The U.S. Army Before Vietnam, 1953-1965

The U.S. Army Campaigns of the Vietnam War

by Donald A. Carter, U.S. Army Center of Military History (Editor)

The U.S. Army Before Vietnam, 1953-1965 , by Donald A. Carter, covers the period between the end of the Korean War and the initial deployment of ground combat troops to Vietnam. It describes the organizational and doctrinal changes the Army implemented as it attempted to digest the lessons of one conflict and to prepare the force for another. The pamphlet also discusses the service's efforts to maintain its position in national defense within the parameters of President Eisenhower's New Look strategic policy. A key issue for the Army was the question of how to prepare a force to operate on an atomic battlefield. In order to compete with the Air Force and the Navy for a diminishing defense budget, the Army had to show that it, too, was a modern, forward-thinking organization, prepared to integrate a new family of tactical atomic weapons into its organization and doctrine. The resulting experiment with the Pentomic division forced Army leaders to reexamine some of their most basic assumptions about future conflict. With the increasing influence of Communist China throughout Southeast Asia, the Army also began to pay greater attention toward counterinsurgency and guerilla warfare. President Kennedy's interest in a doctrine of flexible response and his concern for combatting Communist inspired insurrections prompted the Army to increase training in unconventional warfare and to highlight the capabilities of its developing special forces--the Green Berets. Related The U.S. Army's Transition to the All-Volunteer Force, 1968-1974 -Print Paperback format is available //bookstore.gpo.gov/products/sku/008-02... United States Army in World War 2, Special Studies, Manhattan, the Army, and the Atomic Bomb-Print Clothbound format can be found //bookstore.gpo.gov/products/sku/008-02... Building the A History of the Nuclear Weapons Complex is available //bookstore.gpo.gov/products/sku/061-00... Vietnam War resources collection can be found //bookstore.gpo.gov/catalog/us-military...... China product collection can be found //bookstore.gpo.gov/catalog/internation...

53 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2015

Reviews

[William Olenick · Rating 4 out of 5]

A CMH anniversary booklet on Vietnam. This one discusses the crisis in the Army dealing with the aftermath of WWII and Korean Wars, the belief that atomic war was next and force structure for the future.
The comparison of the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations are completely opposite and put the force through many challenges. The the force was ready to deal with new doctrine and fight in Vietnam is amazing.