America Takes over: 1965-67

The Vietnam Experience #4

by Edward Doyle, Samuel Lipsman

The editors of Time-Life Books have produced another exciting The Vietnam Experience. The details of when America Takes Over are brought to you in wonderful detail through vivid photography and engaging, informative text.

Genres: History, Military History

192 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1982

Reviews

[Robert Johnson · Rating 3 out of 5]

⭐⭐⭐ America Takes Over

This volume explains how the United States moved from advisory support to full military engagement, and it shows how this shift changed both the scale and character of the conflict. The writing is clear, and the visuals, especially the photographs and maps, help illustrate the rapid build up of forces and the challenges that followed. Some sections move quickly, but the book provides a useful overview of this turning point in the war. It serves as a straightforward introduction for readers who want to understand how American involvement deepened during this period.

[Michael Burnam-Fink · Rating 5 out of 5]

Now we're getting into the meat of the war. 1965-967 covers the most optimistic period of the war, when American ground troops decisively defeated Viet Cong units, but America had not yet lost it's war. The series continues to provide invaluable details and anecdotes about the war, such as the flamboyant Premier Ky, Marine General Lewis Walt taking a bridge from Buddhist rebels, the Fulbright hearings, strategic debates in Hanoi, and the heroism of American soldiers, sailors, and medics, fighting along the DMZ and in the Delta.

Along with this micro-level story-telling, this section provides a clearheaded look at the totality of the American defeat. The numerous pacification plans were failures, never executed with enough knowledge, resources, or persistence. Militarily, the big war put the American strategy of attritting the VC against Giap's strategy of attritting the American will to fight. The war was casualties against time, but since the VC controlled the tempo of the war, they could ensure their losses were bearable simply by delaying action. According to US military statistics, 50% of combat encounters in Vietnam were ambushes, and 88% were initiated by the enemy. These defeats might have been acceptable if they covered for successful nation-building, but on the whole, battles simply forced the civilian population into refugee camps, straining the economy and the political system of the South.

[Jerome Otte · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clearheaded, engaging and informative account of America's assertion in the war.