COL (R) Mark A. Viney ’91 has released two books about the life and career of GEN Earle Wheeler, a 1932 graduate of West Point. 

The first book is “General & Mrs. Earle Wheeler: Their Rise to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Amid America’s Descent into Vietnam.” The book is a biography of the longest-serving senior military advisor to Presidents Johnson and Nixon and his equally exceptional wife. Wheeler shredded his autobiography in disgust with Vietnam. Now, through family documents, official records, and interviews, the Wheeler family’s service experience and rise to the U.S. military pinnacle is revealed against the backdrop of JCS skepticism over increasing U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia after World War II.

The second book is “Determined to Persist: General Earle Wheeler, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Military’s Foiled Pursuit of Victory in Vietnam.” “Determined to Persist” overturns popular misunderstandings of civilian-military relations during Vietnam. Revealing the Chiefs’ persistent, active role to guide two U.S. presidents and their civilian advisors toward more doctrinal warfighting strategy to win in Vietnam, this is the most important contribution to Vietnam War history in over a decade.