The Assassination of LBJ (In the Summer of Love)

The Assassination of LBJ - In the Summer of Love By Rick Ainsworth A Compelling New Novel by the Award-Winning Author of Thunder and Storm, the Haverfield Incident An exciting roller-coaster of a story, set in 1965-66, set in the battlefields of Vietnam, the streets of San Francisco, and a presidential administration bent on keeping information from the American public.

What Price Vengeance? This is the fast-paced, exciting and yet gut-wrenching story of a young Marine deployed to Vietnam. Boone has his own emotional battles from his experiences, but when his lifelong friend, Croc, is killed in an Army battle, Boone's attempts to make sense of his best friend's death set him on a path he doesn't foresee. The aftermath of a storied and celebrated American victory early in the war was a near disaster. The battle at LZ X-Ray, immortalized by the novel and movie "We Were Soldiers Once, and Young," was an unquestioned triumph for American troops. Afterward, though, the troops brought in to mop up and secure the area were sent marching into an uncertain area, to LZ Albany, which had not been scouted, with leadership that had not been properly briefed, after more than 48 hours of non-stop, exhausting work and sporadic fighting. More than 150 young men, including Croc, were lost in an ambush caused by failure of command. Even though the battalion once commanded by Custer emerged victorious, the heavy price and the embarrassment of the military brass caused LBJ's administration to cover it up. In trying to make sense of the story, Boone's path leads from Vietnam to the flower children of Haight Ashbury to the home of the man Boone finds responsible, Lyndon Baynes Johnson.

Rick Ainsworth was born and raised in Denver, Colorado. A writer from a young age, he wrote stories about what he saw around him, until his mother told him not to say those things about the neighbors! He was a restless youth and joined the US Navy at 17, serving as a signalman in the Pacific Fleet. He had always wanted to be a "blue-water sailor," and being assigned to the South China Sea, visiting islands in the US Trust territories, and spending his 21st birthday ashore in Hong Kong fit that description. We hope someday to persuade him to write an account of that evening. After four years in the Navy, he settled in Southern California and was educated at Citrus College and LaVerne College (now University of LaVerne). After many years in the mortgage business in Orange County, CA, where he was president of the Orange County Mortgage Brokers Assn, he and his wife moved to the wide open skies of Nevada. It was here he published his first two novels, both based on his experiences as a young man in the Navy, one of which earned an award for historical fiction. Rick has written 20 novels, including a series of detective/police procedural stories called the Deavers Files, a political thriller, American Dictator, a trilogy, and several other exciting stories. He has also written several essays on lessons of American history, geared toward younger readers. He currently resides in Henderson, NV with his wife, Therese, and their dachshunds. Rick enjoys cooking, reading and playing with the dogs, as well as watching football – especially Notre Dame!