Operation BUFFALO: USMC Fight for the DMZ

by Keith William Nolan

Vividly chronicles the efforts of the U.S. Marines to defend the DMZ in 1967, describing the hardships of these undersupplied troops as they faced attacks from the North Vietnamese. Reprint.

Genres: Military Fiction, History, Military History, Nonfiction

510 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1991

About the author

Keith William Nolan was an American military historian, focusing on the various campaigns of the Vietnam War. Nolan obtained a history degree from Webster University. Nolan pioneered and excelled at his own special brand of military history: the excellent combining of in-depth interviews with those who took part in the fighting and deep research into the official records. That, along with a fluid writing style, added up to ten (eleven, counting one he co-authored) of the best books on Vietnam War military history. Keith Nolan died of lung cancer in February 2009 at the age of forty-five.

Reviews

[Braden · Rating 5 out of 5]

A grim, ultimately demoralizing portrait of life in I Corps. Due to a bevy of interviews, Nolan does an excellent job piecing together what happened that fateful day of 2 July 1967, and beyond. The best way to describe "Operation Buffalo" would be to say it feels as if it was written as a novel; it is vivid and intimate, while also keeping an eye on the broader picture. A well-researched and equally well-written history of a hellish week in July for the United States Marine Corps, that never falls into the mundane or dry. 5/5 stars, easily.

[Thomas Kanyak · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nolans best work after Into Laos. Some of his books can be muddled and confusiing due to amount of soldiers and units he portrays and his personal in the trenches narrative style, but here he captures the swirling confusion and horror of battle, mixed with moments of humor and levity.

[Chuck · Rating 4 out of 5]

The horrible battles of Operation Buffalo told in all its graphic detail. This is a great book that tells of the men, the fight, and the deaths of the Marines who fought on Operation Buffalo. What these men went through is almost indescribable, but Nolan does a good job putting it to paper.

[Seth · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is precisely what I would call "pulp" history. Totally gung ho and heroic fluff, but it's entertaining. A long time ago when I was just a lay historian, what they call a "buff" I suppose, I though Keith Nolan was a great writer. He is not. His books are entertaining but not informative, and although well researched as far as having interviewed as many of the US marines that participated as he could, it stops there. His narrative, while paying lip-service to minimal "neutrality", is unequivocally biased, heroic, and pro-Marine Corps.
This book has been on my shelf for years unread and and after becoming a "real" historian, and visiting Vietnam myself, I simply wanted to read a trashy paperback on the subject. This is it.

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the year 1967 the 3rd Marine Division got into some hellacious gunfights along the DMZ with PAVN. This book is about one of them.