The U S Army Before Vietnam 1953 1965

The U.S. Army Before Vietnam

The twelve years between the end of the Korean War in the spring of 1953 and the deployment of ground combat troops to Vietnam in the spring of 1965 were stressful ones for the U.S. Army. It had to adjust to the budget and manpower cuts that typify the end of a major war while at the same time maintaining an unprecedented level of preparedness due to ongoing tensions between the United States and the two leaders of the Communist bloc-the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China. Moreover, the proliferation of atomic weapons, first developed in 1945, raised existential questions about the nature of future wars and the role ground forces would play in them. The Army would spend the remaining years of the 1950s struggling with an identity crisis, trying to prove to itself and to others that it remained relevant in the nuclear age. By the end of the decade, the Army had indeed developed organizations, weapons, and doctrine to address the challenges of nuclear war. No sooner had it done so than the rules of the game changed, as the Communist powers adopted a strategy of fostering revolutions in weak and underdeveloped countries as a means of spreading their political doctrine without risking a direct confrontation with the United States that might spark a thermonuclear exchange. Once again, the Army rose to the occasion with new organizations, equipment, and doctrine. All of these challenges made the period one of the most tumultuous in the history of the peacetime Army-an Army that stood on the brink of one of its most tumultuous wars.

The U.S. Army Before Vietnam, 1953-1965

The U.S. Army Before Vietnam, 1953-1965, by Donald A. Carter, covers the period between the end of the Korean War and the initial deployment of ground combat troops to Vietnam. It describes the organizational and doctrinal changes the Army implemented as it attempted to digest the lessons of one conflict and to prepare the force for another. The pamphlet also discusses the service's efforts to maintain its position in national defense within the parameters of President Eisenhower's New Look strategic policy. A key issue for the Army was the question of how to prepare a force to operate on an atomic battlefield. In order to compete with the Air Force and the Navy for a diminishing defense budget, the Army had to show that it, too, was a modern, forward-thinking organization, prepared to integrate a new family of tactical atomic weapons into its organization and doctrine. The resulting experiment with the Pentomic division forced Army leaders to reexamine some of their most basic assumptions about future conflict. With the increasing influence of Communist China throughout Southeast Asia, the Army also began to pay greater attention toward counterinsurgency and guerilla warfare. President Kennedy's interest in a doctrine of flexible response and his concern for combatting Communist inspired insurrections prompted the Army to increase training in unconventional warfare and to highlight the capabilities of its developing special forces--the Green Berets. Related products: The U.S. Army's Transition to the All-Volunteer Force, 1968-1974 -Print Paperback format is available here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/products/sku/008-029-00536-1 United States Army in World War 2, Special Studies, Manhattan, the Army, and the Atomic Bomb-Print Clothbound format can be found here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/products/sku/008-029-00132-2 Building the Bombs: A History of the Nuclear Weapons Complex is available here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/products/sku/061-000-00968-0 Vietnam War resources collection can be found here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/catalog/us-military-history/battles-wars/vietn... China product collection can be found here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/catalog/international-foreign-affairs/asia/china

The U.S. Army Before Vietnam, 1953-1965