Raid Too Far: Operation Lam Son 719 and Vietnamization in Laos Volume 143

Description: In February 1971, the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) launched an incursion into Laos in an attempt to cut the Ho Chi Minh Trail and destroy North Vietnamese Army (NVA) base areas along the border. This movement would be the first real test of Vietnamization, Pres. Richard Nixon's program to turn the fighting over to South Vietnamese forces as US combat troops were withdrawn. US ground forces would support the operation from within South Vietnam and would pave the way to the border for ARVN troops, and US air support would cover the South Vietnamese forces once they entered Laos, but the South Vietnamese forces would attack on the ground alone.

The operation, dubbed Lam Son 719, went very well for the first few days, but as movement became bogged down the NVA rushed reinforcements to the battle and the ARVN forces found themselves under heavy attack. US airpower wreaked havoc on the North Vietnamese troops, but the South Vietnamese never regained momentum and ultimately began to withdraw back into their own country under heavy enemy pressure.

In this first in-depth study of this operation, military historian and Vietnam veteran James H. Willbanks traces the details of battle, analyzes what went wrong, and suggests insights into the difficulties currently being incurred with the training of indigenous forces.

Review Quotes:

"There is no serious full-length account of Operation Lam Son 719. There are a couple of 'pop' accounts of the battle, but no scholar has taken notice of this crucial moment in the Vietnam War. As Willbanks rightly points out, Lam Son 719 was the crucial test of America's Vietnamization program. Thus it was the test of Nixon's war. This book is badly needed. In short Lam Son 719 fills a huge gap in our historiographical understanding of the Vietnam War. It is a stand out work, one that will be of great importance in the world of professional academic historians and will be of great interest to a broader military history readership."--Andrew A. Wiest, Distinguished Professor of History and Director of the Center for the Study of War and Society, University of Southern Mississippi; author, Vietnam's Forgotten Army: Heroism and Betrayal in the ARVN and The Boys of '67: Charlie Company's War in Vietnam