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Dragon's Jaw

An Epic Story of Courage and Tenacity in Vietnam

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Dragon's Jaw

By: Stephen Coonts, Barrett Tillman
Narrated by: Dan Woren
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About this listen

 A riveting Vietnam War story--and one of the most dramatic in aviation history--told by a New York Times bestselling author and a prominent aviation historian

Every war has its "bridge"--Old North Bridge at Concord, Burnside's Bridge at Antietam, the railway bridge over Burma's River Kwai, the bridge over Germany's Rhine River at Remagen, and the bridges over Korea's Toko Ri. In Vietnam it was the bridge at Thanh Hoa, called Dragon's Jaw.

For seven long years hundreds of young US airmen flew sortie after sortie against North Vietnam's formidable and strategically important bridge, dodging a heavy concentration of anti-aircraft fire and enemy MiG planes. Many American airmen were shot down, killed, or captured and taken to the infamous "Hanoi Hilton" POW camp. But after each air attack, when the smoke cleared and the debris settled, the bridge stubbornly remained standing. For the North Vietnamese it became a symbol of their invincibility; for US war planners an obsession; for US airmen a testament to American mettle and valor.

Using after-action reports, official records, and interviews with surviving pilots, as well as untapped Vietnamese sources, Dragon's Jaw chronicles American efforts to destroy the bridge, strike by bloody strike, putting readers into the cockpits, under fire. The story of the Dragon's Jaw is a story rich in bravery, courage, audacity, and sometimes luck, sometimes tragedy. The "bridge" story of Vietnam is an epic tale of war against a determined foe. Air Forces Americas Armed Forces Asia Military Southeast Asia United States War Vietnam War Aviation Imperial Japan US Air Force
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This book could be renamed "how much I hate Democrats" as it spends an awful lot of time bagging out LBJ and Robert McNamara. Now many can and do criticize the two, and for good reason, but Coonts and Tillman go way over the top, and are often inaccurate. Given the level of information demonstrated in Max Hastings book Vietnam, and in Mark Bowden’s book Hue 1968, there is no excuse for these inaccuracies.
The authors try and blame everything on LBJ and Mac, without any commentary on the US military overstating their efforts and claiming to be winning the war.
This is a real shame, because the descriptions of the air actions, tactics and combat are first rate.

A good book flawed by bias

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Overall I enjoyed this book. The first person accounts of the pilots were excellent. The book was clearly well researched and hearing the story in the pilots own words was great. There is too much emphasis on the failings of Robert McNamara’s wider Vietnam strategy. And the reporting of this was full of highly subjective language. The bare facts are damming enough, and didn’t need to so heavily laboured. I liked the section on the development of guided weapons, and I would’ve liked to have heard a bit more about this.

Great - story but the political biases is of the authors showthrough

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