A Cartoonist’s View of the Vietnam War
In 1965, the Scripps-Howard News Service sent Gene Basset to cover the growing war in Vietnam. But Basset wasn’t a reporter or photographer like the typical war correspondent — he was the chief editorial cartoonist for the giant newspaper syndicate. During the three months he spent in country, Basset sketched hundreds of scenes, typically completing …
Flat Tops: Canned Beer and Vietnam
A soldier, sailor, airman, or marine returning from combat has many comforts of home to look forward to: loved ones, a real bed, pizza, authentic barbecue, and of course, an ice cold beer. The modern military has adopted stringent rules on drinking overseas. This is in part because of cultural sensibilities in the countries where …
Vietnam Teaches Us that Iraq Needs More than U.S. Combat Advisers
The campaign against the Islamic State seems stalled, with no meaningful progress in sight. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, in an interview with Stars and Stripes on the eve of his retirement from the Army, was characteristically blunt, noting that the war is “kind of a stalemate.” He also stated that the United States “could defeat the Islamic State with …
(W)Archives: Vietnam and the Meaning of Defeat
Forty years ago yesterday, the North Vietnamese Army captured Saigon and the Vietnam War was over. This week we look at the memoirs of a key North Vietnamese participant in those events, Lieutenant General Trần Văn Trà, the aggressive deputy commander of the forces that launched that final offensive. These memoirs, originally published in 1982, …
Chaos and Tragedy in a “Post-War” Zone: Last Days in Vietnam
Standing on the flight deck of the USS Midway (CV-41) in late April 1975 amongst the 10 heavy-lift helicopters of USAF 56th Special Operations Wing and the 40th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron, the sailors could see the fireworks of the rockets launched by the North Vietnamese Army in the area of Vung Tau, Republic of …
Iraq and Longing for Vietnam
Americans want desperately for Iraq to be viewed as another Vietnam. On its face, this may seem a highly counterintuitive proposition. Why, one might ask, would a nation that lost more than 58,000 of its young men and women during a failed war in Southeast Asia desire a repeat performance in the Middle East? Surely …
Failure to Learn: Reflections on a Career in the Post-Vietnam Army
The legacy and future of American counterinsurgency remains perhaps the most contentious issue in contemporary military affairs. Many punches have been thrown in this raucous debate in key online publications, most notably Small Wars Journal, the late Abu Muqawama, and here at War on the Rocks. WOTR’s Mark Stout caused quite a stir with his …
They & There: A Vet of Vietnam, Grenada, & the Middle East on “Over There”
Once a year, the Nation honors the Veterans. Every day, the Veteran honors us all with the fruits of that service. The Veteran internally recalls, reflects and remembers the very personal and unique aspects of time served over There. Together, all the Veterans have a binding thread we honor that only They can know and …
Shrinking the Tactical Civilian–Military Divide
The ongoing discussion over potential reforms to the Goldwater-Nichols Act provides an opportunity for government leaders to address an important segment of the civilian–military divide. The majority of discussions around this divide focus on the growing division between civil society and the military — partly a repercussion of the move to an all-volunteer force following …
The End of the American Empire
Editor’s Note: This article is adapted from the author’s remarks to East Bay Citizens for Peace of the Barrington Congregational Church and the American Friends Service Committee on April 2, 2016 in Barrington, Rhode Island. The original speech was published at the author’s personal website. One of our most charming characteristics as Americans is …
Rediscovering Low Altitude: Getting Past the Air Force’s Overcommitment to Stealth
Editor’s note: This is the second in a two-part series, “Stuck on Denial,” which looks at the U.S. Air Force and its use of stealth technology. Read the first part here. On the night of May 16, 1943, 19 RAF Lancasters from 617 Squadron took off for Germany in darkness. This was no ordinary bombing …
Weathering the Storm: Civil-Military Tension During Presidential Transitions
Tension between senior civilian and military leaders and their staffs is built into the fabric of the American way of war. Strain appears to be on an uptick recently, helped along by absurd claims that the military “won’t refuse” illegal orders from Donald Trump if he is elected president. But there is more going on …
Don’t Let the Tyranny of Jointness Rule the Indo-Pacific
Should the U.S. Army take on Asia? That’s what Andrew Krepinevich argued recently at RealClearDefense. He suggests that the U.S. Army can contribute to greater combat capability in the Western Pacific through the addition of mobile artillery and missile units throughout the Philippine archipelago. While perhaps appealing along operational and tactical lines, such a deployment …
A Proud Day for Parliament: The Wisdom of Not Bombing Assad
In August 2013, the Syrian tyrant Bashar al-Assad used nerve gas to murder thousands of civilians including children. In response, Britain’s House of Commons rejected a motion to authorize military intervention, inflicting a rare and historic defeat on the government. President Barack Obama, who had threatened to strike in the event of Assad crossing a …
Reframing the Third Offset as a 21st-Century Model for Deterrence
As a foreign exchange officer to the Pentagon observing the crescendo of activity that the so-called third offset strategy is generating in the open-source press, I can’t help but feel that a lot of effort is being expended with little progress toward problem resolution. The third offset strategy is an ambitious effort to maintain the …
