Originally posted by Adm.Lee
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The Regular US Army in 1968
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Last edited by DonaldBynoe; 11-10-2022, 09:28 AM.
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Originally posted by CharlieAnderson View PostDo you think Vietnam could have been avoided
1. VanDeMark is trying to meld history and psychology, showing when and how our minds can follow incorrect ideas and create bad decisions, given that we humans operate under incomplete information and time stress. It's certainly an interesting attempt to look at decision making.
2. VanDeMark has previously worked as assistant on the memoirs of Clark Clifford and Robert MacNamara, so he brings some of their insight directly into the book. I've never been a fan of MacNamara, but he was a smart man who did try hard. He was also very introspective, and spent a lot of time during and after the war to try and understand where things went wrong. It's unfortunate that he couldn't get to the right answer in time.
There are very illuminating chapters up front on the Bay of Pigs and the Cuban Missile Crisis, useful to show how the Kennedy-Johnson decision-makers worked, and how the civilian heads began to mistrust the military side of the Pentagon. (I'll point out that the Joint Chiefs aren't doing so well in finding a better path, either. My reading so far is between Gulf of Tonkin and the arrival of the Marines.)
I should note this book is very focused on what happened in Washington, as the Cabinet and NSC members are the operators that are studied.My Twilight claim to fame: I ran "Allegheny Uprising" at Allegheny College, spring of 1988.
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Originally posted by Adm.LeesI remember, as a young teenager (13 14) finding my father's Army Officer's Guide (hardback book, ca 1963). One of its chapters was a listing of posts, stateside and overseas, which had some divisional assignments. I took notes of that part, of course, since I'd only dealt with OBs in WW2 before that. In that pre-Internet era, that was big.
Obviously, nothing dealt with Vietnam at that date, and there was a lot on post etiquette and things. A peek into a different world.
Re: Vietnam-- Stanton's "Death of an American Army" was a very good read, too.
The numbers for all services spiked in 1968-69 as U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War reached its peak. All dropped dramatically as that war drew down. But even the peak of the Vietnam War pales in comparison to World War II. In 1945, there were over 12 million active duty military personnel.
The Army, Navy, and Air Force had significant cuts in the numbers of personnel with the end of the Cold War, while the Marine Corps numbers have stayed relatively flat.
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Originally posted by LandsonThe Generals i have read phen375 review here and its mind blowingLast edited by nexum81; 03-04-2022, 12:51 AM.
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Originally posted by dragoon500ly View Post
...So that's your answer, Vietnam was a war we should never have been involved in, in a country that we had no need to be involved with. We were tugged into this war in a vain attempt to prop up a colonia! power trying to relive its glory days, in a wasted effort to stop communist expansion....I'm guided by the beauty of our weapons...First We Take Manhattan, Jennifer Warnes
Entirely too much T2K stuff here: www.pmulcahy.com
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