Stanton Shelby L. The Rise and Fall of an American Army: US Ground Forces in Vietnam 1965-1973

Novato: Presidio Press, 1985. — 411 p. — ISBN: 0-89141-232-8This battlefield history concentrates on how the United States Army and Marine Corps raised combat units and deployed them to Vietnam, and then how these units were employed and fought during the war. The book highlights significant military factors which affected unit performance in Vietnam. To provide continuity within the framework of overall United States military history, the historical backgrounds of most line regiments fielded in Vietnam have been briefly summarized in the footnotes. Thus, matters of smaller unit heritage do not infringe upon the narrative, but are still readily available for the interested reader. Although the fall of Saigon and the fall of an American Army are two separate themes, the allied efforts in Vietnam were so intertwined that they directly impacted on American combat in this work are believed necessary to tell the complete
story. The book is arranged chronologically, so that each of its six parts covers a specific span of time.