The Last Battle

The Last Battle
Author: Ralph Wetterhahn
Publisher: Da Capo Press
Total Pages: 384
Release: 2001
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780786708581

Examines the final military contest of the Vietnam War, relating the hijacking of the U.S. merchant ship Mayaguez, the deadly marine raid on a remote Cambodian island to free the ship and its crew, and the fate of three marines left behind after the battle.

The Mayaguez Crisis, Mission Command, and Civil-military Relations

The Mayaguez Crisis, Mission Command, and Civil-military Relations
Author: Christopher Jon Lamb
Publisher: Office of Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff
Total Pages: 338
Release: 2018
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780160945038

Preface -- Abbreviations -- Key figures in the Mayaguez Crisis -- Introduction -- Day one: Monday, May 12 -- Day two: Tuesday, May 13 -- Day three: Wednesday, May 14 -- Day four: Thursday, May 15 -- Critical crisis decisions -- Explaining decisions, behaviors and outcomes -- Refining the explanation: rationality, bureaucracy and beliefs -- Findings, issues, prescriptions -- Conclusion.

The Last Boarding Party

The Last Boarding Party
Author: Clayton K. S. Chun
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 193
Release: 2011-09-20
Genre: History
ISBN: 1849088772

Just two weeks after the close of the Vietnam War, communist Cambodian Khmer Rouge elements seized the S.S. Mayaguez in international waters. Believing they had to act quickly, United States Marines boarded the ship, only to find the crew had been removed. They then launched an assault on a nearby island where they believed the crew had been taken. Instead of a quick strike against a limited foe, the Marines encountered major opposition and were quickly pinned down. With large numbers of Cambodians closing in all around, the a desperate firefight developed as US forces tried to extract the Marines. This book recounts the bloody struggle on Koh Tang island, as a badly botched hostage rescue turned into a desperate evacuation.

Failing to Win

Failing to Win
Author: Dominic D. P. Johnson
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 358
Release: 2009-07-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0674039173

How do people decide which country came out ahead in a war or a crisis? Why, for instance, was the Mayaguez Incident in May 1975--where 41 U.S. soldiers were killed and dozens more wounded in a botched hostage rescue mission--perceived as a triumph and the 1992-94 U.S. humanitarian intervention in Somalia, which saved thousands of lives, viewed as a disaster? In Failing to Win, Dominic Johnson and Dominic Tierney dissect the psychological factors that predispose leaders, media, and the public to perceive outcomes as victories or defeats--often creating wide gaps between perceptions and reality. To make their case, Johnson and Tierney employ two frameworks: "Scorekeeping," which focuses on actual material gains and losses; and "Match-fixing," where evaluations become skewed by mindsets, symbolic events, and media and elite spin. In case studies ranging from the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis and the current War on Terror, the authors show that much of what we accept about international politics and world history is not what it seems--and why, in a time when citizens offer or withdraw support based on an imagined view of the outcome rather than the result on the ground, perceptions of success or failure can shape the results of wars, the fate of leaders, and the "lessons" we draw from history.

Losing Vietnam

Losing Vietnam
Author: Ira A. Hunt
Publisher: University Press of Kentucky
Total Pages: 243
Release: 2013-07-16
Genre: History
ISBN: 0813142067

An intelligence officer stationed in Southeast Asia offers a “detailed, insightful, documented, and authentic account” of US policy failure in the region (Lewis Sorley, author of Westmoreland). In the early 1970s, the United States began to withdraw combat forces from Southeast Asia. Though the American government promised to support the South Vietnamese and Cambodian forces in their continued fight against the Viet Cong, the funding was drastically reduced over time. The strain on America’s allies in the region was immense, as Major General Ira Hunt demonstrates in Losing Vietnam. As deputy commander of the United States Support Activities Group Headquarters (USAAG) in Nakhon Phanom, Thailand, Hunt received all Southeast Asia operational reports, reconnaissance information, and electronic intercepts, placing him at the forefront of military intelligence and analysis in the area. He also met frequently with senior military leaders of Cambodia and South Vietnam, contacts who shared their insights and gave him personal accounts of the ground wars raging in the region. In Losing Vietnam, Major Hunt details the catastrophic effects of reduced funding and of conducting "wars by budget." This detailed and fascinating work highlights how analytical studies provided to commanders and staff agencies improved decision making in military operations. By assessing allied capabilities and the strength of enemy operations, Hunt effectively demonstrates that America's lack of financial support and resolve doomed Cambodia and South Vietnam to defeat.

The Free Sea

The Free Sea
Author: James Kraska
Publisher: Naval Institute Press
Total Pages: 218
Release: 2018-06-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 1682471179

The Free Sea offers a unique, single-volume analysis of incidents in American history that affected U.S. freedom of navigation at sea. The book spans more than 200 years, beginning in the Colonial era with the Quasi-War with France in 1798 and extending to contemporary Freedom of Navigation operations in the South China Sea. Through wars and numerous crises with North Korea, North Vietnam, Cambodia, Iran, Russia and China, freedom of navigation has been a persistent challenge for the United States, a nation reliant on open seas for economic prosperity, military security and global order. This volume focuses on the struggle to retain freedom of the seas. Challenges to U.S. warships and maritime commerce have pushed, and continue to challenge, the United States to vindicate its rights through diplomatic, legal, and military means, underscoring the need for the strategic resolve in the global maritime commons.

The Use of Force in International Law

The Use of Force in International Law
Author: Tom Ruys
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 961
Release: 2018
Genre: Law
ISBN: 019878435X

Since the adoption of the UN Charter in 1945, the use of cross-border force has been frequent. This volume invites a range of experts to examine over sixty conflicts, from military interventions to targeted killings and hostage rescue operations, and to ask how powerful precedent can be in determining hostile encounters in international law.

Fourth Arm of Defense

Fourth Arm of Defense
Author: Salvatore R. Mercogliano
Publisher: Government Printing Office
Total Pages: 88
Release: 2017
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780945274964

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.

US Foreign Policy and the Iran Hostage Crisis

US Foreign Policy and the Iran Hostage Crisis
Author: David Patrick Houghton
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 276
Release: 2001-05-21
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780521805094

Why did a handful of Iranian students seize the American embassy in Tehran in November 1979? Why did most members of the US government initially believe that the incident would be over quickly? Why did the Carter administration then decide to launch a rescue mission, and why did it fail so spectacularly? US Foreign Policy and the Iran Hostage Crisis examines these puzzles and others, using an analogical reasoning approach to decision-making, a theoretical perspective which highlights the role played by historical analogies in the genesis of foreign policy decisions. Using interviews with key decision-makers on both sides, Houghton provides an analysis of one of the United States' greatest foreign policy disasters, the events of which continue to poison relations between the two states. The book will be of interest to students and scholars of foreign policy analysis and international relations.