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MWSA Review
Crucible 1972: The War for Peace in Vietnam, by J. Keith Saliba, is a fascinating fast-paced account of military and diplomatic action during the last 14 months of U.S. military involvement in the Vietnam War. The book details the massive, but unsuccessful, North Vietnamese and Provincial Revolutionary Government (the Viet Cong) attack into South Vietnam as U.S. ground troops completed turnover of responsibility for the conduct of the land war to Republic of Vietnam forces. Despite the North’s early successes, the South Vietnamese military, with overwhelming U.S. air support, beat back the communist assault and regained much of its territory.
At the same time, faced with ever-growing domestic sentiment against the war and a Democrat congressional majority capable of defunding the war effort, President Richard Nixon was determined to use unprecedented U.S. air and naval power to force North Vietnam into a “peace with honor” that would allow for the complete end of U.S. military involvement in the war. What ensued was a marathon game of four-dimensional chess that not only involved the political and military moves of the two Vietnams and the U.S. but grand-scale diplomacy with Moscow and Beijing as well.
The author does a superb job of blending these diverse currents into a comprehensive and detailed account of these “last” 14 months. The air campaign is extensively described, and the narrative also includes the seldom-mentioned U.S. Navy surface warfare action into the hearts of vital North Vietnamese ports such as Haiphong. The action, though always factual, often achieves the level of a high-tech military thriller.
The book wisely includes a glossary upfront of the many military and government entity terms, acronyms, and abbreviations, most of which have now passed into history. Several useful maps are also included. This book is perfect for military history enthusiasts, Vietnam veterans, or anyone seeking a deeper understanding of the last days of the U.S. military during the Vietnam War.
Review by Terry Lloyd (April 2025)
Author's Synopsis
By early 1972, America’s long struggle in Vietnam was nearing its end. President Richard Nixon’s policy of “Vietnamization” had seen U.S. troop strength plummet to its lowest since 1965, even as military planners ramped up efforts to train and equip South Vietnam to stand alone. In an effort to kickstart peace negotiations, Nixon that January revealed that for more than two years his administration had been in secret talks with North Vietnam to end the war. Nixon proposed a withdrawal of all foreign military forces from South Vietnam and the release of prisoners held by all sides. After which, the president intoned, the people of South Vietnam would be free to decide their own fate through peaceful, democratic means. All that remained was North Vietnam’s acceptance. But Hanoi said no. General Secretary Le Duan, seeing that the United States was already on its way out and calculating that Vietnamization had failed, decided war not peace would bring final victory.
And so on 30 March 1972, the first terrible wave of 30,000 North Vietnamese infantrymen, armor, and heavy artillery rolled across the DMZ separating North and South Vietnam. Within a month, that number would grow to more than 225,000 troops and hundreds of tanks pressing South Vietnam on three battlefronts. But what Le Duan did not calculate was the ferocity of the U.S. response. American airpower—now unshackled by a president determined to win an “honorable peace” in Vietnam—would rain destruction unlike anything the North Vietnamese had experienced. Before it was over, Washington, Hanoi, and Saigon would be pushed to the brink—and toward a deeply flawed peace that merely sowed the seeds of further war. Drawing on archival research and interviews with veterans who were there, J. Keith Saliba tells the tale of America’s last fateful year in Vietnam…and its desperate attempt to achieve an honorable peace.
Format(s) for review: Paper and Kindle
Review Genre: Nonfiction—History
Number of Pages: 301
Word Count: 95,000