Category: Military History

Vietnamization – A Slow Surrender: Brief Assessment of How U.S. Civil and Military Policy Changed After the 1968 Tet Offensive

The 1968 Tet Offensive had serious repercussions in the U.S. While it resulted in a tactical victory, it convinced many political elites who previously thought that progress was being made, to believe that the war could not be won at a cost acceptable to the American public. Due to flagging support for the war Johnson began a process of de-escalation that later became known as Vietnamization. After his election in 1968 President Richard Nixon continued the process of Vietnamization in which the U.S. reduced the number of forces in the South and strengthened South Vietnamese forces. The effort also focused on “winning hearts and minds” by providing security, building infrastructure, and funding social programs. What we might call nation building today. … Read More Vietnamization – A Slow Surrender: Brief Assessment of How U.S. Civil and Military Policy Changed After the 1968 Tet Offensive

Keith Smith

Book Review: East of Chosin

In the bleak North Korean winter of 1950, the under strength U.S. Army 31st Regimental Combat Team was sent to the eastern side of the frozen Chosin reservoir, ostensibly to screen the right flank of the U.S. 1st Marine Division in its advance northward. Shortly after the Army regiment moved into position, Chinese Communist Forces in far superior strength launched a surprise attack that surrounded and ultimately led to its annihilation as a fighting force. The Battle of the Chosin Reservoir and miraculous evacuation from the port of Hungnam has gone down in Marine Corps lore as a great feat of arms. Until the publishing of this book however, the events that unfolded on the eastern shore of the Chosin during that cataclysmic series of events were largely lost to the fog of war. … Read More Book Review: East of Chosin

Keith Smith

Book Review: Stumbling Colossus

In the wake of the fall of the Soviet Union a treasure trove of previously inaccessible information became available from state archives. Examination of this information led some historians to question the traditional narrative of the Great Patriotic War (what Russians call WWII). The new data gave birth to various new theories that attempt to justify the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union in June of 1941 and which portray the Red Army as a powerful military force that was planning preemptive war against Germany. In his 1998 work Stumbling Colossus: The Red Army on the Eve of World War historian David Glantz set out to determine whether or not, and to what extent these new theories are correct. In response to his own questions Glantz suggests that based on the evidence it is “totally unfounded” to suppose that the Red Army was ready for, and capable of waging offensive war against Nazi Germany in 1941. In this work Glantz makes a powerful, factual, black and white examination of a trove of sources which speak for themself.… Read More Book Review: Stumbling Colossus

Keith Smith