HUNTING THE VIET CONG: Volume 2: The Fall of Diem and the Collapse of the Strategic Hamlets 1961-1964

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The second volume in this series looks at why the Strategic Hamlet strategy ultimately failed in South Vietnam. The book exposes Viet Cong atrocities, South Vietnamese corruption, and American military and political negligence. It reveals just how violent and aggressive the Viet Cong were towards their own people. Fear was a weapon of choice: beheading civilians, mutilating children, and destroying schools and hospitals were considered legitimate tactics in the VC toolbox. The book also explains how a strategy designed to protect Vietnamese villagers made them easy targets for violent guerrillas. Finally, it reveals that there were many decent Americans in South Vietnam who understood the nation and its people but who were constantly ignored by those in power.