Operation Lam Son 719: Books, Audiobooks, and eBooks owned by Avn Tech Library

In February 1971, the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) launched an incursion into Laos in an attempt to cut the Ho Chi Minh Trail and destroy North Vietnamese Army (NVA) base areas along the border. This movement would be the first real test of Vietnamization, Pres. Richard Nixon’s program to turn the fighting over to South Vietnamese forces as US combat troops were withdrawn. In this first in-depth study of this operation, military historian and Vietnam veteran James H. Willbanks traces the details of battle, analyzes what went wrong, and suggests insights into the difficulties currently being incurred with the training of indigenous forces.

In 1971, while U.S. ground forces were prohibited from crossing the Laotian border, a South Vietnamese Army corps, with U.S. air support, launched the largest airmobile operation in the history of warfare, Lam Son 719. The objective: to sever the North Vietnamese Army's main logistical artery, the Ho Chi Minh Trail, at its hub, Tchepone in Laos, an operation that, according to General Creighton Abrams, could have been the decisive battle of the war, hastening the withdrawal of U.S. forces and ensuring the survival of South Vietnam. The outcome: defeat of the South Vietnamese Army and heavy losses of U.S. helicopters and aircrews, but a successful preemptive strike that met President Nixon's near-term political objectives. Author Robert Sander, a helicopter pilot in Lam Son 719, explores why an operation of such importance failed. Drawing on archives and interviews, and firsthand testimony and reports, Sander chronicles not only the planning and execution of the operation but also the maneuvers of the bastions of political and military power during the ten-year effort to end Communist infiltration of South Vietnam leading up to Lam Son 719. Sander's conclusion is at once powerful and persuasively clear.

Today, thirty-five years after the fall of Saigon, scholars and historians have had opportunities to examine the Vietnam war from diverse viewpoints and the distance of time. But soon after the war, memories of loss still fresh, top military leaders of defeated South Vietnam recorded their observations in a series of publications sponsored by the U.S. Army Center of Military History. Insightful and poignant, unaltered and unedited by the CMH, their distinctive stories are little known and long out of print. Veteran historian Lewis Sorley has gathered, edited, and arranged these seventeen monographs for ease of reference and access, providing valuable biographies of the generals (some including photographs), plus maps and index.

2009 Society for Military History Distinguished Book Award for Biography Vietnam's Forgotten Army: Heroism and Betrayal in the ARVN chronicles the lives of Pham Van Dinh and Tran Ngoc Hue, two of the brightest young stars in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN). Both men fought with valor in a war that seemed to have no end, exemplifying ARVN bravery and determination that is largely forgotten or ignored in the West. However, while Hue fought until he was captured by the North Vietnamese Army and then endured thirteen years of captivity, Dinh surrendered and defected to the enemy, for whom he served as a teacher in the reeducation of his former ARVN comrades. An understanding of how two lives that were so similar diverged so dramatically provides a lens through which to understand the ARVN and South Vietnam's complex relationship with Americas government and military. Andrew Wiest weaves historical analysis with a compelling narrative, culled from extensive interviews with Dinh, Hue, and other key figures. Once both military superstars, Dinh is viewed by a traitor by many within the South Vietnamese community, while Hue, an expatriate living in northern Virginia, is seen as a hero who never let go of his ideals. Their experiences and legacies mirror that of the ARVNs rise and fall as well as the tragic history of South Vietnam.

Battlefield Diaries Extended Cut goes beyond the military history books and presents the most compelling personal accounts of war as seen through the eyes of those closest to the action -- the rank-and-file soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen. Each episode features a single battle in a war, from WW2 to Operation Iraqi Freedom. The stories are brought vividly to life through on-camera testimony of the actual participants, their diaries, letters, and never-before-seen personal photographs and home movies. Battlefield Diaries presents, in the most personal way, the fears, heartbreak, inner struggles, and triumphs of the most "ordinary people" who in one unforgettable moment -- experienced the most extraordinary test of the human spirit.