Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue: The Marriage of Strategy and Tactics in Vietnam

Abstract

This monograph discusses operational art in Vietnam. The research question used to focus this study effort was how did the United States perform in conducting operational art in Vietnam? Since operational art is the vital link between strategy and tactics, this title captures the essence of the monograph. After a brief introduction, the monograph reviews and analyzes the Army's doctrine for the Vietnam war, FM 100-5 (1962). That doctrine was found to be sound. It was particularly strong in describing unconventional warfare, military operations against irregular forces, situations short of war, the spectrum of war and limited war. It was noticeably weak in describing infiltration and the articulation of theater operations. Current doctrine and contemporary writings were reviewed in order to establish and define operational art and the operational level of war. Operational level of war; Operational art; Campaigns; Theater of operations; Major operations. (jes)

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
May 13, 1989
Accession Number
ADA215585

Entities

People

  • Jack E. Pattison

Organizations

  • United States Army Command and General Staff College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Human Systems
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Combat Operations
  • Contingency Operations (Military)
  • Doctrine
  • Employment
  • Field Army
  • Geographic Regions
  • Governments
  • Military History
  • Military Operations
  • Military Organizations
  • Second World War
  • Security
  • Unconventional Warfare
  • United States
  • Vietnam War
  • War
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Joint Military Operations and Doctrine.
  • Library and Information Science/ Studies, Southeast Asia Studies, Bibliography of Vietnam and Lao Studies.