Contents:
Acknowledgements
List of
Abbreviations
List of
Illustrations
Foreword
Dr. Tuong Vu, Ph.D.
Department Head, Political Science, University of Oregon,
USA
Author’s
Biographical Sketch
Introduction
Part One: A Heroic
Army
Chapter One: The Air Divisions of the ARVN
Chapter Two: The Four
Incorruptible Generals of the ARVN: “First Thắng,
Second Chinh, Third Thanh, Fourth Trưởng”
Chapter Three: Heroic Defense of An Lộc in Summer 1972
Chapter Four: Recapture of Quảng Trị: The Bloodiest
Battle of the
Vietnam War
Chapter Five: Vindicating and Honouring the ARVN
Part Two: An Army
Unjustly Abandoned and Left for Dead
Chapter Six: “Vietnam War Was an Unwinnable War”:
Right or Wrong?
Chapter Seven: President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu and the
Paris Peace Talks
Chapter Eight: Autopsy of the Disastrous Retreat from
II Corps in March
1975
Chapter Nine: Abandoning of the Republic of Vietnam by
the US: Who was
to
Blame?
Epilogue
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Introduction:
We are delighted to introduce
to you this well-researched book by author Vinh-The Lam about the Armed Forces
of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN). As
former Head, Library Science Department, Vạn Hạnh University in Saigon, South
Vietnam, before 1975, and Head, Technical Services Division, University of
Saskatchewan Library in Canada at his retirement, author Vinh-The Lam has
conducted research and published two books on the Republic of Vietnam. Both the Vietnamese version, titled “Việt
Nam Cộng Hòa,1963-1967: Những Năm Xáo Trộn” and the English version,
titled “Republic of Vietnam, 1963-1967: Years of Political Chaos”
were published by Hoài Việt Publishing House in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada in
2008. The second edition of the English
version, under the new title “History of South Vietnam: The Quest for
Legitimacy and Stability, 1963-1967,” was published by the British publisher
Routledge in 2021. His book by Routledge
is currently the only study on this very special period in the history of the
Republic of Vietnam (RVN).
The
book you have in hand is a compilation of the author’s several
earlier-published articles on different aspects of the ARVN and the Vietnam
War. In this book, based on numerous
American and Vietnamese documents, Vinh-The Lam tries to find the answer to
some of the most puzzling questions about the history of the Vietnam War. Why was the RVN defeated if the ARVN were not
coward and incompetent as portrayed by the U.S. media and argued by authors in
the “orthodox” camp in the debate on the Vietnam War? And why the ARVN, who had
won important battles like An Lộc, Quảng Trị, and Xuân Lộc, completely
disintegrated in less than two months after the loss of Ban Mê Thuôt? As the sub-title of the book encapsulates,
the answer is: the ARVN was a heroic army but was abandoned by the U.S., its
ally, leading to its unexpected death.
(Excerpt from Foreword by Dr. Tuong Vu, Head, Department of Political Science, University of Oregon, USA)
