Customer Reviews

Unheralded Victory: The Defeat of the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese Army, 1961-1973

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Finally we have a book that pulls no punches and tells the facts about the War in Veit Nam truthfully. Woodruff explodes several myths perpetrated by Peace activists and communist propagandists concerning among other things, body counts, civilian casualties, American troop morale and fighting ability. His research is long and hard and complete. With access to files from Hanoi, Washington and Moscow he uncovers startling revelations and observations written and spoken by Communist military leaders who are just now coming forth with the truth. This book as a must read for everyone who wishes to find the truth about the American involvement in Veit Nam.

Hello, I feel very strongly about this book. I feel quite inadequate to write a review of other peoples personal experiences in vietnam.

I served in Republic of vietnam from 1967 through 1969 as a Fresh butterbar(2nd Lt. then on as XO and revolving platoon leader(casualties for 2nd lts was always quite high) for the company i served with,then on as Platoon leader for a second tour then serving briefly as Co of company for a grand total of 3 days until i got wounded by mortar fire. While i feel this book is a bit too Right wing it Clearly shows a significant amount of popular media of that era and today is frankly nonsense.A fact that no one seems inclined to reinterpret. Many people don't like this book, because if doesn't fit into their very very simplistic broad general view of a very complex civil war(take a look at vietnamese history the vietnamese have fought a handful of civil wars and wars of conquest) involving two superpowers Selling their brand to the the world,Period, Vietnam just happened to manifest itself perfectly as the testing ground much to the pain of the vietnamese. it's coke or pepsi with a pistol to you head and thats that. The entire strategic goals of the vietnam war and the way it were fought were obviously completely flawed,I highly advise everyone to read "A bright shining lie" along with"dirty little secrets of the vietnam war" a bit of a cheesy title. and a bit simplistic but spot on with Facts about the conflict with only a very slight sense of favoritism towards the USA.the truth lies flat in the middle of these three books and is frankly much simpler than most would lead you to believe. I served in highly populated areas my first year in country, there was definently "accidental" death of civilians from all manner of reasons(out at night after curfew triggering ambushes,random artillery fire. It was dangerous to be a civilian in vietnam and they suffered greatly regardless of their political stance. my second year was spent mainly fighting NVA in terrain with almost no civilian population.This book should be taken with a grain of salt but there are many many facts in this book that highlight directly how much horse puckey and COMPLETE DISTORTION OF FACT was used for dramatic effect both then and now,I feel competent to say this as i am currently typing this from my home in vietnam, i speak vietnamese fluently am married to a vietnamese woman who's fathers side of the family was Viet Cong and her mothers ARVN.

Along with my unique experience as well as getting a real earful of communist propoganda most of the References the author makes towards Hanoi's Political and propaganda machine are easily found here in print by vietnamese publications.I strongly urge people truly interested in learning some amazing and not often ,if ever talked about facts to READ THIS BOOK. you probably won't like its point of view,(i had a real tough time swallowing alot of" a bright shining lie" but the author does make a very strong and factual arguement. So does this former marine.Get this book and the others and stop kidding yourself about how much you know about vietnam because you watched Platoon and Full Metal Jacket...

Woodruff's well researched book finally puts the correct perspective on the Vienam War. Unheralded Victory makes it clear that, by any yardstick of military activity, the Vietnam conflict was an endless series of crushing defeats for the North Vietnamese forces and a long, small action, hard fought victory for the US (and their allied) forces.

What escapes most observers of the Vietnam War is the distinction between winning the war and ending the war, something that Woodruff clarifies. He points out that while Westmoreland submitted plans for winning the conflict (the invasion of North Vietnam), this was totally unacceptable for political reasons, leaving only the ending of the war in the best available circumstances as the most realistic option.

In cataloging the allied victories, Woodruff draws into sharp relief just how ill-served the world's public was by the western press corps. A group of people who were in the main (and there were some notable exceptions), a self serving, self appointed tribe of freeloaders interested only in getting a good story, rather than telling the truth. Aiding the western press corps was the propaganda machinery of North Vietnam who must have viewed the western journalists as the best free advertising on the planet.

Unheralded Victory draws no specific conclusions as the right or wrong of supporting the government of South Vietnam. Many antiwar commentators gleefully point out that the Saigon regime was despostic, cruel, repressive, corrupt and undemocratic, while failing to acknowledge that the North Vietnam government was essentially the same. Additionally, the Saigon government's stated position was to be left alone to mismanage its own affairs, while North Vietnam's stated position was to invade the south by force of arms and mismanage the whole country - something it continuously denied during the conflict, claiming that the war in the south was due to local action.

The book itself relies exclusively on facts, documenting both the sacrifice and valour of the individual soldiers and the overall conduct of the war. It dispells the myths of fragging, combat refusals, drug abuse and most other icons of the antiwar factions. In place of these it demonstrates the war could not have been concluded in the sense of a clear cut victory, but that up until the last combat troops left the country, there was no question that the allied forces won every decisive engagement. This is what makes the book so readable - the bald statements of victory all speak for themselves. There is no 'stab in the back' concepts, no political rantings, no finger pointing, no revisionist history, just plain good old 'political theory' destroying facts.

It doesn't matter which side of the political fence you want to sit on, Unheralded Victory shows that something went on in Vietnam that was missed at the time (for whatever reason) and it is opportune to revisit the scene - not to rewrite history, but to try to understand why the glaringly obvious victory by the allies, and patent military failure of the North, was so badly misunderstood both then and now. Woodruff has done us a great service in presenting the truth as it was and in doing so highlights the price paid by those who fought and didn't come home.

A first class read.

Everything I though I knew about the Vietnam War, everything I was taught or told since childhood, is the exact opposite of the truth!

Between this book and 'Triumph Forsaken' by Mark Moyar, all the propaganda and misinformation is stripped away, factually and intelligently. It's a disconcerting feeling, but liberating, to read great books like this that directly oppose what is proclaimed true by the powerful of our society.

The fighting in Vietnam is presented in a very complete way. The nature of small unit fighting is covered, but more importantly, the tactical and strategic context is given -- for example the connections between the battles of Khe San and Hue City.

Naturally, the Allies -- in particular the elite fighting forces of the USA -- come across very well, exploding the myths (increasingly hard to maintain the more we see of US professionalism in Iraq) of American troops' low moral and incompetence. On the contrary, the communists, far from being the military geniuses of popular culture, are shown to be inept, inflexible and bumbling, their troops frequently drugged and usually very poorly trained, gaining such minor successes as they did through savagery and brutality and by squandering their men's lives.

The destruction of the Viet Cong after the Tet Offensive is so comprehensive, you can't help but feel sorry for the poor communist slave soldiers. The subsequent media victory that the communists enjoyed is described most pithily by the autor, when he remarks that journalists present reported (at best) the 'panic they felt', not the events they witnessed.

Like the communist troops in other conflicts, the North Vietnamese army are inflexible and too terrorised to be capable of initiative. In one darkly funny account, the Communists begin an attack by firing a red flare. The American officer in charge then has the idea of firing a blue flare -- guessing if a red flare was the signal to attack, blue might be the signal to stop. He guesses right and the attack stops!

The peace talks of 1972 are rightly presented as a success for Nixon. The Communist armed forces had been utterly smashed -- all but annihilated -- their logistical infrastructure in ruins. Their sponsors -- the USSR and China -- gave assurances they would not re-arm the North, and peace and security for South Vietnam seemed assured to all concerned.

The betrayal of South Vietnam becomes all the more bitter with the knowledge of how complete the victory was that preceded it.

this title was hard to find in the shops - should have tried Amazon first! Highly recommended by my Journalist friend. As I was there in '67 - it will be interesting to get another view of what happened.

For anyone who still does harbour the received notion that the USA lost the Vietnam War to a tiny 3rd-World nation of peasant farmers, Mark Woodruff's book will come as a surprise. To his credit he does make clear at the outset that this IS a partial review of the war. He's an ex-Marine and is determined to make the point that - taken purely as a military operation between the years 1965-1973 - the US Armed Forces can justifably consider themselves `victors'. However, noble as that undertaking is, he'll also be aware of Von Clausewitz's statement that "war is a continuation of politics by other means". As he points out, the Vietnamese were fighting other foes long before the Americans appeared, and the Northern Vietnamese continued to fight their Southern counterparts for two, ultimately successful, years afterwards. He does a fine job of refuting many of the myths that have been handed down since the end of the war and is clear on exactly what the scope of his book is, and crucially isn't. But the reader seeking a wider view of S.E.Asian history and politics will be entitled to ask about just WHY the USA became as heavily involved as it did (particularly after having supported Ho Chi Minh and Viet nationalists against the Japanese during WW2, and after been so closely involved in financially supporting the abortive French attempts to `hold onto' French Indochina in the 1950s), why it allowed such a corrupt regime as Thieu's to develop, what ultimate effect Nixon and Kissinger's secret bombing of Cambodia had (unleashing the Khmer Rouge?) and why it did ultimately decide to pull out? Having said all of that, within its own narrow parameters `Unheralded Victory' is a welcome addition to the histories of the S.E.Asian conflicts.

This book dispels all the myths that have now seemingly become synonymous with the Vietnam War. The drug abuse, the fragging, civian deaths etc. were no more disproportionate in Vietnam than in any other war. It literally pains me to think that we have had to wait this long for an acknowledgement that the combat troops acquited themselves with distinction in the Vietman war.
I was recently shouted down at a dinner party when I tried to raise some of the statisitcs and observations in this book. This shows how ingrained the "Unwinnable War" myth is when it comes to this particular war.
If you're still not convinced, ask yourself a question. When has a Third World army ever beaten a highly trained and well-equipped force? The answer as this book illustrates is.. never!!
The press and the middle-class draft dodgers should hang their heads in shame when they read this book. A myth-shattering read.

I liked this book. I did not give the book 5 stars because it could have been written in a more organized style which would allow the reader to follow the story of the war in Vietnam better. I also disliked the constant review of small unit actions. One or two would have been enough to get the author's point across. The book does come through with its point, the United States totally defeated North Vietnam and simply slaughtered its armies in the field. The author claims that General Gaip admitted to over 1 million killed in the battles with the United States. As the US lost about 50,000 this translates into not only a US victory, but a tremendous victory on the battlefield. In fact, if the North Vietnamese are admitting to 1 million dead the total is probably closer to 2 million.

The author makes it clear that the major reason for the perception of defeat is the American news media. In fact, he basically proves they were (and are) no less than trators. The media was responsible for the perception of defeat, and then the resulting refusal to come to the aid of our ally and defend the Paris peace accords. In my opinion he makes a good case for this point of view and does show that the anti war "fever" which gripped the US was fabricated by the press.

This is an excellent time to read Unheralded Victory because of the war in Afganistan launched in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Once again we see the press being used as our enemies greatest weapon. Every report from the Afganistan rulers is treated as true and beamed into every American home without any censorship by the press. The press has become the pipeline for Taliban propaganda into the minds of every American who looks at TV news or reads the major news publications. American leaders are questioned at every turn and yet the enemies of the US are not only not questioned, but their claims are put forth as facts.

Have hospitials been bombed by the US? Have "innocent" people in Afgainistan been killed or hurt by the US? These claims are never questioned. US reporters roam about enemy territory and film the horrors of our bombing campaign (according to our enemies), but none of this is ever questioned by our press.

Just like Vietnam. The enemy has a ready audience with our press corps and an audience that accepts thier claims without question. The author has made a valid point. Can we fight any war where the US press is a part of our enemies propaganda machine?

A must read to understand what is going on in Afganistan today.

I found myself agreeing on many of the points Woodruff made in his book. The United States won the military war in Southeast Asia. They destroyed the Viet Cong, where it was no longer a southern movement, but a bunch of Northern boys filling in for the dead Viet Cong. The United States soundly beat the VC and NVA during Tet. All the things that Woodruff mentions on the military level is certainly true. However, America lost the will to fight and therefore lost the political war. America was a divided society with many problems and this war heightened those issues. I think the comments by Jeff Thurston in an earlier review are also quite relevant. Germany was on allied soil when she sued for peace. Her populace just couldn't stand the war anymore. America may not have lost the ability to wage war, put the political war was finished.

Woodruff makes many relevant points in this book. He sees the war through how a conservative would have seen it. There are other points of view, and they are just as relevant. His points are worth pondering and discussing.

Woodruff gives a perspective on the war which whilst belated, is welcome. It is especially so to veterans like myself who believed that we were there for the right reasons, albeit under difficult conditions. It is significant that the majority of positive reviews of this work are themselves penned by Vietnam Veterans. As the author observes, no-one can claim to have "expert knowledge of the Vietnam war because they had 'been there themselves'"(p.278), as all our individual experiences are personal anecdotes & therefore ultimately subjective. It is thus something of a surprise to see reactions to Unheralded Victory which include the claim, for example, that it fails to qualify as a truly academic book, when it is clearly intended as a reader for those seeking a more balanced work than many of the agonized analyses of the last 25 years. I accept the minor criticisms that the book comes over as a series of sometimes unconnected essays, rather than as an integrated work. Nonetheless it obtains appropriate impact and credibility. Further, I think the summaries of numerous battles, both large & small-scale, are entirely apposite to the main arguments Woodruff puts forward. Overall, an excellent effort.