This book is a unique source of information about U.S. troop involvement in South Vietnam from 1965 to 1972. It stresses that Vietnam was a war without fronts or battle lines-a war different from any that the United States had previously fought.

Thomas C Thayer

Part One: Basic Patterns of this War Without Fronts 1. Why was the war so Confusing? 2. The Where and When of Combat 3. Where Did the $150 Billion Go? 4. Goliath Versus David: The Forces Involved Part Two: The "Main Force" War 5. The Name of the Communist Game: Small Unit Actions 6. Allied Ground Operations are Difficult to Analyze 7. South Vietnamese Forces 8. Did Airpower work? 9. Stalemate: The Americans Couldn't Win Part Three: The Casualty Toll 10. Who Got Killed? 11. American Casualties Analyzed 12. More than a Million Civilian Casualties Part Four Pacification: "The Other War" 13. How Secure was the Countryside? 14. The Territorial Forces: Unsung Heroes 15. Vietnamese Popular Attitudes 16. Chieu Hoi: Defections from the Communist Side 17. Dismantling the Communists Subversive Apparatus Part Five: Civil Operations 18. The Enormous Refugee Burden 19. Land Reform: Best of this Century? 20. Inflation: War-Fueled but Well-Controlled Part Six: A Summing Up 21. Epilogue: 1975 22. Some Conclusions