Military Review English Edition September-October 2013 | Page 92
McMaster himself, in an interview a couple of years after the book was published, observed that the decisions he wrote about “mired the United States in a costly war that could not be won at a cost acceptable to the American public”2 (emphasis added). That is inconsistent with his stated conclusion that the war was decided in Washington, but it is a far more plausible judgment on the true nature of a great American mistake. There’s a reason why the United States went to war in Vietnam without a clear discussion of how the war would be won. The reason is that how to win was not really seen as a question that had to be asked. Winning was taken for granted. The choice was whether to intervene or not. If we did, neither civilian nor military decisionmakers imagined that U.S. military power could fail to achieve U.S. objectives. With few exceptions, other Americans couldn’t imagine it either. That unthinking confidence was a key thread in America’s failure, Neil Sheehan argues in his book A Bright Shining Lie (Random House, New York, 1988). The generals who led the U.S. military into the war “assumed they would prevail in Vietnam simply because of who they were,” Sheehan wrote. Neither they nor the American public could grasp how a lightly armed force in a poor country could hold out against overwhelming U.S. military power. Because the American concept of war considered only the equations of armed strength and destructive force, ignoring all other factors, Americans failed to see either their enemy’s other strengths or their ally’s crucial weaknesses, which combined in the end to doom the U.S. effort. Sheehan’s account of the American war is told through the story of a single American, John Paul Vann. Vann’s highest military rank was lieutenant colonel, and his highest civilian post was as the chief U.S. official in one of South Vietnam’s four military regions—positions that would not ordinarily have historic significance. But Vann’s story, as Sheehan tells it, stunningly captures the essence of America’s experience in Vietnam. Indeed, if it were not a true story, A Bright Shining Lie would be one of the great novels of that or any American war. Vann arrived in Vietnam in March 1962, just as the few thousand U.S. military advisers there were moving into a more active combat role. He died there in June 1972, in the final year of the U.S.
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military effort, when his helicopter crashed near Kontum in South Vietnam’s central highlands. Known for exceptional physical bravery, Vann excelled for most of that time in vision and moral courage as well. He saw many things more clearly and honestly than his superiors, and had the integrity to tell them what he saw: that corruption and poor leadership in the South Vietnamese system were undermining American goals; that U.S. tactics were causing vast numbers of unnecessary civilian casualties; and that even with a staggering advantage in firepower, the American strategy of attrition could not succeed in a war where the enemy could almost always choose when and where to fight and could avoid battle when losses became too grea ???]?\? \?H ?\?[??\? ?YH ??[???&\??\?X?\??H[?[\??[?\? ??\??[?[Y?H[ ????[Z] Y[?? ??\?X? ?[?\? \???[Y?KXZ[? H YH ?H ?\?Y ??\ [ ?]?H ?^ X[] K??[??[?? ?]\?Y???H H\?^HY?\???Z[???X?????H?Y]?[H[? NM??H]\?YZ\?\???%?YZ[?[[?? [x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x?&\? \???\?[? H[Z]\?? ?XX??] ? ? ?[?? ?[? H[? H ?\? [?X?H ?X??\ ][Y\?X?x?&\?\?YY???\???[??X?Y]?H?][?[??[ ?YX[??[K H ?\??&\? ?[?[??H[? H ?\X]Y \? ??\???]?\?H?X?[YH\?\??\H???H \???[[[???H H [YHHYY ?YZ[? ?]\?8?' H????[??\????Y[? ?Y???Y\?\ X\?Y[?? H ?\??XX? YX\???]?Y]?[B??\ [X?\?S???\? ? L?;?kRSUT?H?U?QU??