'Black Hawk Down' author to discuss new book Oct. 11 at Penn State Great Valley

MALVERN, Pa. — After more than five years of in-depth research and reporting, critically acclaimed “Black Hawk Down” author Mark Bowden has written his most ambitious work to date: “Huế 1968: A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam.” Join Bowden for a free, detailed discussion of his latest work at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 11, at Penn State Great Valley.

Bowden will discuss with the audience how his comprehensive, two-sided novel on the Battle of Huế came to be, and the lengths he went to in order to obtain such considerable research. “Huế 1968” includes nearly 50 original interviews with Vietnamese figures, and dozens more with American veterans, reporters and photographers.

Bowden completed extensive archival research across the United States and in the archives of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam in Hanoi. He pulled from an impressive supply of contemporary media clippings, diaries, letters, official documents and more. 

“The Battle of Huế,” Bowden said, “becomes a lens to the entire Vietnam War: the betrayed idealism, the lies, the strategic successes and blunders, the cruelty and waste, along with the undeniable heroism and sacrifice on both sides.”

Bowden is the author of 13 books. He reported at the Philadelphia Inquirer for 20 years and now writes for a variety of magazines, including The Atlantic and Vanity Fair. Bowden is the writer-in-residence at the University of Delaware, and he has received the Abraham Lincoln Literary Award and the International Thriller Writers’ True Thriller Award for lifetime achievement.

Admission to the event is free, but tickets are required and available on the Penn State Great Valley website.