The Vietnam war : a military history / Geoffrey Wawro.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wawro, Geoffrey, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Vietnam War, 1961-1975.

Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Campaigns.

Vietnam War, 1961-1975--United States.

Military history.

Genre:

Informational works.

Physical Description:

xiii, 652 pages : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Basic Books, 2024.

Summary:

The Vietnam War cast a shadow over the American psyche from the moment it began. In its time it sparked budget deficits, campus protests, and an erosion of US influence around the world. Long after the last helicopter evacuated Saigon, Americans have continued to battle over whether it was ever a winnable war. Based on thousands of pages of military, diplomatic, and intelligence documents, Geoffrey Wawro's The Vietnam War offers a definitive account of a war of choice that was doomed from its inception. In devastating detail, Wawro narrates campaigns where US troops struggled even to find the enemy in the South Vietnamese wilderness, let alone kill sufficient numbers to turn the tide in their favor. Yet the war dragged on, prolonged by presidents and military leaders who feared the political consequences of accepting defeat. In the end, no number of young lives lost or bombs dropped could prevent America's ally, the corrupt South Vietnamese regime, from collapsing the moment US troops retreated. -- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Parody of High Strategy

No-Win War

Eve of Destruction

Strength only for Defeat

Ia Drang

"Nail the coonskins to the wall"

"The country is behind you-50 percent"

Jive at Five

"We'll just go on bleeding them"

"Victory is around the corner"

Zenith of Fatuity

Year of the Monkey

Tet

"We can keep on winning the war forever"

Khe Sanh

Mini-Tet

A Better War?

Hamburger Hill

Search and Avoid

"I will not be the first president to lose a war"

"Cambodia is a man's job"

Quiet Mutiny

"The heaviest defeat ever for Nixon & Company"

"We've made the war too much of a good thing"

"Defeat is not an option"

The Fall.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 543-623) and index.

ISBN:

1541606086

9781541606081

OCLC:

1420455416

Publisher Number:

90100418312