“Hu? 1968 is expertly researched military history … One reason I call this book an extraordinary feat of journalism is that Mr. Bowden makes events vivid and easy to understand for a reader with no military experience and only limited knowledge of the Vietnam War. The results are in every way worthy of the author of Black Hawk Down (1999), Mr. Bowden’s meticulously reported account of the Battle of Mogadishu … Mr. Bowden treats both sides with impeccable fairness and shows the bravery and cruelty of each. There is no ‘enemy side,’ no sinister force of the kind that lesser journalists and historians sometimes use like the antagonist in a novel to hold the reader’s attention … Hu? 1968 is also an exploration of what is common to all wars: humankind’s capacity for violence, cruelty, self-sacrifice, bravery, cowardice and love. Mr. Bowden undertakes this task with the talent and sensibility of a master journalist who is also a humanist and an honest man … To understand what it is to be human, you must understand war, which is unique to our species. In Hu? 1968, we read about humanity placed in a crucible, out of which comes both refined steel and slag. Here the best and worst of human behavior is exposed in glaring light.”
–Karl Marlantes, The Wall Street Journal, June 2, 2017
