Inside the VC and the NVA: The Real Story of North Vietnam's Armed Forces (Williams-Ford Texas A&M University Military History Series) |  | Authors: Col. Michael Lee Lanning Lt. Col. (RET), Dan Cragg
Publisher: TAMU Press
Category: Book
List Price: $19.95
Buy New: $14.30
as of 9/9/2010 05:46 MDT details
You Save: $5.65 (28%)
New (11) Used (3) from $14.30
Seller: ---superbookdeals
Rating:  7 reviews
Sales Rank: 1462435
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1st Texas A&M University Press Ed
Pages: 354
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.2 x 0.7
ISBN: 1603440593
Dewey Decimal Number: 959.704331
EAN: 9781603440592
ASIN: 1603440593
Publication Date: July 23, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
| |
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
| |
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
If the costs of the Vietnam War were great to Americans and staggering to the South Vietnamese, they were even worse for the North. And those costs were borne largely by the individual soldiers--the soldiers who won the war. Based on interviews, soldiers' diaries, letters, and government documents, this book, first published in 1992, gives a classic, soldier's-eye account of the war our opponents fought and the men who fought it.
|
| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 7
 NOW THEY TELL ME!!! June 30, 2009
Joseph R. Calamia (El Paso, Texas)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
"Inside the VC and The NVA" by Michael Lee Lanning and Dan Cragg is a Texas A&M University Press publication. The book is obviously a product from Texas A&M' Vietnam studies and is a superb informational guide to all aspects of Vietnam, including it's history, it's climate, it's people, and...it's unique ability to wage war!
I just recently ordered the book and have not finished it. However, this book is not necessarily meant as a readable novel, or biographical sketch to be finished at one sitting. This book is more than that, it is... an astute collection of practical and knowledgeable facts to satisfy your curiosity while giving you "everything you wanted to know about the Vietnamese but, were afraid to ask."
This is a great research tool, and unlike most books of this nature, this is one you will enjoy reading! I only wish our Government would have made this book (or one like it), available to every one of us who got orders to Vietnam 40 years ago (now they tell me!). Perhaps, going into a war zone with this type of knowledge would have made a difference in the final outcome.
If, you research the Vietnam era, teach history, or simply enjoy learning, then... this book is a "Must!"
one stop information on the VC February 24, 2008
M. Schroeder (Kansas)
This book took me forever to read. I was interspersing it with books from the Library. This one I own. The book has a chapter interviewing American Generals, one on the American soldier, and one from the VC themselves. In a fashion, the book is written chronologically: first recruiting, the trip south, organization, arms and equipment, logistics, and finally battles. If you want to know what the VC and NVA were up to, this is a one stop way to find out.
Great book February 15, 2002
Mike Schroeder
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Overall I thought this was a great book. It went into great detail concerning even the most mundane details of VC/NVA life (I consider this an asset, not a liability). I enjoyed reading about how they fought, what kind of weapons they used, and the tactical and logistical details of the various VC/NVA units discussed. This book is limited in scope, after all it is called "Inside the VC and the NVA", so of course it's not going to go into detail about the ARVN fighting ability and THEIR details, nor does it address allied "atrocities". There were some drawbacks however. The VC and NVA interviews were interesting, but I think the information contained in them needs to be taken with a grain of salt. Although the authors address and dismiss the possibility of coercion, I think that's a very real possibility. Secondly, the book could have done without the input of the generals. For the most part, I thought the comments of the generals were suspect. After all, they had the kill ratio/body count agenda. All in all, a great book.
Excellent book November 4, 2001
Frank (Stockton CA)
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
This book is a must-read for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of the Vietnam war. The first review complains that this "reads like a school book. Ideal for the scholar, maybe less than ideal for the casual reader." Well, what did that "casual" reader expect from a book whose cover proclaims that it "fills a huge gap in the historiography of the Vietnam War" ??
This is NOT a dull or difficult book for anyone interested in the subject. The facts, figures, and background the authors include are very helpful in understanding what led the several armed forces to come into battlefield contact, and why they acted as they did. Particularly helpful is the authors' technique of letting participants tell their own stories -- even stories that contradict each other. The book has a helpful index, and extensive source notes and bibliography for those who wish to read further.
Perhaps the major fault of the book is that the authors detail the terror and coercive tactics of North Vietnamese forces, and the failings of North Vietnamese leadership, while omitting any mention of similar tactics and the failings of the US/South Vietnamese forces (except the inescapable acknowledgment of My Lai). By this omission, the authors leave the mistaken impression that South Vietnam had a legitimate and widely-supported democratic government with civil rights, whose secret police, ARVN, and US troops never engaged in abuse of the population and enemy prisoners. The VC/NVA actions should at least have been put in context by mention of the South Vietnamese/USA Phoenix program, corruption, tiger cages, etc. The reader may wish to also read _Our Vietnam/Nuoc Viet Ta: A History of the War 1954-1975_ by A. J. Langguth to get additional perspective on the failings of the South Vietnamese government.
The authors' limited use of their own feelings about the war, combined with a skillful combination of others' personal narratives and official reports and information, results in a very readable, informative and valuable book. Particularly moving is the Afterword, which reads in part, "We questioned each other and ourselves about whether we were 'going soft' on the VC/NVA who were dedicated to the deaths of our friends.... Yet, the more we researched and wrote, the more we learned that the majority of the VC/NVA did their duty as they saw it -- not unlike ourselves and our fellow soldiers....
"Slowly, and despite our efforts to do otherwise, we began to feel more kinship with the VC/NVA than we did with many of our fellow [civilian] Americans.... Even more sobering to us was the moment when we finally realized that we had more in common with our former enemies than with the politicians who had sent us to war."
 Some Useful Insights, but Not Much Depth January 27, 2001
R. A Forczyk (Laurel, MD USA)
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
A decent look at VC/NVA training, equipment, recruiting, organization and logistics. The authors were both combat veterans of Vietnam and their analysis carries credibility. Unfortunately, the core of this book rests on two very subjective sections: captured VC/NVA diaries and post-war American surveys on the VC/NVA. There is very little tactical analysis of how the VC/NVA fought and no analysis of specific actions (it would have been useful to dissect a few selective actions with accounts from both sides). Overall, the book is valuable for painting a portrait of a determined, resourceful enemy who made do with much less than we thought possible. Most important is the conclusion that NVA morale was sustained by their indoctrination/propaganda and the value of group criticism/group cohesion. Several maps, adequate but barely.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 7
|
|
|
