Getting It Right, Second Edition: American Military Reforms After Vietnam and Into the 21st Century

by James F. Dunnigan

This is the second edition of a book about a little understood subject, the dramatic reform of the American military, and particularly the U.S. Army, between the end of the Vietnam war and the Persian Gulf war of 1990-91. The second edition material carries the study through the 1990s and a few years beyond. We cover a lot of subjects that few Americans are familiar with. The reforms after Vietnam were more driven by the results of the 1973 Arab-Israeli war and paid for by defense spending increases begun by president Carter. The end of the Cold War ended up creating a need for more reforms.

504 pages, Paperback

First published May 31, 2001

Reviews

[Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I came back from the Middle East in April 1991 all the talk was about the ghost of Vietnam had been purged but the general public seemed shocked that military of Desert Storm was so radically different. So many wondered where did this modern military machine come from? Well this book is the answer.

Published in 1993 it covers the trials and tribulations of how the military when from draft to volunteer and all the assorted growing pains with a short history of lessons learned and forgotten before this. So lets be frank in saying that the military of the 1970s (especially the Army) was not one of this country's proudest achievements. In terms of troop quality, planning, training and equipping the US military, the 1970's were a crap shoot. The country was in upheaval and the military was not immune to those forces. Thankfully there were leaders and thinkers in the right place at the right time to make the right decisions. All done with the foresight to understand that the problems were not going to fixed overnight.

The authors do an excellent job of covering the issues and dissecting them without it all ending up in all kinds of milspeak and techno babble. The problems are well covered and discussed without going into so much detail that the eyes of those so less inclined to military history roll back in their heads. This book really is written for anyone with an interest in how the military got from 1972 to 1991.

The interesting thing is that although this book has now been out for 21 years many of the issues are still relevant today. The military is in a drawn down and uncertainty is on the horizon. This would be one of those books that our current military leaders and politicians need to read so that the many painful lessons of the 1970's are not learned all over again.