Major War: Vietnam War

Title:

Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character

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Examines the psychological devastation of war by comparing the soldiers of Homer’s Iliad with Vietnam veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Although the Iliad was written 27 centuries ago, it has much to teach about combat trauma, as do the more recent, compelling voices and […]

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Westmoreland’s War: Reassessing American Strategy in Vietnam

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General William C. Westmoreland has long been derided for his failed strategy of “attrition” in the Vietnam War. Historians have argued that Westmoreland’s strategy placed a premium on high “body counts” through a “big unit war” that relied almost solely on search and destroy missions. […]

Westmorelands War - Army Reading List

Title:

Grunts Inside the American Infantry Combat Experience, World War II Through Iraq

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Book Description:

John C. McManus covers six decades of warfare in which the courage of American troops proved the crucial difference between victory and defeat. Based on years of archival research and personal interviews with veterans, Grunts demonstrates the vital, and too often forgotten, importance of the […]

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American Military History, vol. 2, The United States Army in a Global Era, 1917-2008

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Book Description:

Created initially as a Reserve Officers’ Training Corps textbook, this second volume in a two-volume overview of the Army’s story covers the period from World War I to the early days of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Written in an engaging style and enhanced […]

Title:

Once An Eagle

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Book Description:

Once An Eagle is the story of one special man, a soldier named Sam Damon, and his adversary over a lifetime, fellow officer Courtney Massengale. Damon is a professional who puts duty, honor, and the men he commands above self interest. Massengale, however, brilliantly advances […]

Title:

Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream

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Book Description:

Doris Kearns Goodwin’s classic life of Lyndon Johnson, who presided over the Great Society, the Vietnam War, and other defining moments the tumultuous 1960s, is a monument in political biography. From the moment the author, then a young woman from Harvard, first encountered President Johnson […]