[HereInTheHeartland]

I have a taped segment somewhere where Jack Smith tells his story being in the battle, here is another version he told:

https://www.sfgate.com/opinion/article/JACK-SMITH-1945-2004-Coming-to-a-final-peace-2791334.php

[concentric circles]

Smith had a way with words, after all, he did become a journalist. He was one of the few writers to achieve this insight:

"Thirteen years ago, I watched the Berlin Wall come down and, as an ABC News correspondent, I witnessed firsthand on a number of trips the collapse of communism. The policy of containment worked. We won the Cold War. And however meaningless Vietnam seemed at the time, it contributed to the fall of communism."

The following link provides a slightly different view of the action in the Ia Drang Valley. While most observations note the brutal combat over a few days the story here presents the overall view and the role this one operation played in a larger tactical action.

A New Look at Ia Drang - Recent findings offer another view of the famous 1965 battle