General & Mrs. Earle Wheeler Their Rise to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Amid America's Descent into Vietnam

Based on exclusive, contemporaneous correspondence, official records, interviews, and memoirs, "General & Mrs. Earle Wheeler" takes readers inside the White House, the Pentagon, and the household of the most senior officer of the U.S. Armed Forces.

Since the position of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was established in 1949, only 20 officers have attained this pinnacle of the U.S. military profession. Each of their stories is remarkable, yet the biography of the most distinguished member of this small, elite fraternity has only now been written.

General Earle G. Wheeler, U.S. Army, became the senior military advisor to President Lyndon Johnson in 1964 and unusually continued in this role under President Richard Nixon. In disgust with their administrations' disastrous Vietnam War policies, Wheeler shredded his memoirs. He died three years later. In consequence, the biography of one of the most important figures of the Vietnam Era has remained inaccessible -- until now.

The companion volume to this book, "Determined to Persist: General Earle Wheeler, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Military's Foiled Pursuit of Victory in Vietnam", relates how Wheeler contributed to national security policymaking and shaped civilian-military relations during an extraordinary six-year period marked by America's growing involvement in the Vietnam War, its zenith, and the beginning of U.S. disengagement.

"General & Mrs. Earle Wheeler" complements that volume by tracing Wheeler's exceptional, 46-year military career against the backdrop of growing American involvement in Southeast Asia. It uniquely highlights the often unheralded yet vital roles played by military spouses and reveals the challenges of military family life.

Colonel (Retired) Mark A. Viney served 35 years in a variety of Army career fields (Ranger, Infantry, Armor, Human Resources, Inspector General, Public Affairs, Language/Regional/Cultural Expertise, and Military History) in the United States, Europe, and Asia.

A former Director of the US Army Heritage & Education Center, Colonel Viney earned a Bachelor of Science in History from the United States Military Academy and a dual Master of Arts in Human Resource Development and Public Administration from Webster University. He served five years on the US Army War College staff and completed its Defense Strategy Course.

Colonel Viney's first book is United States Cavalry Peacekeepers in Bosnia. He received an Admiral George C. Dyer Award from Officer Review magazine for his World War One article, Journey to the Front.

As the Army's foremost uniformed expert on Vietnam War strategy prior to his retirement, Colonel Viney lectured on Vietnam War strategy at the US Army War College, Texas Tech Vietnam Center & Archive, and elsewhere.

A visionary strategic influencer, Colonel Viney authored an historical paper Insights From the Vietnam Withdrawal For the Afghanistan Drawdown that was highly influential to senior Allied leaders in Kabul and informed a private discussion between the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Commander, International Security & Assistance Force.

Colonel Viney has applied military history to leadership development at numerous battlefields and historical sites across Europe and the United States for diverse, international groups of military and corporate executives. He received accolades from eight General Officers for leading the US Army Europe Commanding General's battlefield staff ride. He advised the General George Patton Museum of Leadership and assisted the US Army Cadet Command on both organizations' leadership development programs. He conceived, researched, and obtained Secretary of the Army approval of a recommendation to add a campaign streamer to the Army flag for Bosnia-Herzegovina.