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Battle of APp Bac
An eBook short.
In the opening years of the Vietnam War, a small group of American military advisors and their South Vietnamese allies were facing down the Viet Cong. The confident Americans were there to do what seemed elementary: help the South Vietnamese army defeat a ragtag guerrilla enemy. They were assured of swift success. But one officer, John Paul Vann, saw darker omens for the future--and in the Battle of Ap Bac, the Viet Cong proved him correct.
Encapsulating the great terrors, mistakes, ironies, and courageous acts of the Vietnam War, "The Battle of Ap Bac" recounts the clash in which the Viet Cong first won their spurs. It is an exciting, terrifying, fast-paced portrait of close-contact warfare in the rice paddies, the story of John Vann's attempt to singlehandedly change the terms of battle and avoid the relentless killing grounds of Vietnam that lay ahead. A key selection from Neil Sheehan's masterpiece, "A Bright Shining Lie"--which remains the preeminent history of the Vietnam War--it offers a prescient warning for current conflicts between powerful forces and underestimated foes.
In the opening years of the Vietnam War, a small group of American military advisors and their South Vietnamese allies were facing down the Viet Cong. The confident Americans were there to do what seemed elementary: help the South Vietnamese army defeat a ragtag guerrilla enemy. They were assured of swift success. But one officer, John Paul Vann, saw darker omens for the future--and in the Battle of Ap Bac, the Viet Cong proved him correct.
Encapsulating the great terrors, mistakes, ironies, and courageous acts of the Vietnam War, "The Battle of Ap Bac" recounts the clash in which the Viet Cong first won their spurs. It is an exciting, terrifying, fast-paced portrait of close-contact warfare in the rice paddies, the story of John Vann's attempt to singlehandedly change the terms of battle and avoid the relentless killing grounds of Vietnam that lay ahead. A key selection from Neil Sheehan's masterpiece, "A Bright Shining Lie"--which remains the preeminent history of the Vietnam War--it offers a prescient warning for current conflicts between powerful forces and underestimated foes.
Unknown Binding
First published January 1, 2014
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About the author
Neil Sheehan
17 books87 followersCornelius Mahoney "Neil" Sheehan is an American journalist. As a reporter for The New York Times in 1971, Sheehan obtained the classified Pentagon Papers from Daniel Ellsberg. His series of articles revealed a secret U.S. Department of Defense history of the Vietnam War and led to a U.S. Supreme Court case when the United States government attempted to halt publication.
He received a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award for his 1989 book A Bright Shining Lie, about the life of Lieutenant Colonel John Paul Vann and the United States involvement in the Vietnam War.
He received a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award for his 1989 book A Bright Shining Lie, about the life of Lieutenant Colonel John Paul Vann and the United States involvement in the Vietnam War.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
October 3, 2020
Willful Ignorance
Military officers are trained in the deformed entrepreneurialism of American football, a game of rigid rules, set plays and clear criteria of success. You take your shot when the opponent blinks. What matters, the decisive differential between teams, it is taught, is the will to win. Leadership ability is proportionate to the commitment to overcome all obstacles in order to score touchdowns. Not winning is a symptom of insufficient zeal. This is my experience as a regular officer in the US military during the 1960’s and it is Neil Sheehan’s experience of Vietnam in 1962.
As a result, the response of military commanders to difficulties - either combat or strategic - is to dig the hole they’re in deeper, to commit more 'assets' (mainly teenaged boys) to danger of death, thus demonstrating one's resolve. Enthusiastic encouragement of one's subordinates turns to petulant insistence and then to threatening bullying depending on the intensity of circumstances and one’s place in the chain of command. The Battle of Ap Bac is an instance typical of all subsequent military involvement in Vietnam - a cunning plan for zealous defeat.
After the Battle of Ap Bac there was nothing else for the American military to learn about fighting the Viet Cong. All of the next eleven years was contained in the one day of intense conflict. But they learned nothing - nothing about the skill of their adversary, nothing about the fatally destructive politics of South Vietnam, nothing about pervasive sympathy in the countryside for the Viet Cong, nothing about how much the Americans were despised by their nominal allies, nothing about the vulnerability of high-technology to clever necessity.
Military technology - not just its weapons but also its organisation and culture - is a delicate ecology. Small changes are not possible to make without disrupting the functioning of the whole. Learning at the coal face, as it were, isn’t recognized as such up the line until the will to win is proven to be inadequate to the task at hand. This requires incremental progression of ‘ground-truth’ at an agonizing pace toward the top of the heap. By the time ‘authority’ is reached, of course, whatever there was to be learned is obsolete.
So the Americans learned nothing from their French predecessors; nor anything relevant from their own experience for subsequent adventures in places like Iraq and Afghanistan. Collective military stupidity seems only exceeded by the collective political stupidity of American government, which believes it can actually direct power effectively. The military class-structure preys on the individual stupidity of prospective grunts who believe that camaraderie and personal loyalty extend to their officers. This is perhaps true as an exception but not the rule. Common soldiers are the football; everyone wants a piece of them. This is widely known but ignored. Willful ignorance is the name of the game.
Military officers are trained in the deformed entrepreneurialism of American football, a game of rigid rules, set plays and clear criteria of success. You take your shot when the opponent blinks. What matters, the decisive differential between teams, it is taught, is the will to win. Leadership ability is proportionate to the commitment to overcome all obstacles in order to score touchdowns. Not winning is a symptom of insufficient zeal. This is my experience as a regular officer in the US military during the 1960’s and it is Neil Sheehan’s experience of Vietnam in 1962.
As a result, the response of military commanders to difficulties - either combat or strategic - is to dig the hole they’re in deeper, to commit more 'assets' (mainly teenaged boys) to danger of death, thus demonstrating one's resolve. Enthusiastic encouragement of one's subordinates turns to petulant insistence and then to threatening bullying depending on the intensity of circumstances and one’s place in the chain of command. The Battle of Ap Bac is an instance typical of all subsequent military involvement in Vietnam - a cunning plan for zealous defeat.
After the Battle of Ap Bac there was nothing else for the American military to learn about fighting the Viet Cong. All of the next eleven years was contained in the one day of intense conflict. But they learned nothing - nothing about the skill of their adversary, nothing about the fatally destructive politics of South Vietnam, nothing about pervasive sympathy in the countryside for the Viet Cong, nothing about how much the Americans were despised by their nominal allies, nothing about the vulnerability of high-technology to clever necessity.
Military technology - not just its weapons but also its organisation and culture - is a delicate ecology. Small changes are not possible to make without disrupting the functioning of the whole. Learning at the coal face, as it were, isn’t recognized as such up the line until the will to win is proven to be inadequate to the task at hand. This requires incremental progression of ‘ground-truth’ at an agonizing pace toward the top of the heap. By the time ‘authority’ is reached, of course, whatever there was to be learned is obsolete.
So the Americans learned nothing from their French predecessors; nor anything relevant from their own experience for subsequent adventures in places like Iraq and Afghanistan. Collective military stupidity seems only exceeded by the collective political stupidity of American government, which believes it can actually direct power effectively. The military class-structure preys on the individual stupidity of prospective grunts who believe that camaraderie and personal loyalty extend to their officers. This is perhaps true as an exception but not the rule. Common soldiers are the football; everyone wants a piece of them. This is widely known but ignored. Willful ignorance is the name of the game.
May 2, 2019
Fast Easy Read. Needs maps and photos.
Paints the scene quite well. Leaves you curious about the back story and politics behind the poor decisions and delays during the battle. The author explains enough to grasp the situation without distracting from description of the main actions.
Paints the scene quite well. Leaves you curious about the back story and politics behind the poor decisions and delays during the battle. The author explains enough to grasp the situation without distracting from description of the main actions.
Read
June 16, 2020Read it as part of a bright shining lie
October 21, 2021
Amazing job, just not in the mood for it now. Will give it a try some other time.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews