Defend and Befriend: The U.S. Marine Corps and Combined Action Platoons in Vietnam

by John Southard

Overview

After relatively successful military interventions in Iraq in 1992 and Yugoslavia in 1998, many American strategists believed that airpower and remote technology were the future of U.S. military action. But America's most recent wars in the Middle East have reinforced the importance of counterinsurgency, with its imperative to "win hearts and minds" on the ground in foreign lands. In both Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. military has studied and experimented with the combined action platoon (CAP) concept used from 1965 to 1971 by the Marine Corps in Vietnam.

Consisting of twelve Marines, a medic, and dozens of inexperienced local militiamen, the American contingent of CAPs lived in South Vietnamese villages where they provided twenty-four-hour security and daily medical support for civilians, and fostered social interaction through civic action projects, such as building schools, offices, and wells. Defend and Befriend is the first comprehensive study of the evolution of these platoons, emphasizing how and why the U.S. Marine Corps attempted to overcome the inherent military, social, and cultural obstacles on the ground in Vietnam. Basing his analysis on Marine records and numerous interviews with CAP veterans, author John Southard illustrates how thousands of soldiers tasked with counterinsurgency duties came to perceive the Vietnamese people and their mission.

This unique study counters prevailing stereotypes and provides a new perspective on the American infantryman in the Vietnam War. Illuminating the fear felt by many Americans as they served among groups of understandably suspicious civilians, Defend and Befriend offers important insights into the future development of counterinsurgency doctrine.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813145280
Publisher:	University Press of Kentucky
Publication date:	07/08/2014
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	232
File size:	2 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

John Southard is a visiting lecturer in the Department of History at Georgia State University. He lives in Atlanta, Georgia.

Table of Contents

Maps viii

Preface xi

Abbreviations and Acronyms xv

Introduction 1

1 The Evolution of Combined Action Platoons 13

2 Combined Action Platoons, Green Berets, and Mobile Advisory Teams 33

3 Becoming a Combined Action Platoon Marine 49

4 Life in a Combined Action Platoon 71

5 Popular Forces in Combined Action Platoons 105

6 The Combined Action Program and U.S. Military Strategy in Vietnam 123

Conclusion 145

Acknowledgments 153

Appendix: Historiographical Essay 157

Notes 161

Bibliography 179

Index 197

Editorial Reviews

[...] I cannot point to another source – primary or secondary – that describes the CAP program and all that it encompasses in such a concise manner [...] Southard is able to excellently capture much more than the gist of the CAP's experience; he captures the outlook of the individual CAP Marine to Lieutenant General Krulak's experience defending the CAP program to his four-star headquarters. This book will be appreciated by both historian and practitioner alike. Easily read with a well-organized and researched argument, it should be in the hands of the historian looking to examine other methods of war than conventional search and attack battle.

US Military History Review

John Southard brings a scholarly perspective to a Vietnam War Marine counterinsurgency program that hitherto hasbeen discussed primarily by Marine Corps historians.

VVA Books

The work of the Combined Action Platoons during the Vietnam War was significant, yet the participants have had little opportunity to tell their stories. Defend and Befriend provides them with a voice. Charting new waters, this book is an important contribution to the study of the war.

coeditor of America and the Vietnam War: Re-ex Mary Kathyrn Barbier

This book adds a great deal to the significant debate about how the United States waged the war in Vietnam. Southard skillfully questions the wisdom of the war of attrition, while at the same time highlighting the challenges of trying to win the war on the local level.

author of Grunts: The American Combat Soldier Kyle Longley

"A valuable and insightful study of the relationship and perceptions of Americans tasked with counterinsurgency and their Vietnamese counterparts. Defend and Befriend is terrific military history as well as serving as a guidebook for future counterinsurgency efforts. I learned something new from each chapter."—Larry Berman, author of Zumwalt: The Life and Times of Admiral Elmo Russell "Bud" Zumwalt, Jr.

From the Publisher