A Study of Strategic Lessons Learned in Vietnam, Vol. V: Planning the War

A Study of Strategic Lessons Learned in Vietnam, Vol. V: Planning the War. Released through The Black Vault, a digital archive of declassified documents. The canonical PDF is available at documents.theblackvault.com/documents/vietnam/ADA096428.pdf. This document, a draft report submitted to the US Army, is the fifth volume of an eight-part study on the strategic lessons learned in Vietnam. The study was undertaken by the BDM Corporation under contract to the US Army and aims to identify lessons for US military leaders and civilian policymakers. The study's purpose is to provide separate analyses of important lessons learned in Vietnam related to planning the war. Volume V focuses on eight separate analytical taskings, including objectives and strategies, US foreign policy, contingency planning, mobilization, pacification and Vietnamization, US withdrawal, negotiations, and follow-on effort. The authors note that several patterns or themes emerge from the analyses in this volume. Firstly, neither the fundamental US objectives nor the US government's basic policy with respect to South Vietnam were understood completely. Subtle changes that occurred over time were apparently not transmitted to the US leadership in the field. Secondly, as long as the fundamental doctrine of military containment of communism was the official US foreign policy, the decision to intervene in Vietnam has to be considered a logical reaction. The "domino" theory saw any conflict with the communists as a test of the US's national resolve. The study's findings are intended to provide insights of value to present and future US policymakers, both civilian and military. The purpose of the entire eight volumes is not a retelling of the Vietnam conflict, but a drawing of lessons and insights to inform future policy decisions. This is Volume V of the BDM study, "The Strategic Lessons Learned in Vietnam." The study was declassified in 1980, and the revised version is unclassified and approved for public release. This is what the public record looks like at its most ordinary. For more information, visit storyflo.com.