Unheralded Victory: Inconvenient truths

books:

	• Unheralded Victory: The Defeat of the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese Army, 1961-1973 Mark Woodruff Presidio Press, 2005 - 416 pages average customer review:based on 24 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Unheralded Victory: Inconvenient truths

The book contains an accurate and insightful discussion of the Vietnam War. Should not be read by those who are "sure they know what happened in Vietnam".

A point of view on the Vietnam War.

I found myself agreeing on many of the points Woodruff made in his book. The United States won the military war in Southeast Asia. They destroyed the Viet Cong, where it was no longer a southern movement, but a bunch of Northern boys filling in for the dead Viet Cong. The United States soundly beat the VC and NVA during Tet. All the things that Woodruff mentions on the military level is certainly true. However, America lost the will to fight and therefore lost the political war. America was a divided society with many problems and this war heightened those issues. I think the comments by Jeff Thurston in an earlier review are also quite relevant. Germany was on allied soil when she sued for peace. Her populace just couldn't stand the war anymore. America may not have lost the ability to wage war, put the political war was finished.

Woodruff makes many relevant points in this book. He sees the war through how a conservative would have seen it. There are other points of view, and they are just as relevant. His points are worth pondering and discussing.

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Powerful and persuasive

Everything I though I knew about the Vietnam War, everything I was taught or told since childhood, is the exact opposite of the truth!

Between this book and 'Triumph Forsaken' by Mark Moyar, all the propaganda and misinformation is stripped away, factually and intelligently. It's a disconcerting feeling, but liberating, to read great books like this that directly oppose what is proclaimed true by the powerful of our society.

The fighting in Vietnam is presented in a very complete way. The nature of small unit fighting is covered, but more importantly, the tactical and strategic context is given -- for example the connections between the battles of Khe San and Hue City.

Naturally, the Allies -- in particular the elite fighting forces of the USA -- come across very well, exploding the myths (increasingly hard to maintain the more we see of US professionalism in Iraq) of American troops' low moral and incompetence. On the contrary, the communists, far from being the military geniuses of popular culture, are shown to be inept, inflexible and bumbling, their troops frequently drugged and usually very poorly trained, gaining such minor successes as they did through savagery and brutality and by squandering their men's lives.

The destruction of the Viet Cong after the Tet Offensive is so comprehensive, you can't help but feel sorry for the poor communist slave soldiers. The subsequent media victory that the communists enjoyed is described most pithily by the autor, when he remarks that journalists present reported (at best) the 'panic they felt', not the events they witnessed.

Like the communist troops in other conflicts, the North Vietnamese army are inflexible and too terrorised to be capable of initiative. In one darkly funny account, the Communists begin an attack by firing a red flare. The American officer in charge then has the idea of firing a blue flare -- guessing if a red flare was the signal to attack, blue might be the signal to stop. He guesses right and the attack stops!

The peace talks of 1972 are rightly presented as a success for Nixon. The Communist armed forces had been utterly smashed -- all but annihilated -- their logistical infrastructure in ruins. Their sponsors -- the USSR and China -- gave assurances they would not re-arm the North, and peace and security for South Vietnam seemed assured to all concerned.

The betrayal of South Vietnam becomes all the more bitter with the knowledge of how complete the victory was that preceded it.

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Vietnam War

this title was hard to find in the shops - should have tried Amazon first! Highly recommended by my Journalist friend. As I was there in '67 - it will be interesting to get another view of what happened.

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Along with a half million other young men, Mark Woodruff put his life on the line to serve his country in Vietnam. Like so many others, he returned home to find himself regarded not as a hero but as a humiliating reminder of the only war the United States ever lost. This Marine, however, is determined to set the record straight. Woodruff never wavers from the cold, hard facts in this riveting book. Battle by battle, Unheralded Victory provides incontrovertible proof that the United States won this war, from the vaunted 1968 Tet Offensive?in reality a shattering defeat that decimated the Viet Cong?to Linebacker II, the final knockout blow that forced North Vietnam to the table. Make no mistake: our warriors in Vietnam were victorious. It?s time America sat up and took notice.

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