We are pleased to publish the video of the Masterclass lectured by Captain Arthur Gullachsen of the Canadian Armed Forces and the Royal Military College. A lecture hold within the framework of the Area on Security and Defense and the Master’s Degree in Military History of INISEG, the International Institute for Studies on Global Security, and FUINMA, the International University Foundation of Madrid.
Operation Lam Son 719 was a crucial test for the Vietnamization process that began on February 8, 1971. The US provided air and artillery support to 16,000 elite ARVN troops (South Vietnam) crossing the border into Laos to attack and rend inoperative the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Bad weather, command clumsiness and constant counterattacks by NVA troops (North Vietnam) caused heavy losses on the South Vietnamese during their retreat.
There were over 8,000 ARVN casualties plus 1,462 American casualties, and over 100 helicopters and 150 tanks were left behind. ARVN morale was so devastated that military observers doubted South Vietnam could continue defend itself without American assistance. It is more than a fair statement to consider Operation Lam Son the beginning of the end of both the Republic of Vietnam and the Vietnam War.
Captain Arthur Gullachsen is an Associate Professor in the Department of History at the Royal Military College of Canada. He graduated from University of New Brunswick with a Master’s Degree in History in 2005. After joining the Canadian Armed Forces in late 2006, Capt. Gullachsen was posted to Canadian Forces Base Gagetown’s, the 2nd Battalion, the Royal Canadian Regiment in late 2008. In 2013 he was selected for the Post Graduate Training list and gained acceptance into the PhD Program in History at Western University in London, Ontario.
Graduating in 2016, he was then posted as Military Faculty to the Royal Military College of Canada. A WWII and Vietnam War specialist, CapT. Gullachsen’s areas of expertise include the study of the replacement of equipment and personnel losses as well as German armoured forces during WWII late war period. He is also interested in twentieth century air and seapower.
Blog GRIP will keep publishing a selection of Masterclasses and lectures on military history and military conflicts, with a special emphasis, albeit not exclusive, on the Vietnam War (the Second Indochina War), direct consequence and legacy of the First Indochina War, a conflict taught by Professor Juanjo Alarcón in the Master’s Degree in Contemporary Military Conflicts, whose video presentation is also available on Blog Grip. Incidentally, Prof. Juanjo Alarcón is the host of these lectures.
We really hope that this series of selected lectures may spark your interest in the topics presented in each one of them. And since they are all part of the Area on Security and Defense and the Master’s Degree in Military History of INISEG, we provide you with the links to INISEG’s academic offer directly related to the lectures we publish:
