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A Better War: The Unexamined Victories and Final Tragedy of America's Last Years in Vietnam Paperback – April 10, 2007
Purchase options and add-ons
- Print length507 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- Publication dateApril 10, 2007
- Dimensions5.31 x 1.28 x 8 inches
- ISBN-100156013096
- ISBN-13978-0156013093
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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
Neglected by scholars and journalists alike, the years of conflict in Vietnam from 1968 to 1975 offer surprises not only about how the war was fought, but about what was achieved. Drawing from thousands of hours of previously unavailable (and still classified) tape-recorded meetings between the highest levels of the American military command in Vietnam, A Better War is an insightful, factual, and superbly documented history of these final years. Through his exclusive access to authoritative materials, award-winning historian Lewis Sorley highlights the dramatic differences in conception, conduct, and--at least for a time--results between the early and later years of the war. Among his most important findings is that while the war was being lost at the peace table and in the U.S. Congress, the soldiers were winning on the ground. Meticulously researched and movingly told, A Better War sheds new light on the Vietnam War.
Amazon Exclusive Essay: "New Vietnam War History" by Lewis Sorley, Author of A Better War
For a long time most people thought the long years of American involvement in the Vietnam War were just more of the same--with a bad ending. Now we know that during the latter years, when General Creighton Abrams commanded U.S. forces, almost everything changed, and for the better.Abrams understood the nature of the war and devised a more availing approach to the conduct of it. Building up South Vietnam's own armed forces got high priority, whereas before they had been neglected and allowed to go into combat outgunned by the enemy. The covert infrastructure which through terror and coercion kept South Vietnam's rural population under domination was painstakingly rooted out, not ignored as earlier. And combat operations were greatly improved, concentrating on large numbers of patrols and ambushes designed to provide security for the people rather than cumbersome large-unit sweeps through the deep jungle.
Some commentators have called the description of these changes "revisionist" history, but actually it is new history. Virtually all the better-known earlier books about the war concentrated heavily on the early years, leaving the later period grossly neglected.
New insight came importantly from a collection of hundreds of tape recordings of briefings and staff meetings in General Abrams's headquarters during the four years he commanded in Vietnam. They are filled with human drama, professional debate, successes and frustrations, and ultimately a hard-won triumph, told in the voices of Abrams and his senior associates; such visiting officials as the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and a succession of often brilliant briefing officers.
Later, of course, what they had won was thrown away by the United States Congress, but the story of their better war is still a dramatic testament to courage, integrity, devotion, and professional competence.--Lewis Sorley
Review
"Sorley's book is as important a reexamination of the operational course of the war as Robert McNamara's In Retrospect is of the conflict's moral and political history."―Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"An extraordinary piece of work that is bound to become a valuable part of historical documentation about the war in Vietnam. The first to set the record straight concerning the outcome of that conflict."―H. Norman Schwarzkopf, General, U.S. Army, Retired —
From the Inside Flap
From the Back Cover
Lewis Sorley’s important and influential book A Better War sheds light on the often neglected final years in Vietnam from 1968 to 1975 and revises our knowledge of the war and its conclusion. Drawing on his exclusive access to still classified tape-recorded meetings of the highest levels of military command in Vietnam, Sorley highlights the dramatic differences in the conception, the conduct, and--at least for a time--the results after General Creighton Abrams succeeded to the top military post in 1968. Meticulously researched and movingly told, A Better War is an insightful history and a great human drama of purposeful and principled service in the face of an agonizing succession of lost opportunities--and it is never as important as it is now.
"A comprehensive and long-overdue examination of the immediate post-Tet offensive years." --The New York Times
"The book is the missing link in the history of the Vietnam War. It opens the old arguments up again and shows them in a new light." --Strategic Review
"[A Better War] is an outstanding piece of work, historically important with its use of new evidence, intellectually challenging with its suggestion of new interpretations of events, and highly readable." --Army
Lewis Sorley, a third-generation graduate of West Point, also holds a doctorate from Johns Hopkins University. He has served in the U.S. Army, on staff at the Pentagon, and later as a senior civilian official of the Central Intelligence Agency. He lives in Maryland.
About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : Harvest; First Edition (April 10, 2007)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 507 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0156013096
- ISBN-13 : 978-0156013093
- Item Weight : 1.09 pounds
- Dimensions : 5.31 x 1.28 x 8 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,071,324 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #843 in Southeast Asia History
- #1,979 in Vietnam War History (Books)
- #9,812 in World War II History (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Lewis Sorley, a former soldier, is a graduate of West Point and holds a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins. His Army service included tank and armored cavalry units in Germany, Vietnam, and the U.S., Pentagon staff duty, and teaching at West Point and the Army War College.
His books include two biographies, Thunderbolt: General Creighton Abrams and the Army of His Times and Honorable Warrior: General Harold K. Johnson and the Ethics of Command. The Johnson biography received the Army Historical Foundation's Distinguished Book Award. An excerpt of the Abrams biography won the Peterson Prize as the year's best scholarly article on military history. He has also been awarded the General Andrew Goodpaster Prize for military scholarship by the American Veterans Center.
His book A Better War: The Unexamined Victories and Final Tragedy of America's Last Years in Vietnam was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. His edited work Vietnam Chronicles: The Abrams Tapes, 1968-1972 received the Army Historical Foundation's Trefry Prize for providing a unique perspective on the art of command. He has also written Honor Bright: History and Origins of the West Point Honor Code and System and edited a two-volume work entitled Press On! Selected Works of General Donn A. Starry. He is currently researching a biography of General William C. Westmoreland.
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Under Abrams, U.S tactics changed from large unit, "search and destroy" operations to "pacification" missions designed to protect the South Vietnamese from attacks by the North. Other changes included relying on intelligence to locate the enemy and then aggressively attacking them with U.S. and South Vietnamese troops. This required effective training of our South Vietnamese allies which Sorley says was accomplished for the first time. He implies that had these tactics been employed earlier American support for the war would not have been squandered chasing ghosts through the jungle. In short, we would have won!
Sorley says Congress abandoned a South Vietnamese Army fully capable of defending itself had it not been forced to fight a "poor man's war" when promised aid was denied. He is supported by such experts as John Paul Vann (A Bright and Shining Lie, (Niel Sheehan, Random House, 1988) and Henry Kissinger (Years of Renewal, Simon and Schuster, 1999). If they are right, the United States Congress is responsible for the Communist victory in South Vietnam. However, Kissinger points out in his book, "Diplomacy" (Simon and Schuster, 1994) that "prolonged stalemate will sap the endurance and hence the will of the America public." After more than a decade of war large segments of American society had long since abandoned the effort. Does this absolve Congressional leaders? Are these, wait-them-out tactics a blueprint for future U.S. defeats? You decide!
This highly controversial and provocative work is sure to bolster the Vietnam era "hawks" who pushed for a military victory and infuriate the "doves" who saw the only "honor" in Vietnam was in our unilateral withdrawal. No matter what side you were on, you owe it to yourself to read this work. It has tremendous implications for our current situation in Iraq and future situations that may arise.
I have been searching for answers to some of the questions that have bothered me for over 30 years: how could we win the battles and lose the war? what was the real impact of our strategies on the enemy? what are the lessons for Iraq?
This book really hits home - it provides an answer to part of the puzzle. It does this by describing the enormous differences in approach to the war by General Westmoreland and General Abrams. Abrams assumed command of MACV right after Tet '68 - a time when public support for the war had come undone. Some of you may be too young to remember, but I remember it all too well. We had massive demonstrations in the streets of our cities, troops deployed to Wash DC, bombings on college campuses, and hippies who delighted in spitting on our troops. Everything was falling apart. Yet, Abrams somehow managed, with great dignity and integrity, to effectively fight the war in Vietnam despite the intense distractions back home. He recognized that security of the population was the real objective, and that the war could not be won through a strategy of attrition (a strategy which had totally misread the will of the enemy). And so he completely changed the course of the war.
Of course, we know how that movie ended....the war was lost politically despite the new strategy and the victories on the battlefield. And we abandoned an entire people and an ally to their fate. And now we are witnessing a replay of the same script in Iraq.
One of the most telling parts of the book is in the Epilogue. Long after the war ended and Abrams had died, his son was on the faculty at the Army C+GS College where someone approached him and said that his father "deserved a better war". His son responded at once, " He didn't see it that way. He thought the Vietnamese were worth it." .








