Triumph Forsaken: The Vietnam War, 1954-1965 by Mark Moyar
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Triumph Forsaken: The Vietnam War, 1954-1965 by Mark Moyar 
(From Booklist) -- This thoroughly researched and richly informative history of the Vietnam War examines first the war's central characters and countries in the years leading up to 1954. Moyar contends that South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem, who has been incessantly depicted as an obtuse, tyrannical reactionary by some historians, was in reality a very wise and effective leader. Moyar states that supporting the November 1963 coup was the worst American mistake of the war, that President Kennedy had no plans to abandon his South Vietnamese allies after the 1964 election, and that President Johnson's lack of forcefulness in Vietnam in late 1964 and early 1965 squandered America's deterrent power and led to a decision in Hanoi to invade South Vietnam with large North Vietnamese army units. Moyar notes that historians have argued that an American ground-troop presence in Laos would not have stopped most of the infiltration, but much new evidence contradicts this contention. Where the U.S. committed major errors, he writes, was in formulating strategies for defending South Vietnam. A valuable appraisal.
(From the Publisher) -- Drawing on a wealth of new evidence from all sides, Triumph Forsaken overturns most of the historical orthodoxy on the Vietnam War. Through the analysis of international perceptions and power, it shows that South Vietnam was a vital interest of the United States. The book provides many new insights into the overthrow of Ngo Dinh Diem in 1963 and demonstrates that the coup negated the South Vietnamese government's tremendous, and hitherto unappreciated, military and political gains between 1954 and 1963. After Diem's assassination, President Lyndon Johnson had at his disposal several aggressive policy options that could have enabled South Vietnam to continue the war without a massive US troop infusion, but he ruled out these options because of faulty assumptions and inadequate intelligence, making such an infusion the only means of saving the country.
About the Author: Mark Moyar holds a B.A. summa cum laude in history from Harvard and a PhD in history from Cambridge. He is the author of Phoenix and the Birds of Prey: The CIA's Secret Campaign to Destroy the Viet Cong. Dr. Moyar has taught at Cambridge, Ohio State University, and Texas A&M University, and at present he is an Associate Professor and Course Director at the U.S. Marine Corps University in Quantico, Virginia.
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Triumph Forsaken: The Vietnam War, 1954-1965 by Mark Moyar
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Triumph Forsaken: The Vietnam War, 1954-1965 by Mark Moyar (From Booklist) -- This thoroughly researched and richly informative history of the Vietnam War examines first the war's central characters and countries in the years leading up to 1954. Moyar contends that South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem, who has been incessantly depicted as an obtuse, tyrannical reactionary by some historians, was in reality a very wise and effective leader. Moyar states that supporting the November 1963 coup was the worst American mistake of the war, that President Kennedy had no plans to abandon his South Vietnamese allies after the 1964 election, and that President Johnson's lack of forcefulness in Vietnam in late 1964 and early 1965 squandered America's deterrent power and led to a decision in Hanoi to invade South Vietnam with large North Vietnamese army units. Moyar notes that historians have argued that an American ground-troop presence in Laos would not have stopped most of the infiltration, but much new evidence contradicts this contention. Where the U.S. committed major errors, he writes, was in formulating strategies for defending South Vietnam. A valuable appraisal.
(From the Publisher) -- Drawing on a wealth of new evidence from all sides, Triumph Forsaken overturns most of the historical orthodoxy on the Vietnam War. Through the analysis of international perceptions and power, it shows that South Vietnam was a vital interest of the United States. The book provides many new insights into the overthrow of Ngo Dinh Diem in 1963 and demonstrates that the coup negated the South Vietnamese government's tremendous, and hitherto unappreciated, military and political gains between 1954 and 1963. After Diem's assassination, President Lyndon Johnson had at his disposal several aggressive policy options that could have enabled South Vietnam to continue the war without a massive US troop infusion, but he ruled out these options because of faulty assumptions and inadequate intelligence, making such an infusion the only means of saving the country.
About the Author: Mark Moyar holds a B.A. summa cum laude in history from Harvard and a PhD in history from Cambridge. He is the author of Phoenix and the Birds of Prey: The CIA's Secret Campaign to Destroy the Viet Cong. Dr. Moyar has taught at Cambridge, Ohio State University, and Texas A&M University, and at present he is an Associate Professor and Course Director at the U.S. Marine Corps University in Quantico, Virginia.
Buy now from Amazon.com:
Triumph Forsaken: The Vietnam War, 1954-1965 by Mark Moyar
Tags: reviews, books, Headlines, wire, United States, War, Military, Navy, Army, Air Force, Marines, Marine Corps, Vietnam
Global Tags: Washington DC, News and Politics, News, Politics, Current Events, Current Affairs, Life, Culture, Buzz, Tension
Maintain THE TENSION, visit the online store:
THE TENSION EXCHANGE
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