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A Better War: The Unexamined Victories and Final Tragedy of America's Last Years in Vietnam Paperback – April 10, 2007

4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 225 ratings

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FIRST HARVEST EDITION. 2000 Harcourt trade paperback, Lewis Sorley (Westmoreland: The General Who Lost Vietnam). 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. - Amazon
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Product Description
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 —

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
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 225 ratings

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Lewis Sorley
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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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4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
225 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Reviewed in the United States on May 27, 2006
(When) "Creighton Abrams assumed command in Vietnam in early June, (1968). . . The tactics changed within fifteen minutes. . .," stated General Fred Weyand, Commander of the II Field Force. Lewis Sorley details the changes made by Gen. Creighton Abrams as Commander of U.S. Forces in Vietnam and asserts we won the war with them, only to have Congress throw it away. He backs his assertions with detailed, well researched and effectively presented data. The question remains, is he right?

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.
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Reviewed in the United States on June 28, 2007
I finished reading "A Better War" by Lewis Sorley - it is subtitled "the unexamined victories and final tragedy of America's last years in Vietnam".

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." .
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Top reviews from other countries

Mr. Ds Phillips
5.0 out of 5 stars First class - a brilliant read
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 25, 2019
Lewis Sorley’s brilliant work on the Vietnam War does much to try to correct the imbalance in coverage that most accounts fall prey to. Dr Sorley focuses on 1968 onwards and the huge changes in strategy and tactics that General Creighton Abrams oversaw. Abrams emerges as perhaps one of the greatest leaders America has produced, accomplishing a huge amount despite ever-greater constraints from Washington. It’s detailed, fascinating and surprising in equal measure.
Finn Poutynski
4.0 out of 5 stars Very good landmark work on the end of the war, but biased against Westmoreland
Reviewed in Canada on April 27, 2024
Sorley's book is a landmark work on the 1968-1975 part of the Vietnam War, which is often forgotten. Most books focus on the events immediately leading up to the war, or more often on the 1965-1968 period, from the first US troops to the Têt Offensive. He covers the events mainly beginning with General Abrams' time as commander of the MACV from mid-1968 to 1972. He portrays Westmoreland as thoroughly incompetent, and idolizes Abrams as a genius commander who revolutionized the way the US wage the war. The reality was more complex, as authors Gregory Daddis (who wrote a book defending Westmoreland) and Mark Moyar (who is perhaps the best author on the war). The rest of the book was fine though and talked about late-war pacification efforts, the US withdrawal, incursions in Cambodia, building up the ARVN, Operation Lam Son 719, the Easter Offensive, peace negociations in Paris, and the downfall of South Vietnam.
PHILIPPOS VOIDOMATIS
5.0 out of 5 stars item arrived in excellent condition
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 16, 2020
very interesting subject