Quote Originally Posted by Ken White View Post
Obviously your syllabus is abbreviated and does not state in detail what will be covered in the class. Equally obviously, it is your class and your sources so by all means do whatever you think correct but I believe you have two very incorrect postulations here:

The statement that the US failed to win battles in Viet Nam is quite incorrect and I'd also suggest that the premise of 'won the battles but lost the war' is at best misleading.

I spent two tours in Viet Nam as an Infantry NonCommissionedOfficer and I saw absolutely no evidence of of "perpetual fear and uncertainty," indeed of much fear or any uncertainty, in the vast majority of those with whom I came in contact.

In short but based solely on what you have presented here, to include books, authors, editors and experts, I question the validity of your sources.
Good points. I must admit that, in polishing off the syllabus, I focused more on finding the best readings than finding better wordings for the class descriptions. That "fear and uncertainty" part is definitely piffle and I apologise. That shouldn't have survived into the final version. The actual goal is to take apart the civilian notion that soldiers are somehow victims, so the wording runs pretty much in the opposite direction of the actual things discussed. Definitely mea culpa.

The "lost the battles" part will question whether we focused on the right battles - "hearts and minds" versus conventional search and destroy. I understand the pride felt by those who ravaged communist forces in Vietnam but, to be blunt, there's something odd about in claiming victory in a rugby match when your opponent was playing cricket.

We will discuss those US forces which were quite successful in their AO (from Hackworth to CAP), but will also do this with reference to the U.S.' inability to come up with the sort of overarching doctrinal change that FM 3-24 represents.

PS: My last class had a more extensive evaluation of Tet - military victory versus strategic defeat back home and the shape of a pathetically weak South Vietnamese government. Think along those lines for what I mean by "lost the battles".