Customer Reviews

Distant Challenge: The US Infantryman in Vietnam (Vietnam War Series)

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I was skeptical of buying this book since there were no reviews but I have to say I am very pleased I took a chance on it. My only real complaint is that there are few maps.

This book is based on first person narratives from the leaders on the ground, most of them company or platoon level officers. There are also a few chapters by battalion commanders or staff on combined operations, but mostly this books shows Vietnam at the 'small unit' level.

As noted in a few chapters Vietnam was the first large scale US involvment in a guerilla war since the Philippine operations of the early 20th century. It was fought against an enemy that had gained experience fighting both the French and Japanese along with possessing significant training and support from the Soviet Union and China.

However, this is not the story of Vietnam as we normally hear it. This is a story of what was tried, what worked, and what didn't work on the part of US and South Vietnamese forces. Considerable space is spent on the problems and successes of Pacification and Vietnamization which used both large scale AO clearing operations to deny the VC use of an area and its population and small scale operations where platoons and even squads lived and worked daily with the local populace.

One of the recurring themes is not problems with drugs or racial tensions, which occurred later in the war and is mentioned along with the framework being tried to deal with them, but rather the nature of the individual American soldier and his tendancy to be unalert and wasteful. This ranged from sleeping on ambush operations with only RTO watches maintained to leaving large amounts of battlefield litter. This littering was of such magnitude that it became a primary source of supply for VC and NVA forces, including full or empty C-ration cans, equipment, ammunition, and even grenades. The narratives frequently mention how often extremely demoralizing casualties occurred from simple IEDs made from dud US artillery or aerial bomb explosive filling combined with discarded C-ration cans.

There is a short chapter on the interrogation of an NVA recon Lt. He is very frank and one of the things he notes is that while US forces could call in overwhelming aerial or artillery firepower (based on AO and civilian presence) and had considerable automatic firepower there was a serious lack of organic support firepower such as RRs, rockets, and RPGs, which NVA units normally possessed. It appears that the M40 grenade launcher and LAW had difficulty dealing with certain types of fortifications or had too little terminal effect.

A few narratives also contain details of armored operations, where ACAVs and M48 tanks delivered quick, heavy firepower in support of infantry maneuver and contact. However, most areas of Vietnam were not suitable for armored cavalry and most operations generally involved airmobile forces. In many ways Vietnam can be considered the proving ground for Airmobile warfare used into the present day.

Of note are the thoughts on the serious lack of adequately trained junior officers and NCOs, particularly hard felt in a war increasingly fought by small groups of soldiers. This shortage also impacted the process of Vietnamization since officers and NCOs at the lower levels are not normally in charge of or trained for the required ambassadorial skills, delicate tasks management, and assistance operations necessary to that strategy.

While current operations in Iraq and Afghanistan do not often closely parallel the Vietnam conflict many of the objectives are the same, making this book a valuable read. This book also stands alone on its own merit as a study of conventional forces equipped and trained to fight a high tempo, large scale, WW2-style conflict having to rapidly change focus to long term counter-insurgency and civil area operations in a developing nation.

Along with this book I would also recommend;

The NVA and Viet Cong (Osprey Elite 38), 1-85532-162-9