Mark Moyar
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Mark A. Moyar (born May 12, 1971) is the former Director of the Office for Civilian-Military Cooperation at the
US Agency for International Development The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is an independent agency of the U.S. federal government that is primarily responsible for administering civilian foreign aid and development assistance. With a budget of over $27 bil ...
. He currently serves as the William P. Harris Chair of Military History at Hillsdale College. He served previously as the Director of the Project on Military and Diplomatic History at the
Center for Strategic and International Studies The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) is an American think tank based in Washington, D.C. CSIS was founded as the Center for Strategic and International Studies of Georgetown University in 1962. The center conducts polic ...
, and has been a Senior Fellow at the
Foreign Policy Research Institute The Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI) is an American think tank based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that conducts research on geopolitics, international relations, and international security in the various regions of the world as well as ...
and a member of the Hoover Institution Working Group on the Role of Military History in Contemporary Conflict.


Early life

Moyar was born May 12, 1971, in Cleveland, Ohio to Bert and Marjorie Moyar. He graduated from Hawken School in Gates Mills, Ohio in 1989.


Education

Moyar holds a
B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...
'' summa cum laude'' in history from
Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
and a
Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...
in history from
Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III of England, Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world' ...
. While a student at Harvard, he wrote for the conservative student newspaper ''The Harvard Salient''. He also played saxophone in the Harvard Jazz Band with legendary saxophonist
Joshua Redman Joshua Redman (born February 1, 1969) is an American jazz saxophonist and composer. He is the son of jazz saxophonist Dewey Redman (1931–2006). Life and career Joshua Redman was born in Berkeley, California, to jazz saxophonist Dewey Redman ...
.


Accomplishments

His articles on historical and current events have appeared in ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'', ''
The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'', and ''
The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
''. During his time as a Senior Fellow at the Joint Special Operations University (2013-2015), he published three lengthy studies on special operations—in Colombia, Afghanistan, and Mali: Village Stability Operations and the Afghan Local Police (2014), Countering Violent Extremism in Mali (2015), and Persistent Engagement in Colombia (2014) Moyar is the author of the 2006 book ''Triumph Forsaken: The
Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...
, 1954–1965''. In it he argues that
Ngo Dinh Diem Ngô Đình Diệm ( or ; ; 3 January 1901 – 2 November 1963) was a South Vietnamese politician. He was the final prime minister of the State of Vietnam (1954–1955), and then served as the first president of South Vietnam (Republic o ...
was an effective leader. Moyar states that supporting the November 1963 coup was one of the worst American mistakes of the war. The other biggest mistakes according to Moyar were: the failure to cut the Ho Chi Minh trail, and the
United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...
' refusal to support the South Vietnamese government after the 1973 Paris Peace Accords were violated, and the refusal of emergency aid to South Vietnam near the end of the war. ''Triumph Forsaken'' caused a great stir and many opinionated reviews, some negative, as well as some positive. In response to the reactions engendered by the book, Andrew Wiest and Michael J. Doidge edited ''Triumph revisited : historians battle for the Vietnam War'' (2010), a collection of detailed reviews of the book by 15 different academic historians. The reviews are attached to responses by Moyar, who challenges the criticism of his work.


Books

*''Phoenix and the Birds of Prey: The CIA's Secret Campaign to Destroy the Viet Cong'' (1997) **Republished in 2007 as ''Phoenix and the Birds of Prey: Counterinsurgency and Counterterrorism in Vietnam'' with a foreword by Harry Summers and a new preface and chapter; *''Triumph Forsaken: The Vietnam War, 1954–1965'' (2006) *''A Question of Command: Counterinsurgency from the Civil War to Iraq'' (2009) *''Strategic Failure: How President Obama's Drone Warfare, Defense Cuts, and Military Amateurism Have Imperiled America'' (2015) *''Aid for Elites: Building Partner Nations and Ending Poverty through Human Capital'' (2016) *''Oppose Any Foe: The Rise of America’s Special Operations Forces'' (2017) *''Triumph Regained: The Vietnam War, 1965-1968'' (2022)


References


External links


Book website
*
Interview
on ''A Question of Command'' at the Pritzker Military Museum & Library
Interview
on "Triumph Forsaken: The Vietnam War, 1954-1965" on History News Network
Triumph Forsaken Roundtable
h-diplo Roundtable Review {{DEFAULTSORT:Moyar, Mark 1971 births Living people Historians of the Vietnam War Harvard University alumni American military historians American male non-fiction writers Writers from Cleveland Alumni of the University of Cambridge Historians from Ohio