ARVN: Life and Death in the South Vietnamese Army (Modern War Studies)

Scorned by allies and enemies alike, the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) was one of the most maligned fighting forces in modern history. Cobbled together by U.S. advisers from the remnants of the French-inspired Vietnamese National Army, it was effectively pushed aside by the Americans in 1965. When toward the end of the war the army was compelled to reassert itself, it was too little, too late for all concerned. In this first in-depth history of the ARVN from 1955 to 1975, Robert Brigham takes readers into the barracks and training centers of the ARVN to plumb the hearts and souls of these forgotten soldiers. Through his masterly command of Vietnamese-language sources—diaries, memoirs, letters, oral interviews, and more—he explores the lives of ordinary men, focusing on troop morale and motivation within the context of traditional Vietnamese society and a regime that made impossible demands upon its soldiers. Offering keen insights into ARVN veterans' lives as both soldiers and devout kinsmen, Brigham reveals what they thought about their American allies, their Communist enemies, and their own government. He describes the conscription policy that forced these men into the army for indefinite periods with a shameful lack of training and battlefield preparation and examines how soldiers felt about barracks life in provinces far from their homes. He also explores the cultural causes of the ARVN's estrangement from the government and describes key military engagements that defined the achievements, failures, and limitations of the ARVN as a fighting force. Along the way, he explodes some of the myths about ARVN soldiers' cowardice, corruption, and lack of patriotism that have made the ARVN the scapegoat for America's defeat. Ultimately, as Brigham shows, without any real political commitment to a divided Vietnam or vision for the future, the ARVN retreated into a subnational culture that redefined the war's meaning: saving their families. His fascinating book gives us a fuller understanding not only of the Vietnam War but also of the problems associated with U.S. nation building through military intervention.

History

Brigham, Robert K.

Asia

University Press of Kansas

Choice Outstanding Title Scorned by allies and enemies alike, the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) was one of the most maligned fighting forces in modern history. Cobbled together by U.S. advisers from the remnants of the French-inspired Vietnamese National Army, it was effectively pushed aside by the Americans in 1965. When toward the end of the war the army was compelled to reassert itself, it was too little, too late for all concerned. In this first in-depth history of the ARVN from 1955 to 1975, Robert Brigham takes readers into the barracks and training centers of the ARVN to plumb the hearts and souls of these forgotten soldiers. Through his masterly command of Vietnamese-language sources--diaries, memoirs, letters, oral interviews, and more--he explores the lives of ordinary men, focusing on troop morale and motivation within the context of traditional Vietnamese society and a regime that made impossible demands upon its soldiers. Offering keen insights into ARVN veterans' lives as both soldiers and devout kinsmen, Brigham reveals what they thought about their American allies, their Communist enemies, and their own government. He describes the conscription policy that forced these men into the army for indefinite periods with a shameful lack of training and battlefield preparation and examines how soldiers felt about barracks life in provinces far from their homes. He also explores the cultural causes of the ARVN's estrangement from the government and describes key military engagements that defined the achievements, failures, and limitations of the ARVN as a fighting force. Along the way, he explodes some of the myths about ARVN soldiers' cowardice, corruption, and lack of patriotism that have made the ARVN the scapegoat for America's defeat. Ultimately, as Brigham shows, without any real political commitment to a divided Vietnam or vision for the future, the ARVN retreated into a subnational culture that redefined the war's meaning: saving their families. His fascinating book gives us a fuller understanding not only of the Vietnam War but also of the problems associated with U.S. nation building through military intervention.

In 1960 revolutionaries in South Viet Nam created the National Liberation Front, a political and military organization committed to overthrowing the Saigon government and liberating Viet Nam south of the seventeenth parallel. The role of the NLF during the war has been hotly debated, with officials in Washington claiming from the outset that the NLF was merely a puppet of Hanoi. Based on over a hundred interviews with former Communist cadre and high ranking Party officials as well as extensive archival research in Viet Nam, Robert K. Brigham's is a definitive work that provides a focus on the NLF not found elsewhere. It contributes greatly to our understanding of the Viet Nam War and encourages a reassessment of that conflict.
Brigham assesses the impact of the NLF's diplomatic strategy on the conduct and outcome of hostilities, explores the origin and pursuit of its policy objectives, and defines its true relationship with North Viet Nam. He contends that the NLF's success in convincing the world that it was independent of Hanoi was critical in upsetting the political and military balance in South Viet Nam and frustrating the U.S. war effort. In addition, he argues that differences in goals among Communists--building socialism in the north, liberating the south--resulted in disagreements over responses to American intervention, and he shows how these differences entered into foreign relations and seriously undermined revolutionary efforts.

Guerrilla Diplomacy: The Nlf's Foreign Relations and the Viet Nam War

NCROL

The United States and Iraq Since 1990: A Brief History with Documents

This book offers a concise history of US policy in Iraq since 1990 and how it has evolved over two decades. 
<ul>
<li>Examines US relations with Iraq from both a regional and international perspective</li> <li>Argues that the only way to clearly understand US policy toward Iraq is to see it in its proper historical context and within a transnational framework</li> <li>Uses recently declassified documents at the end of each chapter to illustrate US decision-making in the wars for Iraq</li> <li>Addresses the importance of the changing domestic climate surrounding two decades </li> </ul>

Politics & Social Sciences

Politics & Government

Wiley/Blackwell

Since the first days of the Iraqi invasion, supporters of the war have cautioned the public not to view this conflict as another Vietnam. They rightfully point to many important distinctions. There is no unified resistance in Iraq. No political or religious leader has been able to galvanize opposition to U.S. intervention the way that Ho Chi Minh did in Vietnam. And it is not likely that 580,000 American troops will find their way to Iraq.
 However, there are two similarities that may dwarf the thousands of differences. First, in Iraq, like Vietnam, the original rationale for going to war has been discredited and public support has dwindled. Second, in both cases the new justification became building stable societies. There are enormous pitfalls in America's nation building efforts in Iraq as there were in Vietnam. But it is the business we now find ourselves in, and there is no easy retreat from it morally. As American frustration increases, some policy makers are making the deadly mistake of approaching problems in Iraq as if we are facing them for the first time. It is crucial that we apply the lessons of Vietnam wisely and selectively.

Iraq, Vietnam, and the Limits of American Power

Americas

PublicAffairs

Henry Kissinger's role in the Vietnam War prolonged the American tragedy and doomed the government of South Vietnam The American war in Vietnam was concluded in 1973 after eight years of fighting, bloodshed, and loss. Yet the terms of the truce that ended the war were effectively identical to what had been offered to the Nixon administration four years earlier. Those four years cost America and Vietnam thousands of lives and billions of dollars, and they were the direct result of the supposed master plan of the most important voice in American foreign policy: Henry Kissinger. Using newly available archival material from the Nixon Presidential Library, Kissinger's personal papers, and material from the archives in Vietnam, Robert K. Brigham punctures the myth of Kissinger as an infallible mastermind. Instead, he constructs a portrait of a rash, opportunistic, and suggestible politician. It was personal political rivalries, the domestic political climate, and strategic confusion that drove Kissinger's actions. There was no great master plan or Bismarckian theory that supported how the US continued the war or conducted peace negotiations. Its length was doubled for nothing but the ego and poor judgment of a single figure. This distant tragedy, perpetuated by Kissinger's actions, forever changed both countries. Now, perhaps for the first time, we can see the full scale of that tragedy and the machinations that fed it.

Reckless: Henry Kissinger and the Tragedy of Vietnam

Argument Without End: In Search of Answers to the Vietnam Tragedy

The former Secretary of Defense, and leading scholars from the U.S. and Vietnam, offer groundbreaking new study of exactly how the Vietnam War happened-and why it could not be stopped before millions died. 
Drawing on an array of recently declassified documents and a series of unprecedented meetings with former top North Vietnamese leaders, Argument Without End re-frames the war and the decision-making that surrounded it. It draws surprising conclusions, many of which debunk conventional wisdom and which will no doubt cause debate among scholars, journalists, veterans, military personnel, and ordinary Americans who lived through the war era. Like no other book before it, Argument Without End allows us to look at the decisions that led to the war and to its tragic, ultimately pointless continuation. It also shows conclusively that the war could not be won militarily by the United States. One of the most important works on Vietnam to be published, Argument Without End is also a book of lasting relevance to all who seek to quell the conflicts between nations.

Argument Without End: In Search Of Answers To The Vietnam Tragedy

McNamara, Robert S.

Biersteker, Thomas J.

Blight, James

Schandler, Col. Herbert

Did the Vietnam War have to happen? And why couldn't it have ended earlier? These are among the questions that Robert McNamara and his collaborators ask in Argument Without End, a book that will stand as a major contribution to what we know about the Vietnam War. Drawing on a series of meetings that brought together, for the first time ever, senior American and Vietnamese officials who had served during the war, the book looks at the many instances in which one side, or both, made crucial mistakes that led to the war and its duration. Using Vietnamese and Chinese documents, many never before made public, McNamara reveals both American and Vietnamese blunders, and points out ways in which such mistakes can be avoided in the future. He also shows conclusively that war could not be won militarily by the United States.McNamara's last book on Vietnam was one of the most controversial books ever published in this country. This book will reignite the passionate debate about the war, about McNamara, and about the lessons we can take away from the tragedy.

Biographies & Memoirs

Blight, James G.

Schandler, Colonel Herbert

Historical

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Books by Brigham, Robert K.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Brigham, Robert K.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

ARVN: Life and Death in the South Vietnamese Army (Modern War Studies)

ARVN: Life and Death in the South Vietnamese Army (Modern War Studies)

Guerrilla Diplomacy: The Nlf's Foreign Relations and the Viet Nam War

The United States and Iraq Since 1990: A Brief History with Documents

The United States and Iraq Since 1990: A Brief History with Documents

Iraq, Vietnam, and the Limits of American Power

Reckless: Henry Kissinger and the Tragedy of Vietnam

Argument Without End: In Search Of Answers To The Vietnam Tragedy

Argument Without End: In Search of Answers to the Vietnam Tragedy