While the first volume in this mini-series spanned the first decade of confrontations between Libya and several of its neighbours, but foremost the USA and France, between 1973 and 1985, the second is to cover the period of less than a year - between mid-1985 and March 1986, when this confrontation reached its first climax.
Confrontations between Libya, and the USA and France reached their highest point in the period between April 1986 and early 1989.
This volume describes the circumstances of the creation of the Civil Air Transport company, a paramilitary airline owned by the CIA, its participation in the Chinese Civil War, and the story of its founder, General Claire Lee Chennault of the famed Flying Tigers.
ASIAN / MIDDLE EASTERN HISTORY: FROM C 1900 -. On 30 March 1972 the South Vietnamese positions along the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) that separated the North from South Vietnam were suddenly shelled by hundreds of heavy guns and multiple rocket launchers. Caught in a series of outposts of what was the former 'McNamara Line', the shocked defenders had just enough time to emerge from their bunkers at the end of the barrage before they were attacked by regular North Vietnamese Army divisions, supported by hundreds of armoured vehicles that crashed though their defensive lines along the border. Thus began one of the fiercest campaigns of the Vietnam War but also one of the less well documented because by then most of the American ground forces had been withdrawn
After 27 years of conflict it seemed that peace would finally settle on the Indochina peninsula on 27January 1973 with the signing of a peace accord in Paris. The North Vietnamese had previously launched their greatest offensive against South Vietnam but fell short of their objectives, the destruction of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) and the destruction of the Saigon regime. They now proposed, in exchange for the release of the US prisoners of war, the withdrawal of the remaining American forces in Vietnam. Far from feeling committed by the agreement, the Hanoi leadership prepared the next round, the ultimate conquest of South Vietnam now that Washington had completely evacuated its last troops from the country. That first volume sets the scene, by making an assessment of the situation on the field, in both tactical and strategic perspectives. It also examines the last episode of the US gradual withdrawal as well as the implementation of part of the Peace Accords with the removal by the US Navy of the mines sown by its aircraft from the North Vietnamese ports and inland waters. It then presents the respective opposing armed forces and will particularly focus on the North Vietnamese rebuilding after the havoc wrought by the American aerial campaign of 1972. Furthermore, the expansion of the famous Ho Chi Minh Trail, vital for the logistical support of the communist troops, is thoroughly detailed. The South Vietnamese on their part placed great emphasis on developing their own air force in order to try to replace the withdrawal of American airpower. Most at all, it also details the initial fighting that not only resumed but soon escalated into divisional-level battles where the South Vietnamese still prevailed
A detailed account, based heavily on Vietnamese sources, of the continuing efforts of North Vietnam to invade the South.
After two protracted years of fighting that wearied down the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN), the North Vietnamese decided to launch their final campaign in January 1975. The president of South Vietnam, Nguyen Van Thieu, decided upon a wide range of strategic withdrawals to consolidate his forces, that saw the northern half of the country abandoned to the enemy. The scheme turned into a disaster, and by March 1975 the whole North Vietnamese regular battle corps, some 550,000 troops and 700 tanks, were now amassing at the gates of South Vietnam’s capital and the following fighting led to some of the fiercest fighting of the Vietnam War.The final volume of Target Saigon examines the final campaigns of the conflict in Vietnam, in which the Communist forces engaged in a highly mechanized war of maneuver. Despite being heavily outnumbered, many of the ARVN’s units put up a fierce resistance, inflicting heavy casualties upon the advancing Northern forces, in a series of battles that were far from the rout often described.Target Saigon Volume 4 is illustrated with a number of maps, 130 photographs and over 30 original color artworks illustrating the men, vehicles and aircraft of this campaign.