Pacification and the American Experience in Vietnam

Dr. Rob Thompson is a historian with the Films Team at the Army University Press. He received his PhD in History from the University of Southern Mississippi, and he specializes in the study of the Vietnam War, with a focus on the confluence of conventional warfare and pacification at the province level. His research places American strategy in the context of a single province—Phú Yên, and this is the subject of his book which we will be discussing today – Clear, Hold, and Destroy: Pacification in Phú Yên and the American War in Vietnam, which was published in 2021 by the University of Oklahoma Press. Dr. Thompson is also interested in the history of American diplomacy and the history of Modern Europe, and his writing has appeared in The Strategy Bridge, The New York Times, and the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of American History.

Also, our standard disclaimer: Dr. Thompson's comments represent his views only and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of The Modern Scholar Podcast, Army University Press, the U.S. Army, or the Department of Defense.