Jones does an astounding job at his singular goal of recounting the siege of Khe Sanh from the perspective of the men who were there. Stitching together interviews with veterans and after action reports, he blows away the fog of war to depict the terror of night assaults by the NVA, and hunking in the trenches and bunkers waiting for your number to come up.

There's a little bit of stage setting, with just enough gestures at the context: The Tet Offensive, Bernard Fall's release of Hell in a Very Small Place, LBJ, and interservice rivalry, to make sense of the story, but mostly he sticks close to the men and their experiences. Jones rates Khe Sanh a limited tactical victory. American air and artillery devastated the NVA regulars, and while giving up the base was a strategic embarrassment, a more secure location a few miles away continued to control the NW corner of South Vietnam.