Corps Competency?

Corps Competency?
Author: Michael F. Morris
Publisher: University Press of Kansas
Total Pages: 348
Release: 2024-08-07
Genre: History
ISBN: 0700636935

The Vietnam War ended nearly fifty years ago but the central paradox of the struggle endures: how did the world’s strongest nation fail to secure freedom for the Republic of Vietnam? Michael F. Morris addresses this vexing question by focusing on the senior Marine headquarters in the conflict’s most dangerous region. Known as I Corps, the northern five provinces of South Vietnam witnessed the bloodiest fighting of the entire war. I Corps also contained the Viet Cong’s strongest infrastructure, key portions of the Ho Chi Minh Trail, and the important political and economic prizes of Hue and Da Nang. For Americans, it was the site of the first major military operation (Operation STARLITE); the Battles of Hue City and Khe Sanh during the 1968 Tet Offensive; and a military innovation known as the Combined Action Platoon (CAP), a counterinsurgency technique designed to secure the region’s villages. The Marine zone served as Saigon’s “canary in the coal mine”—if the war was to be won, allied action must succeed in its most contested region. With such deep significance, I Corps holds many answers to the lasting questions of the Vietnam War. Following the Marine Amphibious Force (III MAF)—the primary US tactical command in I Corps from 1965 to 1970—Corps Competency? provides the first composite analysis of the critical role of the senior Marine headquarters and offers a coherence missing in piecemeal accounts. Despite the critical importance of I Corps, relatively little is known about its overall impact on the war due to disconnected and patchy historical study of the region. In this comprehensive and newly insightful study of the Vietnam War, Michael Morris tells a story that illustrates what can happen when a corps headquarters is not ready for the conflict it encounters and then fights the war it wants to rather than the one it must. The views expressed in this work are those of the author and not the official position of the United States government, Department of Defense, Department of the Navy, United States Marine Corps, or Marine Corps University.

American Reckoning

American Reckoning
Author: Christian G. Appy
Publisher: Penguin Books
Total Pages: 418
Release: 2016-01-05
Genre: History
ISBN: 0143128345

How did the Vietnam War change the way we think of ourselves as a people and a nation? Christian G. Appy examines the war's realities and myths and its lasting impact on our national self-perception. Drawing on a vast variety of sources that range from movies, songs, and novels to official documents, media coverage, and contemporary commentary, Appy offers an original interpretation of the war and its far-reaching consequences for both our popular culture and our foreign policy.

The Military and the Market

The Military and the Market
Author: Jennifer Mittelstadt
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Total Pages: 257
Release: 2022-10-11
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1512823244

Throughout its history, the U.S. military has worked in close connection to market-based institutions and structures. It has run systems of free and unfree labor, taken over private sector firms, and both spurred and snuffed out economic development. It has created new markets—for consumer products, for sex work, and for new technologies. It has operated as a regulator of industries and firms and an arbitrator of labor practices. And in recent decades it has gone so far as to refashion itself from the inside, so as to become more similar to a for-profit corporation. The Military and the Market covers two centuries of history of the U.S. military’s vast and varied economic operations, including its often tense relationships with capitalist markets. Collecting new scholarship at the intersection of the fields of military history, business history, policy history, and the history of capitalism, the nine chapters feature important new research on subjects ranging from Civil War soldier-entrepreneurs, to the business of the construction of housing and overseas bases for the Cold War, to the U.S. military’s troubled relationships with markets for sex. The volume enriches scholars’ understandings of the depth and complexity of military-market relations in U.S. history and offers today’s military policymakers novel insights about the origins of current arrangements and how they might be reimagined. Contributors: Jessica L. Adler, Timothy Barker, Patrick Chung, Gretchen Heefner, Jennifer Mittelstadt, A. Junn Murphy, Kara Dixon Vuic, Sarah Jones Weicksel, Mark R. Wilson, Daniel Wirls.

Seabee Teams in Vietnam, 1963-1968

Seabee Teams in Vietnam, 1963-1968
Author: Thomas A. Johnston
Publisher: Createspace Independent Pub
Total Pages: 232
Release: 2012-12-24
Genre: History
ISBN: 9781461192107

American Baby Boomers––of the 1960's––are often portrayed in the media as either in the mud of Woodstock or in the mud of Vietnam. The truth is, just a small percentage––3% total––were in either place. Most Baby Boomers were living normal lives doing normal things. But for those who took an active part in the Cold War––which we won––and which included Vietnam––this book is dedicated to you. Book includes the records of the 13-man STAT TEAMS (later known as Seabee Teams) that served in Vietnam. The Navy Seabees were some of the first to show up for Vietnam's struggle against communism. In 1954, President Ngo Dinh Diem wrote a letter to President Eisenhower asking for military and economic aid. In 1954 and 1955 an estimated one million refugees (mostly persecuted Catholics) moved from the Communist State of North Vietnam to the south (8% of the North's population). The Seabees assisted them during their “Passage to Freedom”.In 1956, Seabees were assigned to survey Vietnam's roads. There weren't many. The Seabees travelled by jeep and on foot with pack-mules. The surveyors found that the bombers of World War II, the guerrillas of Viet Minh, and the newly emerging guerrilla groups of the Viet Cong had destroyed most of the bridges and sabotaged what few roads were left.Beginning in 1963, Seabee Teams, with Secret Clearances, arrived in Vietnam to assist the U.S. Army's Special Forces in the CIA funded Civilian Irregular Defense Group (CIDG) program, and to help the Vietnamese help themselves.The Seabees constructed Special Forces Camps and outposts, airfields for the SF STOL-class Caribou aircraft, and built connecting roads. These Seabee Teams also helped the Vietnamese to better their living conditions through thousands of projects in rural areas. The Seabee Teams in Vietnam also earned Purple Hearts, Silver Stars, Bronze Stars and many other medals. One Seabee Team member, Marvin Sheilds, earned the Congressional Medal Of Honor while fighting alongside with the Special Forces at Dong Xoi.In 1963, only approximately 10,000 Americans were in Vietnam and very little infrastructure existed. This was before the eventual arrival of 2.1 million––over time––Americans. Given the limited infrastructure––with hardly any ports, roads and airstrips––it would have been near impossible to get the 2.1 million eventual Americans––along with their equipment (Beans, Bullets, And Black Oil)––delivered to South Vietnam and support them. Many Vietnam Vets––including this writer––showed up after 1965. Most of us took it for granted that the air bases we landed in, roads we drove on, helo-pads we mounted out from and the camps we lived in, or passed through, and the water and food and fuel storage were somehow always there––or most likely didn't give it a thought. But long before we arrived, military and civilian engineers were busy preparing the “ground” to make it possible to fight a war; and begin attempts to win the hearts and minds of the South Vietnamese.A recent travel guide to Vietnam mentioned the superior roads and infrastructure in the Southern portion of Vietnam––as opposed to North Vietnam–– due to the American presence there during the Vietnam War.––Kenneth E. Bingham, Seabee volunteer, Feb, 2013

Engineers at War (United States Army in Vietnam Series)

Engineers at War (United States Army in Vietnam Series)
Author: Adrian G. Traas, Center of Military History United States Department of the Army
Publisher: Lulu.com
Total Pages: 673
Release: 2018-10
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0359127126

Engineers at War describes the role of military engineers, especially the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, in the Vietnam War. It is a story of the engineers' battle against an elusive and determined enemy in one of the harshest underdeveloped regions of the world. Despite these challenges, engineer soldiers successfully carried out their combat and construction missions. The building effort in South Vietnam allowed the United States to deploy and operate a modern 500,000-man force in a far-off region. Although the engineers faced huge construction tasks, they were always ready to support the combat troops. They built ports and depots, carved airfields and airstrips out of jungle and mountain plateaus, repaired roads and bridges, and constructed bases. Because of these efforts, ground combat troops with their supporting engineers were able to fight the enemy from well-established bases. Although most of the construction was temporary, more durable facilities, such as airfields, port and depot complexes,