JONATHAN SCHELL was born in 1943 in New York City. He graduated from the Putney School in Vermont and magna cum laude from Harvard University, where he majored in Far Eastern history and wrote for the Harvard Crimson. He learned Japanese and travelled widely while enrolled in the Graduate School of International Christian University in Tokyo, Japan. Schell was the Harold Willens Peace Fellow at the Nation Institute. He died in 2014.

In The Military Half, legendary Vietnam War reporter for The New Yorker Jonathan Schell details the devastating effects of American bombings and ground operations on the provinces of Quang Ngai and Quang Tin in South Vietnam. Schell provides first-hand accounts of the bombing runs and how they contributed to the destruction of the two provinces, giving a new generation of Americans an inside look at why the Vietnam War, years after its conclusion, is still a hot topic of debate in our country.