Shelby L. Stanton (–2023)

If you want to understand how the US lost the Vietnam War, this is the book that best grasped it for me. There is so much emotive history around the Vietnam War, but Stanton really takes it on in a military history, looking at the battalion deployments and operations, and the wider Army context. Seeing the dynamics between the Vietnam troop deployments and losses, the maintenance of the German occupation force (primarily to counter Soviet forces in Europe) and ultimately the "home front" show more requirements, it really brought home to me how the US (and allies) were militarily beaten in South Vietnam.

This is the book that should have been read before the Iraq deployment, because it created the same sorts of problems, though it ended differently there. In terms of thoughtful historical appreciation of what is still recent history, I give this one 5 stars. show less

This book is not a history as such but is instead heavy on photographs. Each chapter has a short introduction on the period in question and the rest of the chapter is made up of photographs. Many of them excellent, many rare, only a handful had I seen before. I think the best part of the book is that you do get a real feel for what the Special Forces did during the Vietnam War, not just in South Vietnam, but also in Laos and Thailand. The maps at the back showing the location of the Special show more Forces camps and the ethnic minorities within South Vietnam and Laos are excellent. Well worth having a look at. show less

This is an excellent overview of the US Army and Marine Corp in Vietnam 1965-1972. It makes a good deal of sense out of a confusing time. He shows the issues that existed and how more and more units were rushed to Vietnam, setting up failures for the future. The book shines when it comes to operations, what units served where and what they did. It delivers exactly what it says it will, excellent.

This is a book which publicizes the work of Special Forces in Okinawa, Laos, Thailand and Cambodia during the years of 1956-1975. The aim of the book is to highlight the effectiveness of these numerically inferior soldiers. More often than not, it serves to illustrate the failures of the military strategists who, could not or would not, adapt to immediate battlefield conditions nor have an overall plan which didn't squander the caliber of men sent on these perilous assignments. I consider show more this more of a reference book which puts into print the life work of many men who would have otherwise gone noticed. The author himself considers the book hardly more than a start of the longer SF story. Stanton implies that in 1985 (publish date) classification restrictions also limited what could be said. By 2010, more has been published in various first person memoirs. I found no overarching narrative which made the reading seem repetitive even when it went over new material. I would have liked to known what the official position between the CIA and Special Forces was. I would have liked to have clearly heard what Westmoreland's, Abrams' or McNamara's plans were from the Special Forces point of view. Other than avoiding unfavorable public opinion, that is (p. 268). Training security forces, strategic hamlets, Vietnamization, I did not find anything objectively presentable as a consistent rationale for SF. Maybe it is impossible to state, after all? 8 pages of b/w photos, maps, Index, Special Forces MIAs, Special Forces Medal of Honor winners, charts, bibliography. show less