They were the young ones, the bright ones, the ones with the dreams. From the Nazi-prowled wastes of North Africa to the bloody corridors of Europe, they honorably answered the call. War meant duty, job, and life to them. They marched off as boys and they came back as soldiers and professionals forged in the heat of battle.

As the Congo erupts in violent rebellion in 1964, old faces and new find themselves swept into a maelstrom of danger as the United States becomes more and more deeply involved.

Dien Bien Phu. Saigon. Hanoi. In 1954, they were only exotic names from a French campaign halfway around the world. But now American fighting men, proven on the bloody beaches of Normandy and in the minefields of Korea, are summoned to help beat back the guerrilla forces of Ho Chi Minh. To some, the "secret" war in Indochina was the depth of folly. To others, like the majors, it pointed to the heights of glory.

They were the professionals, the men who had been toughened by combat in the mine-laden fields of Europe, in Korea, in Greece, in Indochina. Now, in the twilight of a dying decade, they must return to the United States to forge a new type of American soldier--one to be tested on the beaches of Cuba and in a new war yet to come.