Elusive Victories_ The American Presidency at War-Oxford University Press (2012)

232 e lusive v ictories VC cadres for intelligence and supplies.)  In 1967, with pacifi cation stalled, Robert Komer, a senior ...

s taying the c ourse 233 became apparent back in Washington if not to MACV.  Cutting off resupply of the enemy rested entirely ...

234 e lusive v ictories South. Westmoreland asked for additional troops to match the North Vietnamese eff ort and sustain the lo ...

s taying the c ourse 235 expansionist impetus of communism had stalled) or toward a more aggressive use of force (because the li ...

236 e lusive v ictories duration, but not so much that political pressure would force an all-out military eff ort. He never stru ...

s taying the c ourse 237 dead and wounded seemed to negate administration claims of progress, while the occasional television re ...

238 e lusive v ictories Subcommittee of the Senate Armed Services Committee, held hearings on the bombing campaign that brought ...

s taying the c ourse 239 approval for the president’s overall job performance.  In summer 1967, as popular disenchantment wit ...

240 e lusive v ictories his spokesmen often attacked the critics who urged an early withdrawal from South Vietnam as agents, per ...

s taying the c ourse 241 leave the communists unable to exercise strategic initiative. Th en West- moreland’s troops would dicta ...

242 e lusive v ictories Eager, even desperate, for positive news, the Johnson administration boasted of turning the corner. To s ...

s taying the c ourse 243 Highlands of South Vietnam and along the Cambodian border would first draw away American troops from po ...

244 e lusive v ictories American commanders.  As a further distraction, NVA forces placed the U.S. Marine base at Khe Sanh, o ...

s taying the c ourse 245 civilians in an attempt at political intimidation that backfi red. ARVN forces, with American air suppo ...

246 e lusive v ictories 3,000 casualties, the highest one-week total of the war. Westmoreland was soon “kicked upstairs” to beco ...

s taying the c ourse 247 change of course. Rather than continued escalation, Cliff ord advised taking measures, particularly a b ...

248 e lusive v ictories strong economic incentive to cooperate. In the April 1965 Johns Hopkins University speech in which he la ...

s taying the c ourse 249 the message through a new back channel opened by Henry Kissinger, still a Harvard professor, who served ...

250 e lusive v ictories frustration, American offi cials found that vast U.S. assistance yielded little leverage over the South ...

s taying the c ourse 251 on November 2, 1968, Thieu backed off his commitment. Johnson announced the unconditional bombing halt ...