Download or read book Operation Sealords A Front In A Frontless War An Analysis Of The Brown Water Navy In Vietnam written by LCDR William C. McQuilkin USN and published by Pickle Partners Publishing. This book was released on 2015-11-06 with total page 133 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study examines Operation SEALORDS, the capstone campaign conducted by the brown-water Navy in Vietnam. Specifically, this paper addresses the primary question: Was the SEALORDS campaign successful, and if so, what lessons can be learned from SEALORDS and how might the Navy employ brown-water forces in the future? This thesis breaks down the SEALORDS campaign into three areas of study. First, the study examines the barrier interdiction portion of the campaign designed to stem the flow of enemy infiltration of men and material from Cambodia into the Mekong Delta. Second, this study analyzes the Denial of Sanctuary Operations and Pacification portion of the SEALORDS operations. Last, the Accelerated Turnover to the Vietnamese Program (ACTOV) is examined to determine its effectiveness. The findings of this study suggest that by concentrating naval forces athwart the major infiltration routes along the Cambodian border, SEALORDS effectively cut enemy lines of communication into South Vietnam and severely restricted enemy attempts at infiltration. Additionally, the findings suggest that SEALORDS contributed significantly to pacification efforts in the southern part of III Corps and all of the IV Corps Tactical Zone. Finally, the ACTOV Program is evaluated as successful and put the Navy out ahead of the other services with respect to Vietnamization of the war effort.
Download or read book Operation Sealords written by U.s. Army Command and General Staff College and published by CreateSpace. This book was released on 2014-03 with total page 66 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines Operation SEALORDS, the capstone campaign conducted by the Brown-Water Navy in Vietnam. Specifically, this paper addresses the primary question: Was the SEALORDS campaign successful, and if so, what lessons, can be learned from SEALORDS and how might we employ brown-water forces in the future? This book breaks down the SEALORDS campaign into three areas of study. First, the study examines the barrier interdiction portion of the campaign designed to stem the flow of enemy infiltration of men and material from Cambodia into the Mekong Delta. Second, this study analyzes the Denial of Sanctuary Operations and Pacification portion of the SEALORDS operations. Lastly, the Accelerated Turnover to the Vietnamese Program known as "ACTOV" is examined to determine its effectiveness. The Findings of this book suggest that by concentrating naval forces athwart the major infiltration routes along the Cambodian border, SEALORDS effectively cut enemy lines of communication into South Vietnam and severly restricted enemy attempts at infiltration. Additionally, the findings suggest that SEALORDS contributed significantly to pacification efforts in the southern part of III Corps and all of the TV Corps Tactical Zone. Finally, the ACTOV Program is evaluated as successful and put the navy out ahead of the other services with respect to Vietnamization of the war effort.
Download or read book The Birth Of Modern Riverine Warfare US Riverine Operations In The Vietnam War written by Lieutenant Commander William B. Bassett and published by Pickle Partners Publishing. This book was released on 2014-08-15 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper examines U.S. riverine operations in the Vietnam War. With the current drive to establish a riverine capability within the U.S. Armed Forces as an integral part of the GWOT and small wars of the future, the evolution and operation of the U.S. riverine force during the Vietnam War serves as an effective blueprint for the conduct of modern riverine warfare. American riverine forces in Vietnam operated in a diverse range of brown and green water environments, successfully conducting a wide variety of missions. The evolution of these forces reflected the continuing need to develop the capabilities necessary for these operations. Their success was largely derived from experience which resulted in the creation of a variety of discrete riverine task forces specially configured for their specific missions as the situation dictated. U.S. riverine operations in Vietnam illustrate the complex nature of operations in brown and green water and the inherently joint requirement of the forces involved. The lessons learned as a result of these operations should be incorporated as a fundamental part of the creation of any modern riverine force.
Download or read book Dreadful Lady over the Mekong Delta written by Bob Howe and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2023-04-19 with total page 317 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dreadful Lady over the Mekong Delta looks at the men of No 2 Squadron and the operations they flew in the Vietnam War in their Canberra bombers. From April 1967, the squadron spent four years attacking enemy targets, many of them in the Mekong Delta region, and contending with the politics, weather, and ‘fog’ of war. The riverine operations supported by No 2 Squadron were but a small part of an allied effort to disrupt the enemy’s movement of troops and supplies to locations in South Vietnam. It was, according to one commentator, ‘a kind of guerrilla warfare conducted in a navy environment’. Bob Howe arrived in Vietnam in 1969 as a youthful Canberra navigator/bomb-aimer, but much of his time was spent as a specialist in bombing operations. His time there provided him with the firsthand experience and detailed information to write this book. This book in its original format was first published in 2016 by the RAAF’s Air Power Development Centre, filling a gap in the recording of the RAAF’s operations in Vietnam. It also describes how crews overcame the difficulties of operating in an intense Asian war in an aircraft that was designed for a completely different environment. This new edition is intended to bring the experiences and exploits of Bob Howe, No 2 Squadron and its Canberra bomber aircraft to life for a new generation of reader.
Download or read book Environmental Change and Agricultural Sustainability in the Mekong Delta written by Mart A. Stewart and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2011-05-13 with total page 455 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Mekong Delta of Vietnam is one of the most productive agricultural areas in the world. The Mekong River fans out over an area of about 40,000 sq kilometers and over the course of many millennia has produced a region of fertile alluvial soils and constant flows of energy. Today about a fourth of the Delta is under rice cultivation, making this area one of the premier rice granaries in the world. The Delta has always proven a difficult environment to manipulate, however, and because of population pressures, increasing acidification of soils, and changes in the Mekong’s flow, environmental problems have intensified. The changing way in which the region has been linked to larger flows of commodities and capital over time has also had an impact on the region: For example, its re-emergence in recent decades as a major rice-exporting area has linked it inextricably to global markets and their vicissitudes. And most recently, the potential for sea level increases because of global warming has added a new threat. Because most of the region is on average only a few meters above sea level and because any increase of sea level will change the complex relationship between tides and down-river water flow, the Mekong Delta is one of the areas in the world most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. How governmental policy and resident populations have in the past and will in coming decades adapt to climate change as well as several other emerging or ongoing environmental and economic problems is the focus of this collection.
Download or read book Quagmire written by David Andrew Biggs and published by University of Washington Press. This book was released on 2012-03-15 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the 2012 George Perkins Marsh Prize for Best Book in Environmental History In the twentieth century, the Mekong Delta has emerged as one of Vietnam’s most important economic regions. Its swamps, marshes, creeks, and canals have played a major role in Vietnam’s turbulent past, from the struggles of colonialism to the Cold War and the present day. Quagmire considers these struggles, their antecedents, and their legacies through the lens of environmental history. Beginning with the French conquest in the 1860s, colonial reclamation schemes and pacification efforts centered on the development of a dense network of new canals to open land for agriculture. These projects helped precipitate economic and environmental crises in the 1930s, and subsequent struggles after 1945 led to the balkanization of the delta into a patchwork of regions controlled by the Viet Minh, paramilitary religious sects, and the struggling Franco-Vietnamese government. After 1954, new settlements were built with American funds and equipment in a crash program intended to solve continuing economic and environmental problems. Finally, the American military collapse in Vietnam is revealed as not simply a failure of policy makers but also a failure to understand the historical, political, and environmental complexity of the spaces American troops attempted to occupy and control. By exploring the delta as a quagmire in both natural and political terms, Biggs shows how engineered transformations of the Mekong Delta landscape - channelized rivers, a complex canal system, hydropower development, deforestation - have interacted with equally complex transformations in the geopolitics of the region. Quagmire delves beyond common stereotypes to present an intricate, rich history that shows how closely political and ecological issues are intertwined in the human interactions with the water environment in the Mekong Delta. Watch the book trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gp1-UItZqsk
Download or read book Operation SEALORDS A Study In The Effectiveness Of The Allied Naval Campaign Of Interdiction written by LCDR Eugene F. Paluso USN and published by Pickle Partners Publishing. This book was released on 2015-11-06 with total page 89 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The United States Navy involvement in the Vietnam War prior to 1964 was primarily blue water operations. In 1964, the Vietnam Delta Infiltration Study Group was tasked to conduct a comprehensive study of the problem of enemy infiltration of men and supplies into South Vietnam Mekong Delta region across the Cambodia and Laos borders. The findings of the group were published in the Bucklew Report and concluded that the border infiltration problem was significant and needed to be stopped in order to ensure victory in the Vietnam War. The recommendations were for the U.S. to develop an extensive riverine operations capability to assist the South Vietnamese military in conducting counter-insurgency operations to stop the infiltration problem. The U.S. Navy moved from deep blue water operations to near shore blue water operations with the Operation MARKET TIME patrols, which encompassed larger seagoing craft patrolling the coast to forty miles out to sea. These operations led to the first brown water operations during Operation GAME WARDEN which patrolled the major river systems in the Mekong Delta region in order to interdict enemy movements along the rivers. Soon these patrols revealed the need to ground troops to control the riverbanks in order for the patrols to be effective. The Tet offensive of 1968 revealed that the MARKET TIME and GAME WARDEN patrols were not totally containing the infiltration problem. Operation SEALORDS established patrol barriers that were designed specifically to stop the influx of men and supplies crossing the Cambodian border and sustaining enemy forces operating in the Mekong Delta and Saigon areas. SEALORDS barriers were systematically set up to take control of the Mekong Delta region and deny the enemy the freedom of movement enjoyed for years prior.
Download or read book Characterizing and Exploring the Implications of Maritime Irregular Warfare written by Molly Dunigan and published by Rand Corporation. This book was released on 2012-02-03 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although irregular warfare includes a range of activities in which naval forces have played an integral role, there has been little examination of the characteristics or potential of such operations in maritime environments. An assessment of the maritime component of a series of historical and ongoing operations reveals that current notions of irregular warfare would benefit from increased recognition of potential maritime contributions.
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.
Download or read book Vietnam Studies written by Col Francis J. Kelly and published by . This book was released on 2016-12-10 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As long ago as 1957, U.S. Army Special Forces soldiers were in the Republic of Vietnam. going about their business of training, advising, and assisting members of the Vietnamese Army. Despite the old Army witticism about never volunteering for anything, the Special Forces soldier is. in fan, a double volunteer, having first volunteered for airborne training and then again for Special Forces training. From a very meager beginning but sustained by a strong motivation and confidence in his mission, the Special Forces soldier has marched through the Vietnam struggle in superb fashion. In 1957 some fifty-eight Vietnamese soldiers were given military training by Special Forces troops. Ten years later the Special Forces were advising and assisting over 40,000 paramilitary troops, along with another 40,000 Regional Forces and Popular Forces soldiers. This monograph traces the development and notes the progress, problems. successes, and failures of a unique program undertaken by the U.S. Army for the first lime in its history. It is hoped that all the significant lessons learned have been recorded and the many pitfalls of such a program uncovered. I am responsible for the conclusions reached, yet my thought processes could not escape the influence of the many outstanding officers and men in the Special Forces who joined in the struggle. Particularly, I must lake note of the contributions of the Special Forces noncommissioned officers, without question the most competent soldiers in the world. With the withdrawal of the Special Forces from Vietnam in 1971, the Army could honestly lay claim to a new dimension in ground warfare-the organized employment of a paramilitary force in sustained combat against a determined enemy. I know I speak for my predecessors and successors in claiming that the 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne) was the finest collection of professional soldiers ever assembled by the U.S. Army, anywhere, anytime. Francis John Kelly Colonel, Armor 1972
Download or read book From the Rivers to the Sea written by Richard L. Schreadley and published by US Naval Institute Press. This book was released on 1992 with total page 480 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Using interviews and official records, this volume traces the twenty-five year involvement of the United States Navy in Vietnam.
Download or read book The Brown Water Navy In The Mekong Delta COIN In The Littorals And Inland Waters written by Lieutenant Commander Richard Sessoms and published by Pickle Partners Publishing. This book was released on 2014-08-15 with total page 67 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1964 the Viet Cong was firmly entrenched in the Mekong Delta region. Using fear and terror tactics, the insurgency gained control of the population creating a safe haven for the movement to thrive and expand. The United States and the Government of South Vietnam recognized the infiltration problem in the Mekong Delta but their military organizations were either unable or incapable to deal with the problem. The geography of the region made it impossible for a U.S. Army or Marine Corps division to operate effectively and the South Vietnamese Army and Navy lacked the training and equipment to operate successfully. In response to these obstacles, Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara, commissioned the U.S. Navy to develop a fighting force capable of operating in the delta and ridding the region of the Viet Cong influence. The Navy used for main Operations: MARKET TIME, GAME WARDEN,-The Mobile Riverine Force, and SEALORDS to achieve these goals. In four short years the Brown Water Sailors experienced marked success with Viet Cong influence minimized and resupply efforts rerouted to the tortuous Ho Chi Minh Trail. However, by the end of 1968 American resolve to fight a war in South Vietnam had deteriorated and the Government needed a way out. President Nixon’s Vietnamization program provided the exit for American forces and in turn mitigated the Brown Water Navy’s successes of the previous four years. The Brown Water Navy overcame tremendous obstacles in less than one year to create and deploy a formidable fighting force to the Mekong Delta. In four years aggressive strides against the Viet Cong insurgency were achieved only to be mitigated by the effects of Vietnamization.
Download or read book The Coast Guard at War written by Alex Larzelere and published by US Naval Institute Press. This book was released on 1997 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although many books have been published on the Vietnam War, this is the first to chronicle the significant contributions of America's smallest armed service in that conflict. The U.S. Coast Guard worked and fought alongside its sister services for ten years, conducting a wide range of operations that have remained until now largely unknown to the public. In May 1965 Coast Guard cutters engaged the Viet Cong in the service's first combat since World War II, and it was not until April 1975 that it shut down its last LORAN-C station in Vietnam. Alex Larzelere's vivid, fast-paced depictions of combat operations along Vietnam's coasts and in the rivers and canals of the Mekong Delta benefit from his own service in Vietnam as a patrol boat skipper and from his interviews with seventy-five other Coast Guardsmen who were there. These on-the-scene descriptions together with the author's exhaustive research in official and private archives add up to a comprehensive picture of the Coast Guard's wartime operations - operations that included junk and trawler interdiction, downed-pilot search and rescue, naval gunfire support, port security, merchant marine and navigation assistance, and training and support for the South Vietnamese Navy. Also documented here for the first time are the high-level negotiations among leaders of the Navy, Army, Air Force, and Coast Guard that provided for the employment of unique Coast Guard capabilities. Illustrated with dozens of official and private photos, many never before published, this landmark history fills an important hole in the literature of both the Coast Guard and the Vietnam War and establishes a blueprint for future joint military cooperation. Scholarly in its approach yet written with verve and drama to appeal to a wider audience, the book sets the highest standard for military histories.
Download or read book Lost Victory written by William Egan Colby and published by McGraw-Hill/Contemporary. This book was released on 1989 with total page 470 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "For sixteen years, from the time he was assigned Chief of Station for the CIA in Saigon to his appointment as CIA Director, William Colby was deeply involved in America's role in Vietnam. During five presidential administrations -- Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, and Ford -- Colby moved from meetings in the Oval Office to the sweltering jungles of Vietnam as the war escalated from Vietcong guerilla terrorism to a massive U.S. military engagement. Lost Victory is his personal account of those years, an insider's view of America's first major military defeat told from a vantage point matched by few other officials."--Book cover, p. [4].
Download or read book Brown Water Black Berets written by Thomas J Cutler and published by Naval Institute Press. This book was released on 2012-04-15 with total page 563 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The men of the U.S. Navy's brown-water force played a vital but often overlooked role in the Vietnam War. Known for their black berets and limitless courage, they maneuvered their aging, makeshift craft along shallow coastal waters and twisting inland waterways to search out the enemy. In this moving tribute to their contributions and sacrifices, Tom Cutler records their dramatic story as only a participant could. His own Vietnam experience enables him to add a striking human dimension to the account. The terror of firefights along the jungle-lined rivers, the rigors of camp life, and the sudden perils of guerrilla warfare are conveyed with authenticity. At the same time, the author's training as a historian allows him to objectively describe the scope of the navy's operations and evaluate their effectiveness. Winner of the Navy League's Alfred Thayer Mahan Award for Literary Achievement in 1988 when the book was first published, Cutler is credited with having written the definitive history of the brown-water sailors, an effort that has helped readers better understand the nature of U.S. involvement in the war.
Download or read book Tet written by Don Oberdorfer and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2001-03-31 with total page 446 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Finalist for the 1971 National Book Award In early 1968, Communist forces in Vietnam launched a surprise offensive that targeted nearly every city, town, and major military base throughout South Vietnam. For several hours, the U.S. embassy in Saigon itself came under siege by Viet Cong soldiers. Militarily, the offensive was a failure, as the North Vietnamese Army and its guerrilla allies in the south suffered devastating losses. Politically, however, it proved to be a crucial turning point in America's involvement in Southeast Asia and public opinion of the war. In this classic work of military history and war reportage—long considered the definitive history of Tet and its aftermath—Don Oberdorfer moves back and forth between the war and the home front to document the lasting importance of this military action. Based on his own observations as a correspondent for the Washington Post and interviews with hundreds of people who were caught up in the struggle, Tet! remains an essential contribution to our understanding of the Vietnam War.
Download or read book Seek and Strike written by Graham Sivyer and published by . This book was released on 1996 with total page 159 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
