re: Could any strategy have worked in Vietnam?

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On Strategy.

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Cannot believe this is not part of SSC curriculum

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I can believe it. Army is not fond of items that are critical.

I came across that book at Ft. Knox. It was on the shelf because one of the commanders there recommended it. But he was a an anomaly. He'd once referred to the garrison staff there as 'insurgents' and he did it with a microphone in his hand, not as an aside during a training meeting.

Another good read is the article from Yingling, "A Failure in Generalship". There were some CGSC students that went after him/it, of course.

Also, the book "The Path to Victory: America's Army and the Revolution in Human Affairs" by Don Vandergriff, is one of those that more people should read.

You can also get with the pubs officer in your unit and order a tremendous number of books through that route - lots and lots of history books, not just FMs. Army bundles them up and sends them to the pubs office on post, they put them on the shelf and your pubs officer just picks them up. Regular historical accounts, and others more like vignettes are available, like 'Seven Firefights in Vietnam'.

It's a shame the Army doesn't push a better reading list and doesn't push it down to all ranks and encourage more consumption of reading material.

When the British went to Afghanistan, some of their officers wrote lessons learned and various accounts. Stuff like that is commonly found at Leavenworth, at the Foreign Studies Office(?).

When the Soviets went to Afghanistan, after they got beat up a bit, some of their officers discovered these texts from the British. They found that the same tactics used against the Brits were being used against them, on the same exact terrain. These items and books that captured them, such as 'The bear went over the mountain' and 'The other side of the mountain' were all there, known about, and institutionalized knowledge that just never happened to leave Leavenworth.

We went to Afghanistan just after 911. And we faced the same tactics, at the same time of day, on the same terrain as the Brits and Soviets before us - and we were completely surprised by it - and that is ridiculous. Finally the Army's CALL put out little booklets on common TTPs used against us. I don't recall those ever being available before 2008 or perhaps 2007 - which is mindnumbing.