Why the North Won the Vietnam War 031229526X, 9780312295264

Table of contents :
Cover
Contents
Abbreviations and Acronyms
Acknowledgments
Preface
Introduction
One: Victory by Other Means: The Foreign Policy of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam
Two: Fighting without Allies: The International Dimensions of America's Defeat in Vietnam
Three: Why the South Won the American War in Vietnam
Four: How America's Own Military Performance in Vietnam Aided and Abetted the "North's" Victory
Five: Impatience, Illusion, and Asymmetry: Intelligence in Vietnam
Six: The Cost of Losing the "Other War" in Vietnam
Seven: The Role of Economic Culture in Victory and Defeat in Vietnam
Eight: "Ho, Ho, Ho Chi Minh, Ho Chi Minh Is Gonna Win!"
Nine: Hall of Mirrors
About the Authors
Index
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
R
S
T
U
V
W
Z

Citation preview

WHY THE NORTH WON

THE VIETNAM WAR

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WHY THE NORTH WON THE VIETNAM WAR

EDITED MARC

JASON

BY GILBERT

palgrave

*

WHY THE NORTH WON THE VIETNAM WAR

© Reserve Officers Association, 2002 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. First published 2002 by PALGRAVE™ 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y.I00I0 and Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Companies and representatives throughout the world PALGRAVE is the new global publishing imprint of St. Martin's Press LLC Scholarly and Reference Division and Palgrave Publishers Ltd (formerly Macmillan Press Ltd).

ISBN 0-312-29526-X hardback ISBN 0-312-29527-8 paperback Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Why the North won the Vietnam war I [edited] by Marc Jason Gilbert. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-312-29526-X - ISBN 0-312-29527-8 (pbk.) 1. Vietnamese Conflict, 1961-1975. 2. Vietnamese Conflict, 1961-1975-Vietnam (Democratic Republic) 1. Gilbert, Marc Jason.

DS557.7.H69 2002 959'.704'3-dc21

2001056135

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Design by Letra Libre, Inc. First edition: June 2002 10 9 8 7 6 5 4

3

2

Printed in the United States of America.

In war) you must win!

-Senior General Vo Nguyen Giap

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CONTENTS

Abbreviations and Acronyms Acknowledgments Preface Earl H Tilford, Jr.

IX Xl

XUI

Introduction

Marc Jason Gilbert One

Victory by Other Means: The Foreign Policy of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam

47

William J Duiker Two

Fighting without Allies: The International Dimensions of America's Defeat in Vietnam

77

George C. Herring Three

Why the South Won the American War in Vietnam

97

Robert K Brigham Four

How America's Own Military Performance in Vietnam Aided and Abetted the "North's" Victory

117

Jeffrey Record Five

Impatience, Illusion, and Asymmetry: Intelligence in Vietnam

137

John Prados Six

The Cost of Losing the "Other War" in Vietnam

153

Marc Jason Gilbert Seven

The Role of Economic Culture in Victory and Defeat in Vietnam

Andrew J Rotter

201

Eight

Nine

"Ho, Ho, Ho Chi Minh, Ho Chi Minh Is Gonna Win!" Marilyn Young Hall of Mirrors Lloyd Gardner

About the Authors Index

219 233

241 245

ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS

ARVN

ASD/ISA CAP CCP CIA CICV CINPAC CIO CORDS COSVN DIA DMZ DRV (DRVN) GVN HES ICP IVS JCS MAAG MACV NATO NCRC NLF (NLFSV) NSA NVA PAVN PLA PLAF PRG

Army of the Republic of Vietnam Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs Combined Action Platoon Chinese Communist Party Central Intelligence Agency Combined Intelligence Center Vietnam Commander in Chief: Pacific Central Intelligence Organization Civil Operations and Revolutionary Development Support Central Office for South Vietnam (Hanoi's field command in South Vietnam) Defense Intelligence Agency Demilitarized Zone The Democratic Republic of Vietnam The Government of Vietnam Hamlet Evaluation Surveys Indochinese Communist Party International Voluntary Services Joint Chiefs of Staff Military Assistance and Advisory Group Military Assistance Command, Vietnam North Atlantic Treaty Organization National Council of Reconciliation and Concord National Liberation Front (of South Vietnam) National Security Agency North Vietnamese Army (same as PAVN) People's Army of Vietnam People's Liberation Army People's Liberation Armed Forces Provisional Revolutionary Government

PROVN PRUs RVN RVNAF SEATO VCI Viet Cong VVAW VWP

Program for the Pacification and Long-term Development of South Vietnam Provincial Reconnaissance Units Republic of Vietnam Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces Southeast Asia Treaty Organization Viet Cong infrastructure Insurgent forces in the Republic of Vietnam Vietnam Veterans against the War Vietnam Workers' Party

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The editor wishes to recognize the unstinting support of the trustees of the U.S. Army War College, Colonel U.S. Army Reserve (ret.) John O'Shea of the Reserve Officers Association, and of Brigadier General USAF (ret.) Carl Reddel, Colonel USAF (ret.) Elliot Converse III, and Donna Quisenbury, all formerly of the Eisenhower Institute for World Affairs, which made possible the conference that facilitated the development of this volume. He is also grateful for the assistance of Deborah Gershonowitz, Kasey Moon, Jennifer Stais, and Meg Weaver of Palgrave-St. Martin's, who were instrumental in seeing this volume into print. Further, he acknowledges the support of North Georgia College and State University; the head of its Department of History, T. Christopher Jespersen; the Department's administrative assistant, Vicki Dowdy; and its student associate, Curtis Spiva, for their help in the preparation of the manuscript. Randee L. Head, who prepared the volume's index, richly deserves similar acknowledgment for her work. Thanks are also due to a diverse group of scholars including Ambassador Bui Diem, John M. Carland of the Center for Military History; historians Timothy Castle and Arthur Dommen; anthropologists Dan Duffy and Donald Marshall, analyst-activist Daniel Ellsberg; Ted Gittinger of the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library; General Andrew Goodpaster; Richard Hunt, formerly of the Center for Military History; William Head, Chief Historian, Robins Air Force Base; Douglas Pike and James Reckner of the Center for the Study of Vietnam, Texas Tech University; David Shreve of the Presidential Recordings Project, The Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia; Walt W Rostow; and the late Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt, who were kind enough to facilitate the editor's work and/or his own research, though what he has made of their assistance is his construction alone. The editor also wishes to extend a long-overdue thanks to Dr. Gerald Shure and Dr. Robert Meeker of System Development Corporation's Conflict Resolution Study Team who, from 1966-1969, gave this one-time very smallest cog in the American military industrial complex what he turned into his own little corner in the war without windows. In a sense, this volume began there, for ever since it was first set in motion in one of this

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