Year Of The Hawk: America's Descent into Vietnam, 1965

by James A. Warren

Overview

From a celebrated military historian, a powerful, “highly recommended” (Library Journal, starred review) account of the most pivotal year of the Vietnam War—the cataclysm that “continues to haunt American politics and culture” (Publishers Weekly).

The Vietnam War was the greatest disaster in the history of American foreign policy. The conflict shook the nation to its foundations, exacerbating already deep cleavages in American society, and left the country baffled and ambivalent about its role in the world. Year of the Hawk is a military and political history of the war in Vietnam during 1965—the pivotal first year of the American conflict, when the United States decided to intervene directly with combat units in a struggle between communist and pro-Western forces in South Vietnam that had raged on and off for twenty years.

By December 1965, a powerful communist offensive had been turned back, and the US Army had prevailed in one of the most dramatic battles in American military history, but nonetheless there were many signs and portents that US involvement would soon slide toward the tipping point of tragedy. Vividly interweaving events in the US capital with action in Southeast Asia, historian James A. Warren explores the mindsets and strategies of the adversaries and concludes that, in the end, Washington was not so much outfought in Vietnam as outthought by revolutionaries pursuing a brilliant, protracted war strategy. Based on new research, Year of the Hawk offers fresh insight into how a nationalist movement led by communists in a small country defeated the most powerful nation on earth and is “a well-researched overview of how America got into Vietnam—and why it shouldn’t have” (Kirkus Reviews).

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781982122942
Publisher:	Scribner
Publication date:	11/16/2021
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	661,271
Product dimensions:	9.00(w) x 5.70(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

James A. Warren is a historian and foreign policy analyst. A regular contributor to The Daily Beast, he is the author of God, War, and Providence: The Epic Struggle of Roger Williams and the Narragansett Indians against the Puritans of New England; American Spartans: The US Marines: A Combat History from Iwo Jima to Iraq; and The Lions of Iwo Jima: The Story of Combat Team 28 and the Bloodiest Battle in Marine Corps History (with Major General Fred Haynes, USMC-RET), among other books. For many years, Warren was an acquisitions editor at Columbia University Press, and more recently a visiting scholar in American Studies at Brown University. He lives in Saunderstown, Rhode Island.

Table of Contents

Introduction: America in 1965 1

Prologue: Strange Landing, Strange War 5

Part I Backstory, Crucial Decisions, and Strategies

1 Vietnam's Struggle against French Colonialism 11

2 The Origins of Americas War 31

3 Washington: The Complicated Politics of Escalation 45

4 Creeping Toward Major War 69

5 Hanoi Goes for Broke 81

Part II The Fighting on Different Fronts

6 Marines at War 107

7 The Big Buildup and the "Other War" 135

8 The Air War and the Ho Chi Minh Trail 159

9 Domestic Politics and the Antiwar Movement 187

10 The Big Fight in the Central Highlands 209

Part III Looking Back

11 Aftermath 243

12 Reflections 253

Acknowledgments 263

Notes 265

Selected Bibliography 283

Index 289

Editorial Reviews

09/20/2021

Historian Warren (God, War, and Providence) delivers a solid study of the Vietnam War focused on the rapid escalation of the conflict beginning in 1965. Drawing largely on memoirs and secondary sources, Warren details the history of Vietnamese resistance to French colonial rule, the U.S. government’s decision to support France’s war against communist insurgents in the 1950s, President Lyndon Johnson’s fears that the fall of Saigon would severely damage “American prestige” and his own reputation, and the rise of an American antiwar movement that saw the conflict as “an inherently immoral, inhumane enterprise.” He suggests that the war may have been unwinnable, but blames Gen. William Westmoreland’s resistance to counterinsurgency tactics in favor of “big-unit search-and-destroy operations,” and the South Vietnamese government’s “fractiousness and dysfunction,” for dooming any chance of victory. Warren also stresses that American and South Vietnamese political and military leaders never gave the Vietnamese people a palatable alternative to Ho Chi Minh’s brand of nationalism, which offered “both unity and freedom from foreign domination.” Though Warren treads familiar ground, he lucidly explains the origins and “strategic blunders” of the Vietnam War. This is a worthy introduction to a conflict that continues to haunt American politics and culture. Agent: John F. Thornton, the Spieler Agency. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

★ 11/01/2021

Historian Warren's (God, War, and Providence) account of the Vietnam War delivers valuable lessons about the United States' escalation in Southeast Asia in 1965, and more generally about the lengthy wars that have often entangled U.S. foreign policy. (The recently ended Afghanistan War, for instance, seemed unprecedented but has clear parallels to Warren's narrative of Vietnam.) His book is geared towards a general audience, whom it won't lose in the complexities of academic military history. Warren takes readers into the mindsets of key Vietnam War decision-makers in Washington, Hanoi, and Saigon. This allows for a fuller perspective on the futile government of South Vietnam; it also illuminates how North Vietnam's long view of the conflict worked to its advantage. Warren also brings the antiwar movement into focus, with overviews of the impacts of pacifists and civil rights leaders and of public dissent against American involvement in Vietnam. Maps and an extensive bibliography complete the narrative. VERDICT Highly recommended as a concise study of the United States' entrance into the Vietnam War. Further, it's an excellent primer on how countries can charge down the wrong warpath.—Jacob Sherman, Univ. of Texas at San Antonio

Library Journal

2021-09-15
A close look at the origins and escalation of America’s involvement in Vietnam.

Military historian and foreign policy analyst Warren begins with a brief overview of U.S. society in 1965, followed by a synopsis of Vietnamese history up to the point when the French were expelled by Indigenous rebels. While the U.S. had some presence in the country under the Eisenhower administration, officials in the Kennedy administration believed that America needed to support South Vietnam’s government against what appeared to be a communist threat. In 1964, Lyndon Johnson ran a campaign centered on a pledge not to send American troops to Vietnam, but only a year later, he reversed course and began the escalation. Warren explores the politics and military decisions on both sides of the conflict, providing insight into the North Vietnamese view of the struggle along with numerous American misreadings of the situation—especially the failure to recognize that the primary enemy was not North Vietnam but the ordinary people of South Vietnam who were engaged in a civil war against their corrupt and uncaring government. The author also provides detailed descriptions of several key battles during the period he covers, notably the Battle of Ia Drang Valley, a “ferocious encounter between the US Army’s elite 1st Cavalry Division and the regular army of North Vietnam in the remote jungles of the Central Highlands.” That battle brought home to many Americans just how serious the war was going to be. Along the way, Warren offers illuminating profiles of participants on both sides, including future Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf and Vietnamese Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap. For those old enough to remember the war, much of the book will offer painful, pointed reminders of what went wrong at a key point in American history. As a focused study of a pivotal year, this book is a welcome addition to the literature on a misguided war.

A well-researched overview of how America got into Vietnam—and why it shouldn’t have.

Kirkus Reviews

"For those old enough to remember the war, much of the book will offer painful, pointed reminders of what went wrong at a key point in American history. As a focused study of a pivotal year, this book is a welcome addition to the literature on a misguided war. . . . A well-researched overview of how America got into Vietnam—and why it shouldn’t have." —Kirkus Reviews

“A worthy introduction to a conflict that continues to haunt American politics and culture.” —Publishers Weekly

"Highly recommended as a concise study of the United States’ entrance into the Vietnam War. . . . an excellent primer on how countries can charge down the wrong warpath." —Library Journal (starred review)

“In 1965, the war in Vietnam became America's war. In this gripping and comprehensive narrative, ranging from deliberations among top U.S. officials to bloody jungle firefights, James A. Warren expands our understanding of how and why the United States went so badly and needlessly astray.” —Andrew J. Bacevich, author of American Apocalypse: America’s Role in a World Transformed

“Year of the Hawk is a masterful addition to the field of Vietnam War studies. The causes and consequences of the dramatic escalation of U.S. ground and aerial combat in 1965 reveal the essence of the long conflict. Warren’s narrative is a gripping blend of sweeping strategic analysis and granular detail of the wars on the ground, in the air, and in the corridors and avenues of Washington and Hanoi. Highly recommended for readers just beginning a deep dive into the American war in Vietnam, Warren’s book also will reward those well versed in its history who wish to learn more.” —David L. Anderson, author of The Columbia Guide to the Vietnam War and Vietnamization: Politics, Strategy, Legacy, and editor of The Columbia History of the Vietnam War

From the Publisher