The 25-Year War: America's Military Role in Vietnam

Rating:
Summary: A rare, honest appraisal by a senior commander
Review: Most books written by senior commanders are little more than either self-glorifying tomes, or books that deflect blame from themselves for things gone wrong. Bruce Palmer has written a book that does niether. He doesn't concentrate on the grunt level, but rather looks at the strategic level of operations in Vietnam. Palmer served as Army deputy at MACV, and later as Army Vice Chief of Staff, and therefore had a good overall picture of what was going on during the war. His book sheds light on policies that proved misguided, but also discusses some of the sucesses we had. He manages to do this without getting bogged down in the morality of the war or whether or not we should have been there in the first place. His book is a much better look at the subject than Harry Summers book On Strategy. As an army officer, I'm suprised his book isn't on the recommended reading list put out by the Chief of Staff