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Title: The Blood Road: The Ho Chi Minh Trail and the Vietnam War by John Prados ISBN: 0-471-37945-X Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Pub. Date: 10 March, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.2 (5 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A must for Vietnam Vets
Comment: This is a must-read for all Vietnam veterans and students of the Vietnam War. Author Prados outlines why we were never able to interdict the flow of troops and supplies down the Ho Chi Minh Trail through Laos into South Vietnam. As a veteran of C-130 flare missions searching for trucks over the Trail, I now understand why our task was often so fruitless.
Sam McGowan
Vietnam Veteran, author of "The Cave", a novel of the Vietnam War.
Rating: 3
Summary: A Good Synthesis, but Weak Conclusion
Comment: John Prados, a veteran writer of military history, has attempted to write the first detailed scholarly examination of the role of the Ho Chi Minh Trail in the Vietnam War. The Trail, dubbed the "Blood Road," was a vital pathway through the jungles of Laos and Cambodia that enabled the North Vietnamese regime to conduct a protracted guerrilla struggle in South Vietnam. Without the Trail, the indigenous Viet Cong in South Vietnam would have been virtually on their own. Nor is Prados content just to examine the history of the Trail; rather, he poses the critical question: could the United States have severed the Trail and thereby achieved a military victory in Vietnam?
There is no doubt that The Blood Trail has historical value. Prados has pulled together high and low-level accounts from both sides to produce the first real synthesis on this subject. Unfortunately, far more is promised than is delivered by this book. One major problem is the over-focus on Washington strategy sessions by Bundy, McNamara, LBJ, et al. It seems that every book written on the Vietnam War has to detour into the Oval Office, no matter how much this ground has been trampled before. The only germane aspect of these familiar policy debates is the issue of whether the insurgency in Vietnam would be handled with diplomatic or military means. Prados shows that severing the Trail by a variety of military means was the preferred option.
Although the Americans tried everything from ground attacks, bombing, mining and raiding, they could not sever the Trail. Thus Prados concludes that, "the truth is that the war fighters lost their gambit". Well, that's rather obvious Dr. Prados, given that we lost the war. Unfortunately, by asserting that we couldn't sever the Trail by military means (which actually is not proven, only that the means employed did not work), the author leaves the reader high and dry. What then should the United States have done about the Trail? Abandon South Vietnam in 1964? Negotiate surrender? How could we have known that interdicting the Trail would fail if we did not try it? There is nothing worthy of being called a conclusion here. I also believe that Dr. Prados overstates the effect of severing the Trail in any case. Even if the US military had successfully interdicted the Trail for say 6-12 months, thereby disrupting the enemy build-up, Hanoi would merely have asked for a temporary cease-fire. They could then use the period of cease-fire to repair any damage to the Trail.
I think Prados misses the boat on this one. The Vietnam War was not an exercise in military logistics, whereby if we had severed the enemy lines of communication their war effort would have collapsed. Prados has been influenced too heavily by Jomini and Clausewitz, instead of Mao. First, the enemy would always find a way to get some troops and supplies into South Vietnam, no matter how painful we made this to them. Even if we stopped 80-90% of the troops and supplies - a real success - the remaining 10-20% would probably be enough to keep a low-level insurgency burning in South Vietnam. The war was not about logistics, it was about motivation and protracted struggle. The fact is that as long as Hanoi's leaders remained committed to victory, they could outlast any temporary US military successes. The United States never intended to adopt a large-scale, open-ended defense of South Vietnam for decades on end. Thus, the Trail was probably not as critical to victory or defeat as Prados makes out.
Rating: 3
Summary: Blood Road
Comment: As a participant in the air activity over the trail in 67&68,I was hopeing for more information regarding the ground activites during this period. In actuallity, there is little information about either. Onr glareing error is the authors continuing referance to all FAC aircraft as Ravens. The Ravens came into being in 1967 and were working days, flying from within Laos itself. In most cases when the author is calling the FACs Ravens, they were actually Nail or Covey FACs, flying from Thailand. Still waiting for a book that covers the construction crews, maintainers, truck drivers and GUNNERS that were a brave and awesome group.
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Title: Dirty Little Secrets of the Vietnam War : Military Information You're Not Supposed to Know by James F. Dunnigan, Albert A. Nofi ISBN: 031225282X Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin Pub. Date: 05 May, 2000 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: The Vietnam War Almanac by HARRY G. SUMMERS ISBN: 0891416927 Publisher: Presidio Press Pub. Date: 30 August, 1999 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: Why The North Won The Vietnam War by Marc Jason Gilbert ISBN: 0312295278 Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Pub. Date: 31 May, 2002 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Ho Chi Minh : A Life by William J Duiker ISBN: 078688701X Publisher: Hyperion Pub. Date: 28 November, 2001 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: Tet!: The Turning Point in the Vietnam War by Don Oberdorfer ISBN: 0801867037 Publisher: Johns Hopkins Univ Pr Pub. Date: April, 2001 List Price(USD): $20.95 |
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