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Westmoreland: The General Who Lost Vietnam Hardcover – Bargain Price, October 11, 2011

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Lewis Sorley (Author)
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Lewis Sorley (Author)
4 out of 5 stars 107 customer reviews
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Product Details

  • Hardcover: 416 pages
  • Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; 1 edition (October 11, 2011)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0547518269
  • ISBN-13: 978-0547518268
  • ASIN: B00AZ9GNCA
  • Product Dimensions: 1.2 x 6.2 x 9.2 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (107 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #584,513 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsA Man Promoted Above his Ability
By Hrafnkell Haraldsson VINE VOICE on September 12, 2011
Format: Hardcover Vine Customer Review of Free Product ( What's this? )
I grew up during the Vietnam War. I was seven years old when General William Westmoreland was sent to Vietnam by LBJ to take charge of things there. I was eleven when he lost his job and by then, had lost us the war. Vietnam was in the news the entire time, on TV, in the paper, in Time Magazine - as was Westmoreland's iconic chin. Being the son of military parents I'd early gotten the history bug and I was fascinated by what was taking place over in Southeast Asia, even if I didn't understand it well. As I grew older, and things over there grew worse, I began to wonder how we could possibly lose such a war (as I thought it was) against such a small country.

Lewis Sorely's "Westmoreland: The General Who Lost Vietnam" will tell you how. Sorely has the credentials for this book. He is himself a graduate of West Point. He served in Vietnam. He even served in the office of the Army Chief of Staff, General William C. Westmoreland, and taught at West Point. This isn't just a book by some journalist trying to get at the bottom of things. Sorely has been "at the bottom of things" and he has done the leg work over a period of years, talking to 175 people in his search for the events he here recounts.

Sorely makes a point of stating at the outset his premise: that we need to understand Westmoreland in order to understand what happened in Vietnam. And so he begins at the beginning, with Westmoreland's childhood and early experiences, his pre-war service in the field artillery at Fort Sill, then Hawaii, and finally with the 9th Infantry Division at Fort Bragg.Read more ›
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4.0 out of 5 starsExcellent look at a wrong leader at the wrong time
By Nathan Webster TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE VOICE on September 11, 2011
Format: Hardcover Vine Customer Review of Free Product ( What's this? )
This is an excellent, close look at one of the most failed Generals in the history of the US military. At least Benedict Arnold was defeated before he did much damage.

The tragedy of Westmoreland is best introduced by author Lewis Sorley in Westmoreland's role as First Captain of his 1936 West Point class. As the top student leader, he participated in the shunning - as in, nobody spoke to him on personal level for four years - of black classmate Benjamin O. Davis, later a Tuskeege Airman, and an Air Force general himself. Westmoreland excuses himself in decades-later letters to friends, explaining that it was "the times," and that Davis had to expect the treatment he got.

It's true, in 1936, Davis probably did expect it, and he got it. And it really wasn't up to 22-year-old Westmoreland to change race relations in the country.

But, the point is he didn't even try. He was not prepared to think outside the box, or at any other level than what he had been trained to believe as an upper-crust South Carolinian. He was not going to challenge the conventional wisdom of race relations in 1936 (and it's more likely than not that he agreed with it anyway). So if his role as First Captain froze out one of his own classmates, that was simply the way the world worked.

When he arrived in Vietnam - by all of Sorley's accounts a seasoned, effective division commander and WWII veteran - of course he fell back to the conventional wisdom. Since there was no specific territory to be won or lost, then of course he would fall back to the next best thing: a body count, since it was something he could measure success by.Read more ›
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1.0 out of 5 starsBattle of the memoirs
By R. W. Levesque on October 3, 2011
Format: Hardcover Vine Customer Review of Free Product ( What's this? )
Although I agree with the author's statement that, "unless and until we understand William Childs Westmoreland, we will never fully understand what happened to us in Vietnam, or why," I don't believe the author achieved this goal.

There are several reasons why I believe this book does not live up to its own expectations. My first issue is Lewis Sorley's over-reliance on memoirs and oral histories in an effort to prove his points. The problem with this approach is you wind up with a "he-said-she-said" argument based on the opinions of those involved. Without context, whether these individuals supported Westmoreland or not, this comes across as a group of men finding fault after the fact.

Which leads to my second issue: lack of context and analysis. The book is a basic narrative that merely follows Westmoreland's life as if placed on a timeline. In fact, at times it comes across as a string of anecdotes, many of which seem out of place within the author's narrative. Without context or analysis you realize you're just reading data.

In fact, the first part of the book, which focuses on Westmoreland's pre-Vietnam life, could almost be dropped in its entirety. The author does not provide any insight into how his subject's life before Vietnam influenced or created the man who commanded MACV. For example, Sorley seems to make a big deal of Westmoreland's experience in Korea, but after reading through several implied "key" events, again without context, the author doesn't pull the threads together to let the reader know what impact this may, or apparently may not, have had on Westmoreland in Vietnam.Read more ›
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 starsI read this book because I am interested in the ...

I read this book because I am interested in the history of America and in particular the Vietnam War. Read more

Published 16 days ago by TWisdom
4.0 out of 5 starsA Must Read For War Hawks

This is a great book. Should be mandatory reading for every politician who can influence our national security. It should be mandatory reading for anyone who votes for president. Read more

Published 2 months ago by Eddie M
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

Can't wait to read this book, I served under the General in Viet Nam

Published 4 months ago by buttontom
3.0 out of 5 starsVery Critical of Westmoreland.

Good book, very hard hitting on Westmoreland. Explains his flawed strategies.

Published 5 months ago by john h.
1.0 out of 5 starsThe general who lost Vietnam? I can't see it ...

The general who lost Vietnam? I can't see it myself. Gen. Westmoreland was given the poisoned chalice of commanding general of the U.S. Read more

Published 5 months ago by P. J. M. Sweet
5.0 out of 5 starsThis is an excellent book! This book illuminates the successes and...

This is an excellent book! This book illuminates the successes and failings of the Vietnam Theater Commander that have been covered up for years after the war, sometimes... Read more

Published 5 months ago by TRH
5.0 out of 5 starsGreat book. Its written through the eyes of Lewis ...

Great book. Its written through the eyes of Lewis Sorley. We talked and he told me he went through 17 boxes of papers of he general. What a job that must of been. Read more

Published 7 months ago by PJ Wilcox
1.0 out of 5 starsA disgraceful book.

This guy's analysis is as sophmoric as you can get. He completely disregards the US political context and the North Vietnamese strategy. Read more

Published 7 months ago by Scott Steele
4.0 out of 5 starsDiscovering Westmoreland

Westmoreland here, on Sorley's telling, comes across--arguably--as the wrong general at the wrong time in the wrong place with the wrong experience and ideas in the wrong country... Read more

Published 12 months ago by Rev. John D. White
4.0 out of 5 starsMove over Westy.

Although General Westmoreland will forever get the credit for losing the Vietnam war, the men who lost that war were the egg heads in Washington. Read more

Published 12 months ago by Amazon Customer

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