The Myths Of Tet

Author : Edwin Moïse
Publisher : University Press of Kansas
ISBN 13 : 070062502X
Total Pages : 288 pages
Book Rating : 4.24/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Myths of Tet written by Edwin Moïse and published by University Press of Kansas. This book was released on 2017-11-21 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Late in 1967, American officials and military officers pushed an optimistic view of the Vietnam War. Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV) said that the war was being won, and that Communist strength in South Vietnam was declining. Then came the Tet Offensive of 1968. In its broadest and simplest outline, the conventional wisdom about the offensive—that it was a military defeat for the Communists but a political victory for them, because it undermined support for the war in the United States—is correct. But much that has been written about the Tet Offensive has been misleading. Edwin Moïse shows that the Communist campaign shocked the American public not because the American media exaggerated its success, but because it was a bigger campaign—larger in scale, much longer in duration, and resulting in more American casualties—than most authors have acknowledged. MACV, led by General William Westmoreland, issued regular estimates of enemy strength in South Vietnam. During 1967, intelligence officers at MACV were increasingly required to issue low estimates to show that the war was being won. Their underestimation of enemy strength was most extreme in January 1968, just before the Tet Offensive. The weak Communist force depicted in MACV estimates would not have been capable of sustaining heavy combat month after month like they did in 1968. Moïse also explores the errors of the Communists, using Vietnamese sources. The first wave of Communist attacks, at the end of January 1968, showed gross failures of coordination. Communist policy throughout 1968 and into 1969 was wildly overoptimistic, setting impossible goals for their forces. While acknowledging the journalists and historians who have correctly reported various parts of the story, Moïse points out widespread misunderstandings in regard to the strength of Communist forces in Vietnam, the disputes among American intelligence agencies over estimates of enemy strength, the actual pattern of combat in 1968, the effects of Tet on American policy, and the American media’s coverage of all these issues.

Author : James H. Willbanks
Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 0231502354
Total Pages : 297 pages
Book Rating : 4.51/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Tet Offensive written by James H. Willbanks and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2008-12-09 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the Tet Offensive of 1968, Viet Cong and North Vietnamese forces launched a massive countrywide attack on South Vietnam. Though the Communists failed to achieve their tactical and operational objectives, James Willbanks claims Hanoi won a strategic victory. The offensive proved that America's progress was grossly overstated and caused many Americans and key presidential advisors to question the wisdom of prolonging combat. Willbanks also maintains that the Communists laid siege to a Marine combat base two weeks prior to the Tet Offensive-known as the Battle of Khe Sanh—to distract the United States. It is his belief that these two events are intimately linked, and in his concise and compelling history, he presents an engaging portrait of the conflicts and singles out key problems of interpretation. Willbanks divides his study into six sections, beginning with a historical overview of the events leading up to the offensive, the attack itself, and the consequent battles of Saigon, Hue, and Khe Sahn. He continues with a critical assessment of the main themes and issues surrounding the offensive, and concludes with excerpts from American and Vietnamese documents, maps and chronologies, an annotated list of resources, and a short encyclopedia of key people, places, and events. An experienced military historian and scholar of the Vietnam War, Willbanks has written a unique critical reference and guide that enlarges the debate surrounding this important turning point in America's longest war.

Author : James Arnold
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1782004289
Total Pages : 215 pages
Book Rating : 4.88/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Tet Offensive 1968 written by James Arnold and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2012-09-20 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 1968 Tet Offensive was the decisive battle for Vietnam. Masterminded by the brilliant North Vietnamese General, Vo Nguyen Giap, it was intended to trigger a general uprising in South Vietnam. However, the bloody fighting for Saigon, Hue and other cities actually resulted in a catastrophic defeat for the North. In this excellent assessment of the key battle of the Vietnam conflict, James Arnold details the plans and forces involved and explains how, despite the outcome of the battle, the American people and their leaders came to perceive the war for Vietnam as lost.

Author : David F. Schmitz
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 9780742544864
Total Pages : 216 pages
Book Rating : 4.69/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Tet Offensive written by David F. Schmitz and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2005 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On January 30, 1968 approximately 84,000 North Vietnamese Army and National Liberation Front forces launched nearly simultaneous attacks against over 100 cities and military installations in South Vietnam. The well-coordinated urban attacks came during the most sacred of Vietnamese holidays and caught American commanders by surprise. The results of the Tet Offensive were monumental, tens of thousands were killed and many more wounded. But its importance goes far beyond its military outcome to the powerful political, psychological, and economic impact in the United States. In this new work, historian David F. Schmitz analyzes what is arguably the most important event in the history of the Vietnam conflict. Schmitz situates the Tet Offensive in the context of American foreign policy and the state of the war up to 1968 while carefully considering the impact of the media on American public opinion. Through his up-to-date analysis of recently available sources, Schmitz works to dispel myths and clarify the central debates surrounding this pivotal event that brought an end to American escalation of the war and led to LBJ's decision to withdraw from the presidential race.

Author : James W. Loewen
Publisher : The New Press
ISBN 13 : 1595583262
Total Pages : 466 pages
Book Rating : 4.60/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Lies My Teacher Told Me written by James W. Loewen and published by The New Press. This book was released on 2008 with total page 466 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Criticizes the way history is presented in current textbooks, and suggests a more accurate approach to teaching American history.

Author : Edwin E. Moïse
Publisher : Univ of North Carolina Press
ISBN 13 : 0807863483
Total Pages : 325 pages
Book Rating : 4.80/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Tonkin Gulf and the Escalation of the Vietnam War written by Edwin E. Moïse and published by Univ of North Carolina Press. This book was released on 2000-11-09 with total page 325 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Retracing the confused pattern of planning for escalation of the Vietnam War, Moise reconstructs the events of the night of August 4, 1964, when the U.S. Navy destroyers Maddox and Turner Joy reported that they were under attack by North Vietnamese torpedo boats in the Gulf of Tonkin. Using declassified records and interviews with the participants, Moise demonstrates that there was no North Vietnamese attack; the original report was a genuine mistake.

Author : Charles A Krohn
Publisher : Naval Institute Press
ISBN 13 : 1612512070
Total Pages : 212 pages
Book Rating : 4.75/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Lost Battalion of Tet written by Charles A Krohn and published by Naval Institute Press. This book was released on 2013-05-11 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Published to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Tet Offensive, this new paperback edition brings back into print a book that became an essential source for a 2006 study of the battle by the U.S. Army s Center of Military History. It takes a critical look at what went wrong in early 1968 during one of the first engagements of Tet, when a U.S. infantry battalion was ordered to attack a large North Vietnamese force near Hue City without air or artillery support. The tragic military foul-up resulted in over 60 percent casualties for the 2d Battalion, 12th Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division, when the soldiers were surrounded by the enemy and began running out of ammunition. The bold decision by battalion commander Lt. Col. Richard Sweet to break out with his remaining soldiers under cover of darkness saved this encirclement from being a total disaster. Author Charles Krohn, the unit s intelligence officer at the time, provides a much-needed analysis of what took place and fills his account with details that have been confirmed as factual by other survivors. Krohn examines the battalion s involvement in two other major attacks for lessons learned when vital systems break down lessons, he says, that are timeless and applicable anywhere. This book is published in cooperation with the Association of the United States Army.

Author : Captain Ronnie E. Ford
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1136301089
Total Pages : 242 pages
Book Rating : 4.87/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Tet 1968 written by Captain Ronnie E. Ford and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2012-10-12 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book brings to light many aspects of the Tet offensive of 1968, an event acknowledged as the turning-point of the Vietnam War. Using previously unseen Communist Vietnamese documents combined with sources of Western origin, the author provides a more accurate version of the events, their significance, and reveals the crucial role played by US intelligence.

Author : Loren Baritz
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 404 pages
Book Rating : 4.21/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Backfire written by Loren Baritz and published by . This book was released on 1998-06-30 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a probing look at the myths of American culture that led us into the Vietnam quagmire, Loren Baritz exposes our national illusions: the conviction of our moral supremacy, our assumption that Americans are more idealistic than other people, and our faith in a technology that supposedly makes us invincible. He also reveals how Vietnam changed American culture today, from the successes and failures of the Washington bureaucracy to the destruction of the traditional military code of honor.

Author : Edwin E. Moise
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1317868439
Total Pages : 294 pages
Book Rating : 4.39/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Modern China written by Edwin E. Moise and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-08-21 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The past hundred years in China have seen almost continuous transformation and upheaval. From Confucianist monarchy to warlordism, from fanatically doctrinaire socialist tyranny to almost doctrineless social-capitalism, China has experienced political, cultural and economic disintegration, reunion, and revolution on an unprecedented scale. Beginning with the overthrow of the Emperor in 1911, Moise guides us through a century of ever-unfolding drama with characteristic clarity and balance. Examining the effects of the communist revolution, he argues that in the early days Mao Zedong established the most effective government China had ever known, and that even during the bizarre excesses and blood-letting of the Cultural Revolution, there were still issues that were dealt with in a rational and effective manner. Moving on to the developments since the death of Mao in 1976, in a section fully revised and updated for this new edition, Moise gives a nuanced account of the two sides of China: its spectacularly successful programme of capitalist economic development, and its continuing dictatorship. He contends that dictatorship is now much less total than it was until the mid-70s; although dissenters are still persecuted, their very existence is evidence of a significant loosening of repression. However, there is a heavy price being paid for the Chinese economic miracle. The environmental effects of this boom already stretch well beyond the borders of China. Modern Chinasends us a clear message: the rapid and fundamental change that has framed the last century has not slowed or stalled but acts as a pointer to the near certainty of significant further change. To understand China’s future we must understand its past. Edwin E. Moise is Professor of History at Clemson University, South Carolina and a specialist in the history of China and Vietnam. His previous works include Land Reform in China and North Vietnam(1983) and Tonkin Gulf and the Escalation of the Vietnam War (1996).