Counter-Zombie Operations in a Swarm rich Non-Linear Environment
Chaps, I awoke this morning from a disturbed sleep. As I walked down my street with Windsor Castle off in the distance I saw my street, my town, my locale with different eyes. Where, I thought to myself, would I retreat to if I were faced with swarming zombies. You see, I read the whole of Max Brooks, World War Z: An Oral History last night. I don't recall if its been mentioned before by the SWS (Small Wars Sages) but if it hasn't it certainly should.
Re: Zack's Request for Information
Zack--In my opinion, Hunt's is probably as close as you can get to a definitive AAR of CORDS....I would also see Soreley's A Better War and, since you've read Stu herrington's, you would do well to read Bergerud's Dynamics of Defeat, which is about the same province, Hau Nghia.
IMO, Bergerud is a must read--a highly detailed account of events in a province which, as it happens, was atypical of MR-III or IV--i.e., South VN--as opposed to Central VN--MR-I and II---(Atypical in the sense that, as Bergerud admits, the fight had become a blood feud, with local VC and and their supporters often having forgotten the original motives for the struggle....This intractable, generational blood feud nature of the conflict was more characteristic of Binh Dinh and Quang Ngai in Central VN). I would agree with Bergerud's conclusions that the impoved security in Hau Nghia by 1970 was a result of the change in the balance of forces more than pacification and that the population continued to believe the communists would eventually prevail--But see his conclusion that a social transformation would have changed this perception as a bit of a non sequitur. In the event, the population was correct in assessing that the balance of forces would revert back in the communists' favor in the wake of the US withdrawal...
To appreciate more fully the influence of large enemy units in the Vietnamese countryside in the waning years of the Republic, read Col William Le Gro's Vietnam: Cease Fire to Capitulation, US Army Center of Military History, CMH Pub 90-29 (This work is available on-line in is entirety).
For an alternative--i.e., non-CORDS-- approach to pacification, see Bing West's The Village.
For detail on VC methodology in taking over a village see The Village War by William Andrews (recomended earlier by Mike F, SW Council). On the relocation of large segments of the population from VC to GVN-controlled areas as a result of allied bombing see Sir Robert Thompson's No Exit From Viet Nam, Second Edition.
Finally, you will find some insights in the contributions by Sir Robert Thompson and by Robert Komer in The Lessons of Vietnam, Edited by W. Scott Thompson and Donaldson D. Frizzell, Univ of Queensland Press, 1977 (In my opinion, most other sections of this book do not contribute greatly to insight....)
Cheers,
Mike.
Looking for Stuff on the Reformation
Long story, but stems from an article by Gumz about war's autonomy and current COIN fascination:
Does anyone have any suggestions regarding reading on how the Reformation fed into the European religious wars and the Treaties of Augsburg and Westphalia? I'd prefer scholarly standards to readable distillations.
European wars of religion
A long time since I read on this subject, IIRC Professor Geoffrey Parker wrote about this (I have an emailed a friend more familiar with this subject) and there was a series of books on European warfare, edited by Prof. Geoffrey Best IIRC. Fuchs might know more as his grasp of history is wider than mine and of course the wars centred in what was to become Germany.
Added after reply email:
Geoffrey Parker has written some very readable and yet scholarly books on 16th and 17th century European History which are in print - or at least widely available.
Geoffrey Elton (better know as GR Elton)'s 'Reformation Europe' in the Fontana paperback series of the 1960s/70s is still the best and clearest intro for the non-specialist.
That book takes you roughly just past the 1555 Augsburg treaty.
JH Elliot's 'Europe Divided' is the very clear, well-organised sequel to Elton in the same Fontana series; he's also a lively but reliable author best known for 'Imperial Spain'.
Europe Divided takes you to 1598, death of King Philip II of Spain.
The following volume in the Fontana series - I forget the title ('Europe in Crisis' ?) - is by Parker and takes you up to the Westphalia treaties of 1648. My special subject at college was the Revolt of the Netherlands, 1568 - 1648, about which he has written a lot e.g. 'The Army of Flanders and the Spanish Road' (1970s).
I have a copy of Diarmid McCulloch's 'Reformation', the most recent book on the subject intended for a general readership; however, he assumes some prior knowledge.
One to borrow from libraries with rather more detail is the Reformation volume of the (New ?) Cambridge Modern History series; my edition has a chapter by Elton.