Everyman in Vietnam : a soldier's journey into the quagmire / Michael Adas, Joseph Gilch.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Adas, Michael, 1943- author.

Gilch, Joseph J., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Gilch, Jimmy, 1945-1966--Correspondence.

Gilch, Jimmy.

Gilch, Jimmy, 1945-1966.

United States. Army--Biography.

United States.

United States. Army.

Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Campaigns.

Vietnam War, 1961-1975.

Soldiers--United States--Biography.

Soldiers.

Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Political aspects--United States.

Runnemede (N.J.)--Biography.

Runnemede (N.J.).

Genre:

Biographies.

Correspondence.

Personal correspondence.

Physical Description:

xxiv, 264 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2018]

Summary:

"Everyman in Vietnam: A Soldier's Journey into the Quagmire by Michael Adas and Joseph Gilch interweaves a macro perspective of American foreign policy during the war, with the individual-level perspective of one of the many soldiers who lived and died in the "quagmire." This unique perspective is made possible through the personal letters of Private James "Jimmy" Gilch, the late uncle of co-author, Joseph Gilch. Throughout his time on the ground in Vietnam, Jimmy sent dozens of letters back to his family in New Jersey, which detailed everything from the brutal, callous nature of basic training to the daily life of a GI in the jungles of Vietnam. Fascinated by these letters from an early age, Joseph Gilch poured over the nearly 80 letters ravenously. A graduate student at Rutgers University, Joseph has been working with Dr. Michael Adas to situate the story of Private Jimmy Gilch into the broader narrative of the United States' involvement in Vietnam. What comes out of this perspective is a truly remarkable and extraordinary picture of one of America's defining wars through the eyes of one of its many soldiers in a generation forever marked by the conflict."--Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Prologue : In the Ho Bo woods: June 28, 1966

Divergent trajectories: America and Vietnam after World War II

The promise of prosperity in postwar America

The struggle to liberate a shattered land, 1945-1954

Early US interventions in Indochina

Exemplar of modernity

Cold war convergences

Flawed settlement at Geneva and a nation divided

Coming of age in Cold War America

The invention of South Vietnam

The mounting costs of containment

Rebel without a cause

The making of a quagmire

Draft decisions

Lyndon Johnson's dilemmas

Basic training: Fort Dix, New Jersey, September 1965

Renewing the war for independence

Off to war, January 1966

Into the quagmire

Angst and escalation

Contested ground

Arrival in Nam, February 1966

Terms of engagement

In pursuit of an elusive enemy, late February 1966

In dubious battle

The lessons of Ia Drang

The good soldier, March 1966

Rethinking the path to liberation

Ambivalence and disillusionment, March 1966

McNamara's predicament

Finding his own mission, March-April 1966

The price of attrition

Surviving the stalemate, April, 1966

An unwinnable war

Losing hope, mid-April-early May 1966

Confounding the colossus

Waiting for leave, June-July 1966

Return to Filhol, late July, 1966

Epilogue.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 236-254) and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Adas, Michael, 1943- author. Everyman in Vietnam

ISBN:

9780190455873

019045587X

OCLC:

983785956