BOOK REVIEW | The Brown Water War at 50: A Retrospective on the Coastal and Riverine Conflict in Vietnam

The Naval Institute Press has published several such "retrospectives" over the years. They offer the reader an excellent overview of the experiences and resulting lessons learnt from important battles and campaigns in which the United States Navy has taken a leading part. Indeed, one of the co-editors, Thomas Cutler, produced a similarly excellent retrospective on The Battle of Leyte Gulf at 75, a Retrospective.

Incorporating a carefully selected and well-illustrated dozen essays by experts on the subject, several of whom actually participated in the campaign described, they present a very useful and practical historical analysis of the United States Naval experience in Vietnam. There is an enormous amount to be learnt from them. This is military history of the most valuable kind.

Once you wade through the endless acronyms and abbreviations, you reach a very human core that does not neglect the all-important technical aspects of the Vietnam War operations. It is a pity that the publisher did not incorporate Cutlers’ excellent glossary and timeline from his early classic Brown Water; Black Berets: Coastal and Riverine Warfare in Vietnam. That would have made reading this book much easier.

Whatever, wade through them the reader does, to uncover the gems lying beneath. And they are real gems. This campaign was asymmetric warfare at its best – by both sides – and it is brilliantly described.

The US Navy and Coast Guard proved to be brilliantly and very unusually innovative tactically, technically, and culturally. The participants were very fortunate to have been led by a very rare kind of hyper-imaginative and energetic admiral in Elmo Zumwalt, who was soon after promoted, very deservedly, over the heads of several of his superiors, to Chief of Naval Operations.

The all-volunteer boat crews, inspired by their boss, were also innovative, energetic, and imaginative, not to mention brave. They achieved much with comparatively little and largely outshone their blue water counterparts. That is all very usefully described here.

There is so much to be learnt from this book, especially by the senior officers of modern navies who tend to be overly obsessed with large and very expensive warships and submarines. Small craft, effectively used and well armed, can be very valuable in war, particularly in shallow, coastal, and riverine war.

Wars, even naval wars, can be effectively and economically conducted if the will is there. On the ground and brown water of Vietnam, the will certainly was there. Unfortunately for those involved, their will was not politically well supported from Washington.

Editors: Thomas J. Cutler and Edward J. Marolda

Available from The Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, USA

Web: www.usni.org