Last Men Out The True Story of America's Heroic Final Hours in Vietnam

In a gripping, moment-by-moment narrative based on a wealth of recently declassified documents and in-depth interviews, Bob Drury and Tom Clavin tell the remarkable drama that unfolded over the final, heroic hours of the Vietnam War. This closing chapter of the war would become the largest-scale evacuation ever carried out, as improvised by a small unit of Marines, a vast fleet of helicopter pilots flying nonstop missions beyond regulation, and a Marine general who vowed to arrest any officer who ordered his choppers grounded while his men were still on the ground. Drury and Clavin focus on the story of the eleven young Marines who were the last men to leave, rescued from the U.S. Embassy roof just moments before capture, having voted to make an Alamo-like last stand. As politicians in Washington struggled to put the best face on disaster and the American ambassador refused to acknowledge that the end had come, these courageous men held their ground and helped save thousands of lives. Drury and Clavin deliver a taut and stirring account of a turning point in American history that unfolds with the heartstopping urgency of the best thrillersa riveting true story finally told, in full, by those who lived it.

Bob Drury has written two books with Tom Clavin—Halsey’s Typhoon and The Last Stand of Fox Company. He is currently a contributing editor and foreign correspondent for Men’s Health magazine and lives in Manasquan, New Jersey.
Tom Clavin is the author or coauthor of eleven books and was editor-in-chief of The Independent. He lives in East Hampton, New York.