In this groundbreaking book, Michael F. Morris delves deeply into Marine operations in Vietnam to refute widely held beliefs and assumptions about America’s most controversial war. It is essential reading for anyone who wants a full understanding of what really happened.""—Mark Moyar, author of Triumph Regained: The Vietnam War, 1965–1968""There have been thousands of books on the Vietnam War, covering a wide range of perspectives and topics, but there have never been any studies of operational headquarters at the corps level during the war. In Corps Competency, Michael Morris provides a much-needed and long-overdue corrective to that missing part of the historiography. Focusing on the Marine Corps, he analyzes the critical role of Headquarters, III Marine Amphibious Force, in the conduct of operations in I Corps Tactical Zone, arguably the most dangerous region in South Vietnam. Morris discusses how III MAF understood its enemy, how it managed the war in its assigned area of responsibility, why it made the decisions it did, and what outcomes resulted from those decisions. The author, a retired Marine colonel, is unflinching in his assessment of III MAF—both its strengths and its weaknesses. Morris closes the book with a consideration of the implications of his study for today’s Marine Corps. Meticulously researched and effectively argued, this book is, as the author concludes, ‘a piece of Marine Corps history too long untold.’""—James H. Willbanks, author of Abandoning Vietnam: How America Left and South Vietnam Lost Its War and A Raid Too Far: Operation Lam Son 719 and Vietnamization in Laos
