On Strategy:The Vietnam War in Context

Summers, Col. Harry G., Jr.

ISBN 10: 0160015782 / ISBN 13: 9780160015786

Published by Carlisle Barracks, PA: Strategic Studies Institute, US Army War College, 1982, 1981

About this Item

Carlisle Barracks, PA: Strategic Studies Institute, US Army War College. 8vo. Paperback. 137 pp. A book intended to be the culmination of US Army War College experience to draw strategic lessons from the Vietnam War. The book uses Clausewitzian theory and the classic principles of war and attempts to place the Vietnam War in domestic context, as well as in the context of war itself. Its central thesis is that a lack of appreciation of military theory and military strategy (especially the relationship between military strategy and national policy) led to a faulty definition of the nature of the war. The result was the exhaustion of the Army against a secondary guerilla force and the ultimate failure of military strategy to support the national policy of containment of communist expansion. (Major General Jack N. Merritt, Commandant, US Army War College) 8vo. Fading around top edge.

Seller Inventory # DP-01-0915-01

Bibliographic Details

• Title: On Strategy:The Vietnam War in Context
• Publisher: Carlisle Barracks, PA: Strategic Studies Institute, US Army War College, 1982
• Publication Date: 1981
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0160015782
• ISBN 13: 9780160015786
• Binding: Soft cover

About this title

Synopsis

"This important book is one man's critical analysis of American strategy in the Vietnam war. That man, Harry Summers, is an active Army officer who began professional life as an enlisted soldier, knows personally the bayonet-point reality of war, and has thought widely about strategic issues. His commitment to the nation and Army he serves is unstinting."