Dark Swans and Painted Faces - John Schalestock

Set in the jungles of Laos and North Vietnam during the very early days of the Vietnam War, when the CIA had free reign to run clandestine (and dubiously legal) missions into the north, a Marine Force Recon team is secretly tasked with killing Ho Chi Minh. When the mission goes wrong, they go from being the hunters to the hunted, betrayed by the CIA and chased by a North Vietnamese hunter-killer team. Will they be able to survive the brutal attacks from enemies and allies alike? Even the jungle itself seems to close around them as they struggle with what little endurance they have left. Dark Swans and Painted Faces reveals the eternal human conditions of betrayal, loss of innocence, and courage, all set within the context of a strange and brutal war.