A Better War

The Unexamined Victories and Final Tragedy of America's Last Years in Vietnam

Lewis Sorley

• Publisher: Mariner Books
• Year: 1999
• ISBN:
  9780547417455
• Topic: Geschichte
• Subtopic: Vietnamkrieg

"A comprehensive and long-overdue examination of the immediate post–Tet offensive years [from a] first-rate historian." — The New York Times Book Review Neglected by scholars and journalists alike, the years of conflict in Vietnam from 1968 to 1975 offer surprises not only about how the war was fought, but about what was achieved. Drawing from thousands of hours of previously unavailable (and still classified) tape-recorded meetings between the highest levels of the American military command in Vietnam, A Better War is an insightful, factual, and superbly documented history of these final years. Through his exclusive access to authoritative materials, award-winning historian Lewis Sorley highlights the dramatic differences in conception, conduct, and—at least for a time—results between the early and later years of the war. Among his most important findings is that while the war was being lost at the peace table and in the U.S. Congress, the soldiers were winning on the ground. Meticulously researched and movingly told, A Better War sheds new light on the Vietnam War.

Index

A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z

A

A Shau Valley operation, 138–42

Abbott, William, 303

Abrams, Creighton W., III

on Vietnam War, 388

Abrams, Gen. Creighton W.:

anticipates Tet Offensive (1968), 104, 106

on antiwar movement, 23, 93, 114, 298

on appearance and dress codes, 300

as Army Chief of Staff, 343, 346–48

assessment of NVA in Easter Offensive, 325, 329

on body count, 22–23, 145

on Cambodian incursion, 200–1, 203–4, 206–8, 210, 214

on charts and statistics, 35–36, 195

on civilian battle support, 324

on command incompetence, 295–96

command style, 31–33

commands MACV Forward, 12, 17

concentrates B-52 strikes, 334–35

on conditions among the troops, 298–99, 309–10

on conditions for peace, 352

on conditions in Laos, 246

consults with Thieu on ARVN leadership, 265–66, 330

controls B-52s, 121–22

on Walter Cronkite, 311

death of, 369, 382–83

on declining experience levels, 288

on discipline problems, 293–94

on drug problems, 291–94, 298

on Easter Offensive, 319, 321, 331, 337

on educating the press, 224–25

on effects of budget-cutting, 125, 127–28, 176, 268

on effects of Lam Son 719, 266–67, 270

on effects of U.S. air support, 327–28

on excessive use of force, 219–21

on failures in Lam Son 719, 260

fires Komer, 63

on friendly fire, 124

on Giai, 378

on Giap, 337

on Harriman, 150–51

on importance of local forces, 59–60

on importance of logistics war in Laos, 232–33

on incompetent Vietnamese military leadership, 186–88, 276, 330–31

increases bombing sorties, 44

on inexperience of U.S. troops, 2

on intelligence, 36, 51–52, 106, 131, 142

on interdiction in Laos, 120–21, 229

on interdiction of Ho ...