A Clash of Cultures: Civil-military Relations During the Vietnam War

The Vietnam War was in many ways defined by a civil-military divide, an underlying clash between military and civilian leadership over the conflict's nature, purpose and results. This book explores the reasons for that clash--and the results of it. It depicts the intense and complex relationship between the U.S. military and its supporters and opponents, and shows how the ability of the military to prosecute the war was complicated by its relationship to a civilian state that interpreted the strategic value, risks, morality, political costs, and military and political results according to a different calculus.

Orrin Schwab a visiting scholar at the University of Chicago, is the author ofDefending the Free World: John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson and the Vietnam War, 1961-1965 (Praeger, 1998). He has taught at Purdue University Calumet and the University of Chicago.