LETTERS TO THE WALL Book Now Available

September 18, 2016 | Books, Connections to Today, Home Page Bottom

A second edition of LETTERS TO THE WALL is now available at a 30% discount price. This edition includes two added features — an authors’ index and a reference index for names on The Wall that letter writers addressed.

This book is made up of 187 or so letters written over the past two years to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial (The Wall in Washington, DC). Letter writers include combat veterans, war resistors, families of both, and anyone who was/is directly impacted by the war. We in VFP are using this collection as part of our Full Disclosure campaign to confront the Pentagon’s revisionist history of the war. We think this collection could be an invaluable resource for anyone who is studying the American War in Vietnam. By the way, we are continuing to collect letters that we will deliver to The Wall every Memorial Day for the next ten years. If you want to write a letter, please send it to me, Doug Rawlings, at this email address: rawlings@maine.edu. Before doing so, however, I recommend reading this book. You may purchase the print version or the e-book version below.

Take good care, Doug

Here’s the Lulu Book print book link

http://www.lulu.com/shop/veterans-for-peace/letters-to-the-wall-memorial-day-events-2015-2016/paperback/product-22808487.html

and here’s the Lulu eBook link:

http://www.lulu.com/shop/veterans-for-peace-vietnam-full-disclosure/letters-to-the-wall-memorial-day-events-2015-and-2016/ebook/product-22810721.html

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1972: 50 Years Ago

March 30-July 1972 The PAVN (People’s Army of Viet Nam) and the NLF begin a major offensive. The goal of Easter Offensive, officially known as The 1972 Spring – Summer Offensive, (also called the Nguyen Hue (Nguyễn Huệ) offensive) was to win a decisive victory in 1972 or at least improve the revolutionary position for future peace talks. The 3-pronged attacks began in the north, center, and south of the country. Massed North Vietnamese Army artillery open a shattering barrage, targeting South Vietnamese positions across the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). Upwards of 20,000 PAVN troops cross the DMZ, forcing the South Vietnamese units into a retreat. The Southern defense is thrown into complete chaos. Intelligence reports had predicted a Northern attack, but no one had expected it to come across the DMZ. A week after the launch of the offensive, Nixon decides to respond with a massive air campaign against the North. The campaign was by far the largest and most comprehensive of the war, using a wide variety of aircraft as well as new ‘smart’ bombs. The US committed 74 tactical squadrons to the attack. In addition, six aircraft carriers were assigned to the bombing mission as well as over 100 B-52 bombers. For the first time, the US places mines in Haiphong Harbor to cut off the North Vietnamese from foreign support.

The South Vietnamese with heavy American air support are able to turn back the attack after a month and a half. The city of Loc Ninh (Lộc Ninh), located close to the Cambodian border subsequently became the capital of the Provisional Revolutionary Government of South Vietnam (PRGSVN), a distinction it held until it was disbanded after the war. While US bombing and a stiffened ARVN defense was able to turn back the PAVN and NLF offensive, it remains politically impossible to reintroduce sufficient U.S. combat troops to stem the PAVN drive. With his policy of Vietnamization at stake, Nixon implements a massive buildup of air power in Southeast Asia and a broadening of the eligible targets.