The U S Army Before Vietnam 1953 1965

The U.S. Army Before Vietnam, 1953-1965, by Donald A. Carter, covers the period between the end of the Korean War and the initial deployment of ground combat troops to Vietnam. It describes the organizational and doctrinal changes the Army implemented as it attempted to digest the lessons of one conflict and to prepare the force for another. The pamphlet also discusses the service's efforts to maintain its position in national defense within the parameters of President Eisenhower's New Look strategic policy. A key issue for the Army was the question of how to prepare a force to operate on an atomic battlefield. In order to compete with the Air Force and the Navy for a diminishing defense budget, the Army had to show that it, too, was a modern, forward-thinking organization, prepared to integrate a new family of tactical atomic weapons into its organization and doctrine. The resulting experiment with the Pentomic division forced Army leaders to reexamine some of their most basic assumptions about future conflict. With the increasing influence of Communist China throughout Southeast Asia, the Army also began to pay greater attention toward counterinsurgency and guerilla warfare. President Kennedy's interest in a doctrine of flexible response and his concern for combatting Communist inspired insurrections prompted the Army to increase training in unconventional warfare and to highlight the capabilities of its developing special forces--the Green Berets. Related products: The U.S. Army's Transition to the All-Volunteer Force, 1968-1974 -Print Paperback format is available here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/products/sku/008-029-00536-1 United States Army in World War 2, Special Studies, Manhattan, the Army, and the Atomic Bomb-Print Clothbound format can be found here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/products/sku/008-029-00132-2 Building the Bombs: A History of the Nuclear Weapons Complex is available here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/products/sku/061-000-00968-0 Vietnam War resources collection can be found here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/catalog/us-military-history/battles-wars/vietn... China product collection can be found here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/catalog/international-foreign-affairs/asia/china

The twelve years between the end of the Korean War in the spring of 1953 and the deployment of ground combat troops to Vietnam in the spring of 1965 were stressful ones for the U.S. Army. It had to adjust to the budget and manpower cuts that typify the end of a major war while at the same time maintaining an unprecedented level of preparedness due to ongoing tensions between the United States and the two leaders of the Communist bloc-the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China. Moreover, the proliferation of atomic weapons, first developed in 1945, raised existential questions about the nature of future wars and the role ground forces would play in them. The Army would spend the remaining years of the 1950s struggling with an identity crisis, trying to prove to itself and to others that it remained relevant in the nuclear age. By the end of the decade, the Army had indeed developed organizations, weapons, and doctrine to address the challenges of nuclear war. No sooner had it done so than the rules of the game changed, as the Communist powers adopted a strategy of fostering revolutions in weak and underdeveloped countries as a means of spreading their political doctrine without risking a direct confrontation with the United States that might spark a thermonuclear exchange. Once again, the Army rose to the occasion with new organizations, equipment, and doctrine. All of these challenges made the period one of the most tumultuous in the history of the peacetime Army-an Army that stood on the brink of one of its most tumultuous wars.

Combat Operations: Stemming the Tide describes a critical chapter in the Vietnam conflict, the first eighteen months of combat by the U.S. Army's ground forces. Relying on official American and enemy primary sources, John M. Carland focuses on initial deployments and early combat and takes care to present a well-balanced picture by discussing not only the successes but also the difficulties endemic to the entire effort. This fine work presents the war in all of its detail: the enemy's strategy and tactics, General William C. Westmoreland's search and destroy operations, the helicopters and airmobile warfare, the immense firepower American forces could call upon to counter Communist control of the battlefield, the out-of-country enemy sanctuaries, and the allied efforts to win the allegiance of the South Vietnamese people to the nation's anti-Communist government. Carland's volume demonstrates that U.S. forces succeeded in achieving their initial goals, but unexpected manpower shortages made Westmoreland realize that the transition from stemming the tide to taking the offensive would take longer. Bruising battles with the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese in the Saigon area and in the Central Highlands had halted their drive to conquest in 1965 and, with major base development activities afoot, a series of high-tempo spoiling operations in 1966 kept them off balance until more U.S. fighting units arrived in the fall. Carland credits the improvements in communications and intelligence, the helicopter's capacity to extend the battlefield, and the availability of enormous firepower as the potent ingredients in Westmoreland's optimism for victory, yet realizes that the ultimate issue of how effective the U.S. Army would be and what it would accomplish during the next phase was very much a question mark.

To many Americans, the war in Vietnam was, and remains, a divisive issue. But nearly fifty years after the end of major U.S. combat operations in Vietnam, well over half the U.S. population is too young to have any direct memory of the conflict. The massive American commitment--political, economic, diplomatic, and military--to the mission of maintaining an independent and non-Communist South Vietnam deserves widespread attention, both to recognize the sacrifice of those who served and to remember how those events have impacted our nation.U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia began after World War II when elements of the Vietnamese population fought back against the re-imposition of French colonial rule. Although the United States generally favored the idea of an independent Vietnam, it supported France because the Viet Minh rebels were led by Communists and U.S. policy at that point in the Cold War sought to contain any expansion of communism. France's defeat in 1954 led to the division of Vietnam into a Communist North (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and a non-Communist South (Republic of Vietnam). The United States actively supported the latter as it dealt with a growing Communist-led insurgent force (the Viet Cong) aided by the North Vietnamese. The initial mission of training South Vietnam's armed forces led to deepening American involvement as the situation grew increasingly dire for the Republic of Vietnam.By the time President Lyndon B. Johnson committed major combat units in 1965, the United States already had invested thousands of men and millions of dollars in the effort to build a secure and stable Republic of Vietnam. That commitment expanded rapidly through 1969, when the United States had over 365,000 Army soldiers (out of a total of a half million troops of all services) in every military region of South Vietnam, with thousands of other Army personnel throughout the Pacific area providing direct support to operations. The war saw many innovations, including the massive use of helicopters to conduct airmobile tactics, new concepts of counterinsurgency, the introduction of airborne radio direction finding, wide-scale use of computers, and major advances in battlefield medicine. Yet, as in most wars, much of the burden was still borne by soldiers on the ground who slogged on foot over the hills and through the rice paddies in search of an often elusive foe. The enormous military effort by the United States was, however, matched by the resolve of North Vietnamese leaders to unify their country under communism at whatever cost. That determination, in the end, proved decisive as American commitment wavered in the face of high casualties and economic and social challenges at home. Negotiations accompanied by the gradual withdrawal of U.S. forces led to the Paris Peace Accords in January 1973, effectively ending the American military role in the conflict. Actual peace was elusive, and two years later the North Vietnamese Army overran South Vietnam, bringing the war to an end in April 1975.The vast majority of American men and women who went to Vietnam did so in the uniform of the U.S. Army. They served their country when called, many at great personal cost, against a backdrop of growing uncertainty and unrest at home. This book, the twelfth volume of the U.S. Army's official history of the Vietnam War, is dedicated to them.

In early 1965, the United States had about 23,000 troops in South Vietnam. Through that date, 140 Americans had been killed in action, 1,138 had been wounded and 11 were listed as missing. On March 8, American combat troops (Battalion Landing Team 3, Ninth Marines of the 3d Marine Division) came ashore at 9:02 a.m. on Red Beach 2: by June 1, 1965, 50,000 troops were stationed in the country. The escalation had begun. This is a chronological listing of over 600 Army and marine combat operations from 1965 through 1973. Each entry includes the dates, name, location, type of action, units involved, events (individual activities within the area of operations), casualties, and resulting political or military activity. Information was derived in part from official documents. Interspersed chronologically are brief summaries of significant events that affected the conduct of the war, such as major developments, ceasefires, political observations, and troop strength.

1. A Dangerous New World, 1607-1689. 2. The Colonial Wars, 1689-1763. 3. The American Revolution, 1763-1783. 4. Preserving the New Republic's Independence, 1783-1815. 5. The Armed Forces and National Expansion, 1815-1860. 6. The Civil War, 1861-1862. 7. The Civil War, 1863-1865. 8. From Postwar Demobilization Toward Great Power Status, 1865-1898. 9. The Birth of an American Empire, 1898-1902. 10. Building the Military Forces of a World Power, 1899-1917. 11. The United States Fights in the "War to End All Wars", 1917-1918. 12. Military Policy Between the Two World Wars, 1919-1939. 13. The United States and World War II. From the Edge of Defeat to the Edge of Victory, 1939-1943. 14. The United States of World War II: The Road to Victory, 1943-1945. 15. Cold War and Hot War: The United States Enters the Ages of Nuclear Deterrence and Collective Security, 1945-1953. 16. Waging Cold War: American Defense Policy for Extended Deterrence and Containment, 1953-1965. 17. In Dubious Battle: The War for Vietnam and the Erosion of American Mmilitary Power, 1961-1975. 18. The Common Defense and the End of the Cold War, 1976-1993. Appendixes: A. Participation and Losses, Major Wars, 1775-1991. B. The Armed Forces and National Expansion. C. The Armed Forces of the Cold War.

This book provides detailed information about how US Army units were organised and operated in America's longest war. Vietnam Special Forces veteran Gordon L Rottman examines the different types of infantry battalions and the units that supported them, their training and organisation down to platoon level. Aspects of the US Army's conventional and unconventional warfare doctrine are also addressed, along with a discussion of how replacements were trained and integrated into units. Among other areas of the US Army's involvement covered are individual and crew-served weapons, artillery, armoured fighting vehicles, transport, logistics, the complex chain of command, and combat operations.