Pleased to see BMW has launched a design solution supporting iPads. Its just not the mount (which does rotate by the way) on the back of the driver’s seat.
BMW’s mobile hotspot technology, a branded MiFi solution that allows any devices in the car to connect to the Internet on the road. And with the addition of Apple’s Siri solution being integrated onto the steering wheel …. well I’m interested to see what happens when iOS6 ships with Siri support on iPads.
I feel that the opening pages of Volume III: 1965–1967 US Ground Strategy and Force Deployments is a telling example of why we lost Vietnam. One cannot help notice that we were way off the mark regarding the enemy in this volume.
We relied upon technology to fight when behind the scenes we knew the political structure of the South Vietnamese government would never succeed, their desertion rate was rising and constant turnover of leaders weakened their moral. Yet we continued to support the South because of the risk (at the time) attributed to the domino effect regarding communism in Asia and the Cold War relationship with the Soviet Union:
The friendly picture gives rise to optimism for increased successes in 1968. In 1967, our logistics base and force structure permitted us to assume a fully offensive posture…A greatly improved intelligence system frequently enabled us to concentrate our superior military assets in preempting enemy military initiatives leading us to decisive accomplishments in conventional engagements. Materiel and tactical innovations have been further developed and employed: Long range reconnaissance patrols, aerial reconnaissance sensors, new observation aircraft, air-mobile operations and the Mobile Riverine Force (MRF), to name a few.
The MRF has been significantly successful in depriving the enemy of freedom and initiative in the population and resources rich Delta areas. The helicopter has established itself as perhaps the single most important tool in our arsenal — and we will welcome more.
While the helicopter may have won the day in the Ia Drang Valley at LZ X-Ray bad command decisions to not to use helicopters led to an ambush for those remaining troops walking from LZ X-Ray to LZ Albany, about 4 kilometers to the north-northeast. I’m no longer convinced about the accuracy of the report are concerning Tet:
The enemy’s TET offensive, which began with the attack on the U.S. Embassy in Saigon on 31 January 1968, although it had been predicted, took the U.S. command and the U.S. public by surprise, and its strength, length, and intensity prolonged this shock.
Predicted? The Pentagon Paper’s acknowledge the Tet offensive had been predicted.
Really?
Its safe to assume IV-C6c will reveal more problems with Clark Clifford as the newly installed Secretary of Defense.
This book has been very difficult to finish. Not for the number of pages nor a wandering eye. They Marched Into Sunlight: War and Peace, Vietnam and America, October 1967 has change my understanding about the war in Vietnam in the same way Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War due to the release of the Pentagon Papers. This book brings home the war to the campus of UW-Madison and the south side of Milwaukee. Half the book is about the campus antiwar movement and the Dow Chemical riot on the same weekend two sons from Milwaukee Wisconsin died in an ambush at Ong Thanh.
Our country is approaching the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War. Enough time has passed to acknowledge tragic mistakes. What makes this very sensitive is the number of Americans who died in a war we know was ‘lost’ even before US soldiers first stepped foot at Da Nang in 1965.
The worst part is that we learned of tremendous loss of life due to poor intelligence and leadership.
Our country has never been able to wrap this around the bigger issue of our long standing efforts in Vietnam that began at the close of World War II.
Must admit I feel a bit numb after reading half of the Pentagon Papers. Reading They Marched Into Sunlight is truly disheartening. I am now more determined than ever to finish all 7,000+ pages of the Pentagon Papers before the end of the year.
The focus at UW-Madison as described in my earlier post showed our nation was in public turmoil well before the Tet Offensive. Can you imagine today a selected minority (of privileged students) who could avoid serving by going to college while those poor middle class sons went to fight and die in Vietnam?
The closing chapters of They Marched Into Sunlight leave me (again) frustrated by 40 years of reflection. Why on earth did the military approach the enemy around Lai Khe in the same way after three consecutive skirmishes? And why –– why after bombing the area the night before Alpha and Delta companies headed out, did the military refuse to provide mortar fire when requested? The ambush was well underway. The Silver Star awarded to Major General John H. Hay, payment to the Michelin tire and rubber company for every tree damaged on their plantations and finally the burial of Danny Sikorski at St. Adelbert’s Cemetery in Milwaukee.
Is there anything better than a book you simply cannot put down? They Marched Into Sunlight: War and Peace, Vietnam and America, October 1967 written by Pulitzer Prize winner and best selling author David Maraniss is striking a cord with me. This story set on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus and a battlefield named Ong Thanh, located 40 miles north of Saigon where American soldiers walked into an ambush.
There are so many elements of this book that make you want to slowly digest each chapter. The early chapters introduce soldiers making their way towards Lai Khe including Lt. Terry Allen, Jr. He was the son of World War II hero Army General Terry Allen. Soliders came from around the Midwest and were eager to serve our country.
Growing up in Ohio and today living in Milwaukee I was immediately drawn to the stories of those soldiers.
Chapter Six: “Madison Wisconsin” is just a wonderful overview to the student anti-war movement of the 1960s. One of the students involved in Madison campus protests was Paul Solgin. He has been elected Mayor of Madison three times since 1973. After his first stint as Mayor he became a fellow at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. Today he is the current Mayor, elected in April 2011.
The student newspaper The Daily Cardinal editor-in-chief was Jeff Greenfield, current CBS senior political analyst. And former Vice President Dick Chaney was finishing his master’s degree on the Madison campus in 1967.
PBS produced an American Experience segment titled “Two Days in October” about They Marched Into Sunlight. The BBC re-aired the program renamed “How Vietnam was lost.” Is it any surprise that Tom Hanks’ production company Playtone, is shooting a movie based upon this book?
Tonight I have just finished reading Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War and have been just amazed at how this book has strengthened my understanding of the toll of war has on American soldiers.
There seems to be a strength in Matterhorn about the unique lives of soldiers facing death. Author Karl Marlantes served honorably in Vietnam and it proves to be the difference.
This is a story in the footsteps of Eugene Sledge’s With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa and Robert Leckie: Helmet for My Pillow. These two books were the basis for HBO’s The Pacific series. Matterhorn now sits with Philip Caputo’s A Rumor of War and Michael Herr’s Dispatches as must-read books about Vietnam.
As I continue reading The Pentagon Papers I am reminded of casualty reports, focusing on body counts as a way to gauge of victory. Marlantes brings this to life. It was all a lie. The soldiers knew it all too well.
Marlantes deserves all recognition surrounding this work. The riveting story of a US soldier stationed along an ambush line mauled to death by a tiger was just as appalling as the fragging of an officer in the final pages.