Overview

Triumph Regained: The Vietnam War, 1965–1968 is the long-awaited sequel to the immensely influential Triumph Forsaken: The Vietnam War, 1954–1965. Like its predecessor, this book overturns the conventional wisdom using a treasure trove of new sources, many of them from the North Vietnamese side. Rejecting the standard depiction of U.S. military intervention as a hopeless folly, it shows America’s war to have been a strategic necessity that could have ended victoriously had President Lyndon Johnson heeded the advice of his generals. In light of Johnson’s refusal to use American ground forces beyond South Vietnam, General William Westmoreland employed the best military strategy available. Once the White House loosened the restraints on Operation Rolling Thunder, American bombing inflicted far greater damage on the North Vietnamese supply system than has been previously understood, and it nearly compelled North Vietnam to capitulate.  The book demonstrates that American military operations enabled the South Vietnamese government to recover from the massive instability that followed the assassination of President Ngo Dinh Diem. American culture sustained public support for the war through the end of 1968, giving South Vietnam realistic hopes for long-term survival. America’s defense of South Vietnam averted the imminent fall of key Asian nations to Communism and sowed strife inside the Communist camp, to the long-term detriment of America’s great-power rivals, China and the Soviet Union.

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9781641772976

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Reviews

THE LONG-AWAITED SEQUEL TO TRIUMPH FORSAKEN: THE VIETNAM WAR, 1954-1965 This second book in what will be a seminal trilogy is impeccably researched and elegantly written. Mark Moyar availed himself of newly available materials to shed fresh light and understanding on a crucial period of the Vietnam War. Triumph Regained poses a compelling reinterpretation that is bound to make uncomfortable those who contributed to or accepted the conventional wisdom on the war that emerged across the past half century. -H. R. McMaster, author of Dereliction of Duty and Battlegrounds: The Fight to Defend the Free World Triumph Regained expertly chronicles the grit, courage, and sacrifice of the American fighting man during the Vietnam War and provides clear-eyed analysis of the strategic and political imperatives that motivated both sides of the conflict. Mark Moyar is reclaiming the honorable legacy of a generation of American warriors and proving the truth of Ronald Reagan's belief that Vietnam was a 'noble cause.' We should be proud of the patriotic Americans who served in Vietnam and never forget that politicians in Washington squandered their sacrifices. -Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) No serious scholar has done more in recent years to challenge the entrenched consensus on the Vietnam War than historian Mark Moyar. In Triumph Regained, he presents bold new insights that compel us to question the conventional wisdom on the war from the onset of its Americanization in 1965 to the Tet Offensive of 1968. Captivating from start to finish, the book is as audacious as it is thought-provoking-and necessary. -Pierre Asselin, professor of history and Dwight E. Stanford Chair in American Foreign Relations, San Diego State University Using newly available documents and re-interpreting old, Moyar invites us to revisit the 1970s cliched narratives of strategy and policy in the early years of America's war in Vietnam. -Jeffrey Race, author of War Comes to Long An: Revolutionary Conflict in a Vietnamese Province

THE LONG-AWAITED SEQUEL TO TRIUMPH FORSAKEN: THE VIETNAM WAR, 1954–1965   “This second book in what will be a seminal trilogy is impeccably researched and elegantly written. Mark Moyar availed himself of newly available materials to shed fresh light and understanding on a crucial period of the Vietnam War. Triumph Regained poses a compelling reinterpretation that is bound to make uncomfortable those who contributed to or accepted the conventional wisdom on the war that emerged across the past half century.” —H. R. McMaster, author of Dereliction of Duty and Battlegrounds: The Fight to Defend the Free World   “Triumph Regained expertly chronicles the grit, courage, and sacrifice of the American fighting man during the Vietnam War and provides clear-eyed analysis of the strategic and political imperatives that motivated both sides of the conflict. Mark Moyar is reclaiming the honorable legacy of a generation of American warriors and proving the truth of Ronald Reagan’s belief that Vietnam was a ‘noble cause.’ We should be proud of the patriotic Americans who served in Vietnam and never forget that politicians in Washington squandered their sacrifices.” —Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR)   “No serious scholar has done more in recent years to challenge the entrenched consensus on the Vietnam War than historian Mark Moyar. In Triumph Regained, he presents bold new insights that compel us to question the conventional wisdom on the war from the onset of its Americanization in 1965 to the Tet Offensive of 1968. Captivating from start to finish, the book is as audacious as it is thought-provoking—and necessary.” —Pierre Asselin, professor of history and Dwight E. Stanford Chair in American Foreign Relations, San Diego State University  “Using newly available documents and re-interpreting old, Moyar invites us to revisit the 1970s clichéd narratives of strategy and policy in the early years of America's war in Vietnam.” —Jeffrey Race, author of War Comes to Long An: Revolutionary Conflict in a Vietnamese Province “In a crowded field, Moyar’s book stands apart for the abundance of research and original source material he brings to bear in support of his argument. When it comes to scholarly diligence, he has no equal, and no review can do him full justice. His bold reinterpretation of the war is so meticulously documented that even those who adhere to the orthodox view must take it seriously.” Mackubin T. Owens, Claremont Review of Books   “Well-argued, meticulously researched, engaging to read… anathema to the all too often orthodox view of an imperialistic American meeting its destined comeuppance through the folly of trying to save Vietnam.” Victor Davis Hanson, American Greatness   “Triumph Forsaken held the position as the point volume in the revisionist challenge to the so-called orthodox view of the Vietnam War for sixteen years. It now will share that place with Triumph Regained, Moyar’s second installment in his proposed three-volume history of that long-finished but still bitterly divisive war.” Michael Kort, H-Diplo   “Moyar is the most well-known and widely debated revisionist historian in the field…. Triumph Regained is an important contribution to the existing literature. Like its predecessors, Triumph Regained is an unapologetic revisionist critique that will likely generate fresh rounds of historical debate and disagreement in future years.” Martin Clemis, Journal of Military History   “[a] groundbreaking study of the war, one that should spark a renewed debate among Vietnam War historians.” George J. Veith, H-Diplo   “The author’s use of new sources — including those of the North Vietnamese — offers a perspective that is decidedly refreshing as he challenges many of the canards accepted as a dominant narrative about the war.” Richard R. Burgess, Seapower   “Moyar has come to closest to explaining what actually happened in the Vietnam War and why during this period—based on an unusually even-handed perspective, written in an accessible manner, and enhanced by consultation of Vietnamese sources. It is a substantial achievement to produce a fresh take on a complicated subject while challenging much of the widely accepted orthodox perspective.” Luke Nichter, H-Diplo

Author Information

Mark Moyar holds the William P. Harris Chair in Military History at Hillsdale College. His past academic appointments include the Kim T. Adamson Chair of Insurgency and Terrorism at the U.S. Marine Corps University and fellowships at the Joint Special Operations University and Texas A&M University. During the Trump administration, he served in the U.S. Agency for International Development as the Director of the Office of Civilian-Military Cooperation. The author of six previous books on military history, diplomatic history, grand strategy, leadership, and international development, he has also written articles for the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and many other publications. The first volume of his Vietnam War trilogy, Triumph Forsaken: The Vietnam War, 1954-1965, was published in 2006, and it became the subject of an essay collection entitled Triumph Revisited: Historians Battle for the Vietnam War. He received a B.A. summa cum laude from Harvard and a Ph.D. from Cambridge.

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