Published: 1 September 2008
Air & Space Power Journal - Fall 2008

America Won the Vietnam War! How the Left Snatched Defeat from the Jaws of Victory by Robert R. Owens, PhD. Xulon Press (http://www.xulonpress.com), 2180 West State Road 434, Suite 2140, Longwood, Florida 32779, 2004, 408 pages, $21.99 (softcover).

Dr. Robert Owens has turned his frustration with liberals’ interpretation of America’s defeat in Vietnam into a book on how America Won the Vietnam War! A pastor and historian, the author has published a number of other books, primarily on religious subjects. Unfortunately, this effort falls well short of making a convincing argument.

The study begins by presenting historical background about how the United States became involved in Vietnam by stepping in after the defeat of the French in order to maintain credibility with allies around the world. America was motivated by the domino theory, which held that the fall of Vietnam would lead to one communist victory after another throughout the world. Dr. Owens adequately highlights how communist success in China and the Korean conflict stoked the United States’ belief that it had to defend itself against an aggressive East. As Pres. Lyndon Johnson argued, retreating from Vietnam would just mean that the United States would have to fight somewhere else.

In order to convince the reader of the truth of his thesis, Dr. Owens defines victory as prevailing on the field of battle and achieving goals set for the military by the political leadership. The United States sought to contain communism by bringing about a stable, independent South Vietnam capable of holding off the aggressive North. The author completely ignores this fact, preferring to point out that the United States completed Vietnamization and that North Vietnam signed the Paris Peace Accords. Nevertheless, these actions did not contain communism, and South Vietnam fell. Owens concedes that “since the conquest of South Vietnam marked the goal of North Vietnam, from its viewpoint it did ‘Win’ the war. . . . The goal of the United States . . . was instead to stop the invasion of South Vietnam” (p. 220).

The author seems to forget that the war was fought between two countries. For America, this included not only the military but also the executive branch, legislature, media, and the public. Dr. Owens does an excellent job of highlighting how an antiwar Congress swept into power in 1974 because of Vietnam and Watergate, cutting support to South Vietnam by passing the Case-Church Amendment, which forbade US military intervention in the South. This allowed North Vietnam to move forward with its invasion and defeat the South. The author attempts to discount this fact by asserting that North Vietnam never defeated the American military—but the North sought only to prolong the fight until Americans lost their will to continue. Ultimately, Vietnamization and the peace accords served as tools to allow the United States to extricate itself from Vietnam. Dr. Owens’s argument fails to show how this fulfilled the American objective of containing communism by establishing a stable, independent South Vietnam. Given the failure of this objective, one cannot reasonably state that America won the Vietnam War.

The reader encounters other problems as well. An online publisher, Xulon Press leaves the editing to the author, which in this case has resulted in a poorly organized book that contains grammatical errors, missing words, and unnecessary repetition. Owens also spends too much time criticizing the left and not enough time evaluating the policies of the administrations involved to determine whether or not they could have succeeded. He also fails to compare and contrast the political decisions made in Vietnam with those made today in the fight against global terror. In terms of the book’s reference value, Dr. Owens does cite many policy documents from the Vietnam era, but these are readily available elsewhere—especially from the Internet.

I do not recommend America Won the Vietnam War! The author presents no new evidence and eventually contradicts his own theory. Although he may have demonstrated “how the left snatched defeat from the jaws of victory,” he certainly doesn’t show how America won the war. There is nothing earth-shattering here.

Maj James F. Palumbo, USAF
Naval Postgraduate School, California

Disclaimer

The conclusions and opinions expressed in this document are those of the author cultivated in the freedom of expression, academic environment of Air University. They do not reflect the official position of the U.S. Government, Department of Defense, the United States Air Force or the Air University.

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