The next lecture in the Vietnam War Commemoration Lecture Series is scheduled for Jan. 26 at 6 p.m. at the Lewis and Clark Center on Fort Leavenworth. A reception hosted by the CGSC Foundation will begin at 5:30 p.m.
In this fourth lecture of the series, guest lecturer Dr. Gregory Daddis from Chapman University will present “Reassessing Westmoreland’s War.” In this lecture Dr. Daddis will discuss how standard American histories of the Vietnam War — at least those arguing the war was winnable — contend that the U.S. Army squandered its chances at victory in Southeast Asia because of misguided strategy. These conventional works claim that once President Lyndon B. Johnson escalated the conflict and deployed American ground combat troops to South Vietnam, General William C. Westmoreland, the head of the U.S. Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV), pursued an ill-advised strategy of attrition. Rather than concentrating on population security and counterinsurgency, Westmoreland instead wrongly engaged in a conventional war of attrition aimed at little more than racking up high body counts. Reexamining American strategy under Westmoreland, a far different picture emerges, as well as a conclusion that raises important questions about the limits of American military power abroad in the mid-1960s.
The Vietnam War Commemoration Lecture Series is presented by CGSC’s Department of Military History, U.S. Army Garrison Fort Leavenworth and supported by the CGSC Foundation and the Henry Leavenworth Chapter of AUSA.
All lectures in this series are free and open to the public.
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Unable to find Jan 26 lecture. Lamp said 2nd St and web said Lewis Clark Center. Could not locate at either place