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Journal

2015 | 16 | 59-68

Article title

General Westmoreland: An Unfulfilled Hero Who Was Turned into a Scapegoat

Authors

Title variants

Languages of publication

EN

Abstracts

EN
This article is dedicated to the most prominent American commander of the Vietnam War, or to be more precise, to the treatment of General William C. Westmoreland in modern American historiography. Ridiculed and accused of lying to the American public during his lifetime, General Westmoreland still remains one of the ‘villains’ of the Vietnam War. In recent years it has changed slightly, and now on the publishing market we can find books both attacking and defending the MACV commander and his decisions. However, mainstream historiography continues to judge him through the prism of the American trauma caused by the Vietnam War, and not his real merit and achievements. This article aims to dispel at least a few myths persisting both about General Westmoreland and his strategy to win ‘an unwinnable conflict.’

Keywords

Journal

Year

Issue

16

Pages

59-68

Physical description

Contributors

  • Faculty of History Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland

References

  • The Central Committee’s 9th Plenum Resolution Discussing the International Situation December 1963. [Document acquired from the webpage: The Vietnam Center and Archive, Texas Tech University. Web. 10 June 2015. http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu].
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  • Keeney, Craig M. “A Chronicle of Extraordinary Service: The Military Career of Gen. William Childs Westmoreland.” Caroliniana Columns. Newsletter of the University South Caroliniana Society 1999: Autumn. Web. 18 June 2015. http://library.sc.edu/socar/uscs/99autm/99front.html.
  • Nguyen, Lien‑Hang T. “The War Politburo: North Vietnam’s Diplomatic and Political Road to the Tot Offensive.” Journal of Vietnamese Studies 1: 2006 (1/2).
  • Słowiak, Jarema. “In the Search for a Scapegoat. On the Margin of the Book: Lewis Sorley, Westmoreland: The General Who Lost Vietnam.” Prace Historyczne 140: 2013 (3): 299‑303.
  • Słowiak, Jarema. “Khe Sanh – niespełnione Dien Bien Phu Drugiej Wojny Indochińskiej.” Studia nad wojnami w Indochinach, tom 1. Ed. Przemysław Benken. Oświęcim: Napoleon V, 2013: 33‑65.
  • Tin, Bui. “Fight for the Long Haul.” Rolling Thunder in a Gentle Land. The Vietnam War Revised. Ed. Andrew Wiest. Oxford, New York: Osprey, 2006.
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  • Pamięci Narodowej – Komisja Ścigania Zbrodni przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu. Oddział, 2014.
  • Bradley, Mark P. Vietnam at War. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.
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  • Cosmas, Graham A. MACV. The Joint Command in the Years of Withdrawal, 1968‑1973. Washington: Center of Military History, United States Army, 2006.
  • Daddis, Gregory A. Westmoreland’s War. Reassessing American Strategy in Vietnam. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 2014.
  • Isserman, Maurice. Vietnam War. New York: Facts on File, 2003.
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  • Moyar, Mark. Triumph Forsaken, The Vietnam War 1954‑1965. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
  • Sorley, Lewis. Westmoreland: The General Who Lost Vietnam. New York, Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011.
  • Tucker, Spencer C. Vietnam. London: UCL Press, 1999.
  • Turley, William S. Second Indochina War. Lanham, Boulder, New York, Toronto, Plymouth: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2009.
  • Westmoreland, William C. A Soldier Reports. New York: Doubleday, 1976.
  • Wiest, Andrew (ed.). Rolling Thunder in a Gentle Land. The Vietnam War Revised. Oxford, New York: Osprey, 2006.
  • Willbanks, James H. The Tet Offensive: A Concise History. New York: Columbia University Press, 2007.
  • Zaffiri, Samuel. Westmoreland: A Biography of General William C. Westmoreland. New York: Morrow, 1994.
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Document Type

Publication order reference

YADDA identifier

bwmeta1.element.desklight-01f72198-7b58-4680-8169-3d0705477df3
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