Outmaneuvered: America's Tragic Encounter with Warfare from Vietnam to Afghanistan

by James A. Warren Narrated by Jonathan Beville

Overview

From a celebrated military historian, a “searing...persuasive” (Kirkus Reviews) exploration of why the mighty United States military has repeatedly failed in irregular wars and military campaigns from Vietnam to Afghanistan.

Since the early 1960s, the United States has fought in four major wars and a cluster of complicated and bloody irregular warfare campaigns. The majority have ended in failure, or something close to it. Why has the US been so ineffective, despite the American armed forces being universally recognized as the best in the world?

Most scholars and analysts believe that the primary cause of our abysmal war record since Vietnam has been the US military's overwhelmingly conventional approach to conflict, which favors highly mobile precision firepower and sophisticated systems of command and control. Here, James Warren argues that a much more formidable obstacle to success has been pervasive strategic ineptitude at the highest levels of decision-making, including the presidency, the National Security Council, and the foreign policy community in DC.

Time and time again, American presidents have committed military forces to operations in foreign countries whose politics and cultures they did not fully understand. Presidents of both political parties, including Johnson, Carter, Reagan, Clinton, George W. Bush, and Obama have overestimated the capacity of US forces to alter the social and political landscape of foreign nations, and underestimated the ability of insurgents and terrorists to develop effective protracted war strategies that eventually, inevitably sap Washington's will to carry on the fight.

Warren asserts that in the War on Terror that followed September 11, 2001, senior military officers have been complicit in extending bankrupt strategies by refusing to speak truthfully about them to their civilian bosses. So have the American people, who lost interest in the “forever wars” in Afghanistan and Iraq and failed to press their presidents and Congress to bring an end to two futile conflicts. Warren advocates for a less hubristic foreign policy and a broader conception of warfare as a political and military enterprise.

“An admirable must-read for military...foreign policy history buffs” (Booklist), and anyone interested in geopolitical strategy, this book offers unparalleled insights into America's prior-and potentially future-military conflicts.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"A brilliant analysis of failed U.S. military crusades. . . . Persuasive in every particular, Outmaneuvered is a scathing indictment of arrogance, ineptitude and appalling naïveté, exposing misguided actions across six decades of U.S. administrations in the theater of irregular war . . . Outmaneuvered should haunt every American and give us pause, for we too have been complicit." —Charleston Post and Courier

"An admirable must read for military and foreign policy history buffs." —Booklist

"A searing indictment of overweening arrogance, strategic ineptitude, and criminally wishful thinking, Warren’s latest book is a persuasive account, equal parts maddening and heartbreaking, of misguided actions across 60 years of U.S. administrations in the theater of irregular war, the repercussions of which will be felt for years to come . . . A long-overdue call for American restraint and humility in international affairs." —Kirkus Reviews

"Based on outcomes, US military performance in recent decades has ranged from indifferent to poor, with the few successes partial and inconclusive. Why this has been the case is a matter that has received too little attention. In Outmaneuvered, James Warren takes on the question directly, offering answers that are both insightful and instructive." —Andrew Bacevich, author of America's War for the Greater Middle East: A Military History

"James Warren's Outmaneuvered is a plea begging the most powerful military the world has ever seen to finally understand why it keeps losing wars. Warren's answer is that America's military, and the civilians who direct it, do not understand that politics continues during wars and is integral to the outcome of war. Should be required reading for national leaders and at war colleges across this great land." —John Nagl, author of Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife: Counterinsurgency Lessons from Malaya and Vietnam

Kirkus Reviews

2024-11-23
Revealing the naïveté and tragedy of American attempts at nation building.

A searing indictment of overweening arrogance, strategic ineptitude, and criminally wishful thinking, Warren’s latest book is a persuasive account, equal parts maddening and heartbreaking, of misguided actions across 60 years of U.S. administrations in the theater of irregular war, the repercussions of which will be felt for years to come. A historian and foreign policy analyst, Warren is a visiting scholar in American Studies at Brown University. From Vietnam to Afghanistan and beyond, he argues that Washington’s foreign policy, intelligence, and military decision-makers have too often misunderstood the nature of the wars the nation was fighting, the cultures in which the conflicts were taking place, and the resolve of our adversaries. He also details how these leaders have dismissed far more astute voices within government and the military advising against precipitate action. In the process, Warren says, they have ignored the reality that irregular wars, as opposed to conventional warfare, are chiefly political struggles with a military component, not the reverse, and that poorly conceived involvement often serves to have the opposite effect intended, as in the deeply flawed crusade of the War on Terror. Warren is quick to note that his book is a history, not a battery of policy recommendations, and that the contents are largely a work of synthesis, drawing on the work of many scholars, historians, journalists, and military officers. But his contribution is considerable.

A long-overdue call for American restraint and humility in international affairs.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940191902319
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster
Publication date:	03/04/2025
Edition description:	Unabridged

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