New Website for "Containment and Credibility"

The Website for Pat's latest book, Containment and Credibility, is now active. 

To see the page, click here.

Containment and Credibility tells the story of the domestic politics surrounding the Vietnam War and the battle for US public opinion.  This book will be published by Carrel Books in summer 2016.

New Facebook Page for "Containment and Credibility"

The Facebook page for Pat's latest book, Containment and Credibility, is now active. 

To see the page, click here.

Containment and Credibility tells the story of the domestic politics surrounding the Vietnam War and the battle for US public opinion.  This book will be published by Carrel Books in summer 2016.

Coming Spring 2016: Containment and Credibility

Pat Proctor's newest offering, Containment and Credibility: The Ideology and Deception that Plunged America into the Vietnam War, is coming to bookshelves in spring 2016.

"Today, the Vietnam War is remembered in popular memory as a war embroiled in deceptions and half-truths.  This is no accident.  It is not that this war was started more dishonestly than other American wars.  Rather, Americans remember the war in this way because of the domestic political debate that took place during its conduct. Early in the Vietnam War, opponents attacked the Cold War ideology that justified it.  But they found that military containment was so deeply entrenched in the popular American understanding of international relations that it was virtually unassailable. In 1968, opponents of the war in Congress switched tactics and instead began attacking the President's credibility on the war.  This tactic proved so successful that virtually all opponents of the war soon followed suit.  The tactic worked, ultimately ending the war.  But this tactic also had a number of unintended consequences.  First, it left the ideology of containment intact, perpetuating the Cold War for another decade.  And this tactic--attacking the administration's credibility on the Vietnam War--also permanently altered how Americans understood--and remembered--the Vietnam War."

Containment and Credibility will be published by Carrel Books, an imprint of Skyhorse Publishing.

It's Official!

After many long years and many sleepless nights...

Today I received my PhD in history from Kansas State University.

To leave a message or see the photos, click here.

I'm back from deployment and done with my PhD, so I hope to get back to a decent pace of writing on this blog and in print. My first project is getting my dissertation into book form.  The work is called  Containment and Credibility: The Ideology and Deception that Plunged America into the Vietnam War.  A brief sample:

“In the shadow of yet another war taking shape in the Middle East—this time against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS)—it is vitally important to understand how the American public is convinced by its leaders to go to war. In Iraq, in 2003, the Bush administration used a simplistic ideology (the War on Terrorism) and lies and half-truths (Saddam Hussein’s supposed nuclear program) to convince the overwhelming majority of Americans to support the disastrous invasion of Iraq. Fifty years ago, President Lyndon Johnson used this same pattern—a simplistic ideology (Cold War containment) and lies and half-truths (the supposed attacks by North Vietnam against U.S. destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin)—to convince the American people to fight a war in South Vietnam that eventually cost over 50,000 American lives. During the Vietnam War, however, the President’s lies and half-truths ultimately doomed his war policy.”

Thank you to all of my family and friends over the past six years as I have worked to reach this milestone!

Back from Deployment

In June 2014, my battalion, Task Force Gunner (4th Battalion, 1st Field Artillery), deployed to the U.S. Central Command area of operations in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and the growing U.S. campaign against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).  The battalion returned on 8 December, just in time for Christmas!  

To welcome back the Gunners, click here.

Pat Proctor's final "Report from Afghanistan" available at Armchairgeneral.com

Pat Proctor writes about the future of the war in Afghanistan in the final instalment of his series, "Special Report from Afghanistan," for ArmchairGeneral.com. To see the article, click here. Here is an excerpt:

Conventional forces can continue their current mission in Afghanistan – advising and assisting Afghan national security forces – beyond the December 2014 deadline set for the withdrawal of “combat troops” from Afghanistan with or without SOF. The same cannot be said for the SOF Camp strategy, what Vice President Biden famously called in 2009 “counter-terrorism plus.”

Pat Proctor just returned from his eight-month deployment to eastern Afghanistan with the US 1st Infantry Division. Before he left, he agreed to write a series of articles for Armchair General magazine. You can see other articles in this series here.

Pat Proctor Reports on a "Green on Blue" attack in his "Special Report from Afghanistan" Series

Pat Proctor writes about a "green on blue" attack in Sayadabad, Wardak for his series, "Special Report from Afghanistan," for ArmchairGeneral.com. To see the article, click here. Here is an excerpt:

After 45 minutes, the atmosphere suddenly turned. Two Afghan soldiers raised their weapons and fired, instantly killing the platoon sergeant and the law enforcement professional. Three more soldiers were wounded before the gunner for the M249 (squad automatic weapon or SAW) and the platoon leader, firing from the passenger seat of his nearby vehicle, silenced the Afghan attackers. As more U.S. soldiers rushed to the scene to treat the wounded, the platoon took more fire from a compound a few dozen feet away; they responded by clearing the compound with rifles and grenades. As they tried to load up and evacuate their casualties, the platoon took more fire, this time from insurgents deeper in the Tangi Valley.

Pat Proctor has been deployed to eastern Afghanistan with the US 1st Infantry Division since April 2012. Before he left, he agreed to write a series of articles for Armchair General magazine. You can see other articles in this series here.