First published in 1968 at the height of the conflict in Vietnam, Once An Eagle captured the imagination and heart of a war-torn nation, reaching number one on the New York Times bestseller list twice and selling more than three million copies.

Once An Eagle compellingly recounts the making of one special soldier, Sam Damon, and his adversary over a lifetime, fellow officer Courtney Massengale. Damon is a soldier's soldier, the consummate professional, decorated in both world wars for bravery under fire, who puts duty, honor, and the men he commands above self-interest. Massengale, the consummate political animal who disdains the average grunt, brilliantly advances by making the right connections behind the lines and in Washington's corridors of power.

Begun amid the carnage of the Argonne, the conflict between Damon and Massengale solidifies in the isolated garrison lifebetween the wars, intensifies in the verdant and deadly Pacific jungles of World War II, and reaches its treacherous conclusion in the last major battleground of the Cold War-Vietnam.