Download or read book Logistics in the Vietnam Wars 1945 1975 written by N.S. Nash and published by Pen and Sword Military. This book was released on 2022-01-28 with total page 434 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An examination of the supply methods implemented by combatants in the Vietnam Wars in the mid-twentieth-century, and the aftermath. The combatants in the three Vietnam wars from 1945 to 1975 employed widely contrasting supply methods. This fascinating book reveals that basic traditional techniques proved superior to expensive state of the art systems. During the Indochina or “French” war, France’s initial use of wheeled transport and finally air supply proved vulnerable given the terrain, climate, and communist adaptability. The colonial power gave up the unequal struggle after the catastrophic defeat at Dien Bien Phu. To stem the advance of Communism throughout the region, the Americans stepped in to support the pro-Western South Vietnam regime and threw vast quantities of manpower and money at the problem. The cost became increasingly unpopular at home. General Giap’s and Ho Chi Minh’s ruthless use of coolies most famously on the Ho Chi Minh Trail proved resistant to carpet-bombing and Agent Orange defoliation. The outcome of the final war between the Communist North Vietnam and the corrupt Southern leadership, now with minimal U.S. support, was almost a forgone conclusion. The author is superbly qualified to examine these three wars from the logistic perspective. His conclusions make for compelling reading and will be instructive to acting practitioners and enquiring minds. Praise for Logistics in the Vietnam Wars “The author has provided the best analysis of logistics through the Vietnam Wars to be published. The battle for independence from French rule began as the Japanese were being driven out of Indo China. Logistics were one of the critical keys to eventual victory.—Very Highly Recommended.” —Firetrench
Download or read book Fourth Arm of Defense written by Salvatore R. Mercogliano and published by Government Printing Office. This book was released on 2017 with total page 88 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This publication is the eighth in the series The U.S. Navy and the Vietnam War. The publication focuses on the sealift and logistic operations during the war and includes a number of photographs as well as sidebars detailing specific people and ships involved in the logistic operations. This historical pictorial reference would be of interest to students, historians, members of the military, specifically the Navy, and military leaders, veterans, Vietnam War veterans, and the U.S. merchant marines.
Download or read book The Vietnam Run written by Michael Gillen and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2023-03-28 with total page 377 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On the same day the Japanese surrender ended World War II, Vietnamese nationalists declared independence from France. Within weeks, France sought to reestablish colonial rule. American merchant seamen arriving in French ports to ship GIs back to the U.S. were dismayed when French troops bound for Vietnam came aboard instead. Many of these seamen objected because American veterans awaited transport home and because they flew in the face of Allied war aims of national self-determination. Later, with the Vietnam War effort dependent on Merchant Marine logistical support, seamen were among the first to protest U.S. involvement. With firsthand recollections, this book tells the story, from deadly encounters with mines, rockets and gunfire to evacuations of refugees and to rescues of "boat people" in the South China Sea.
Download or read book River Warfare in Vietnam written by Robin L. Rielly and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2024-02-19 with total page 537 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: America's entrance into the wars in Vietnam came as a result of several factors. Among them was the necessity of bolstering French influence in the area in the face of mounting communist expansion. This expansion was intensified by the outbreak of the Korean War, making it necessary for the United States to revamp its Southeast Asian policy. During the French era, control of Vietnam's rivers, streams and canals became necessary. This led various factions to develop specialized military units heavily dependent on new types of river craft that could traverse the myriad waterways in Vietnam. The focal point of this study is a new assessment of the conduct of river warfare. Drawing on little-known French, Vietnamese and American sources and materials, it sheds light on an important aspect of the Vietnam War. Chapters also detail numerous aspects of river warfare not generally covered in other books on the subject.
Download or read book The Siege that Changed the World written by N S Nash and published by Pen and Sword Military. This book was released on 2021-09-15 with total page 447 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fascinating account of the dramatic events leading up to the Siege and the four month siege itself. The Siege of Paris from September 1870 to the city’s capitulation in January 1871 was the result of Louis Napoleon III, Emperor of France’s disastrous decision to declare war on Prussia. The Prussian Army of King William I proved vastly superior to their adversaries. After victories at Metz and Sedan, the Prussians marched on Paris virtually unopposed. By 19 September the city was encircled with the population discontented, disillusioned and rebellious. Civil disorder was rife as starvation took a grip. On the inevitable surrender in late January and the declaration of the German Empire, France’s humiliation was complete. This in turn led to the temporary establishment of the Paris Commune an embryonic communist government, and civil war. As well as providing a vivid description of the siege and fighting, the author of this well researched account analyses the long-term effects be they social, military and political both on France and wider Europe. He argues that while the siege was not particularly costly in terms of human life, its legacy was the reduction of French global influence, the growth of German militarism, the evolution of international communism and changes in the world order.
Download or read book Vietnam An Epic History of a Divisive War 1945 1975 written by Max Hastings and published by HarperCollins UK. This book was released on 2018-09-20 with total page 752 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER ‘His masterpiece’ Antony Beevor, Spectator ‘A masterful performance’ Sunday Times ‘By far the best book on the Vietnam War’ Gerald Degroot, The Times, Book of the Year
Download or read book Hunger written by N S Nash and published by Pen and Sword Military. This book was released on 2023-11-01 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Throughout the ages, more combatants and civilians have died in war of the effects of starvation and resulting disease than have been killed by bullet or bomb. The author of this fascinating work argues that, over the last 160 years, conflicts have been decided not just on the battlefield but by the denial of an adversarys access to food. The starvation that followed led to military indiscipline, social unrest, and a failure of governance. Numerous examples prove his point, not least Germany in 1919. The Union blockade of the Confederacy in 1861 was a major factor in the outcome of the Civil War as was the American strategy against Japan in 1943-1945. The fates of besieged forces both at Vicksburg in 1863 and the British at Kut in 1916 were sealed when control of their respective supply routes was lost. Churchills fears over Hitlers U-boat campaign were well justified. Logistics is a modern word, but it describes a fundamental element of generalship, amply demonstrated at Metz in 1870 when logistic illiteracy resulted in a vast and hitherto undefeated French army having no option but to surrender. This thought-provoking book vividly demonstrates that extreme hunger is the precursor to starvation and, consequently, almost inevitable defeat. It proves that deprivation of food is a potent weapon that no commander can ignore.
Download or read book In the Service of the Emperor written by N.S. Nash and published by Pen and Sword Military. This book was released on 2022-09-21 with total page 346 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The expansion of the Japanese Empire between 1931 until its defeat in 1945 is one of the most extraordinary yet shocking episodes in human history. Extraordinary in that a relatively non-industrialised island nation was prepared to go to war, concurrently, with China, the most populous country, Great Britain with its world-wide empire and the USA, the wealthiest and most powerful country on earth. Shocking, as those 'in the service of the Emperor’ practiced persistent and unrestrained brutality as they conquered and occupied swathes of South East Asia. But, as this superbly researched work reveals, there is no denying their fighting and logistical expertise. The author examines the political, economic and strategic effects of the rapid Japanese expansion and explores the cult of deity that surrounded the Emperor. The contribution of the Allied forces and their leadership is given due attention. When retribution duly came, it was focussed on the military leadership responsible for unspeakable atrocities on their military and civilian victims. The physical perpetrators remaining largely unpunished. Japan, today, has still not acknowledged its wartime guilt. The result is an authoritative, balanced and highly readable account of a chapter of world history that must never be forgotten.
Download or read book A War of Logistics written by Charles R. Shrader and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2015-10-23 with total page 515 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Following the French reoccupation of Indochina at the end of World War II, the pro-Communist Vietnamese nationalists, or Viet Minh, launched a grassroots insurgency that erupted into a full-fledged war in 1949. After nearly ten years of savage combat, the western world was stunned when Viet Minh forces decisively defeated the French Union army at the battle of Dien Bien Phu in May 1954. Logistics dominated every aspect of the First Indochina War, dictating the objectives, the organization of forces, the timing and duration of the operations, and even the final outcome. In A War of Logistics, Charles R. Shrader meticulously examines both French Union and Viet Minh logistical units during the period of active conventional warfare, as well as external support provided to the French by the United States and to the Vietnamese by China. Although the Vietnamese had few advantages over their opponents, their military leaders brilliantly employed a highly committed network of soldiers and civilians, outfitted to accommodate the challenging terrain on which they fought. Drawing on extensive research such as declassified intelligence documents, the reports of French participants, and accounts by Viet Minh leaders, including Vo Nguyen Giap and Ho Chi Minh, A War of Logistics provides in-depth coverage of the often-ignored but critically important topic of logistics in modern military campaigns.
Download or read book Combat at Close Quarters written by Edward J. Marolda and published by Government Printing Office. This book was released on 2015 with total page 86 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work describes riverine combat during the Vietnam War, emphasizing the operations of the U.S. Navy’s River Patrol Force, which conducted Operation Game Warden; the U.S. Army-Navy Mobile Riverine Force, the formation that General William Westmoreland said “saved the Mekong Delta” during the Tet Offensive of 1968; and the Vietnam Navy. An important section details the SEALORDS combined campaign, a determined effort by U.S. Navy, South Vietnamese Navy, and allied ground forces to cut enemy supply lines from Cambodia and disrupt operations at base areas deep in the delta. The author also covers details on the combat vessels, helicopters, weapons, and equipment employed in the Mekong Delta as well as the Vietnamese combatants (on both sides) and American troops who fought to secure Vietnam’s waterways. Special features focus on the ubiquitous river patrol boats (PBRs) and the Swift boats (PCFs), river warfare training, Vice Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt Jr., the Black Ponies aircraft squadron, and Navy SEALs. This publication may be of interest to history scholars, veterans, students in advanced placement history classes, and military enthusiasts given the continuing impact of riverine warfare on U.S. naval and military operations in the 21st century. Special Publicity Tie-In: Commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War (Commemoration dates: 28 May 2012 - 11 November 2025). This is the fifth book in the series, "The U.S. Navy and the Vietnam War." TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction The First Indochina War The Vietnam Navy River Force and American Advisors The U.S. Navy and the Rivers of Vietnam SEALORDS The End of the Line for U.S. and Vietnamese River Forces Sidebars: The PBR Riverine Warfare Training Battle Fleet of the Mekong Delta High Drama in the Delta Vice Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt Jr. Black Ponies The Swift Boat Warriors with Green Faces Suggested Reading
Download or read book Britain and the Wars in Vietnam written by Gerald Prenderghast and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2015-09-03 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Britain's peacekeeping role in Southeast Asia after World War II was clear enough but the purpose of the Commonwealth in the region later became shadowy. British involvement in the wars fought in Vietnam between 1946 and 1975 has been the subject of a number of books--most of which focus on the sometimes clandestine activities of politicians--and unsubstantiated claims about British support for the United States' war effort have gained acceptance. Drawing on previously undiscovered information from Britain's National Archives, this book discusses the conduct of the wars in Vietnam and the political ramifications of UK involvement, and describes Britain's actual role in these conflicts: supplying troops, weapons and intelligence to the French and U.S. governments while the latter were in combat with Ho Chi Minh's North Vietnamese.
Download or read book The Cambodian Campaign written by John M. Shaw and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When American and South Vietnamese forces, led by General Creighton Abrams, launched an attack into neutral Cambodia in 1970, the invasion ignited a firestorm of violent antiwar protests throughout the United States, dealing yet another blow to Nixon's troubled presidency. But, as John Shaw shows, the campaign also proved to be a major military success. Most histories of the Vietnam War either give the Cambodian invasion short shrift or merely criticize it for its political fallout, thus neglecting one of the campaign's key dimensions. Approaching the subject from a distinctly military perspective, Shaw shows how this carefully planned and executed offensive provided essential support for Nixon's "decent interval" and "peace with honor" strategies-by eliminating North Vietnamese sanctuaries and supply bases located less than a hundred miles from Saigon and by pushing Communist troops off the Vietnamese border. Despite the political cloud under which the operation was conducted, Shaw argues that it was not only the best of available choices but one of the most successful operations of the entire war, sustaining light casualties while protecting American troop withdrawal and buying time for Nixon's pacification and "Vietnamization" strategies. He also shows how the United States took full advantage of fortuitous events, such as the overthrow of Cambodia's Prince Sihanouk, the redeployment of North Vietnamese forces, and the late arrival of spring monsoons. Although critics of the operation have protested that the North Vietnamese never did attack out of Cambodia, Shaw makes a persuasive case that the near-border threat was very real and imminent. In the end, he contends, the campaign effectively precluded any major North Vietnamese military operations for over a year. Based on exhaustive research and a deep analysis of the invasion's objectives, planning, organization, and operations, Shaw's shrewd study encourages a newfound respect for one of America's genuine military successes during the war.
Download or read book Vietnam written by John Prados and published by University Press of Kansas. This book was released on 2009-04-21 with total page 696 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Vietnam war continues to be the focus of intense controversy. While most people-liberals, conservatives, Democrats, Republicans, historians, pundits, and citizens alike-agree that the United States did not win the war, a vocal minority argue the opposite or debate why victory never came, attributing the quagmire to everything from domestic politics to the press. The military never lost a battle, how then did it not win the war? Stepping back from this overheated fray, bestselling author John Prados takes a fresh look at both the war and the debates about it to produce a much-needed and long-overdue reassessment of one of our nation's most tragic episodes. Drawing upon several decades of research—including recently declassified documents, newly available presidential tapes, and a wide range of Vietnamese and other international sources—Prados's magisterial account weaves together multiple perspectives across an epic-sized canvas where domestic politics, ideologies, nations, and militaries all collide. Prados patiently pieces back together the events and moments, from the end of World War II until our dispiriting departure from Vietnam in 1975, that reveal a war that now appears to have been truly unwinnable—due to opportunities lost, missed, ignored, or refused. He shows how-from the Truman through the Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon administrations—American leaders consistently ignored or misunderstood the realities in Southeast Asia and passed up every opportunity to avoid war in the first place or avoid becoming ever more mired in it after it began. Highlighting especially Ike's seminal and long-lasting influence on our Vietnam policy, Prados demonstrates how and why our range of choices narrowed with each passing year, while our decision-making continued to be distorted by Cold War politics and fundamental misperceptions about the culture, psychology, goals, and abilities of both our enemies and our allies in Vietnam. By turns engaging narrative history, compelling analytic treatise, and moving personal account, Prados's magnum opus challenges previous authors and should rightfully take its place as the most comprehensive, up-to-date, and accurate one-volume account of a war that—judging by the frequent analogies to the current war in Iraq—has not yet really ended for any of us.
Download or read book The Lifeblood of War written by Julian Thompson and published by Brassey's (UK) Limited. This book was released on 1991 with total page 428 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author of this book traces the pattern of the part played by logistics in armed conflict, from antiquity to the present day. The main emphasis of the book is on campaigns dating from the Korean War of 1950 onwards, but three selected campaigns from World War II produce a run-in for what is to follow - as indeed does his briefer coverage of earlier conflicts. As a former brigade commander in the Falklands War of 1982, Thompson draws a picture of what was, in effect, a microcosm of a much larger affair, the special circumstances of that experience offering a wide spectrum of logistic problems. He concludes with a look at the war on the Central Front that never was, and casts a glance into the future in the light of the impending changes for the defence of Europe.
Download or read book Armoured Warfare in the Vietnam War written by Michael Green and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2014-10-30 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Historian and collector Michael Green shows in this fascinating and graphically illustrated book that the two wars that engulfed Indochina and North and South Vietnam over 30 years were far more armoured in nature than typically thought of. By skilful use of imagery and descriptive text he describes the many variants deployed and their contribution.??The ill-fated French Expeditionary Force was largely US equipped with WW2 M3 and M5 Stuart, M4 Sherman and M24 light tanks as well as armoured cars and half-tracks. Most of these eventually went to the Army of the Republic of Vietnam but were outdated and ineffective due to lack of logistics and training.??The US Army and Marine Corps build-up in the 1960s saw vast quantities of M48 Pattons, M113 APCs and many specialist variants and improvised armoured vehicles arrive in theatre. The Australians brought their British Centurion tanks. ??But it was the Russians, Chinese and North Vietnamese who won the day and their T-38-85 tanks, ZSU anti-aircraft platforms and BTR-40 and -50 swept the Communists to victory.??This fine book brings details and images of all these diverse weaponry to the reader in one volume.
Download or read book Valley of Death written by Ted Morgan and published by Random House. This book was released on 2010-02-23 with total page 769 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pulitzer Prize–winning author Ted Morgan has now written a rich and definitive account of the fateful battle that ended French rule in Indochina—and led inexorably to America’s Vietnam War. Dien Bien Phu was a remote valley on the border of Laos along a simple rural trade route. But it would also be where a great European power fell to an underestimated insurgent army and lost control of a crucial colony. Valley of Death is the untold story of the 1954 battle that, in six weeks, changed the course of history. A veteran of the French Army, Ted Morgan has made use of exclusive firsthand reports to create the most complete and dramatic telling of the conflict ever written. Here is the history of the Vietminh liberation movement’s rebellion against French occupation after World War II and its growth as an adversary, eventually backed by Communist China. Here too is the ill-fated French plan to build a base in Dien Bien Phu and draw the Vietminh into a debilitating defeat—which instead led to the Europeans being encircled in the surrounding hills, besieged by heavy artillery, overrun, and defeated. Making expert use of recently unearthed or released information, Morgan reveals the inner workings of the American effort to aid France, with Eisenhower secretly disdainful of the French effort and prophetically worried that “no military victory was possible in that type of theater.” Morgan paints indelible portraits of all the major players, from Henri Navarre, head of the French Union forces, a rigid professional unprepared for an enemy fortified by rice carried on bicycles, to his commander, General Christian de Castries, a privileged, miscast cavalry officer, and General Vo Nguyen Giap, a master of guerrilla warfare working out of a one-room hut on the side of a hill. Most devastatingly, Morgan sets the stage for the Vietnam quagmire that was to come. Superbly researched and powerfully written, Valley of Death is the crowning achievement of an author whose work has always been as compulsively readable as it is important.
Download or read book The Other End of the Spear written by John J. Mcgrath and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2011-09-16 with total page 121 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book looks at several troop categories based on primary function and analyzes the ratio between these categories to develop a general historical ratio. This ratio is called the Tooth-to-Tail Ratio. McGrath's study finds that this ratio, among types of deployed US forces, has steadily declined since World War II, just as the nature of warfare itself has changed. At the same time, the percentage of deployed forces devoted to logistics functions and to base and life support functions have increased, especially with the advent of the large-scale of use of civilian contractors. This work provides a unique analysis of the size and composition of military forces as found in historical patterns. Extensively illustrated with charts, diagrams, and tables. (Originally published by the Combat Studies Institute Press)
