MACV: The Joint Command in the Years of Escalation, 1962-1967

MACV The Joint Command in the Years of Escalation, 19621967, is the first of two volumes that examine the Vietnam conflict from the perspective of the theater commander and his headquarters. It traces the story of the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam MACV, from its establishment in February 1962 to the climax of American escalation at the end of 1967. It deals with theater-level command relationships, strategy, and operations and supplements detailed studies in the Center of Military Historys United States Army in Vietnam series covering combat operations, the advisory effort, and relations with the media. MACV The Joint Command recounts how the MACV commander and his staff viewed the war at various periods and how and why they arrived at their decisions. It analyzes the interservice politics of organizing and managing a joint command MACVs relationships with Pacific Command, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the secretary of defense and the evolution of the commands dealings with its South Vietnamese and third country allies. Perhaps most important, it traces the commanders role in developing and executing U.S. policy in Vietnam, a role that extended beyond military operations to encompass diplomacy and pacification. As an experimentnot entirely successfulin nation-building, the story of the Military Assistance Command contains many parallels to more recent Army engagements and so serves as a potential source of important lessons. This is the ninth volume published in the Unites States Army in Vietnam series. Its appearance constitutes another step in the fulfillment of the Center of Military Historys commitment to produce an authoritative history of Army participation in the Vietnam War.