The Sugar-Sweet Smell of Fear

World War III is like most wars. It comes at the wrong time. It erupts in the worst places, with the worst enemies, and it fails to unfold as planned during the inter-war years. Generals often train to fight the last war again, but they rarely seem to remember the lessons of earlier conflicts. Asia explodes as communist armies pour into Korea, Taiwan, and Indochina. An attrition battlefield-reminiscent of The Great War's Western Front-stretches from the Gulf of Tonkin to the Bay of Bengal. All over Southeast Asia Coalition forces find themselves in a strange situation. Their high-tech, 21st Century armies are forced to fight a 19th Century, trench war in one the most ancient and undeveloped areas of the world. All of today's "Digital Warrior" electronics, communication networks, and sophisticated weapon systems are brought to bear on human waves of Chinese infantry assaults. This is not a traditional narrative. Follow the war's progress through news reports and editorials. Then, letters home from a modern G.I. tell the tale of life in the trenches and the uses of today's weapons in tomorrow's war