography & Autobiography - 875 pages
Called “everything a twentieth century war memoir could possibly be” by The New York Times, this national bestseller by Colonel David H. Hackworth presents a vivid and powerful portrait of a life of patriotism.

From age fifteen to forty David Hackworth devoted himself to the US Army and fast became a living legend. In 1971, however, he appeared on television to decry the doomed war effort in Vietnam. With About Face, he has written what many Vietnam veterans have called the most important book of their generation.

From Korea to Berlin, from the Cuban missile crisis to Vietnam, Hackworth’s story is that of an exemplary patriot, played out against the backdrop of the changing fortunes of America and the American military. It is also a stunning indictment of the Pentagon’s fundamental misunderstanding of the Vietnam conflict and of the bureaucracy of self-interest that fueled the war.
 

Contents

BROWN SHOES
32
HIT AND RUN
48
THE WOLFHOUNDS
59
BY THE DIRECTION OF THE PRESIDENT
113
THE ONLY GAME IN TOWN
144
HILL 400
178
THEY DONT HAVE COBWEBS IN KOREA
201
DONT LOOK BACK
224
TIMS TRAVELING TROUBLE
461
THE YEAR OF THE HORSE
500
BOX SEAT
547
CORPORATE HEADQUARTERS
587
DEATH ROW
625
HARDCORE
646
BORN TO LOSE
707
A LAW UNTO HIMSELF
739

BLACK SHOES
286
THIS AINT THE ARMY MR JONES
334
THE VANGUARDS
358
SCREAMING EAGLES
427
ISSUES AND ANSWERS
775
A HANDFUL OF ASHES
784
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About the author (1990)

Colonel David H. Hackworth served in the military for twenty-five years and received 110 medals for his service. He is the author of About Face, Hazardous Duty, The Price of Honor, and Steel My Soldiers’ Hearts. He died in 2005.

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