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Vietnam Chronicles: The Abrams Tapes, 1968-1972 (Modern Southeast Asia Series)

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I got up at 5:30 a.m. so I could read two hours more before heading to the office. This is one of the greatest military books ever published, and certainly the most unique of its genre. While having all the elements of a thriller, this book appeals most to those who still wonder how decisions were made in Saigon during the Vietnam War. Readaers who have only a casual interest in the war will discover the prologue interesting, but probably will find too many details in the text to hold their interest. The book lifts the veil from more than one story, which is basically how General Abrams saw the war unfolding from his personal perspective. There are other stories too about how various players interpreted their responsibilities, not always in sync with the boss. Until now, I've never understood how our leadership in Saigon reacted to Harriman's negotiations in Paris. They were not impressed! Nor have I appreciated why the NVA bases in Cambodia and Laos were so pivotal to Hanoi's plans for a war of attrition. The key players were more attuned to the psychological implications than I believed earlier. And they were more sensitive to media reports than I suspected. What comes out of this book more than anything else is the genius and candor of Gen Abrams. His irreverent quips and incisive asides are truly priceless. Sorley's selections include ample evidence that our military and civilian leadership held the sacrifices of the South Vietnamese in high regard. We have yet to see evidence that our allies in Iraq are capable of similar competence, but this book, as much as anything else, makes a strong case that weak allies cannot be saved by US power alone. Gen Abrams' contribution is that he put more emphasis on strengthening the infrastructure of South Vietnam than his predeccessor who apparently believed Hanoi would withdraw from the war if punished severely. This book is more than the equivalent of having a tape recorder in Napoleon's tent, because it exposes the character of America's best leadership in its finest and most difficult hour.

Vietnam is still an amazingly painful topic for many people. A huge number of regular folks read about the American Civil War (or whatever other name you want to give it), both World Wars, the Revolutionary War, and other important events in American history. Our Vietnam experience is very hard for the living generations to investigate for a number of reasons. One reason is that those of us who were alive during the 60s and 70s and at least teenagers all developed strongly held views and emotional commitments to a position on the war. Revisiting those years with the kind of open mind required by serious scholarship requires more strength than most of us mere mortals can muster.

However, I believe emphatically that it is time to do so. It seems clear to me that much of what was being fed to Americans via the media was couched to promote an anti-war view. Yes, it is true that the press, say, in WWII was more uniformly supported the war effort (but not as completely as is remembered today), but the point in both instances is that we reach a point in time when it is essential to go back, examine the evidence with fresh eyes and an open heart, and get as close to the truth as we can.

This book is one of those treasures that provides essential primary information that none of us had access to previously. This book provides edited transcripts of tapes made of various briefings and meetings of General Creighton Abrams when he was the commander of US forces in Vietnam from 1968-72. It makes surprisingly fascinating reading. You do have to get used to some of the military terminology, but the author does provide helps for the reader. There is some introductory material, and guide to all the participants in the back with their full names, titles, and the dates of their service. There is an essential guide to all the acronyms as well. And of course there is a useful index.

It is painful to read these accounts as they struggled to manage the war effort, getting the right forces in place, reacting to bad reporting back home, and their reactions events and politicians back home. There are a couple of quotes that I think that struck me especially forcefully.

The first is between Abrams and his boss, Admiral John McCain (father of our Senator John McCain) pg 573:

McCain: "I think when this d___ thing comes out in clear writing sometime, maybe 5 or 10 years from now, you're going to find out that we were a g__d___ sight closer to some sort of a successful conclusion to this d___ thing than the politicians and newspapers in the United States won't [sic] admit, and a few other things."
Abrams: "I thought we'd read that in your memoirs."
McCain: "I'm not going to write any g__d___ memoirs. I decided that a long time ago." "Sure going to be interesting to see what some other people say about me in their memoirs, though. I hope I'm around long enough to read some of them."
Abrams: (serious, not joking): "Well, I think on that score, Admiral, none of us can hope for any of that to be good."
McCain: "Memoirs won't be read if they're good. That's a fact. I can tell you that right now."

What have we done as a country to make such dedicated men who have sacrificed so much of their lives on our behalf to have to eat that much pain?

Then at the end of the book when Abrams is leaving, Ambassador Ellsworth Bunker provides these comments to him pg 877-8:

Abrams: "Mr. Ambassador?"
Bunker: "Yes, I'd like to say a word, General Abrams. When you and I came here, a little more than give years ago, I was hoping we could exit together. I just want to say that these five years I think have had the most rewarding of a fairly long career that began with the horse artillery in 1916. And they certainly have been fateful years, for the Republic of Vietnam and for our own country. I suppose, when the history of this war is written, it will be very clear that no country ever put as many restraints on itself as we did. And I think it's been probably the most difficult war that we've ever tried to fight. And it's been fateful for our country, because I think the question is whether we have the patience and the determination and the will to accept the responsibilities of power."

There is more to this statement, but that will do for my purposes.

We can learn from history, and we are now in a situation in Iraq where we are also being tested in much the same way by some on the home front. We will see if we "we have the patience and the determination and the will to accept the responsibilities of power." I pray we do.

A fabulous contribution to scholarship and can add a great deal to your own understanding of this middle period of the Vietnam War.

This is an important historical work and a valuable reference that historians, biographers, and others writing about or studying the Vietnam War will want to consult. It is a remarkable record of the briefings and meetings attended by General Abrams, the U. S. commander in Vietnam, during four of the most critical years of the war.

Sorley spent a year in a secure vault, wearing earphones to listen to over 2,000 hours of highly classified 1968-72 audio tapes. He transcribed 835,000 words by hand and then edited them into this volume of about 450,000 words and over 900 pages. The U. S. Army, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the National Security Agency all had to give their clearance before publication.

As we all know, meetings can be deadly dull. However, Sorley has apparently cut any inconsequential chatter and mundane topics because what is left is intensely interesting. We can read the exact words of General Abrams and his subordinate commanders, staff, and visitors. They are amazingly frank and express strong opinions about the conduct of the war, their contemporaries, and the Vietnamese. I knew, or at least met, many of the participants in these conferences and their personalities come through in their recorded remarks. It was especially interesting to read what the most senior generals in Vietnam were hearing and saying about the 1972 Easter Offensive while I was fighting in it at one of the lower levels.

Sorley provides lists that identify the Americans and Vietnamese who participated--or were mentioned--in these meetings and 64 illustrations that show what many of them looked like. There is also a glossary of terms, acronyms and abbreviations, and a good general index.

We are fortunate that these sessions were recorded and that a historian of Lewis Sorley's ability expended the time and effort to transcribe and edit them into a usable form that will be preserved for future generations.

Vietnam Chronicles may be the best book yet done on the Vietnam War. Not only does it provide enormous insights into how key decisions were made during this critical time (1968-72), but it also lays out in clear terms all the parameters upon which they were based. Dr. Sorley has done an invaluable service to those that treasure our country's military history as well as to students of leadership.

Lewis Sorley has produced a one-of-a-kind book that gives readers a once-in-a-lifetime glimpse into the thinking of a major commander in war. A biographer of General Creighton Abrams, Sorley found and then combed a vast archive of Abrams' meetings recorded on tapes over the last years of the Vietnam War. Persevering doggedly to declassify the tapes, painstakingly sorting through them for the most salient parts, and then reducing the results into a highly readable text--all of that and more make the making of this book a rare story in itself. And it makes this book a priceless item for any serious scholar of that war or of command in general. No work on the final years of the fighting in Vietnam will ever again be written without constant reference to Sorley's inspired contribution.

I was present during a year of the meetings and all I can say is that after more then 30+ years of disinformation by the media and other anti-war, anti-military I am tired of the facts not being generally available. Now all I can do is hope people may evaluate todays events in somewhat of a pragmatic knowledge of the real world. To my knowledge all of the principals at the WIEW's are deceased, my job in MACV Current Intelligence Indications branch was to present the intelligence.

The first words I noticed about "The Abrams Tape" was its dedication by Lewis Sorley, "For the people of South Vietnam." A few pages later, a quote by the eldest of Gen. Creighton Abrams's three sons appears, "He [Gen. Abrams] thought the Vietnamese were worth it."

This book is an unfathomable work that captures the period in Vietnam from June 1968 through June 1972. Its main character is Abrams, whose approach to the second half of the Vietnam War greatly differs than that of William Westmoreland. Sorley transcribes and edits the recordings from the Weekly Intelligence Estimate Update (WIEU) sessions and other meetings attended by nearly all key American and South Vietnamese players of that time. No matter of one's opinion on the war, readers will uncover difficult decisions that were made about Vietnamization, pacification, the Cambodian incursion, the invasion of Laos (Lam Son 719) and the Easter Offensive. How important was gaining the release of American POWs? How much did that desire play into Kissinger's negotiations for a settled "peace with honor" and a unilateral U.S. withdrawal?

If you're looking for an exact history and not a journalist's analysis, a historian's rehash or a grunt's memoir, Sorley's "The Abrams Tape" and its predecessor "A Better War" are must-reads.

Lewis Sorley has performed an extraordinary recovery on the second half of the Vietnam War, thans espically to Creighton Abrams' unique and highly entertaining verbal style. In this and his previous book, Mr. Sorley has cut through a great deal of the apochryphal underbrush that has grown up around the war, and cleared the way for us to see it with fresh eyes. Congratulations and kudos.

Vietnam Chronicles, The Abrams Tapes 1968-1972 is the product of Herculean efforts by Lewis Sorley, editor, annotator, and transcriber of excerpts from nearly 500 tape recordings of weekly command briefings at MACV (Military Assistance Command, Vietnam) headquarters at Ton Son Nhut air base in Saigon, Vietnam. In these transcription excerpts of the tapes of the weekly and other special briefings for General Creighton W. Abrams, U.S. Commander in Vietnam, Sorley has put together significant portions from his voluminous notes on the still highly classified tapes held in a special collection at the U.S. Army Military History Institute. It took one year in the transcribing, and one year of mandatory declassification review to bring this collection to the general public. The result for the historian and general reader is a wealth of material regarding the nuance and persona of high command which makes for very interesting reading.

But what is more important it reinforces Sorley's basic thesis put forth in an earlier work, A Better War, that the modus operandi significantly changed when General Abrams took command in mid-1968; and by capitalizing on earlier efforts, our arms and those of the South Vietnamese were able to begin steering a course toward what might, just might have been a very successful outcome of the long Vietnam conflict.

Dr. Lewis Sorley should be bronzed. Combining great labor, talent, a sure knowledge of military power based on both personal experience and study; he has produced an extradinary record of command in the final years of Vietnam. He reveals the fascinating debates and decisions of wise and thoughtful men considering choices of great consequences under the pressures of battle and politics. No student of Vietnam, military power, or the leadership of large organizations should miss this book. Hard as it may be to believe that a transcript culling of the debates and briefings at the command center if Vietman would be a book one cannot put down, that is this book.

Let me state my credentials. I was a prize winning reporter in Vietnam and the author of ten books, including the "Straw Giant" about the American Military, which was the lead non-fiction review in the Sunday NY Times