REVIEWS
DRAGON’S JAW
An Epic Story of Courage and Tenacity in Vietnam
by Stephen Coonts and Barrett Tillman, Da Capo Press, 2019, $28.
Decorated Vietnam-era U.S. Navy attack pilot and bestselling novelist Stephen Coonts teams up with leading naval aviation historian Barrett Tillman to tell the dramatic seven-year saga of U.S. forces’ attempt to take down North Vietnam’s Thanh Hoa Bridge, known as the Dragon’s Jaw.
The target allegedly had the heaviest air defenses in the history of warfare when strafing runs began in the mid-1960s. By brilliantly illuminating the deadly struggle to drop the key bridge, the authors provide a window into understanding the essence of the long and unpopular Vietnam War.
Bigger bombs with greater precision capability were needed to take out this “symbol of American impotence and North Vietnamese resistance,” say the authors. In 1972 the bridge was finally dropped by new high-tech weaponry coupled with the valor of unflinching American airmen, but the years of sacrifice of blood and treasure proved superfluous because by then the war had essentially been lost. Oft-forgotten enlisted personnel, who lived
