Vietnam at War; The History: 1946-1975
Novato, California: Presidio Press, 1988. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Hardcover. xii, 838, [2] pages. Full page black and white map of Vietnam opposite the title page. DJ in plastic sleeve. Preface, Acknowledgments, Glossary, Bibliography, and Index. This is a comprehensive account of the three wars which ravaged Vietnam for thirty years. For the first time, these wars are shown from all sides, a view made possible by released classified material and other original sources. The book focuses on North Vietnamese senior General Vo Nguyen Giap. Phillip Buford Davidson Jr. (November 26, 1915 – February 7, 1996) was an American lieutenant general who served in World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. Davidson graduated from West Point in 1939. During WWII, he served as assistant intelligence officer in the 96th Infantry Division. Later, he served as a squadron commander in George Patton's Third Army. Following the war, he was assigned as an instructor to the Army's School of Intelligence in Fort Leavenworth. Starting in 1948 and continuing throughout the Korean War, Davidson was chief, Plans and Estimates Branch, in General Douglas MacArthur's intelligence office. From 1967 until 1969, Davidson was the chief of US intelligence in Vietnam, under William Westmoreland and later Creighton Abrams. From May 3, 1971 to September 30, 1972, Davidson, then a major general, was the Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence, Headquarters, Department of the Army. He was later promoted to lieutenant general. In 1988, he published Vietnam at War: The History 1946–1975, which is widely regarded as one of the most comprehensive accounts of the Indochina wars. The author is well qualified to undertake such an important volume since he is a military historian, a retired career soldier, and served in Vietnam as a senior military intelligence officer at the peak of the Vietnam War.
Derived from a Kirkus review: A monumental, measured, and masterful chronicle that provides a definitive military history of Vietnam during the post-WW II era. In evenhanded fashion, Davidson offers comprehensive and comprehensible accounts of the three wars that convulsed Vietnam for over 30 years. The first lasted from 1946, when French armed forces returned to lndochina, through their 1954 defeat by the Vietminh at Dien Bien Phu. A second conflict whose origins can be traced to JFK's 1961 commitment of US troops to bolster an unpopular regime in Saigon dragged on until the Paris peace accord of 1973. The final campaign resulted in the 1975 conquest of South Vietnam by the disciplined and dedicated Communists of the North. Each of these wars had its own peculiar characteristics for both sides, as Davidson makes clear--largely by focusing throughout on the setbacks as well as triumphs of North Vietnam's resilient military commander, Vo Nguyen Giap. Drawing on recently declassified material, archival sources, and his own 1967-69 tour of duty as intelligence chief for Generals Westmoreland and Abrams, Davidson complements his absorbingly detailed narrative with forceful but carefully considered judgments on a number of sensitive issues. To illustrate, he concludes that "the most powerful nation in the world won every battle in Vietnam [and] lost the war" because the Communists "had a superior grand strategy." Even if American leaders had understood revolutionary war, the author adds, the government would have been unable to combat it effectively for a host of sociopolitical, psychological, institutional, and bureaucratic reasons. Davidson includes perceptive profiles of leading players in the long-running drama. Robert Komer (of pacification fame) and a handful of others, including Abrams and Westmoreland, receive generally sympathetic treatment; by contrast, the likes of Clark Clifford, LBJ, and Robert McNamara are given shorter shrift. In brief, then, a balanced and meticulously documented record that promises to be the standard reference on Vietnam's martial past for years to come. The consistently engrossing text has 36 helpful maps. Condition: Very good / Very good.
Keywords: Vietnam War, Vo Nguyen Giap, Dien Bien Phu, William Westmoreland, Creighton Abrams, Christian de Castries, Henry Kissinger, Tassigny de Lattre, Military Assistance Command, MACV, Viet Cong, Henri Navarre, Pacification, Maxwell Taylor, Vietnamization
ISBN: 0891413065
[Book #80032]
Price: $75.00