Inside the VC and NVA: The Real Story of North Vietnam's Armed Forces

"Inside the VC and The NVA" by Michael Lee Lanning and Dan Cragg is a Texas A & M University Press publication. The book is obviously a product from Texas A & M' Vietnam studies and is a superb informational guide to all aspects of Vietnam, including it's history, it's climate, it's people, and...it's unique ability to wage war! I just recently ordered the book and have not finished it. However, this book is not necessarily meant as a readable novel, or biographical sketch to be finished at one sitting. This book is more than that, it is... an astute collection of practical and knowledgeable facts to satisfy your curiosity while giving you "everything you wanted to know about the Vietnamese but, were afraid to ask." This is a great research tool, and unlike most books of this nature, this is one you will enjoy reading! I only wish our Government would have made this book (or one like it), available to every one of us who got orders to Vietnam 40 years ago (now they tell me!). Perhaps, going into a war zone with this type of knowledge would have made a difference in the final outcome. If, you research the Vietnam era, teach history, or simply enjoy learning, then... this book is a "Must!"

Having studied political, religious, and social extremist groups for over 15 yrs, I found this book to be a good primer for not just information on the VC and the NVA, but I saw parallels between the methods used by the VC/NVA and other extremist groups. Be they religious extremist groups or right wing militia type groups. Obviously the parallel breaks down if you take it too far, but it was very interesting and I'd recommend it to anyone who is interested in extremist groups - especially with the asymmetrical threat environment nowadays.

Overall I thought this was a great book. It went into great detail concerning even the most mundane details of VC/NVA life (I consider this an asset, not a liability). I enjoyed reading about how they fought, what kind of weapons they used, and the tactical and logistical details of the various VC/NVA units discussed. This book is limited in scope, after all it is called "Inside the VC and the NVA", so of course it's not going to go into detail about the ARVN fighting ability and THEIR details, nor does it address allied "atrocities". There were some drawbacks however. The VC and NVA interviews were interesting, but I think the information contained in them needs to be taken with a grain of salt. Although the authors address and dismiss the possibility of coercion, I think that's a very real possibility. Secondly, the book could have done without the input of the generals. For the most part, I thought the comments of the generals were suspect. After all, they had the kill ratio/body count agenda. All in all, a great book.

This book is a must-read for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of the Vietnam war. The first review complains that this "reads like a school book. Ideal for the scholar, maybe less than ideal for the casual reader." Well, what did that "casual" reader expect from a book whose cover proclaims that it "fills a huge gap in the historiography of the Vietnam War" ?? This is NOT a dull or difficult book for anyone interested in the subject. The facts, figures, and background the authors include are very helpful in understanding what led the several armed forces to come into battlefield contact, and why they acted as they did. Particularly helpful is the authors' technique of letting participants tell their own stories -- even stories that contradict each other. The book has a helpful index, and extensive source notes and bibliography for those who wish to read further.Perhaps the major fault of the book is that the authors detail the terror and coercive tactics of North Vietnamese forces, and the failings of North Vietnamese leadership, while omitting any mention of similar tactics and the failings of the US/South Vietnamese forces (except the inescapable acknowledgment of My Lai). By this omission, the authors leave the mistaken impression that South Vietnam had a legitimate and widely-supported democratic government with civil rights, whose secret police, ARVN, and US troops never engaged in abuse of the population and enemy prisoners. The VC/NVA actions should at least have been put in context by mention of the South Vietnamese/USA Phoenix program, corruption, tiger cages, etc. The reader may wish to also read _Our Vietnam/Nuoc Viet Ta: A History of the War 1954-1975_ by A. J. Langguth to get additional perspective on the failings of the South Vietnamese government.The authors' limited use of their own feelings about the war, combined with a skillful combination of others' personal narratives and official reports and information, results in a very readable, informative and valuable book. Particularly moving is the Afterword, which reads in part, "We questioned each other and ourselves about whether we were 'going soft' on the VC/NVA who were dedicated to the deaths of our friends.... Yet, the more we researched and wrote, the more we learned that the majority of the VC/NVA did their duty as they saw it -- not unlike ourselves and our fellow soldiers...."Slowly, and despite our efforts to do otherwise, we began to feel more kinship with the VC/NVA than we did with many of our fellow [civilian] Americans.... Even more sobering to us was the moment when we finally realized that we had more in common with our former enemies than with the politicians who had sent us to war."

Lanning and Crasgg produces a well researched tome drawing on numerous NVA/VC prisioner/ defector interviews. The book is excelent and offers a salient reminder to the naivete of so many who still romanticize the VC/NVA as noble, black pajama clad part-time farmers.In fact they were very tough troops, living on a supply package incomprehensible to Western armies, and very well motivated. Fighting on their own home ground, amidst a friendly or intimidated local population, and with favorable terrain and relatively secure sanctuary areas,they were given, they were well equipped, well organized and skillful adversaries. They were also a murderous, vicious and ruthless force as the hail of well documented assasinations, terror bombings, and massacres they carried out shows - a reality too often forgotten by the naive or apologists for Communism.Some reviewer complained that: "Lanning does such a good job, that I think he overdoes it. Parts of the text read much like accounts of Caesar's struggles in Gaul. Doe we really need to know what a bunch of stuffed-shirt REMF generals thought of the VC and NVA? Do we really want to know the political struggles that took place behind closed doors in Hanoi? "Inside the VC and NVA" reads like a school book. "Yes friend we do really need to know. We need to know that these people, vicious and ruthless as they were, were not merely "gooks" but also human beings who wrote letters home and yes, composed poetry. The books adds a human dimension to the VC/NVA often missing in discussions about the 'Nam. And yes friend, we do really need to know the behind the scene political struggles- for they expose the naivete of the dupes who envisaged a noble "general uprising" or a simple "internal" insurgency led by "oppressed southern compadres" when in reality behind the scenes the brutal facts of northern manipulation, domination and hegemony held sway.And yes we do really need to know such details as the typical VC/NVA march formation or how they constructed bunkers. They show that these people, within the parameters of their conflict, and the political limitations imposed on US Forces, knew what the hell they were doing, and were a tough enemy to overcome.This book should be required reading. It adds a military perspective with a new twist. There are a glut of such perspectives from the American side- helicopters, firebases, Big Iron hitting the Ho Chi Minh trail, etc. Now we have added to our knowledge a little of what it was like on the receiving end, and how our enemies coped and eventually triumphed. It offers lessons not to be forgotten.