Author: Timothy J. Lomperis
Publisher: University Press of Kansas
ISBN: 0700618090
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 288
Book Description
Timothy Lomperis knows the Vietnam War, both as a soldier and as a scholar. In the latter role he has published extensively, including The War Everyone Lost-and Won, hailed as one of the best books ever written on that conflict. Even though he served two tours "in country" during the war's most frustrating period-from the infamous Easter Invasion through the Paris Peace negotiations-this is the first time he has written about the war from such a personal perspective. An intelligence officer at the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV), Lomperis and his comrades were tasked with translating Washington war policy into action. Lomperis provides a rare view of the war from the perspective of a rear echelon officer. He and other so-called REMFs were deeply involved in trying to devise and implement strategies that would the win the war. This largely neglected perspective takes center stage in Lomperis's memoir, presenting a seldom-seen midlevel perspective that provides the missing links between the Washington-Hanoi peace negotiations and the deadly battles between troops in the field. In exposing the inner workings of a military headquarters during wartime, Lomperis recounts the tensions of a command caught between the political imperatives of Washington and the deteriorating military situation on the ground. Involved in the planning and execution of Nixon's 1972 Christmas Bombing Campaign, designed to push the North Vietnamese into peace negotiations, Lomperis sheds new light on Nixon's "secret plan to end the war" while offering rare glimpses of military operations and decision making on the ground in Saigon. Giving color to the REMF story, he also offers a portrait of life in wartime Saigon, writing with genuine respect for and curiosity about Vietnamese culture. And ultimately, he describes his own moral conundrum as the son of missionaries and an initial Cold Warrior who undergoes a gradual disillusionment that resolves into peaceful reconciliation. This incisive memoir is essential for better comprehending what the Vietnam experience was like for the large contingent of Americans who served there. It suggests the need for some fundamental rethinking about Vietnam-not only for the war's veterans but also for those concerned with the lessons it carries for U.S. involvement in current insurgencies.
The Vietnam War from the Rear Echelon
Author: Timothy J. Lomperis
Publisher: University Press of Kansas
ISBN: 0700618090
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 288
Book Description
Timothy Lomperis knows the Vietnam War, both as a soldier and as a scholar. In the latter role he has published extensively, including The War Everyone Lost-and Won, hailed as one of the best books ever written on that conflict. Even though he served two tours "in country" during the war's most frustrating period-from the infamous Easter Invasion through the Paris Peace negotiations-this is the first time he has written about the war from such a personal perspective. An intelligence officer at the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV), Lomperis and his comrades were tasked with translating Washington war policy into action. Lomperis provides a rare view of the war from the perspective of a rear echelon officer. He and other so-called REMFs were deeply involved in trying to devise and implement strategies that would the win the war. This largely neglected perspective takes center stage in Lomperis's memoir, presenting a seldom-seen midlevel perspective that provides the missing links between the Washington-Hanoi peace negotiations and the deadly battles between troops in the field. In exposing the inner workings of a military headquarters during wartime, Lomperis recounts the tensions of a command caught between the political imperatives of Washington and the deteriorating military situation on the ground. Involved in the planning and execution of Nixon's 1972 Christmas Bombing Campaign, designed to push the North Vietnamese into peace negotiations, Lomperis sheds new light on Nixon's "secret plan to end the war" while offering rare glimpses of military operations and decision making on the ground in Saigon. Giving color to the REMF story, he also offers a portrait of life in wartime Saigon, writing with genuine respect for and curiosity about Vietnamese culture. And ultimately, he describes his own moral conundrum as the son of missionaries and an initial Cold Warrior who undergoes a gradual disillusionment that resolves into peaceful reconciliation. This incisive memoir is essential for better comprehending what the Vietnam experience was like for the large contingent of Americans who served there. It suggests the need for some fundamental rethinking about Vietnam-not only for the war's veterans but also for those concerned with the lessons it carries for U.S. involvement in current insurgencies.
Publisher: University Press of Kansas
ISBN: 0700618090
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 288
Book Description
Timothy Lomperis knows the Vietnam War, both as a soldier and as a scholar. In the latter role he has published extensively, including The War Everyone Lost-and Won, hailed as one of the best books ever written on that conflict. Even though he served two tours "in country" during the war's most frustrating period-from the infamous Easter Invasion through the Paris Peace negotiations-this is the first time he has written about the war from such a personal perspective. An intelligence officer at the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV), Lomperis and his comrades were tasked with translating Washington war policy into action. Lomperis provides a rare view of the war from the perspective of a rear echelon officer. He and other so-called REMFs were deeply involved in trying to devise and implement strategies that would the win the war. This largely neglected perspective takes center stage in Lomperis's memoir, presenting a seldom-seen midlevel perspective that provides the missing links between the Washington-Hanoi peace negotiations and the deadly battles between troops in the field. In exposing the inner workings of a military headquarters during wartime, Lomperis recounts the tensions of a command caught between the political imperatives of Washington and the deteriorating military situation on the ground. Involved in the planning and execution of Nixon's 1972 Christmas Bombing Campaign, designed to push the North Vietnamese into peace negotiations, Lomperis sheds new light on Nixon's "secret plan to end the war" while offering rare glimpses of military operations and decision making on the ground in Saigon. Giving color to the REMF story, he also offers a portrait of life in wartime Saigon, writing with genuine respect for and curiosity about Vietnamese culture. And ultimately, he describes his own moral conundrum as the son of missionaries and an initial Cold Warrior who undergoes a gradual disillusionment that resolves into peaceful reconciliation. This incisive memoir is essential for better comprehending what the Vietnam experience was like for the large contingent of Americans who served there. It suggests the need for some fundamental rethinking about Vietnam-not only for the war's veterans but also for those concerned with the lessons it carries for U.S. involvement in current insurgencies.
The Vietnam War from the Rear Echelon
Author: Timothy J. Lomperis
Publisher: University Press of Kansas
ISBN: 0700635599
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 288
Book Description
Timothy Lomperis knows the Vietnam War, both as a soldier and as a scholar. In the latter role he has published extensively, including The War Everyone Lost—and Won, hailed as one of the best books ever written on that conflict. Even though he served two tours "in country" during the war's most frustrating period-from the infamous Easter Invasion through the Paris Peace negotiations-this is the first time he has written about the war from such a personal perspective. An intelligence officer at the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV), Lomperis and his comrades were tasked with translating Washington war policy into action. Lomperis provides a rare view of the war from the perspective of a rear echelon officer. He and other so-called REMFs were deeply involved in trying to devise and implement strategies that would the win the war. This largely neglected perspective takes center stage in Lomperis's memoir, presenting a seldom-seen midlevel perspective that provides the missing links between the Washington-Hanoi peace negotiations and the deadly battles between troops in the field. In exposing the inner workings of a military headquarters during wartime, Lomperis recounts the tensions of a command caught between the political imperatives of Washington and the deteriorating military situation on the ground. Involved in the planning and execution of Nixon's 1972 Christmas Bombing Campaign, designed to push the North Vietnamese into peace negotiations, Lomperis sheds new light on Nixon's "secret plan to end the war" while offering rare glimpses of military operations and decision making on the ground in Saigon. Giving color to the REMF story, he also offers a portrait of life in wartime Saigon, writing with genuine respect for and curiosity about Vietnamese culture. And ultimately, he describes his own moral conundrum as the son of missionaries and an initial Cold Warrior who undergoes a gradual disillusionment that resolves into peaceful reconciliation. This incisive memoir is essential for better comprehending what the Vietnam experience was like for the large contingent of Americans who served there. It suggests the need for some fundamental rethinking about Vietnam—not only for the war's veterans but also for those concerned with the lessons it carries for U.S. involvement in current insurgencies.
Publisher: University Press of Kansas
ISBN: 0700635599
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 288
Book Description
Timothy Lomperis knows the Vietnam War, both as a soldier and as a scholar. In the latter role he has published extensively, including The War Everyone Lost—and Won, hailed as one of the best books ever written on that conflict. Even though he served two tours "in country" during the war's most frustrating period-from the infamous Easter Invasion through the Paris Peace negotiations-this is the first time he has written about the war from such a personal perspective. An intelligence officer at the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV), Lomperis and his comrades were tasked with translating Washington war policy into action. Lomperis provides a rare view of the war from the perspective of a rear echelon officer. He and other so-called REMFs were deeply involved in trying to devise and implement strategies that would the win the war. This largely neglected perspective takes center stage in Lomperis's memoir, presenting a seldom-seen midlevel perspective that provides the missing links between the Washington-Hanoi peace negotiations and the deadly battles between troops in the field. In exposing the inner workings of a military headquarters during wartime, Lomperis recounts the tensions of a command caught between the political imperatives of Washington and the deteriorating military situation on the ground. Involved in the planning and execution of Nixon's 1972 Christmas Bombing Campaign, designed to push the North Vietnamese into peace negotiations, Lomperis sheds new light on Nixon's "secret plan to end the war" while offering rare glimpses of military operations and decision making on the ground in Saigon. Giving color to the REMF story, he also offers a portrait of life in wartime Saigon, writing with genuine respect for and curiosity about Vietnamese culture. And ultimately, he describes his own moral conundrum as the son of missionaries and an initial Cold Warrior who undergoes a gradual disillusionment that resolves into peaceful reconciliation. This incisive memoir is essential for better comprehending what the Vietnam experience was like for the large contingent of Americans who served there. It suggests the need for some fundamental rethinking about Vietnam—not only for the war's veterans but also for those concerned with the lessons it carries for U.S. involvement in current insurgencies.
Armed with Abundance
Author: Meredith H. Lair
Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press
ISBN: 0807834815
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 315
Book Description
Popular representations of the Vietnam War tend to emphasize violence, deprivation, and trauma. By contrast, in Armed with Abundance, Meredith Lair focuses on the noncombat experiences of U.S. soldiers in Vietnam, redrawing the landscape of the war
Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press
ISBN: 0807834815
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 315
Book Description
Popular representations of the Vietnam War tend to emphasize violence, deprivation, and trauma. By contrast, in Armed with Abundance, Meredith Lair focuses on the noncombat experiences of U.S. soldiers in Vietnam, redrawing the landscape of the war
The Bridges of Vietnam
Author: Fred L. Edwards
Publisher: University of North Texas Press
ISBN: 1574411381
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 290
Book Description
As an intelligence officer during the Vietnam War, Fred L. Edwards Jr., was instructed to "visit every major ground unit in the country. Go to Special Forces camps, ground reconnaissance units, armored cavalry units, and waterborne reconnaissance units. Search everywhere for intelligence sources--long range patrols, boats, electronic surveillance, and agent operations. Don't get bogged down by dog-and-pony shows staged for colonels and generals."
Publisher: University of North Texas Press
ISBN: 1574411381
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 290
Book Description
As an intelligence officer during the Vietnam War, Fred L. Edwards Jr., was instructed to "visit every major ground unit in the country. Go to Special Forces camps, ground reconnaissance units, armored cavalry units, and waterborne reconnaissance units. Search everywhere for intelligence sources--long range patrols, boats, electronic surveillance, and agent operations. Don't get bogged down by dog-and-pony shows staged for colonels and generals."
Remf
Author: James Van Trump
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780692664629
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 146
Book Description
This memoir recalls the experiences of young men serving in US Army in Thailand during the mid 1960s. We supplied the air force with the bombs of Rolling Thunder. We aren't Vietnam Vets because, while we served within the designated combat area of Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam for far in excess of the thirty days required, we were not in direct support of ground forces. We were REMFs. Rear echelon service is the rule in the military. Actual combat soldiers (so-called maneuver elements or trigger pullers) are the exception. This produces a sense of elitism among those in combat, who refer to the majority of their fellow troops as rear echelon mother fuckers (REMFs). They earned the elitism, since the death rate among members of maneuver elements runs around fifty times that of rear echelon troops. What percentage of US ground forces are REMFs? Well, according to Michael Kelly (Misconceptions: Vietnam War Folklore) only about 1/3 of the personnel in deployed combat units end up as trigger pullers. In addition, only 25 to 30% of the military at large are in combat units. The rest end up in headquarters and administration, life support, or as in our case, logistics. So like many Vietnam era troops we aren't Vietnam Vets, but we were definitely involved. This is our story as I remember it.
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780692664629
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 146
Book Description
This memoir recalls the experiences of young men serving in US Army in Thailand during the mid 1960s. We supplied the air force with the bombs of Rolling Thunder. We aren't Vietnam Vets because, while we served within the designated combat area of Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam for far in excess of the thirty days required, we were not in direct support of ground forces. We were REMFs. Rear echelon service is the rule in the military. Actual combat soldiers (so-called maneuver elements or trigger pullers) are the exception. This produces a sense of elitism among those in combat, who refer to the majority of their fellow troops as rear echelon mother fuckers (REMFs). They earned the elitism, since the death rate among members of maneuver elements runs around fifty times that of rear echelon troops. What percentage of US ground forces are REMFs? Well, according to Michael Kelly (Misconceptions: Vietnam War Folklore) only about 1/3 of the personnel in deployed combat units end up as trigger pullers. In addition, only 25 to 30% of the military at large are in combat units. The rest end up in headquarters and administration, life support, or as in our case, logistics. So like many Vietnam era troops we aren't Vietnam Vets, but we were definitely involved. This is our story as I remember it.
Remf War Stories 17th Cag - Nha Trang, Vietnam - 1969
Author: Dean Muehlberg
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 1411629442
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 324
Book Description
Not a tale of firefights and blood, this book should be read by anyone who lived through the Vietnam era that was not directly involved and did not go to Vietnam. It provides a sense of what went through their minds, the conflicts and confusion and related fears. In a self-deprecating style, the author comes of age, examining these emotions and the guilts of being assigned to a secure area, of leaving a job before it was completed, and abandoning faithful Vietnamese friends. It should be read by anyone who cares about those who went and who want to understand more about them and their era. Forty photos provide a flavor of the year and the place. RAPID CITY JOURNAL 8-21-05 SAYS "MORE THAN OTHER STORIES ABOUT VIETNAM, THIS ONE IS REFLECTIVE, AND THANKFULLY SO. MUEHLBERG SORTS THROUGH THE MORASS TO FIND ENOUGH GOOD TO GIVE HIMSELF AND READERS THE FEELING THAT VIETNAM WAS NOT ENTIRELY AN INSTANCE OF MINDLESS OBLIVION THAT IT SOMETIMES SEEMS." ***Rapid City area may contact author for copies (605-342-4297).***
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 1411629442
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 324
Book Description
Not a tale of firefights and blood, this book should be read by anyone who lived through the Vietnam era that was not directly involved and did not go to Vietnam. It provides a sense of what went through their minds, the conflicts and confusion and related fears. In a self-deprecating style, the author comes of age, examining these emotions and the guilts of being assigned to a secure area, of leaving a job before it was completed, and abandoning faithful Vietnamese friends. It should be read by anyone who cares about those who went and who want to understand more about them and their era. Forty photos provide a flavor of the year and the place. RAPID CITY JOURNAL 8-21-05 SAYS "MORE THAN OTHER STORIES ABOUT VIETNAM, THIS ONE IS REFLECTIVE, AND THANKFULLY SO. MUEHLBERG SORTS THROUGH THE MORASS TO FIND ENOUGH GOOD TO GIVE HIMSELF AND READERS THE FEELING THAT VIETNAM WAS NOT ENTIRELY AN INSTANCE OF MINDLESS OBLIVION THAT IT SOMETIMES SEEMS." ***Rapid City area may contact author for copies (605-342-4297).***
Black April
Author: George Veith
Publisher: Encounter Books
ISBN: 1594037043
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 626
Book Description
The defeat of South Vietnam was arguably America’s worst foreign policy disaster of the 20th Century. Yet a complete understanding of the endgame—from the 27 January 1973 signing of the Paris Peace Accords to South Vietnam’s surrender on 30 April 1975—has eluded us. Black April addresses that deficit. A culmination of exhaustive research in three distinct areas: primary source documents from American archives, North Vietnamese publications containing primary and secondary source material, and dozens of articles and numerous interviews with key South Vietnamese participants, this book represents one of the largest Vietnamese translation projects ever accomplished, including almost one hundred rarely or never seen before North Vietnamese unit histories, battle studies, and memoirs. Most important, to celebrate the 30th Anniversary of South Vietnam’s conquest, the leaders in Hanoi released several compendiums of formerly highly classified cables and memorandum between the Politburo and its military commanders in the south. This treasure trove of primary source materials provides the most complete insight into North Vietnamese decision-making ever complied. While South Vietnamese deliberations remain less clear, enough material exists to provide a decent overview. Ultimately, whatever errors occurred on the American and South Vietnamese side, the simple fact remains that the country was conquered by a North Vietnamese military invasion despite written pledges by Hanoi’s leadership against such action. Hanoi’s momentous choice to destroy the Paris Peace Accords and militarily end the war sent a generation of South Vietnamese into exile, and exacerbated a societal trauma in America over our long Vietnam involvement that reverberates to this day. How that transpired deserves deeper scrutiny.
Publisher: Encounter Books
ISBN: 1594037043
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 626
Book Description
The defeat of South Vietnam was arguably America’s worst foreign policy disaster of the 20th Century. Yet a complete understanding of the endgame—from the 27 January 1973 signing of the Paris Peace Accords to South Vietnam’s surrender on 30 April 1975—has eluded us. Black April addresses that deficit. A culmination of exhaustive research in three distinct areas: primary source documents from American archives, North Vietnamese publications containing primary and secondary source material, and dozens of articles and numerous interviews with key South Vietnamese participants, this book represents one of the largest Vietnamese translation projects ever accomplished, including almost one hundred rarely or never seen before North Vietnamese unit histories, battle studies, and memoirs. Most important, to celebrate the 30th Anniversary of South Vietnam’s conquest, the leaders in Hanoi released several compendiums of formerly highly classified cables and memorandum between the Politburo and its military commanders in the south. This treasure trove of primary source materials provides the most complete insight into North Vietnamese decision-making ever complied. While South Vietnamese deliberations remain less clear, enough material exists to provide a decent overview. Ultimately, whatever errors occurred on the American and South Vietnamese side, the simple fact remains that the country was conquered by a North Vietnamese military invasion despite written pledges by Hanoi’s leadership against such action. Hanoi’s momentous choice to destroy the Paris Peace Accords and militarily end the war sent a generation of South Vietnamese into exile, and exacerbated a societal trauma in America over our long Vietnam involvement that reverberates to this day. How that transpired deserves deeper scrutiny.
My Detachment
Author: Tracy Kidder
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
ISBN: 0812976169
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 210
Book Description
My Detachment is a war story like none you have ever read before, an unromanticized portrait of a young man coming of age in the controversial war that defined a generation. In an astonishingly honest, comic, and moving account of his tour of duty in Vietnam, master storyteller Tracy Kidder writes for the first time about himself. This extraordinary memoir is destined to become a classic. Kidder was an ROTC intelligence officer, just months out of college and expecting a stateside assignment, when his orders arrived for Vietnam. There, lovesick, anxious, and melancholic, he tried to assume command of his detachment, a ragtag band of eight more-or-less ungovernable men charged with reporting on enemy radio locations. He eventually learned not only to lead them but to laugh and drink with them as they shared the boredom, pointlessness, and fear of war. Together, they sought a ghostly enemy, homing in on radio transmissions and funneling intelligence gathered by others. Kidder realized that he would spend his time in Vietnam listening in on battle but never actually experiencing it. With remarkable clarity and with great detachment, Kidder looks back at himself from across three and a half decades, confessing how, as a young lieutenant, he sought to borrow from the tragedy around him and to imagine himself a romantic hero. Unrelentingly honest, rueful, and revealing, My Detachment gives us war without heroism, while preserving those rare moments of redeeming grace in the midst of lunacy and danger. The officers and men of My Detachment are not the sort of people who appear in war movies–they are the ones who appear only in war, and they are unforgettable.
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
ISBN: 0812976169
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 210
Book Description
My Detachment is a war story like none you have ever read before, an unromanticized portrait of a young man coming of age in the controversial war that defined a generation. In an astonishingly honest, comic, and moving account of his tour of duty in Vietnam, master storyteller Tracy Kidder writes for the first time about himself. This extraordinary memoir is destined to become a classic. Kidder was an ROTC intelligence officer, just months out of college and expecting a stateside assignment, when his orders arrived for Vietnam. There, lovesick, anxious, and melancholic, he tried to assume command of his detachment, a ragtag band of eight more-or-less ungovernable men charged with reporting on enemy radio locations. He eventually learned not only to lead them but to laugh and drink with them as they shared the boredom, pointlessness, and fear of war. Together, they sought a ghostly enemy, homing in on radio transmissions and funneling intelligence gathered by others. Kidder realized that he would spend his time in Vietnam listening in on battle but never actually experiencing it. With remarkable clarity and with great detachment, Kidder looks back at himself from across three and a half decades, confessing how, as a young lieutenant, he sought to borrow from the tragedy around him and to imagine himself a romantic hero. Unrelentingly honest, rueful, and revealing, My Detachment gives us war without heroism, while preserving those rare moments of redeeming grace in the midst of lunacy and danger. The officers and men of My Detachment are not the sort of people who appear in war movies–they are the ones who appear only in war, and they are unforgettable.
R.E.M.F.
Author: John Vandevanter Carter
Publisher: Sunbury Press, Incorporated
ISBN: 9781620067819
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 470
Book Description
Nine out of ten of all US military personnel who served the Vietnam War did not fight. Instead, they served in support of those who did. They were postal workers, military police, guards, office clerks, mechanics, cooks, and drivers. Very few of their stories have ever been told. Van Carter was an Iowa boy who was sent to Vietnam as an infantry lieutenant, but who instead served as one of these rear echelon personnel. He discovered the other side of Vietnam, the side where all these people lived who worked in support of the soldiers in the field. He saw rampant drug use, prostitution and a huge racial divide between black and white American soldiers. He saw the absurdity of poor leadership, bad planning and even worse implementation of America's war effort. He saw how everything and everyone became corrupted in Vietnam. And he, himself, succumbed to this all-pervasive corruption. He smoked dope, visited an authentic opium den, enabled some of the prostitution, openly defied authority, and made new rules he still hopes saved many from life-long addictions to heroin. And he fell in love. These are his recollections.
Publisher: Sunbury Press, Incorporated
ISBN: 9781620067819
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 470
Book Description
Nine out of ten of all US military personnel who served the Vietnam War did not fight. Instead, they served in support of those who did. They were postal workers, military police, guards, office clerks, mechanics, cooks, and drivers. Very few of their stories have ever been told. Van Carter was an Iowa boy who was sent to Vietnam as an infantry lieutenant, but who instead served as one of these rear echelon personnel. He discovered the other side of Vietnam, the side where all these people lived who worked in support of the soldiers in the field. He saw rampant drug use, prostitution and a huge racial divide between black and white American soldiers. He saw the absurdity of poor leadership, bad planning and even worse implementation of America's war effort. He saw how everything and everyone became corrupted in Vietnam. And he, himself, succumbed to this all-pervasive corruption. He smoked dope, visited an authentic opium den, enabled some of the prostitution, openly defied authority, and made new rules he still hopes saved many from life-long addictions to heroin. And he fell in love. These are his recollections.
The War Everyone Lost--and Won
Author: Timothy J. Lomperis
Publisher: CQ-Roll Call Group Books
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 236
Book Description
Publisher: CQ-Roll Call Group Books
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 236
Book Description