The Battle of Ap Bac and the Wicked Problems of the Vietnam War
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 22414797 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Patricia Roberts-Miller (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 56 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 256-268 |
| Publication date | 2026-05-27 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Rhetoric Society Quarterly (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0277-3945 • E-ISSN: 1930-322X |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/02773945.2026.2656134 |
| OpenAlex | W7166573126 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 18 |
The Vietnam War has become a textbook example of a wicked problem, for good reason. The internal administration deliberations about the conflict have also become a textbook example of poor decision-making processes. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara and other civilian decision makers were committed to largely negative ends: a noncommunist South Vietnam achieved without the conflict becoming a risky political controversy. Cold War demagoguery meant that either a major commitment of resources or North Vietnamese success would have considerable costs. They therefore settled on processes that they hoped would prevent North Vietnamese and means (limited war for a limited time), as though the situation in Vietnam was not a wicked problem. McNamara later claimed that misidentified the kind of problem the war presented because they didn’t have the necessary information. This article argues that, on the contrary, the January 1963 Battle of Ap Bac gave them all the information they needed in order to realize that their approach would fail.
Battle · Spanish Civil War · Vietnam War · World War II · American Political and Social Dynamics · Communism, Protests, Social Movements · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies
| Highly cited | No |
|---|