"Focusing on WASHINGTON GREEN, an ambitious but flawed American-led operation, Boylan tests and ultimately challenges the "Lost Victory" argument of recent Revisionist histories of the Vietnam War. Those histories contend that domestic politics robbed the American military of a triumph it had actually already achieved when it was forced to abandon Vietnam. Taking a much closer look at pacification and Vietnamization in a key province during a pivotal period in the war, Boylan concludes that the "Lost Victory" argument is a weak one at best and clearly compromised by the particular case of Binh Dinh"-- Provided by publisher.

The "pacified" province -- Fast and thin -- The balance of forces -- Washington Green : phase I -- Overextension -- The red queen's race -- Slowdown -- Aftershocks -- Conclusion : triumph mistaken.