Why the North Won the Vietnam War

262 Pages·2002·26.44 MB·English

by  Marc Jason Gilbert (eds.)

WHY THE NORTH WON
THE VIETNAM WAR
WHY THE NORTH WON
THE VIETNAM WAR
EDITED BY
MARC JASON GILBERT
palgrave
*
WHY THE NORTH WON THE VIETKAM WAR
© Reserve Officers Association, 2002
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any
manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief
quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
First published 2002 by PALGRAVE™
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Companies and representatives throughout the world
PALGRAVE is the new globa[ publishing imprint of 51. Martin's Press LLC
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Macmillan Press Ltd).
ISBN 978-0-312-29527-1 ISBN 978-0-230-10824-0 (eBook)
DOI 10.10579780230108240
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Why the North won the Vietnam war I [edited] by Marc Jason Gilbert.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-312-29526-4 - ISBN 978-0-312-29527-1 (pbk.)
I. Vietnamese Conflict, 1961-1975. 2. Vietnamese Conflict,
1961-1975-Vietnam (Democratic Republic) 1. Gilbert, Marc Jason.
DS557.7.H69 2002
959' .704·3-dc21 2001056135
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Design by Letta Libre, Inc.
First edition: June 2002
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
In war, you must win!
-Senior General Vo Nguyen Giap
CONTENTS
Abbreviations and Acronyms IX
Acknowledgments Xl
Preface Xll1
Earl H. Tilford, jr.
Introduction 1
Marc jason Gilbert
One Victory by Other Means: The Foreign Policy
of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam 47
William J Duiker
Two Fighting without Allies: The International
Dimensions of America's Defeat in Vietnam 77
George C. Herring
Three Why the South Won the American War in Vietnam 97
Robert K Brigham
Four How America's Own Military Performance
in Vietnam Aided and Abetted the "North's" Victory 117
jeffrey Record
Five Impatience, Illusion, and Asymmetry:
Intelligence in Vietnam 137
john Prados
Six The Cost of Losing the "Other War" in Vietnam 153
Marc jason Gilbert
Seven The Role of Economic Culture in
Victory and Defeat in Vietnam 201
Andrew J Rotter
Eight "Ho, Ho, Ho Chi Minh,
Ho Chi Minh Is Conna Win!" 219
Marilyn Young
Nine Hall of Mirrors 233
Lloyd Gardner
About the Authors 241
Index 245
ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS
ARVN Army of the Republic of Vietnam
ASD/ISA Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security
Affairs
CAP Combined Action Platoon
CCP Chinese Communist Party
CIA Central Intelligence Agency
CICV Combined Intelligence Center Vietnam
CINPAC Commander in Chief, Pacific
CIO Central Intelligence Organization
CORDS Civil Operations and Revolutionary Development Support
COSVN Central Office for South Vietnam (Hanoi's field com
mand in South Vietnam)
DIA Defense Intelligence Agency
DMZ Demilitarized Zone
DRV(DRVN) The Democratic Republic of Vietnam
GVN The Government of Vietnam
HES Hamlet Evaluation Surveys
ICP Indochinese Communist Party
IVS International Voluntary Services
JCS Joint Chiefs of Staff
MAAG Military Assistance and Advisory Group
MACV Military Assistance Command, Vietnam
NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization
NCRC National Council of Reconciliation and Concord
NLF (NLFSV) National Liberation Front (of South Vietnam)
NSA National Security Agency
NVA North Vietnamese Army (same as PAVN)
PAVN People's Army of Vietnam
PLA People's Liberation Army
PLAF People's Liberation Armed Forces
PRG Provisional Revolutionary Government
PROVN Program for the Pacification and Long-term Develop
ment of South Vietnam
PRUs Provincial Reconnaissance Units
RVN Republic of Vietnam
RVNAF Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces
SEATO Southeast Asia Treaty Organization
VCI Viet Cong infrastructure
Viet Cong Insurgent forces in the Republic of Vietnam
VVAW Vietnam Veterans against the War
VWP Vietnam Workers' Party
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The editor wishes to recognize the unstinting support of the trustees of the
U.S. Army War College, Colonel U.S. Army Reserve (ret.) John O'Shea of
the Reserve Officers Association, and of Brigadier General USAF (ret.) Carl
Reddel, Colonel USAF (ret.) Elliot Converse III, and Donna Quisenbury,
all formerly of the Eisenhower Institute for World Affairs, which made pos
sible the conference that facilitated the development of this volume. He is
also grateful for the assistance of Deborah Gershonowitz, Kasey Moon, Jen
nifer Stais, and Meg Weaver of Palgrave-St. Martin's, who were instrumen
tal in seeing this volume into print. Further, he acknowledges the support of
North Georgia College and State University; the head of its Department of
History, T. Christopher Jespersen; the Department's administrative assistant,
Vicki Dowdy; and its student associate, Curtis Spiva, for their help in the
preparation of the manuscript. Randee 1. Head, who prepared the volume's
index, richly deserves similar acknowledgment for her work.
Thanks are also due to a diverse group of scholars including Ambassador
Bui Diem, John M. Carland of the Center for Military History; historians
Timothy Castle and Arthur Dommen; anthropologists Dan DuffY and
Donald Marshall, analyst-activist Daniel Ellsberg; Ted Gittinger of the Lyn
don Baines Johnson Presidential Library; General Andrew Goodpaster;
Richard Hunt, formerly of the Center for Military History; William Head,
Chief Historian, Robins Air Force Base; Douglas Pike and James Reckner of
the Center for the Study of Vietnam, Texas Tech University; David Shreve
of the Presidential Recordings Project, The Miller Center of Public Affairs,
University of Virginia; Walt W Rostow; and the late Admiral Elmo R.
Zumwalt, who were kind enough to facilitate the editor's work and/or his
own research, though what he has made of their assistance is his construc
tion alone.
The editor also wishes to extend a long-overdue thanks to Dr. Gerald
Shure and Dr. Robert Meeker of System Development Corporation's Con
flict Resolution Study Team who, from 1966-1969, gave this one-time very
smallest cog in the American military industrial complex what he turned
into his own little corner in the war without windows. In a sense, this vol
ume began there, for ever since it was first set in motion in one of this