Reason to question the general's Afghaistan strategy - the Vietnam book he recommends

[karynnj]

In today's NYT, there is an op-ed written by Lewis Sorley, the author of "A Better War: The Unexamined Victories and Final Tragedy of America’s Last Years in Vietnam.” The thesis of his book is that we were doing the right things in Vietnam in the latter part of the war. This is revisionist history. Even MacNamara has said that by 1968, the point where half of the men on the war had not died, he knew the war could not be won.

Here is what Sorley wrote:

Vietnam is particularly tricky. While avoiding the missteps made there is of course a priority, few seem aware of the many successful changes in strategy undertaken in the later years of the conflict. The credit for those accomplishments goes in large part to three men: Ellsworth Bunker, who became the American ambassador to South Vietnam in 1967; William Colby, the C.I.A. officer in charge of rural “pacification” efforts; and Gen. Creighton Abrams, who became the top American commander there in 1968.

Many here who were there, likely disagree. Clearly, from all he said 1971 on, Senator John Kerry does not agree that the policy when he was there was working. This also was the time of My Lai and Operation Phoenix.


Here is an earlier NYT oped, on the books the administration and generals are reading:

{div class ="excerpt"]
What occasioned The Washington Times’ renewed push was a Wall Street Journal article reporting a battle of reading lists of sorts between the White House and the Pentagon over two books about Vietnam — Sorely’s “A Better War: The Unexamined Victories and Final Tragedy of America’s Last Years in Vietnam” being the favorite of the generals, and for some time. Journal reporters Peter Spiegel and Jonathan Weisman say the book “shaped the debate over the 2007 troop surge in Iraq: Military commanders and top Pentagon civilians pushed the book ardently on surge skeptics, winning important converts.”

The book the president has just finished and the vice-president is now reading is “Lessons in Disaster: McGeorge Bundy and the Path to War in Vietnam,” by Gordon Goldstein. According to the Journal, it “describes a White House in 1965 being marched into an escalating war by a military viewing the conflict too narrowly to see the perils ahead,” and after making its way into the hands of of the president via a national security adviser who recommended it — Rahm Emanuel, who “read in a weekend,” it is now out of stock at all major bookstores near the White House.

[tazkcmo]

1. oh geez

So the folks running our government are reading a book on Vietnam so they can run the Afghanistan war "better"? WTF is in the water in D.C.? I'll make it easy for all you friggin' idiots. GET OUT NOW.

[karynnj]

3. No, just the generals, which is bad enough

It is also why it is good that Senator Kerry has Obama's ear as well. It would be interesting to know if Powell, another person who Obama listens to, buys into this.

[unhappycamper]

2. As one soldier who saw Tet of' 68 and the invasion of Cambodia in 1970 up close and personal,

I can state that things were seriously fucked up for both of my tours.

[saigon68]

4. Gen McCrazy about to create Thousands of Gold Star Mothers

His future job at a Defense Contractor after "Retirement" DEPENDS ON IT.

[lazer47]

5. This is as stupid as Sara Palin saying she knows all about Russia,

Because she can see it from her back porch, Nobody has told the truth about Vietnam yet,,,,,,Bring 'em home Now

[alcibiades_mystery]

6. The My Lai Massacre happened in March of 1968