Review of "Incident at Muc Wa," by Daniel Ford

 Review of

Incident at Muc Wa, by Daniel Ford

Five out of five stars

A novel with a lot of truth

 In this novel, the United States military is not yet heavily involved in Southeast Asia. American involvement is limited to advisors and recruiting and paying for local mercenaries. What is indicative of how the American command structure thinks is that the decision is made to install a powerful garrison at an isolated location called Muc Wa.

 It has no real strategic value in the sense that it controls a vital road intersection or is near a major population center. The decision by the commanders to make Muc Wa a critical location is based more on whimsy than on sound military strategy.

 The almost comic events in setting up and managing the strong point mimic what was actually done in many locations in Vietnam. The garrison is established, considered critical enough to fight for with many casualties, only to eventually consider it of little value and so abandon it. The men fighting for it on the side of the South Vietnamese government never really understood what they were fighting for.

 This is a great book that sets down many of the reasons why the Vietnam War went so poorly for the United States. It demonstrates a lack of overall strategy as well as knowledge of the countryside and the people. In retrospect, it sets down a prediction of how the war would progress.