Rating: 
Summary: Why did it take so long to write the truth
Review: Woodruff's well researched book finally puts the correct perspective on the Vienam War. Unheralded Victory makes it clear that, by any yardstick of military activity, the Vietnam conflict was an endless series of crushing defeats for the North Vietnamese forces and a long, small action, hard fought victory for the US (and their allied) forces.What escapes most observers of the Vietnam War is the distinction between winning the war and ending the war, something that Woodruff clarifies. He points out that while Westmoreland submitted plans for winning the conflict (the invasion of North Vietnam), this was totally unacceptable for political reasons, leaving only the ending of the war in the best available circumstances as the most realistic option. In cataloging the allied victories, Woodruff draws into sharp relief just how ill-served the world's public was by the western press corps. A group of people who were in the main (and there were some notable exceptions), a self serving, self appointed tribe of freeloaders interested only in getting a good story, rather than telling the truth. Aiding the western press corps was the propaganda machinery of North Vietnam who must have viewed the western journalists as the best free advertising on the planet. Unheralded Victory draws no specific conclusions as the right or wrong of supporting the government of South Vietnam. Many antiwar commentators gleefully point out that the Saigon regime was despostic, cruel, repressive, corrupt and undemocratic, while failing to acknowledge that the North Vietnam government was essentially the same. Additionally, the Saigon government's stated position was to be left alone to mismanage its own affairs, while North Vietnam's stated position was to invade the south by force of arms and mismanage the whole country - something it continuously denied during the conflict, claiming that the war in the south was due to local action. The book itself relies exclusively on facts, documenting both the sacrifice and valour of the individual soldiers and the overall conduct of the war. It dispells the myths of fragging, combat refusals, drug abuse and most other icons of the antiwar factions. In place of these it demonstrates the war could not have been concluded in the sense of a clear cut victory, but that up until the last combat troops left the country, there was no question that the allied forces won every decisive engagement. This is what makes the book so readable - the bald statements of victory all speak for themselves. There is no 'stab in the back' concepts, no political rantings, no finger pointing, no revisionist history, just plain good old 'political theory' destroying facts. It doesn't matter which side of the political fence you want to sit on, Unheralded Victory shows that something went on in Vietnam that was missed at the time (for whatever reason) and it is opportune to revisit the scene - not to rewrite history, but to try to understand why the glaringly obvious victory by the allies, and patent military failure of the North, was so badly misunderstood both then and now. Woodruff has done us a great service in presenting the truth as it was and in doing so highlights the price paid by those who fought and didn't come home. A first class read.
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