Defend and Befriend: The U.S. Marine Corps and Combined Action Platoons in Vietnam - Hardcover

Southard, John

 
9780813145266: Defend and Befriend: The U.S. Marine Corps and Combined Action Platoons in Vietnam
Hardcover
ISBN 10: 0813145260 ISBN 13: 9780813145266
Verlag: The University Press of Kentucky, 2014

Inhaltsangabe

After relatively successful military interventions in Iraq in 1992 and Yugoslavia in 1998, many American strategists believed that airpower and remote technology were the future of U.S. military action. But America's most recent wars in the Middle East have reinforced the importance of counterinsurgency, with its imperative to "win hearts and minds" on the ground in foreign lands. In both Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. military has studied and experimented with the combined action platoon (CAP) concept used from 1965 to 1971 by the Marine Corps in Vietnam.

Consisting of twelve Marines, a medic, and dozens of inexperienced local militiamen, the American contingent of CAPs lived in South Vietnamese villages where they provided twenty-four-hour security and daily medical support for civilians, and fostered social interaction through civic action projects, such as building schools, offices, and wells. Defend and Befriend is the first comprehensive study of the evolution of these platoons, emphasizing how and why the U.S. Marine Corps attempted to overcome the inherent military, social, and cultural obstacles on the ground in Vietnam. Basing his analysis on Marine records and numerous interviews with CAP veterans, author John Southard illustrates how thousands of soldiers tasked with counterinsurgency duties came to perceive the Vietnamese people and their mission.

This unique study counters prevailing stereotypes and provides a new perspective on the American infantryman in the Vietnam War. Illuminating the fear felt by many Americans as they served among groups of understandably suspicious civilians, Defend and Befriend offers important insights into the future development of counterinsurgency doctrine.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

John Southard is a visiting lecturer in the Department of History at Georgia State University. He lives in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.

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Verlag
The University Press of Kentucky
Erscheinungsdatum
2014
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
0813145260
ISBN 13 
9780813145266
Einband
Tapa dura
Anzahl der Seiten
232
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Verantwortliche Person
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