The Hidden History of the Vietnam War, by John Prados

The Hidden History of the Vietnam War, by John Prados
Ivan R. Dee, 1995
297 pages plus Notes and Index
No photos, no maps, no illustrations
Library: 959.704 PRA

Front Matter
"Even now," John Prados writes, "years after the Vietnam War, when its outcome is clear to see, some observers still pine for the lost victory. If only this had been different, or that had been done better, victory would have been ours. A number of these ideal solutions are proposed by witnesses to Vietnam who were themselves participants in the war. But memory fades, and the proponents of one or another of these latter-day solutions do not recall the way solutions were advanced then, every day, with equal confidence and self-assurance. The men who led the war had every opportunity to fulfill Lyndon Johnson's dream and 'nail the coonskin to the wall.' The war nevertheless ended in 1975, with Hanoi's troops marching into Saigon and South Vietnamese generals fleeing on American helicopters."

In The Hidden History of the Vietnam War, Mr. Prados revisits the conflict by taking the reader behind conventional histories. Drawing from a broad range of sources and using new evidence, he focuses on key strategies, events, and personalities in the struggle. In narratives and vignettes that display his impressive command of facts and analysis, he sheds new light on the issues and punctures the popular mythologies of the war.

The book explores the mysteries of the Tonkin Gulf, evaluates the quality of intelligence before Tet, profiles the influence of the Buddhists in the politics of South Vietnam, investigates the war of numbers over body counts, analyzes the failure of the large-unit war, assesses the performance of air power -- in short, Mr. Prados deals with virtually every major issue of the war, bringing to the discussion a fresh perspective. But he also breaks new ground in telling the story of the first prisoners-of-war in Vietnam; reinterprets the role of Lyndon Johnson; furnishes the best account to date of communications intelligence in the war; describes the social characteristic of the South Vietnamese military in a way not seen before; and defines the religious and political conflicts that hindered the Vietnamese military effort. He provides the first detailed accounts of the 1972 crisis over the mining of Haiphong Harbor and of the Nixon administration's effort to destroy American veteran groups that opposed the war.

The Hidden History of the Vietnam War is compelling history, filled with new information, skillful analysis, deft portraits, and persuasive conclusions. It is likely to become an essential book on the history of the Vietnam War.

Table of Contents
Preface
Abbreviations and Acronyms Used in the Text
A Note on Military Unit Names
1. The First American Prisoners
2. Profile: Waiting in the Wings
3. Confucians and Quagmires
4. Profile: George Carver (1)
5. The Covert War
6. Six Mysteries of the Tonkin Gulf
7. Profile: Generals and Politics in South Vietnam
8. Special Warfare in the Central Highlands
9. Bullets, Bombs and Buddhists
10. Profile: Buddhist in a Sea of Fire
11. Parameters of Victory
12. White Wing to Pershing: The Failure of Large-unit War
13. War of Numbers: Westmorland Case Reprise
14. What Surprise? Whose Intelligence? Intelligence at Tet
15. Tet!
16. Red Tide at Night
17. No Damned Dinbinphoo! Khe Sanh and the US High Command
18. Profile: Tim Brown's Vietnam
19. Victory Through Air Power
20. Spooks in the Ether
21. Phoenix: The War Against the Viet Cong Apparat
22. Little World, Big War
23. Widening the War: Cambodia 1970
24. Laos 1971: No Plug in the Funnel
25. One More Opinion to Try: The Mining of Haiphong Harbor
26. Profile: George Carver (II)
27. The Veteran's Antiwar Movement Under Siege: Miami and Gainesville
28. Victory is an Illusion
A Note on Sources
Index