General comment: CIA leared how to run drugs and launder money in Viet-Nam at the same time that the Pentagon discovered the joys of a blank check. We have never recovered from that. When combined with the secret slush fund managed by the Secretary of the Treasury, the bottom line is that many things have been done “in our name” that are completely inconsistent with the Constitution, the Republic, or the rule of law. Corruption and covert action have displaced decision-support as the reason for being. Life comes down to one word: INTEGRITY. If a government lacks integrity at any level (not just honor, but inclusion, open-mindness, a grip on reality), then it will ultimately fail. Lies kill one's comrades. It is time we stop lying to one another, and it is time we stop obeying orders based on lies. Unilateral top-down short-term decisions based on flawed secrets are simply not affordable, sustainable, or–generally–honorable. The future lies in make multinational bottom-up long-term decisions that ARE affordable and sustainable precisely because they achieve a good “fit” with reality. At the end of this entry is an illustration of thise contrast. We still need spies and secrecy, but the 20-80 rule applies.
Search Tip: Old dogs remember Viet-Nam. Modern writing tends to go with Vietnam. Search for both.
Absolute Classics
Who the Hell Are We Fighting?: The Story of Sam Adams and the Vietnam Intelligence Wars (Hardcover)
None So Blind: A Personal Account of the Intelligence Failure in Vietnam
Intelligence in Viet-Nam & Laos
Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers
The Tet Offensive–Intelligence Failure in War
Body of Secrets: Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency
Slow Burn–The Rise and Bitter Fall of American Intelligence in Vietnam
Cash on Delivery–CIA Special Operations During the Secret War in Laos
Intelligence & Policy
Battle Ready (Study in Command)
From the Shadows–The Ultimate Insider’s Story of Five Presidents and How They Won the Cold War
Secrecy and Democracy–The CIA in Transition
A Look over My Shoulder: A Life in the Central Intelligence Agency
Informing Statecraft–Intelligence for a New Century
On Intelligence: Spies and Secrecy in an Open World
Flawed by Design–The Evolution of the CIA, JCS, and NSC
A Season of Inquiry–The Senate Intelligence Investigation
Consequences & Revisionism
The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence
The Fifty Year Wound: The True Price of America’s Cold War Victory
Blank Check: The Pentagon’s Black Budget
Legacy of Ashes–The History of the CIA
Triumph Forsaken: The Vietnam War, 1954-1965 (v. 1)
Assassination of JFK by CIA, Cuban Exiles, & “the Complex”
JFK and the Unspeakable–Why He Died & Why It Matters
Someone Would Have Talked–The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy and the Conspiracy to Mislead History
Assassination of Martin Luther King by FBI with US Military Assistance
An Act of State–The Execution of Martin Luther King, New and Updated Edition
Big Picture Sorrows of Empire
The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic (American Empire Project)
Killing Hope: U.S. Military and C.I.A. Interventions Since World War II-Updated Through 2003
State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration (Hardcover)
Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire
Spies for Hire–The Secret World of Intelligence Outsourcing
Overthrow: America’s Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq (Hardcover)
The Very Best Men–Four Who Dared–The Early Years of the CIA
Merchants of Treason–America’s Secrets for Sale
Public Intelligence Journal Entries
Journal: Afghanistan = Viet-Nam, National Security Council Remains “Like a Moron”
At Amazon Not Reviewed within Phi Beta Iota
A Better War: The Unexamined Victories and Final Tragedy of America's Last Years in Vietnam by Lewis Sorley (Paperback – April 28, 2007)
A Question of Command: Counterinsurgency from the Civil War to Iraq (Yale Library of Military History) by Mark Moyar, Donald Kagan, and Frederick Kagan (Hardcover – Oct 20, 2009)
CIA and Vietnam Policymakers: Three Episodes, 1962-1968 by Center for the Study of Intelligence (U.S.) and Harold P. Ford (Paperback – 1998)
Cloak and Dollar: A History of American Secret Intelligence by Professor Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones (Hardcover – Mar 1, 2002)
Code-Name Bright Light: The Untold Story of U.S. POW Rescue Efforts During the Vietnam War by George J. Veith (Mass Market Paperback – Dec 1, 1998)
Cold War Spooks: Naval intelligence forces intercept Russian communications–On Land, as well as under, above and on the seas. by Tony Seidel (Paperback – Sep 5, 2006)
Decent Interval: An Insider's Account of Saigon's Indecent End Told by the Cia's Chief Strategy Analyst in Vietnam by Frank Snepp (Paperback – Nov 2002) – Deluxe Edition
Dereliction of Duty: Johnson, McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Lies That Led to Vietnam by H. R. Mcmaster (Paperback – May 8, 1998)
Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War: A Political, Social, and Military History by Spencer C. Tucker (Paperback – Nov 1, 2001)
Eyes Behind the Lines: US Army Long-Range Reconnaissance and Surveillance Units by James F. Gebhardt (Paperback – Nov 1, 2008)
Historical Dictionary of Air Intelligence (Historical Dictionaries of Intelligence and Counterintelligence) by Glenmore S. Trenear-Harvey (Hardcover – April 28, 2009)
Historical Dictionary of United States Intelligence (Historical Dictionaries of Intelligence and Counterintelligence) by Michael A. Turner (Hardcover – Dec 28, 2005)
ICEX Intelligence: Vietnam's Phoenix Program by G. LaVerne Crowell (Paperback – Feb 27, 2006)
Intelligence Activities and the Rights of Americans: 1976 US Senate Report on Illegal Wiretaps and Domestic Spying by the FBI, CIA and NSA by Church Committee (Paperback – May 1, 2008)
Intelligence at the Top (Vietnam Experiment Series) by Ronald Hendron (Paperback – April 2002)
Intelligence Failures and Decent Intervals by Philip Kivett (Paperback – May 23, 2006)
Intelligence Wars: American Secret History from Hitler to Al-Qaeda (New York Review Books Collections) by Thomas Powers (Paperback – Jun 30, 2004)
Military Review: U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas [In This Issue – *Self-Training for Senior Officers *Intelligence in Vietnam *Vietnamese Artillery Support] (Professional Journal of the US Army, Volume XLVI, Number 8, August 1966) by Col. Donald J. Delaney (Paperback – 1966)
Of Spies and Lies: A CIA Lie Detector Remembers Vietnam by John F. Sullivan (Hardcover – April 2002)
Phoenix and the Birds of Prey: Counterinsurgency and Counterterrorism in Vietnam by Mark Moyar and Col. Harry G. Summers Jr. (Paperback – Dec 10, 2007)
Project Omega: Eye of the Beast (Memories Series) by James Acre (Paperback – Aug 1, 1999)
Psychological Operations American Style: The Joint United States Public Affairs Office, Vietnam and Beyond by Robert J. Kodosky (Hardcover – Nov 28, 2007)
Special Agent, Vietnam: A Naval Intelligence Memoir by Douglass H. Hubbard (Hardcover – April 30, 2006)
Spies and Commandos: How America Lost the Secret War in North Vietnam (Modern War Studies) by Kenneth J. Conboy and Dale Andrade (Paperback – Sep 2001)
The Bridges of Vietnam: From the Journals of a U.S. Marine Intelligence Officer by Fred L. Edwards Jr. (Paperback – May 1, 2001)
The French Secret Services: A History of French Intelligence from the Drefus Affair to the Gulf War by Douglas Porch (Paperback – Nov 1, 2003)
The Hidden History of the Vietnam War by John Prados (Paperback – Mar 25, 1998)
The Most Secret War: Army Signals Intelligence in Vietnam by James L. Gilbert (Paperback – Jan 2003)
The Phoneix Program and Contemporary Counterinsurgency by William Rosenau (Paperback – Jul 25, 2009)
The Quest for Absolute Security: The Failed Relations Among U.S. Intelligence Agencies by Athan Theoharis (Hardcover – Oct 26, 2007)
The role of military intelligence, 1965-1967 (Vietnam studies) by Joseph A McChristian (Unknown Binding – 1974)
The Secret War Against Hanoi: The Untold Story of Spies, Saboteurs, and Covert Warriors in North Vietnam by Richard H. Shultz Jr. (Paperback – Dec 5, 2000)
The Spy Who Loved Us: The Vietnam War and Pham Xuan An's Dangerous Game by Thomas A. Bass (Hardcover – Feb 9, 2009)
The Tet Effect: Intelligence and the Public Perception of War (Cass Military Studies) by Jake Blood (Hardcover – Sep 22, 2005)
The Twenty-five Year Century: A South Vietnamese General Remembers the Indochina War to the Fall of Saigon by Lam Quang Thi (Hardcover – Feb 13, 2002)
Vietnam Follies: A Memoir of an Intelligence Officer by Henry Billings (Paperback – Jan 2002)
Vietnam: The History of an Unwinnable War, 1945-1975 (Modern War Studies) by John Prados (Hardcover – April 21, 2009)
War of Numbers: An Intelligence Memoir by Sam Adams (Paperback – Jun 1, 1998)
Wiring Vietnam: The Electronic Wall by Anthony J. Tambini (Paperback – May 28, 2007)
Epoch B Intelligence & Policy-Making Illustrated
