The book offers details of a Vietnamese deadly battle with China in the South China Sea, which Vietnam calls the East Sea.

Fortis, a US publishing house has bought the rights to translate into English and publish worldwide a Vietnamese book titled "Gac Ma-Immortal Circle". 

The book retells a battle in 1988, in which 64 Vietnamese navy soldiers died during their fight against Chinese invasion, to defend Vietnam’s Gac Ma (Johnson South) reef in Spratly Islands.

James Zumwalt, an internationally acclaimed US author and former Vietnam War veteran, represented the US-based publishing house at a meeting in Ho Chi Minh City last Sunday to discuss the deal. 

All the revenue from the deal would be used to support families of the battle's veterans and fallen soldiers.

10,000 copies of the book were sold ten days after its first publication last month while the second edition was released with 20,000 copies on Tuesday.

Commissioned by Ho Chi Minh City-based publisher First News in 2014, the book received publication license signed on June 25, 2018. 

Over the past four years, 68 participants including generals, historians, journalists and Gac Ma veterans conducted live interviews with Gac Ma soldiers in order to compile the book. Major General Le Ma Luong is the chief editor of the multiple article collection.

Hanoitimes