Unraveling CORDS

<p>Though the United States military has excelled in winning wars it has not enjoyed the same success at winning the peace. That requires a coordinated effort from several Departments and agencies of the United States government-- an Inter-Agency operation. And the US'; Inter-Agency efforts since the end of the Cold War have not been extremely successful. However conducting Inter-Agency operations is not new to the US government. During the Vietnam War the US established the Civil Operations and Revolutionary Development Support (CORDS) - a Joint Inter-Agency Task Force (JIATF) comprising numerous Departments and agencies. CORDS was a unique civil-military organization that combined all military and civilian pacification efforts resources and personnel into a single chain of command-- a Whole of Government (WoG) approach. This organizational approach differs from current US government and military doctrine for inter-agency operations. In fact a large body of research consistently cites CORDS as an example to be emulated for inter-agency operations. This raises three questions: 1) Was CORDS an effective JIATF for pacification?; 2) Was that success due to its WoG organizational approach?; and 3) How was CORDS created? The monograph answers the first two research questions together by looking at pacification efforts in Vietnam across three distinct time periods. Then it will answer the last research question by comparing the bureaucratic politicking behind the creation of CORDS to other established patterns of bureaucratic policy-making. The results of this monograph suggest that the US'; current doctrine for Inter-Agency Operations is inefficient and ineffective. Given the likely requirement for increasing Inter-Agency operations makes this a very relevant topic for research.</p><p>This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore you will see the original copyright references library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world) and other notations in the work.</p><p>This work is in the public domain in the United States of America and possibly other nations. Within the United States you may freely copy and distribute this work as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.</p><p>As a reproduction of a historical artifact this work may contain missing or blurred pages poor pictures errant marks etc. Scholars believe and we concur that this work is important enough to be preserved reproduced and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.</p><br>