| | |  | Physical Security | Home » » Black Ops, Vietnam: An Operational History of MACVSOG | | | | | | | Description: | | Without doubt the most unique U.S. unit to participate in the Vietnam War, the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam Studies and Observations Group (MACVSOG) was a highly-classified, U.S. joint-service organization consisting of Army Special Forces, Navy SEALs, Marine Force Reconnaissance units, the Air Force, and the CIA. Committed to action in Southeast Asia even before the major U.S. build-up in 1965, it also fielded a division-sized element of South Vietnamese military personnel, indigenous Montagnards, ethnic Chinese Nungs, and Taiwanese pilots. During its nine-year existence, MACVSOG participated in most of the significant operations of the conflict, including the Gulf of Tonkin incident, the Tet Offensive, the incursion into Cambodia, the Green Beret murder case, the Phoenix program, and the Son Tay POW raid. The story of this extraordinary unit has never before been told in full and comes as a timely blueprint for today's unconventional warfare. Published in cooperation with the Association of the United States Army. | | | Product Details: | | | Author:
| Robert M. Gillespie | | Hardcover:
| 320 pages | | Publisher:
| Naval Institute Press | | Publication Date:
| September 15, 2011 | | Language:
| English | | ISBN:
| 1591143217 | | Product Length:
| 9.1 inches | | Product Width:
| 6.3 inches | | Product Height:
| 1.1 inches | | Product Weight:
| 1.35 pounds | | Package Length:
| 9.0 inches | | Package Width:
| 6.1 inches | | Package Height:
| 1.0 inches | | Package Weight:
| 1.2 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 5 reviews |
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| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
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9 of 9 found the following review helpful:
 Not what I expected by still great readNov 25, 2011
By Evan
This book is a great read! It gives a full history and a major logistics side of the inner working of MACV-SOG. I was half expecting this book to have a little more of some of the operator's personal stories. However this book speaks more about how MACV-SOG was really stuck in the middle of everything. Carrying out secret missions and needing much capital to get the job done without discussing what was being done, how it was done, and what were the results kept MACV-SOG constantly caught between Military command, the CIA, the Pentagon, and the White House. This book is extremely well written and as a History Major I was very satisfied to see the amount of sources used and reasons behind using the sources. Its a shame that these men sacrificed so much and have been kept in the dark this whole time but that comes with the territory. But at least a good credible book is something to lean on when telling a history like this.
3 of 3 found the following review helpful:
Changing timesDec 15, 2011
By Tom W. Cunnigham
I purchased this book as it is the first book, which named any U.S.Marines being involved with MACVSOG. That single piece of information had been a secret since 1964. Publicly, MACVSOG was a unit made up of U.S. Army personnel, mostly Special Forces and various other government agency 's, but no Marine Corps units were ever mentioned. I found out that one of our General's had passed away in December of last year so I imagine that was the reason our unit was included publicly in this book. We had been informed our presence was classified and would remain so. I was stunned to see our name listed as being involved with the Studies and Observation Group after all these years of anonymity. I have been reading this book slowly and making my own notes, so I have not as yet finished the book. For those that served time in Viet Nam, they may find this book interesting...for those involved during their career with SOG, I think they will be fascinated too. Semper Fi,
Black ops VietnamMay 19, 2012
By J. BECK
Goodbook that covers a topic and time I like to read about. If you like to read about this unit, you will enjoy reading from another view point.
0 of 1 found the following review helpful:
 Rehash, sadlyMay 17, 2012
By Steve
I was really looking forward to this book. MACV/SOG has been an area of interest for me for many years. I'd really hoped to be able to give it five stars, but in all honesty just can't. I don't know if the issue is with the author or USNI's editorial team (some of their other recent history offerings have been pretty weak), but this book turned out to be a rehash of pretty common information on MACV/SOG (John Plaster, etc.). Richard Schutlz's "The Secret War Against Hanoi" provides a more insightful overview of this group, and deserves wider attention than it usually gets. Read "Black Ops" for a good overview of SOG, but don't rely on it for detailed insight or information.
3 of 6 found the following review helpful:
Valuable material but also problemsDec 07, 2011
By Arrigo Velicogna
"Military Historian and wargamer"
Reviewing this book is quite an ardous task. First of all it is a well written (I finished the book in little more than 4 days including on day off due to sickness), good operational history on a less known aspect of the American intervention in Vietnam and an useful counterpart ot the problematic book by Stanton on a similar subject. The amount of material and informartion on SOG activities is staggering and shed a lot of light on the SOG operations. The inclusion of several detailed acocunts of specific mission is also welcome. As an operational history of SOG it is certainly extremely valuable.
Now the not so good part. Mr Gillespie is overly reliant on a trend of historians and an approach on the US Army that had been througly discredited. His realiance on Krepinevich is staggering. Including Birtle's and Carland works would have certainl redressed the balance. MACV, both in the form of Westmoreland and Abrams, and by extension the JCS was not averse to unconventional warfare per se. As Birtle pointed out the JCS and not Kennedy took the lead on spreading UW in the US Army for a lot of reasons. Also the discussion of the interdiction efforts tend to be more negative. If it is true that USAf number tend to be exaggerated, Hanoi numbers are equally unrealiable. I also did not like his overaggrandizing of the PAVN, they were not that good the command was pretty awful and the ARVN sent them relying more than once. But this is nitpicking. I am more concerned and disappointed by the wedding of the excellent operational history to discredited and unsupported claims, made by others and respected "historians" rather than mr. Gillespie, on the US Army as an organization. Considering they had monopolized Vietnam War historiography untile recently this is not unexpected. Less realiance on secondary or tertiary surces and more primary sources on this debate would have only improved the book.
Still the book is an oustanding addition to a Vietnam library and the material provided is good. I initially wanted to rate the book 4 star, but on second thought I realized more and better (read detailed) maps would have helped (but often these decision are ot resting with the authors but on the editors).
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