Problem: Westmoreland, William. A Soldier Reports. New York: Dell Publishing, 1976.
Although the Vietnamese appeared to understand the terms, many Americans apparently failed to comprehend "search and destroy," possibly because detractors of the war chose to distort it. Since it is always the basic objective of military operations to seek and destroy the enemy and his military resources." when in reality "search and destroy" was nothing more than an operational term for a tactic (page 83). Meaning The expressions "search and destroy" and "kill and destroy" seemed to be understood by the Vietnamese, but not by many Americans. The word was misrepresented by opponents of the war, who linked it to haphazard village demolition and searches in the bush. Several people even referred to the American policy in Vietnam as a "search-and-destroy strategy" when in fact it was a tactical word.
You need to make it more clear WHAT he is arguing and WHY. How does this book shift the historiography into the 80s?