This is an authentic narrative of jungle combat - and a trip on the mythic hero-path. In seven operations on the Ho Chi Minh Trail, the reader enters an exotic, exhilarating, terrifying world. Documented by military reports, Stevens's powerful and poetic prose and his complex examination of the Viet Nam War elevate his Trail journey into the realm of myth. A universal theme unwinds here: the mythic hero-journey between life and death is a trail traveled by all. Taking the reader into the mountains and forests that the Americans called "Indian country," Stevens presents the Viet Nam War as an extension of the myth of the American frontier, as a succession of steps on the mythic hero-path, and as a new myth essential to an understanding of the past, the present and future shaping of culture, and the saving of the natural world.