Vietnam War Collection: books plus

[Bob's World]

Another Defence in Depth piece: 'Nation building a forgotten aspect of the Vietnam War' and asks why study this now?

Simple:

Link:http://defenceindepth.co/2014/12/08/...e-vietnam-war/

Alas the first link, a book review is beind a paywall; the second pair of links only take you to author bios, well at least there are starting points for reading identified.

Of course there were good tactical programs and operations in Vietnam. Likewise in Iraq and Afghanistan. But there is no value in celebrating these meaningless successes unless one does so in the context of the larger issue of the fundamentally flawed strategic context in which we viewed and framed these conflicts, and the infeasible policies we shaped our goals within.

Bottom line, when one creates an impossible problem and defines it in inaccurate terms - no amount of good tactical action, military or otherwise, is going to meet the basic measures of acceptable, suitable, feasible and complete.

At some point the US must step back and be objectively honest about how we have exaggerated our need to intervene in the governance of others in the name of our own security; and have equally assumed that the goodness of the nature of the governance we offered to others would somehow overcome the fundamentally illegitimate character of how that governance was imposed.