China to Increase Military Exercises and Patrols in South China Sea

China’s military will carry out more military exercises in the South China Sea this month involving advanced warships and submarines, state news agency Xinhua said on Wednesday, terming the drills routine. China claims almost all of the energy-rich waters of the South China Sea, through which more than $5 trillion of maritime trade passes each […]

The U.S. Army Wanted to Conscript Insects to Fight the Viet Cong

Mao Tse-Tung famously wrote in On Guerrilla Warfare that guerrillas are proverbial fish who have to swim in the water of the people in order to win their struggle against powerful governments. “It is only undisciplined troops who make the people their enemies and who, like the fish out of its native element, cannot live,” Mao explained. […]

The Drugs That Built a Super Soldier

Some historians call Vietnam the “last modern war,” others the “first postmodern war.” Either way, it was irregular: Vietnam was not a conventional war with the frontlines, rears, enemy mobilizing its forces for an attack, or a territory to be conquered and occupied. Instead, it was a formless conflict in which former strategic and tactical […]

The U.S. Navy Studied How to Turn Fiberglass Into a Ghastly Weapon

American fighter bombers fly over across South Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia dropping bombs filled with tiny fiberglass shards. A few hours later, Viet Cong insurgents — and anyone else unfortunate enough to move into the contaminated areas — begin to develop maddening itches and painful sores. Some go blind from glass in their eyes. This was […]

Windfall For Russian Arms Manufacturers?

If Russia spent $500 million on its military operations in Syria, all indications are it’s about to get that back–in spades. Because the Kremlin has done a good job of selling its successes, it just might receive a multi-billion-dollar windfall in new revenue. That is thanks to potential arms sales of it’s latest and greatest […]

Is our military too top-heavy?

At the outset of World War II, our senior military commander General George Marshall made a key decision that would guide much of the most critical decision-making throughout the conflict. He decided that as military units in combat suffered attrition through death, wounds, illness or other causes, the missing personnel would be replaced individually, one […]

U.S. considers selling weapons to Vietnam to stave off Chinese ‘hegemony’

The top admiral in charge of U.S. military operations in Asia says Washington should drop its remaining restrictions on weapons sales to Vietnam in order to better defend against China’s military buildup in the South China Sea. Navy Adm. Harry Harris Jr., the head of U.S. Pacific Command, told lawmakers on the Senate Armed Services Committee Tuesday that they’d have to […]

As China Flexes Its Muscle, Southeast Asia Warms to Aiding U.S. Hunt for MIAs

There is a positive side to the People’s Republic of China flexing its military muscle and eyeing controversial land and sea lanes in Southeast Asia: It has inspired a thawing and overall improvement of Vietnamese and Laotian government officials’ efforts to work with the U.S. in searching for, identifying, and assisting in the return of the […]

Why Carpet Bombing ISIS Won’t Work

In a campaign speech, Donald Trump talked about his strategy for dealing with ISIS by saying, “I would bomb the shit out of them. I would just bomb those suckers. I would blow up the pipes. I’d bomb the refineries; I would blow up every single inch. There would be nothing left.” While bombing ISIS’s financial […]