. >> ktmung. a 18-year-old girl whose father has fought against the french, grandfather fought against the french. her older sister was skilled fighting against the south vietnamese army and americans and she herself had been taken and interrogated and waterboarded when she was like 16 years old. so she was someone who had a very deep hatred of the south vietnamese army and the americans, who was completely committed to fight. i thought it would be an interesting way to introduce to american readers the story of the battle that we think of as an american. >> host: we're so use today demonizing the enemy, especially in fiction, but not even nonfiction accounts of this war. so, this is a description of hue, and the tet offensive that took place around the lunar new year? >> right, tet is the annual new years celebration. it's the biggest holiday in vietnam. in january, 1968, there were fewer than a thousand arvn troops stationed in the city and surrounding area and a smaller number of americans. as