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Williams-Ford Texas A&M University Military History Series
Inside the VC and the NVA by Col. Michael Lee Lanning
"An intimate, candid portrait of the Viet Cong/North Vietnamese Army...An absolute necessity for Vietnamese-studies collections."During the war in Vietnam, the North Vietnamese communists had to place their trust in the oldest and most reliable tool of the individual soldier; America believed that firepower, lgoistics, and technology would be sufificent for victory. The North Vietnamese won. INSIDE THE VC AND THE NVA, written by two veterans with six-and-a-half years combined experience, shows how.A Dual Main Selection of the Military Book Club
Mass Market Paperback
First published August 1, 1992
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About the author
Michael Lee Lanning
39 books12 followersLieutenant Colonel Michael Lee Lanning (USA, Ret.) is an American retired military officer and writer of non-fiction, mostly military history.
After spending his early life in Texas, in 1964 Michael Lee Lanning graduated from Trent High School (Trent, Texas) and entered Texas A&M University (College Station, Texas), where in 1968 he earned a BS in Agricultural Education.
Upon graduation from Texas A&M in 1968, Lanning was commissioned a second lieutenant and received infantry, airborne, and ranger training at Fort Benning, Georgia. After serving as a platoon leader in the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, he was ordered to the Republic of Vietnam where he served as an infantry platoon leader, reconnaissance platoon leader, and rifle company commander in the 2d Battalion, 3rd Infantry Regiment of the 199th Light Infantry Brigade. During subsequent tours of duty he served throughout the United States and Germany, as (among other things) an instructor in the U.S. Army Ranger School, a mechanized infantry company commander in the 3rd Infantry Division, and executive officer of an infantry battalion in the 1st Cavalry Division. He also served in several non-command assignments, including positions as public affairs officer, serving in that role first for General H. Norman Schwarzkopf and later as a member of the Department of Defense public affairs office. In 1979, he earned an MS in Journalism from East Texas State University (Commerce, TX); he was selected to attend the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College (Fort Leavenworth, KS) that same year.
Lt. Col. Lanning's first book, 'The Only War We Had: A Platoon Leader's Journal of Vietnam' was published by Ivy Books/Ballantine Books/Random House, Inc. in September 1987.
After spending his early life in Texas, in 1964 Michael Lee Lanning graduated from Trent High School (Trent, Texas) and entered Texas A&M University (College Station, Texas), where in 1968 he earned a BS in Agricultural Education.
Upon graduation from Texas A&M in 1968, Lanning was commissioned a second lieutenant and received infantry, airborne, and ranger training at Fort Benning, Georgia. After serving as a platoon leader in the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, he was ordered to the Republic of Vietnam where he served as an infantry platoon leader, reconnaissance platoon leader, and rifle company commander in the 2d Battalion, 3rd Infantry Regiment of the 199th Light Infantry Brigade. During subsequent tours of duty he served throughout the United States and Germany, as (among other things) an instructor in the U.S. Army Ranger School, a mechanized infantry company commander in the 3rd Infantry Division, and executive officer of an infantry battalion in the 1st Cavalry Division. He also served in several non-command assignments, including positions as public affairs officer, serving in that role first for General H. Norman Schwarzkopf and later as a member of the Department of Defense public affairs office. In 1979, he earned an MS in Journalism from East Texas State University (Commerce, TX); he was selected to attend the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College (Fort Leavenworth, KS) that same year.
Lt. Col. Lanning's first book, 'The Only War We Had: A Platoon Leader's Journal of Vietnam' was published by Ivy Books/Ballantine Books/Random House, Inc. in September 1987.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
May 19, 2024
Great book about an under studied part of the Vietnam War.
July 13, 2009
When southern Civil War vets pondered how they lost their war, they sifted their records and recollections, looking for the mistake that gave victory to their enemy. But General George Pickett cut through all that nonsense by saying, "I think the Yankees had something to do with it."
Michael Lee Lanning and Dan Cragg take Pickett's approach and apply to their study of the enemy in the Vietnam War, entitled "Inside the VC and NVA--The Real Story of North Vietnam's Armed Forces." Lanning and Cragg deftly take apart the NVA and VC, showing the component parts of training, logistics, doctrine, tactics and discipline, then putting it all together again to show how it all worked together.
The authors are not armchair generals or Monday morning quarterbacks, trying to explain how the U.S. lost. They focus instead on how North Vietnam built its army to win on its own terms, playing to its own strengths in ways we did not try to understand. North Vietnam was always a poor country, rich in peasants and hardship. Couple this with a thick, Confucian culture that stressed the good of the group over the well being of the individual. Stir this in the village, where that social structure enforces itself. Bring in Communism, which stirs this mix into a stew, following its own recipe of substituting the Party for the Village.
But the real steel that runs through this country is its dogged history of all-out opposition to foreign occupation. Vietnam fought Chinese occupation--for one thousand years. No invader was ever welcomed with open arms--just open hostility.
Lanning and Cragg show the reader how North Vietnam built its army on these foundations. Vietnamese communists knew how to enforce Confucian discipline through the party, and reproduce the village through the army. Soldiers were grouped in three-man cells, where they shared all benefits and hardships, and looked out for each other. Self-criticism helped with discipline, focusing troops on doing a better job the next time it had to be done. Operations were planned meticulously, sometimes taking as long as six months, and well practiced before execution. And no attack was every undertaken unless the NVA had three-to-one superiority.
The average NVA or VC "grunt" only fought two or three times a year, unlike his American or ARVN counterpart, who was always seeking to destroy them. Laning and Craig takes pains to point out that this was a disciplined army designed to survive and persist, and in doing so, eventually win.
Lanning and Cragg served in Vietnam and based their work on reviewing thousands of RAND corp. interviews with NVA and VC PoWs, running these accounts through the prism of their experience. Their perspective provides a measure of illumination that more one-sided accounts of the war sadly skip. We know what the U.S. did in Vietnam, but those one-sided accounts suffer for the lack of context, falling back on cliches instead of providing explanations.
The authors are cognizant of this context, and save the last two chapters for comments about the enemy by American generals and grunts. "Know your enemy" is an old saying in warfare. Some of these guys just didn't, with one general leaning on the old "stabbed in the back by politicians, media and hippies" as the reason why the U.S. lost the war. Those were the symptoms of defeat, but not the true cause of it. North Vietnam was willing to fight a long war, regardless of the cost. Were we?
Lanning and Cragg are not blind to the downside of Communist victory. Long after the war, unified Vietnam remained warlike under the dictatorship of the Communist regime in Hanoi. Military operations against the Khmer Rouge in Camdodia and the Communist Chinese along the northern border. One of the 10 poorest countries in the world, Vietnam maintained one of the largest armies in the world. The nation knows how to fight, but forgot how to prosper.
"Hopefully, this book has made the individual soldiers of the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese Army a little easier to understand and perhaps more human--or a little less superhuman, depending on preconceptions," Lanning and Craig write in summation. "What we can say is this: ...to all the VC/NVA who did their duty as they saw fit and kept their hands clean, many of whom we faced with no formal introductions on the battlegrounds nearly two decades ago, if we should ever meet (hopefully not all at once), the first drinks are on us."
Michael Lee Lanning and Dan Cragg take Pickett's approach and apply to their study of the enemy in the Vietnam War, entitled "Inside the VC and NVA--The Real Story of North Vietnam's Armed Forces." Lanning and Cragg deftly take apart the NVA and VC, showing the component parts of training, logistics, doctrine, tactics and discipline, then putting it all together again to show how it all worked together.
The authors are not armchair generals or Monday morning quarterbacks, trying to explain how the U.S. lost. They focus instead on how North Vietnam built its army to win on its own terms, playing to its own strengths in ways we did not try to understand. North Vietnam was always a poor country, rich in peasants and hardship. Couple this with a thick, Confucian culture that stressed the good of the group over the well being of the individual. Stir this in the village, where that social structure enforces itself. Bring in Communism, which stirs this mix into a stew, following its own recipe of substituting the Party for the Village.
But the real steel that runs through this country is its dogged history of all-out opposition to foreign occupation. Vietnam fought Chinese occupation--for one thousand years. No invader was ever welcomed with open arms--just open hostility.
Lanning and Cragg show the reader how North Vietnam built its army on these foundations. Vietnamese communists knew how to enforce Confucian discipline through the party, and reproduce the village through the army. Soldiers were grouped in three-man cells, where they shared all benefits and hardships, and looked out for each other. Self-criticism helped with discipline, focusing troops on doing a better job the next time it had to be done. Operations were planned meticulously, sometimes taking as long as six months, and well practiced before execution. And no attack was every undertaken unless the NVA had three-to-one superiority.
The average NVA or VC "grunt" only fought two or three times a year, unlike his American or ARVN counterpart, who was always seeking to destroy them. Laning and Craig takes pains to point out that this was a disciplined army designed to survive and persist, and in doing so, eventually win.
Lanning and Cragg served in Vietnam and based their work on reviewing thousands of RAND corp. interviews with NVA and VC PoWs, running these accounts through the prism of their experience. Their perspective provides a measure of illumination that more one-sided accounts of the war sadly skip. We know what the U.S. did in Vietnam, but those one-sided accounts suffer for the lack of context, falling back on cliches instead of providing explanations.
The authors are cognizant of this context, and save the last two chapters for comments about the enemy by American generals and grunts. "Know your enemy" is an old saying in warfare. Some of these guys just didn't, with one general leaning on the old "stabbed in the back by politicians, media and hippies" as the reason why the U.S. lost the war. Those were the symptoms of defeat, but not the true cause of it. North Vietnam was willing to fight a long war, regardless of the cost. Were we?
Lanning and Cragg are not blind to the downside of Communist victory. Long after the war, unified Vietnam remained warlike under the dictatorship of the Communist regime in Hanoi. Military operations against the Khmer Rouge in Camdodia and the Communist Chinese along the northern border. One of the 10 poorest countries in the world, Vietnam maintained one of the largest armies in the world. The nation knows how to fight, but forgot how to prosper.
"Hopefully, this book has made the individual soldiers of the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese Army a little easier to understand and perhaps more human--or a little less superhuman, depending on preconceptions," Lanning and Craig write in summation. "What we can say is this: ...to all the VC/NVA who did their duty as they saw fit and kept their hands clean, many of whom we faced with no formal introductions on the battlegrounds nearly two decades ago, if we should ever meet (hopefully not all at once), the first drinks are on us."
April 15, 2020
Like us soldiers, airmen, sailors
I served at a 2nd Class Storekeeper (Logistics) NSAD Chi Kai Sept 1967 til April 1969. We in the Navy provided material support to Americal Division, 3rd Marine Devision, Blue Dragon South Korean Marines, Australians, Filipino and Thailand troups. 600 Navy Personnel doing a variety of important tasks. We had our share of Rocket attacks, and small arms fire. We had a core group of South Vietnamese civilians that worked side by side with us. Its a time I will never forget and was proud to have served for 19 months less 1 month for R&R. Thank you for putting this fine work together. I brought together a lot of lose ends for me. There were a lot of things most of us common men did not understand. The is was great. Thanks again.
I served at a 2nd Class Storekeeper (Logistics) NSAD Chi Kai Sept 1967 til April 1969. We in the Navy provided material support to Americal Division, 3rd Marine Devision, Blue Dragon South Korean Marines, Australians, Filipino and Thailand troups. 600 Navy Personnel doing a variety of important tasks. We had our share of Rocket attacks, and small arms fire. We had a core group of South Vietnamese civilians that worked side by side with us. Its a time I will never forget and was proud to have served for 19 months less 1 month for R&R. Thank you for putting this fine work together. I brought together a lot of lose ends for me. There were a lot of things most of us common men did not understand. The is was great. Thanks again.
October 27, 2024
Probably one of the best books on Viet Nam War. This reviewer deducted a star because it is dated and the last chapter references a situation that existed thirty years ago when the SRVn. was still in the fading orbit of the collapsing Soviet Union.
A really well written, deeply invested history and analysis of the Communist armed forces and the war. Uses a lot of excellent (and now obscure) sources, which manage to paint a sympathetic and very detailed picture of what the war was like from the Vietnamese side- as perceived by critical past enemies. Everything from recruitment, political indoctrination, postal and communication systems, uniforms, logistics, meals, weaponry, experiences- even medals and sex are considered. Easily one of the five best books on the war I have read.
A really well written, deeply invested history and analysis of the Communist armed forces and the war. Uses a lot of excellent (and now obscure) sources, which manage to paint a sympathetic and very detailed picture of what the war was like from the Vietnamese side- as perceived by critical past enemies. Everything from recruitment, political indoctrination, postal and communication systems, uniforms, logistics, meals, weaponry, experiences- even medals and sex are considered. Easily one of the five best books on the war I have read.
November 4, 2014
Jika anda seorang peminat sejarah Perang Vietnam,saya beranggapan bahawa buku ini wajib dijadikan koleksi. Fokus buku ini adalah amat unik sekali. Bukan tentera Amerika Syarikat yang mendapat perhatian utama buku ini (yang lazimnya ditemui di dalam banyak buku sejarah mengenai Perang Vietnam),sebaliknya,musuh utama mereka di dalam konflik tersebut iaitu Vietcong (VC) dan North Vietnamese Army (NVA).
Deskripsi mengenai VC/NVA ditulis secara menyeluruh,merangkumi sejarah,struktur organisasi,latihan,doktrin, dan lain-lain maklumat berkaitan. Walaupun ditulis oleh penulis bukan Vietnam,cara penyampaian buku ini bersifat objektif. Tambahan pula.penulis buku ini sendiri mempunyai pengalaman berkhidmat di dalam Perang Vietnam. Selain itu,penulis juga banyak menggunakan sumber-sumber maklumat primer yang diperolehi seperti temuramah tawanan perang dan dokumen-dokumen yang mengandungi maklumat perisikan berguna yang ditemui ketika operasi-operasi ketenteraan.
Deskripsi mengenai VC/NVA ditulis secara menyeluruh,merangkumi sejarah,struktur organisasi,latihan,doktrin, dan lain-lain maklumat berkaitan. Walaupun ditulis oleh penulis bukan Vietnam,cara penyampaian buku ini bersifat objektif. Tambahan pula.penulis buku ini sendiri mempunyai pengalaman berkhidmat di dalam Perang Vietnam. Selain itu,penulis juga banyak menggunakan sumber-sumber maklumat primer yang diperolehi seperti temuramah tawanan perang dan dokumen-dokumen yang mengandungi maklumat perisikan berguna yang ditemui ketika operasi-operasi ketenteraan.
January 12, 2008
Dry, statistical analysis of the "Bad Guys" in the Vietnam War. Packed with relatively reliable information, but difficult to slog through all the computations.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews