Triumph Forsaken: The Vietnam War, 1954–1965

Mark Moyar

Aug 2006 · Cambridge University Press

About this ebook

Drawing on a wealth of new evidence from all sides, Triumph Forsaken, first published in 2007, overturns most of the historical orthodoxy on the Vietnam War. Through the analysis of international perceptions and power, it shows that South Vietnam was a vital interest of the United States. The book provides many insights into the overthrow of South Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem in 1963 and demonstrates that the coup negated the South Vietnamese government's tremendous, and hitherto unappreciated, military and political gains between 1954 and 1963. After Diem's assassination, President Lyndon Johnson had at his disposal several aggressive policy options that could have enabled South Vietnam to continue the war without a massive US troop infusion, but he ruled out these options because of faulty assumptions and inadequate intelligence, making such an infusion the only means of saving the country.

Ratings and reviews

I am old enough to remember the Vietnam War but just barely. I have- however- spent the last few years of my life living and working in Vietnam. This included a long-term immersion course in Vietnamese language and culture. My knowledge of the war and the issues involved relied primarily on the consensus view so eloquently presented by writers such as Sheehan, Halberstam and Karnow. My interaction with the few older Vietnamese with strong views about the period - however- made me think these authors were grossly mistaken in their conclusions. My landlords were an elderly Hanoi couple who had both spent time on the Ho Chi Minh Trail. My colleague's father was an ARVN soldier wounded at Hue. A business contact- an engineer no less- was a 75-year old coconut farmer in Ben Tre. I had great chats with several older Sino-Vietnamese rice merchants at Cantho. All of these people had remarkably counter consensus views of the whole period. There insights were much closer to those expressed in Mark Moyar's book. Younger Vietnamese can recite the textbook version of their history. But to them it is just boring nonsense with little impact on their future. They care more about Iphones or getting into a good college than in understanding the past. They have no interest in discussing this period of their history with the few older people willing to share. I fear these recollections will die with these people who are mainly in their 70s and 80s. Thanks to Mark Moyar for this brilliantly researched volume which will at the very least keep this history alive until a new generation of Vietnamese- and Americans- is ready to examine it anew. I can't think of a more noble purpose for a historian.

Something went wrong. Mine is two pages long

an excellent review of the Vietnam War

About the author

Dr Mark Moyar is the Kim T. Adamson Chair of Insurgency and Terrorism at the US Marine Corps University. He holds a B.A. summa cum laude in history from Harvard University and a Ph.D. in history from Cambridge University. A frequent commentator on historical and current events, his articles have appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and many other publications. He is also the author of Phoenix and the Birds of Prey: Counterinsurgency and Counterterrorism in Vietnam.