peace and conflict series
Ron Milam, General Editor
Also in this series:
The Air War in Vietnam
by Michael E. Weaver
Crooked Bamboo: A Memoir from Inside the Diem Regime
by Nguyen Thai; edited by Justin Simundson
Girls Dont! A Womans War in Vietnam
by Inette Miller
Rain in Our Hearts: Alpha Company in the Vietnam War
by James Allen Logue and Gary D. Ford
Texas Tech University Press
Copyright 2021 by Texas Tech University Press
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, including electronic storage and retrieval systems, except by explicit prior written permission of the publisher. Brief passages excerpted for review and critical purposes are excepted.
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Designed by Hannah Gaskamp
Library of Congress Cataloging- in-Publication Data
Names: Marolda, Edward J., 1945 author.
Title: Admirals Under Fire: The US Navy and the Vietnam War / Edward J. Marolda.
Other titles: US Navy and the Vietnam War
Description: [Lubbock, Texas]: [Texas Tech University Press], 2021. | Series: Peace and Conflict | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Summary: An examination of how Americas top naval leadersAdmirals Zumwalt, Moorer, Sharp, Holloway, and Feltdealt with the challenges of the Vietnam War and its aftermath, with a discussion of their relationships with Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, and Carter and Secretaries of Defense McNamara, Laird, and Schlesinger.Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020053118 (print) | LCCN 2020053119 (ebook) |
ISBN 978-1-68283-089-5 ( cloth) | ISBN 978-1-68283-090-1 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Vietnam War, 19611975Naval operations, American. | United States. NavyHistoryVietnam War, 19611975. | United States. NavyOfficersBiography. | AdmiralsUnited StatesBiography.
Classification: LCC DS558.7 .M34 2021 (print) | LCC DS558.7 (ebook) |
DDC 959.704/348092273dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020053118
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020053119
Printed in the United States of America
20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 / 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Texas Tech University Press
Box 41037
Lubbock, Texas 79409-1037 USA
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ttup@ttu. edu
www.ttupress.org
This book is dedicated to the men and women of the US Navy who served their country with honor during the Vietnam War era.
Contents
Illustrations
Admiral Harry D. Felt, in charge of the US Pacific Command from 1958 to 1964
Map of the Republic of Vietnam
US Ambassador Frederick Nolting welcomes Admiral Felt to Saigon
Admiral Ulysses S. G. Sharp confers with Vice Admiral Thomas Moorer, 1964
Admiral Sharp at his Camp Smith headquarters in Hawaii
Admiral Sharp directed the Rolling Thunder bombing campaign against North Vietnam
Route packages map
Admiral Sharp and General William C. Westmoreland, 1965
Admiral Sharp, deep in thought, Hawaii headquarters
Admiral Sharp and a Marine colonel, South Vietnam
Captain James L. Holloway III, commanding officer of USS Enterprise
Admiral Moorer presenting Rear Admiral Holloway with his second Legion of Merit award
Admiral Sharp conferring with President Lyndon B. Johnson
Admiral Sharps book Strategy for Defeat
Admiral Thomas H. Moorer, CNO, September 1967
Admiral Moorer and Rear Admiral Tran Van Chon inspect a unit of the Vietnam Navy
General Creighton W. Abrams and Vice Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt Jr.
Map of Mekong Delta
Admiral Zumwalt speaks to sailors involved in Operation Sea Float
Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird and Admiral Zumwalt
Admiral Zumwalt and Rear Admiral Robert S. Salzer confer, May 1971
President Richard M. Nixon and Admiral Moorer on USS Saratoga , May 1969
The Joint Chiefs of Staff, January 1971
Map of North Vietnams main offensive thrusts during Easter Offensive, 1972
Vice Admiral Holloway and South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu
Map of Haiphong safe port approaches
JCS chairman Moorer, Secretary of the Navy John Chafee, and Admiral Zumwalt
Admiral Zumwalts book On Watch
Admiral Hyman G. Rickover delivers speech
Admiral Zumwalt discusses racial discrimination with a group of sailors
CNO Zumwalt swears in Admiral Holloway as next Vice Chief of Naval Operations, 1973
Admirals Holloway, Zumwalt, and Moorer, Secretary of Defense James R. Schlesinger, Vice Admiral William P. Mack, Annapolis, 29 June 1974
President Nixon and Admiral Holloway, with Secretary of the Navy John Warner
Admiral Holloway and Chief Machinists Mate Lilton Davis confer
Admiral Holloway testifies before congressional committee
Foreword
V ietnam has continued to be a source of deep emotional conflict for all those who served there and very many of those who did not. The nature and sources of this turmoil are unique to each individual, but a major chasm is the patriotism and love of country cohabiting with the dishonest and deeply wrong policy and decisions of American leaders. It was widely known that targets were picked not to do maximum damage but to send signals. Hundreds of aviators died or became POWs while attacking suspected truck parks and bridges that were rebuilt overnight, while power stations, dams, and MiG bases were off limits.
Revelations in recent years have reopened these deep wounds: Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara admitting that he believed from the beginning that the war could not be won; John F. Kennedy in tapes played in Ken Burnss series The Vietnam War stating that he believed the same but that he would not change policy until after his reelection fourteen months hence (this while knowing that Americans in combat would be dying every single day of those long months); revelations from the archives that some were secretly providing North Vietnam with the next days targets nominally so they could warn endangered civilians, but in fact enabling them to focus and reinforce their air defenses, resulting in hundreds of unnecessarily lost airplanes and pilots.
Veterans of the war thought that they had been subjected to intolerable limitations and rules of engagement (ROE) because of stupid policies, but to learn of the actual betrayals of trust in such detail was to rip the scabs from these veterans wounds.
Dr. Edward J. Marolda was one of those Vietnam veterans. But above all he is one of the nations leading scholars of both the US Navys history and of the Vietnam War and is arguably the preeminent scholar of naval policy, strategy, and operations in that savage contest. The author of numerous previous books and articles, in this volume he takes on a daunting task: challenging the reader to see the naval war for Vietnam primarilyalthough not exclusivelythrough the eyes of five leading naval commanders: four-star admirals Harry Felt, Oley Sharp, Tom Moorer, Bud Zumwalt, and Jim Holloway.
Four-star admirals are typically an experienced, sagacious, and energetic lot, with a great deal of wisdom to offer and the savvy and clout to translate that wisdom into action. I knew well three of the five whose experience Dr. Marolda highlights: Admirals Moorer, Holloway, and Zumwalt.
