is we were soldiers based on a true story
The film's final version, though getting many of the facts of the book presented onto film, is not entirely a historically accurate portrayal of the battle, nor is it entirely faithful to the book. For instance, the film depicts a heroic charge under the command of Lt. Col. Hal Moore at the end of the battle that destroys the Vietnamese reserve, ending the battle in an American victory (a fact that director Randall Wallace noted in the DVD commentary); in fact, there was no heroic final charge in the book, nor were the North Vietnamese forces destroyed, though the American commander Moore reported 834 enemy bodies and 1215 estimated KIA (one-third of the enemy force) while the US forces were reduced by 72 out of 395, with 18% fatal casualties. Lt. Col. Nguyen Huu An, the Vietnamese commander, did not see the conclusion at LZ X-Ray as the end of combat, and the Battle of Ia Drang continued the next day with combat action at LZ Albany where the 2/7th, with A Company 1/5th, found themselves in a fight for their lives against Lt. Col. Nguyen Huu An's reserve.
We Were Soldiers