This Time We Win

by Robbins, James S.

• ISBN13: 9781594032295
• ISBN10: 1594032297
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-09-14
• Publisher: Encounter Books

Summary

Most of what Americans know about the Tet Offensive is wrong. The brief 1968 battle during the Vietnam conflict marked the dividing line between gradual progress towards an ill-defined victory, and slow descent to a humiliating defeat. The fact that the enemy was, in fact, handily defeated on the ground was immaterial; that they could mount an attack at all was deemed a military triumph for the Vietcong. At least this is the received wisdom of Tet. In This Time We Win, James S. Robbins at last provides an antidote to the flawed Tet mythology that continues to shape the perceptions of American military conflicts against unconventional enemies and haunt our troops in combat. Indeed, America's enemies recognize and find inspiration in the prevailing Tet narrative. In his thorough re-examination of the Tet Offensive, Robbins examines the battle in the familiar frameworks of terrorism, war crimes, intelligence failure, troop surges, leadership breakdown, and media bias. The result is an explosion of the conventional wisdom on this infamous battle, one that offers real lessons for today's unconventional wars. Without a clear understanding of these lessons, we will find ourselves reliving the Tet Offensive again and again.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. 1
Vietnam, the Limited War	p. 17
The War and Public Opinion	p. 41
The View from Hanoi	p. 59
The Light at the End of the Tunnel	p. 79
Code Name: Buttercup	p. 93
Intelligence Failure	p. 107
The Embassy Attack	p. 125
"The Shot Seen Round the World"	p. 143
Assessing the Broader Offensive	p. 165
The Battle of Hue	p. 181
Hue and My Lai	p. 195
Khe Sanh	p. 215
The Walter Cronkite Moment	p. 237
Johnson Surrenders	p. 263
Loan Agonistes	p. 281
Tet's Legacy	p. 295
Endnotes	p. 303
Acknowledgments	p. 347
Index	p. 349
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