Vietnam War -Political Interference My recently published fictional historical novel, RECALL, documents countless episodes of political interference in military affairs. To name a couple, DC civilian micromanagement imposing limiting rules of engagement and the pursuit of ill-advised strategies evolving from political considerations, not military deliberations in many cases. The conduct of the war was often […]
Vietnam: The Cultural Journey that Followed
The Cultural Journey Post-Vietnam “War is a weapon, use it wisely,” historian Bernard Lewis cautioned a decade ago in reference to the Middle East conflicts. “In 1940 we knew who we were, we knew who the enemy was, we knew the dangers and the issues… It is different today.We don’t know who we are, we […]
Vietnam – The Shadow Wars
The Shadow Wars of Vietnam The Vietnam war was an asymmetrical war, commonly referred to as a guerilla war. For those unfamiliar, it usually involved platoon or company size conflicts, not huge battles. The combat basically consisted of sporadic encounters with the Viet Cong in juggles, rain forests and rice paddies, not the large WWII […]
The Vietnam War – The Good, The Bad, The Ugly
THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE UGLY DURING THE VIETNAM WAR THE GOOD: The empathy for another man’s suffering defines the experience. Larry Burrow’s famous wartime Pulitzer prize winning battlefield photo, “Reaching Out” in 1966 illustrated the compassion for one’s comrade. The backstory is compelling and I recently wrote a blog on this touching story. […]
Vietnam – The Fake News Debate
Judging from the responses to my “Fake News” blogs posted on February 7th and February 22nd and letters to the editor in the WSJ last month, there remains a lot of interest in this subject. How much did the reporting of the Vietnam war’s progress influence American public opinion? Especially at the pivotal point in […]
Vietnam War Photos and Their Impact – Part 2
VIETNAM WAR – MORE ICONIC PHOTOS My last blog made the case why one picture is worth a thousand, if not ten thousand words. The power of images captured at the precise, poignant moment by photojournalists was nothing new in Vietnam. Photos influenced opinion and stirred emotions in other wars. But, because public opinion in […]
