The Dynamics Of Defeat

This book is a story full of violence and numbing despair, but also one rich with lessons for American foreign policy, based on extensive research in U.S. Army archives and many personal interviews with those who experienced the Vietnam war in Hau Nghia, during the period of 1963–1973.

Eric M. Bergerud is professor of military and American history at Lincoln University in San Francisco and the author of Touched with Fire: The Land War in the South Pacific, Red Thunder, Tropic Lightning and The Dynamics of Defeat.

Introduction -- A Note on Primary Sources -- The Challenge of Insurgency: South Vietnam, 1954-1965 -- The Front Victorious: Hau Nghia Province Through 1965 -- Prospects for War: On the Eve of American Intervention -- Search and Destroy: The Big-Unit War, 1966-1967 -- Sword and Shield: Pacification Efforts, 1966-1967 -- Battle: The Tet Offensive, 1968 -- The Accelerated Pacification Campaign -- Battle: The Tet Offensive, 1969 -- The Pacification of Hau Nghia Province, 1969 -- High Tide for the Allies: 1970 -- Last Battles: 1971-1973 -- Reflections on the War