Vietnam 2016-12 (Vol.29 No.04)

Fear of Losing: The Force That Drove LBJ, Nixon Policy

BREAKOUT ROLE Candice Bergen stars in 1966 Sand Pebbles

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December 2016 HistoryNet.com

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On the Cover: Lance Cpl. T.J. Gladhill, 4th Marines, dashes to pass out ammunition to his men during an NVA attack near the DMZ in 1968. PHOTO: PHOTOQUEST/GETTY IMAGES; PHOTO ILLUSTRATION: BRIAN WALKER; INSET: BERT STERN/CONDE NAST VIA GETTY IMAGES

24 TURKEY SHOOT

Operation Lam Son 250, a dawn attack sprung against the North Vietnamese on Aug. 15, 1968, by U.S. Marine tankers and South Vietnamese infantrymen turned into a “wild melee” that routed the enemy. By James P. Coan

2

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6 8 16 20

Feedback Today In the News Voices Jim Roberts Homefront November-December 1966

21 22 58 64

Battlefront 50 Years Ago in the War Arsenal The NVA’s General Purpose Machine Gun Media Digest Rewind Author Ron Kovic

38 AT EASE Photographs that capture U.S. troops all over South Vietnam taking a break from the war.

30 COMMON MEN, UNCOMMON VALOR A Khe Sanh veteran and his wife tell the story of )YH]V*VTWHU`[O4HYPULZPUHKVJ\TLU[HY`ÄST By Pamela Kleibrink Thompson

50 PAPER TIGER A Vietnam War historian examines how the mantra “Never lose a war” hounded Presidents Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon like a recurring nightmare. By Christian G. Appy

44 PHOTO CREDIT

DON’T MAKE FRIENDS IN A COMBAT UNIT What happens when you think your only friend PU=PL[UHTNL[ZRPSSLKI\[`V\JHU»[ÄUKOPZ name on the Wall? By William Leslie

DECEMBER 2016

3

JOIN THE DISCUSSION AT VIETNAM MAG.COM

MICHAEL A. REINSTEIN CHAIRMAN & PUBLISHER DAVID STEINHAFEL ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER

December 2016 VOL. 29, NO. 4

CHUCK SPRINGSTON EDITOR DEBRA NEWBOLD MANAGING EDITOR JERRY MORELOCK SENIOR EDITOR JON GUTTMAN RESEARCH DIRECTOR DAVID T. ZABECKI EDITOR EMERITUS HARRY SUMMERS JR. FOUNDING EDITOR STEPHEN KAMIFUJI CREATIVE DIRECTOR BRIAN WALKER GROUP ART DIRECTOR PAUL FISHER ART DIRECTOR LORI FLEMMING PHOTO EDITOR ADVISORY BOARD JOE GALLOWAY, ROBERT H. LARSON, BARRY MCCAFFREY, JAMES R. RECKNER, CARL O. SCHUSTER, EARL H. TILFORD JR., SPENCER C. TUCKER, ERIK VILLARD, JAMES H. WILLBANKS CORPORATE ROB WILKINS Director of Partnership Marketing MICHAEL ZATULOV Finance DIGITAL JOSH SCIORTINO Associate Editor

The military vehicle most often associated with the Vietnam War is the helicopter, especially the Huey, but tanks also played a prominent role. One of the Marines’ tank units is featured in this issue’s “DMZ Turkey Shoot.” To read more about tank use in the war, visit HistoryNet.com and search “tanks and Vietnam.”
VIETNAM

ADVERTISING COURTNEY FORTUNE Advertising Services [email protected] TERRY JENKINS Regional Sales Manager [email protected] RICK GOWER Regional Sales Manager [email protected] RICHARD VINCENT Regional Sales Manager [email protected] JOSH SCIORTINO Web Sales [email protected] DIRECT RESPONSE ADVERTISING RUSSELL JOHNS ASSOCIATES 800-649-9800 [email protected] SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION 800-435-0715 or SHOP.HISTORYNET.com. Yearly subscriptions in U.S.: $39.95. List Rental Inquiries: Belkys Reyes, Lake Group Media, Inc. 914-925-2406; [email protected] Vietnam (ISSN 1046-2902) is published bimonthly by HistoryNet, LLC. 1919 Gallows Road, Suite 400, Vienna, Va., 22182-4038, 703-771-9400 Periodical postage paid at Vienna, Va., and additional mailing offices Postmaster, send address changes to Vietnam, P.O. Box 422224, Palm Coast, FL 32142-2224 Canada Publications Mail Agreement No. 41342519 Canadian GST No. 821371408RT0001 © 2016 HistoryNet, LLC The contents of this magazine may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the written consent of HistoryNet LLC. PROUDLY MADE IN THE USA

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Ia Drang and 9/11 Hero Profound thanks to the magazine and Robert Bateman for the story on Rick Rescorla, “Head for the Storm” (October 2016). It was very moving. ?PMV1_I[IV)ZUaÅZ[\[MZOMIV\ I made the book We Were Soldiers Once...and Young and the movie We Were Soldiers part of my unit’s VWVKWUUQ[[QWVMLWЅKMZ development program that I included for all ranks, from E-1 XZQ^I\M[\WUaWЅKMZ[1\_I[_MTT̆ received by all. Wayne E. Long, Chester, Md.

Natural leader Rick Rescorla’s heroics at Ia Drang were recounted in We Were Soldiers Once...and Young, which had this photo on the original cover.

More on Dong Ha Bridge

I enjoyed the article by David Sears about Captain Ripley. The article portrayed a very heroic and cognitive combat leader who led from the front. However, Sears did not mention if Ripley received a valorous award. Carl McAfee Chambersburg, Pa. 6

VIETNAM

EDITOR’S NOTE: Ripley was awarded the Navy Cross for destroying the Dong Ha bridge. He served two tours in Vietnam and also received the Silver Star, two Bronze Star medals and a Purple Heart.

Couldn’t Put Book Down I saw the book The Price They Paid in the Media Digest section (October 2016) and ordered it. I glanced through it as I was coming back from the mailbox and thought I might complete reading it in two to three days. I ÅVQ[PMLQ\JMNWZM1_MV\\WJML that night! I could relate to it. I started out as an 18-year-old door gunner on Hueys in spring 1970. Shortly thereafter, we were going into Cambodia in May-June 1970. The Price They Paid is the best book I’ve read. Thanks to the author and your magazine. Robert E. Bunney Lake Wylie, S.C.

and U.S. advisers. General John Howard’s article is excellent. 0W_M^MZ1ÅVL\PMZMQ[IJZWIL generalization of facts and some inaccuracies in regards to South Vietnamese commanders and their advisers. Through the March 1972-January 1973 battles, U.S. Marine advisers never left their units nor experienced a breakdown with their counterparts. On the contrary, nearly 18 years of continuous service together [WTQLQÅML\PMQZJWVL1VLMML\PM South Vietnamese marines considered their epic combat success in recapturing the Citadel as their own “Mount Suribachi” test. As a U.S. assistant senior adviser, I was present and recorded the South Vietnam marines’ combat successes until Jan. 27, 1973, _PMV\PMKMI[M̆ÅZMIOZMMUMV\[ _MV\QV\WMЄMK\ Gerry Turley *T]Є\WV;+

Solid, Not Ragged Bonds The story “Ragged Edge of Vietnamization” (June 2016) alludes to a breakdown in trust and cooperation between South Vietnamese army commanders

Send letters and email: Vietnam Editor 1919 Gallows Road, Suite 400, Vienna, Va., 22182-4038; or [email protected]

AP/PETER ARNETT

David Sears’ otherwise excellent article, “Somehow Blow the Bridge” (October 2016), omits one vital fact: Had it not been for Vietnamese marine Sergeant Huynh Van Luom, Captain John Ripley could not have blown the Dong Ha Bridge. Prior to Ripley’s heroics, a column of NVA tanks had moved onto the bridge and was about to cross it. If the column crossed the Dong Ha River, there was nothing to stop further advance. Luom climbed on the bridge, faced down the lead NVA tank and disabled it with a LAW (light anti-tank weapon). Ripley himself praised Luom for “single-handedly stopping momentum of the entire attack.” Unfortunately, Luom was killed in action several weeks later. He deserves credit and a place in PQ[\WZaNWZPQ[ZM[WT]\MLMÅIVKM Bill Lawrence Mesa, Ariz.

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Australia remembers Vietnam The Australian army commemorated the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Long Tan with ceremonies that included the dedication of a cross in South Australia that is a full-size replica of a cross erected at the battle site. Below: Aussie veterans travel by bus in groups of 100 to Long Tan on August 18.

About 1,500 Australian and New Zealand veterans and accompanying journalists were arriving in Vietnam to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Aug. 18, 1966, Battle of Long Tan when they found their path barred by Vietnamese policemen. )][\ZITQI¼[^M\MZIV[IЄIQZ[UQVQ[\MZ,IVQM\+WVOI[[I]T\ until reinforcements arrived. They killed an estimated 245 of the enemy, wounded some 350 and took three prisoners. The anniversary of the battle has been annually commemorated in Australia I[>QM\VIU>M\MZIV[:MUMUJZIVKM,Ia The Viet Cong defeat at Long Tan has been an irksome subject in Vietnamese circles, but the Hanoi government has allowed Australian visitors to hold memorial events 8

VIETNAM

at a commemorative cross on the battle site since 1989. Although they were not allowed to wear uniforms or medals or sing songs, the Australians have been permitted to play Last Post (last bugle call of the day) there since 2006. Harry Smith, who commanded the Australians at Long Tan, noted that the Vietnamese had expected a smaller crowd than the estimated 3,000 who wanted to go to the site this year and weren’t prepared to handle the larger number. After an appeal from Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, his Vietnamese counterpart, Nguyen Xuan Phuc, announced August 17 that the veterans would be allowed to visit the battle site in groups of 100 \PZW]OPW]\\PMLIaWV)]O][\ ,Q[XTIa[WNJIVVMZ[ ÆIO[]VQNWZU[IVLUMLIT[_MZM[\QTTXZWPQJQ\ML Some 60,000 Australian troops served tours in Vietnam, with 521 killed and about 3,000 wounded. New Zealand sent 3,000 troops and had casualties of 37 killed and 187 wounded. —Jon Guttman

TOP: AUSTRALIAN DEPARTMENT OF DEFENCE; AP

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Real Huey Landing at the Outdoor Play Miss Saigon When the musical Miss Saigon played in Atlanta this summer, it wasn’t your typical production or your typical playhouse. The stage was out in the forest—and the props included a real UH-1 Iroquois ¹0]MaºPMTQKWX\MZ_PQKPÆM_QVNWZ the performance. Grasses swirled. Light beams sliced the night air. The production was hosted by Serenbe Playhouse in Chattahoochee Hills Country, a 1,000-acre community, one of the most unusual settings for the play, written by Claude-Michel Schoenberg and Alain Boublil and produced on Broadway from 1991 to 2001. The story, similar to the opera 5ILIUM*]\\MZÆa, centers on the romance between an American GI and a Vietnamese bar girl he leaves behind during the Saigon evacuation on April 30, 1975, when U.S. helicopters airlifted the last Marines and selected South Vietnamese personnel. In the Georgia XZWL]K\QWV\PMPMTQKWX\MZÆW_VJa actual war veterans, landed 250 feet from actors and the audience. Brian Clowdus, the director, was determined to have a real helicopter in the production and discovered that the Army Aviation Heritage Foundation, which specializes in restoring Vietnam War copters, was just 40 minutes from Serenbe in Hampton, Georgia, and it provided the show’s chopper, he told Playbill. 10

VIETNAM

The 2016 Veterans Charity Ride embarked from Los Angeles on July 30 with 16 wounded and amputee veterans on a nine-day ride to the annual Sturgis Bike Rally in South Dakota, a weeklong gathering held August 7-13 this year. The 1,776-mile ride passed through Bryce Canyon National Park and Moab, Utah; Craig and Denver, Colorado; and Hot Springs, South Dakota, before arZQ^QVOQV;\]ZOQ[
Comedian Jay Leno, a motorcycle enthusiast, is honorary chairman of Veterans Charity Ride. This was Leno’s second year supporting the ride.“I’ve already learned so much from interacting with these courageous men and women,” he said in a press release.

business partner, Robert Manciero, an Emmy-awardwinning director, and they came up with the concept of a “motorcycle therapy” ride that would be ÅTUML\WMVKW]ZIOM_W]VLMLIVL amputee veterans to get outdoors and enjoy life again. They received bikes from Indian Motorcycle and got Champion Sidecars Inc. onboard to accommodate amputees. In 2015, the ride organizers took eight veterans to Sturgis, and this year twice as many went. To view photos and videos of the ride or make a donation, visit www.veteranscharityride.org.

MEDAL OF HONOR RECIPIENT INJURED ON ROAD TO STURGIS Vietnam War Army veteran and Medal of Honor recipient Gary Wetzel was severely injured August 7 in a motorcycle crash in Wisconsin on his way to the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota, where he was to be inducted into the Sturgis Motorcycle Hall of Fame. Wetzel has undergone surgery and is recovering from multiple injuries. Wetzel received the Medal of Honor for actions in 1968 when he was a door gunner in the 173rd Assault Helicopter Company and his helicopter was shot down. Severely wounded, with no use WNPQ[TMN\IZUPMKWV\QV]MLÅZQVOPQ[_MIXWVQV the battle and destroyed an enemy position that was causing heavy American casualties. His left arm was later amputated.

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INTEREST-FREE PAYMENT PLAN “Thank you” priced at a remarkably low $199*, an affordable payment plan is also available. See order form for details. Your 100% satisfaction is guaranteed or you may return your ring within 30 days for replacement or refund – no questions asked. So, order yours today!

• Your Vietnam Medal & Ribbon, hand-enameled in its Official Colors are richly displayed on one shank. • The opposite shank is a bold sculpture of an emotional Veteran visiting the Vietnam Memorial Wall and the words "YOU ARE NOT FORGOTTEN.” • Honor recipients may choose to have their Purple Heart, Silver Star or Bronze Star Medal & Ribbon in place of the Memorial Wall shank.

SHOWN WITH WHITE ZIRCON BIRTHSTONES

HONOR RECIPIENTS May choose to have their Medal/Ribbon in place of the “Memorial Wall” shank.

Purple Heart

      

    

Silver Star

 
 

YOUR CHOICE OF BIRTHSTONE: JANUARY

FEBRUARY

MARCH

APRIL

MAY

JUNE

GARNET

AMETHYST

AQUAMARINE

JULY

AUGUST

SEPTEMBER

WHITE ZIRCON

EMERALD

ALEXANDRITE

OCTOBER

NOVEMBER

DECEMBER

RUBY

PERIDOT

SAPPHIRE

ROSE ZIRCON

GOLDEN SAPPHIRE

BLUE ZIRCON

Bronze Star BIRTHSTONES ARE SIMULATED FOR SIZE & CLARITY. NAMES REFER TO COLORS, WHICH MAY VARY SOMEWHAT.

FREE FLAG PIN WITH ORDER

FOR FASTEST SERVICE CALL TOLL FREE TO ORDER: Monday - Friday from 9am - 5pm EST. Have Credit card and ring size ready when ordering.

 



Or, Mail to: Veterans Commemoratives™ 50th Anniversary Vietnam Rings • Two Radnor Corporate Center, Suite 120, Radnor, PA 19087-4599

❑ YES. I wish to order my Vietnam Veteran Ring, personalized with my birthstones & engraved with my initials, Service Branch and the years I served. INITIALS DESIRED (3): ________

________

________

BRANCH: ❑Army ❑Navy ❑Air Force ❑Marine Corps ❑Coast Guard SERVICE YRS: ______ to ______ RING SIZE: _____ Use sizer below or consult jeweler.

❑ I am a Honor Medal Recipient - Put my Medal/Ribbon in place of the “Wall.” ❑ Purple Heart ❑ Silver Star ❑ Bronze Star NOTE: A copy of your DD214 or other authorizing document must be sent with your order. Thank you.

3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

 
         

I NEED SEND NO MONEY NOW. Bill me in four monthly installments of $ 49.75* each, with the first payment due prior to shipment. SHIPPING ADDRESS (We CANNOT ship to P.O. Boxes) Allow 6-8 weeks for delivery. Name ______________________________________________________ Address______________________________________________________ City_________________________________ State____ Zip ____________ Signature ____________________________________________________ Phone # ______________________ Email__________________________ *Plus $19.95 for engraving, shipping & handling. PA residents add 6% sales tax. ($13.14)

BARRINBRS-VTN-1216

© ICM 2016

FOR OTHER FINE MILITARY VETERAN WAR RINGS, WATCHES AND COMMEMORATIVES VISIT US ONLINE AT WWW.VETCOM.COM



Vet Bicycles to Capitol for Shipmates

5th Marines Memorial Designed for Pendleton Flag sold for $55,000 With its bright colors and gold fringe, a 52-by-34-inch American flag removed from Da Nang on March 29, 1973, was auctioned for $55,000 in May. It received the highest bid of 1,300 historical items up for auction. A North Vietnam “victory” flag went for $200. The U.S. flag’s history held considerable appeal to an undisclosed bidder. The man who preserved the flag, Army Colonel Chester Bailey McCoid, was the last American ground soldier outside of Saigon to leave Vietnam.



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CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: COURTESY DEL FRANCIS; 5THMARINESVIETNAMMEMORIAL.ORG; ALEXANDER HISTORICAL AUCTIONS

Navy veteran Del Francis conducts an interview after biking from Texas to Washington to increase awareness of a campaign to engrave on the Wall the names of 74 crewmen lost when a destroyer sank in the South China Sea in 1969. Riding with him at the end was U.S. Rep. Adam :JOPɈVM*HSPMVYUPH^P[OOPZ bicycle behind Francis.

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Sydney Hillel Schanberg, a journalist who stayed in Cambodia after the Khmer Rouge takeover in 1975, died July 9 in Poughkeepsie, New York. He was 82. Reporting for the New York Times throughout the Vietnam War, Schanberg stuck things out in Phnom Penh until Khmer Rouge threats compelled him to take shelter in the French embassy. He won the 1976 Pulitzer Prize for international reporting, and his 1980 account of the early Khmer Rouge years, The Life and Death of Dith Pran, was the basis for the Academy )_IZL̆_QVVQVOÅTUThe Killing Fields.

Long Day’s Journey: Army Truckers in Vietnam

U.S. TROUPES Ann-Margret, other celebs visit Vietnam

From Ia Drang to 9-11 The Extraordinary Heroism of Rick Rescorla

Uphill Battle The struggles of a counterinsurgency

Bridge Showdown OCTOBER 2016

One Marine against an NVA tank battalion

HistoryNet.com

VIEP-161000-COVER-DIGITAL.indd 1

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6/29/16 5:35 PM

FAR LEFT: SCREENPROD/PHOTONONSTOP/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO; LEFT: GETTY IMAGES

Michael Cimino, who shot to prominence among Hollywood auteurs with PQ[! >QM\VIU?IZÅTU The Deer Hunter only to nose dive two years later, died in Los Angeles on July 2, at age 77. After writing TV commercials and Hollywood scripts, Cimino was asked by Clint Eastwood to direct Thunderbolt and Lightfoot in 1974. Its success led to his co-writing, producing and directing The Deer Hunter, which follows the lives of working-class Pennsylvanians before, during and after the war.
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The lack of assistance for the South Vietnamese is a terrible black mark on our reputation

By the time Jim Roberts left the Navy in 1971, after two cruises to Vietnam aboard a destroyer, most Americans had turned against the war, but he still considered it a noble cause. Roberts became political director of the American Conservative Union in January 1974, a year after U.S. troops departed Vietnam, and that fall led congressional aides and journalists on a trip to review the situation in South Vietnam. Roberts wrote a report warning that an invasion from the North was imminent. When the attack came in 1975, he helped set up the Emergency Committee to Save South Vietnam, which pushed for increased U.S. assistance but didn’t get it. Roberts was ACU executive director from 1975 to 1977, wrote The Conservative Decade: Emerging Leaders of the 1980s, published in May 1980 with a forward by Ronald Reagan, and served as director of the President’s Commission on White House Fellowships from 1981 to 1984. The next year Roberts created Radio America, a conservative talk-radio network. In 1995 he founded the American Veterans Center to “preserve the legacy” of service members. Its projects include oral histories and the National Memorial Day Parade in Washington. :WJMZ\[ZMÆMK\MLWV\PM>QM\VIU?IZ¼[TMOacy and lessons in an interview with Editor Chuck Springston. 16

VIETNAM

What were the responsibilities of destroyers stationed off Vietnam’s coast during the war? PlaneO]IZLL]\a_Q\PIQZKZIN\KIZZQMZ[IVLO]VÅZM[]XXWZ\ for our forces inland. If a plane missed on a landing or a \ISMWЄIVL_MV\QV\W\PM_I\MZ_M_MZMKPIZOML_Q\P ZM[K]QVO\PM[]Z^Q^WZ[1V\PMO]VÅZM[]XXWZ\_M_W]TL JMIUQTMWZ[WWЄ[PWZMIVL[XW\\MZ[WV\PMOZW]VL would send coordinates for targets 10 to 12 miles inland.
DAN WILLIAMS

JIM ROBERTS

Born: Aug. 9, 1946, Chicago Residence: Great Falls, Virginia Education: Miami University in Ohio, bachelor’s degree in English Military service: Naval ROTC graduate 1968; discharged August 1971, as a lieutenant Vietnam deployments: November 1969-May 1970 and February-July 1971, anti-submarine warfare officer and naval gunfire director officer, aboard destroyer USS Henderson, Seventh Fleet Today: President, American Studies Center in Arlington, Virginia, parent foundation of Radio America and the American Veterans Center

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“U.S. Air Force” Hooded Fleece Jacket 01-22377-001
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Do you think South Vietnam could have held off the Communists if the U.S. government had not reduced funding? Absolutely, I do. At the time of the signing of the Paris Peace Accords, something like 90 percent of the population of South Vietnam was under government control—by choice, so the vast majority did support the South Vietnamese government, given the faults it clearly had, and there were many. ?M[I_\PMÅOP\QVOKIXIJQTQ\QM[WN\PM;W]\P>QM\VIUM[MQV!L]ZQVO\PM6WZ\P>QM\VIUM[M-I[\MZ7ЄMV[Q^M?MOI^M[QOVQÅKIV\IQZXW_MZJ]\\PMaLQLUW[\WN \PMÅOP\QVOWV\PMOZW]VLIVLXZM^IQTML
18

VIETNAM

Is there a political or military leader that you especially admire? Winston Churchill is my greatest hero. Churchill persuaded Parliament not to negotiate with Hitler—and saved the world. Had Britain sued for peace, the Germans would have eventually taken possession of the Royal Navy. There would have been no platform for getting back at Hitler. There would have been no platform for Normandy. The Russians would have been defeated. Churchill himself stopped that. During the Vietnam era, what music did you listen to? I liked the music of the ’50s. Buddy Holly and Elvis and all the rest. Then I became seriously involved in the folk movement. I played a guitar and knew the popular folks songs by Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Peter, Paul and Mary and others. The rock era of the ’60s is the greatest in pop music. It was just one great song after another. At Miami we had a band called the Lemon Pipers. They played at our fraternity house. Their “Green Tambourine” got to No. 1. Are there any books about the Vietnam War you think are particularly insightful? One is The Big Story, by Peter Braestrup, which came out in the ’70s. He was a journalist and showed how distorted coverage in the media played a real role in our losing the war. Mark Moyar has written two excellent books, including one titled Triumph Forsaken. He says, yes we could have won the war, and I’m persuaded by that. V

JEFF SAMPSON

Ditto for the army of South On deployment Vietnam, badly under-equipped. 1PT9VILY[ZPZVɉJLY We were not living up to our VM[OLKLJRVU[OL agreement with the South Viet- /LUKLYZVUK\YPUN WSHULN\HYKK\[PLZ0U namese after the Paris accords [OLIHJRNYV\UKPZ[OL [which ended the U.S. combat JHYYPLY*VUZ[LSSH[PVU role in January 1973] that we would supply them with the means for their self-defense. When I got back, I wrote a fairly lengthy monograph XZMLQK\QVO\PI\\PMZM_W]TLJMIVM_WЄMV[Q^MMIZTaQV the next year. It didn’t take any particular powers of clairvoyance to predict that. It was obvious it was going to happen. In the spring of ’75 you had the horrible scenes of rescuing people from the U.S. Embassy roof and the hundreds of thousands who died at sea and the millions who were put into re-education camps and all the horrors that came out of that war because we defaulted on our duties. After the North Vietnamese invasion started, the ACU formed the Emergency Committee to Save South Vietnam. It was composed of conservatives, of course, but we also got liberals who believed in the cause of South >QM\VIU
What do you see as the lessons of the Vietnam War? +WTQV8W_MTTCI[2WQV\+PQMN[WN;\IЄKPIQZUIV under President George H.W. Bush] and Cap Weinberger [as Reagan’s defense secretary] came up with doctrines, based on lessons learned, which state that if you’re going to get into a war, go in with overwhelming force, crush the enemy, complete the job and get out. We never did that in Vietnam. We had a succession of incremental increases until we had 500,000 men and women stationed in South Vietnam and were taking horrendous casualties. If you are going to get into an operation with casualties of that magnitude, you need to be in total war, short of nuclear weapons. The bombing runs were very restrictive in terms of \IZOM\[)VL\PMXTIVM[PIL\WÆaLW_VXZMLM\MZUQVML ITTMa[_PMZM\PMa_MZM[Q\\QVOL]KS[NWZOZW]VLÅZM from the North Vietnamese. President Johnson himself was selecting targets, personally. It’s just nuts for a president to be doing that. In ’72, President Nixon asked Admiral [Thomas] Moorer, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, “How long would it take you to mine the harbors of North Vietnam?” He said: “About one day. The plan’s on the shelf.” We mined \PMPIZJWZ[?M[\WXXMLITTQVÆW_WNUI\MZQMTNZWU\PM Soviet Union and China. We bombed relentlessly and bombed targets that should have been bombed years before. We brought the North Vietnamese to the peace table. That’s the kind of war that should have been conducted from the very beginning.

A

B LL Bu ig -NE tt ge W on r s

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Nov. 16 Cleveland doctor Sam Sheppard is acquitted, with a sterling defense by F. Lee Bailey, in a retrial after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a 1954 conviction in the murder of his wife.

NOVEMBER-DECEMBER

1966 Nov. 11 The last of 10 NASA flights with two-astronaut crews, Gemini 12 blasts off from Florida with Buzz Aldrin and Jim Lovell, who do additional testing of procedures crucial for the next space program, the Apollo moon landing.

Nov. 27 The Washington Redskins, playing at home, overpower the New York Giants 72-41 in what remains the highest total score for an NFL game. The two teams had a combined 16 touchdowns. Dec. 10 The Beach Boys’ “Good Vibrations” reaches No. 1 on the Billboard Top 100. Rolling Stone has ranked it No. 6 on the magazine’s list of the “500 greatest songs of all time.” 20

VIETNAM

Dec. 15 Animation pioneer Walt Disney dies in Burbank, California, at age 65, from cardiac arrest related to lung cancer. At the time of his death, Disney was personally supervising production of The Jungle Book, released in 1967.

Nov. 5 In a rare occurrence of two members of the same unit receiving Medals of Honor in the same action, Captain Robert F. Foley and Pfc. John F. Baker Jr. of A Company, 2nd Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division, are awarded medals for a battle near Quan Dau Tieng, close to the Cambodian border—Foley for leading a charge on Viet Cong NWZKM[QV\PMNIKMWNPMI^aÅZMIVL Baker for saving the lives of comrades and destroying enemy positions.

Nov. 29 U.S. Marines establish a combat base at Khe Sanh in the far northwest corner of South Vietnam near an Army Special Forces camp at Lang Vei formed in 1962. Initially NWZ\QÅML_Q\PWVTaWVMJI\\ITQWV Khe Sanh would be expanded into a major base occupied by the Marines until July 1968.

Dec. 20 The Sand Pebbles, the story of U.S. Navy gunboat patrolling the Yangtze River in turbulent 1920s China, premieres with Steve McQueen in the lead role as Machinist’s Mate 1st Class Jake Holman. Candice Bergen also stars.

Dec. 18 CBS broadcasts the first showing of Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Boris Karloff voices the Grinch, who eventually gets into the Christmas spirit.

Dec. 14 The U.S. Air Force loses Q\[ÅZ[\XTIVM\WIVMVMUaIQZ̆\W̆IQZ UQ[[QTMÅZMLJaI5Q/̆W^MZ6WZ\P Vietnam. Dec. 16 The 9th Infantry Division completes its deployment to Vietnam, taking over an area south and east of Saigon. Dec. 23 The destroyer USS O’Brien JMKWUM[\PMÅZ[\)UMZQKIV[PQX\W JM[\Z]KSJa[PMTT[ÅZMLNZWU6WZ\P Vietnamese shore batteries. Two crewmen are killed and four are wounded by coastal artillery in Quang *QVP6WZ\P>QM\VIU¼[[W]\PMZVUW[\ province. Dec. 30 U.S. and South Vietnamese

Dec. 26 Maulana Karenga, a leader of a black community organization in Los Angeles, IVLNZQMVL[KMTMJZI\M\PMÅZ[\ Kwanzaa, a seven-day holiday centered on African harvest festivals, family and community.

troops enter Cambodia in hot pursuit of Viet Cong retreating into the enemy’s long-established sanctuary across the Vietnamese border. After a ground assault supported by 40 helicopters and airstrikes, the U.S.South Vietnamese force withdraws. CLOCKWISE FROM OPPOSITE TOP LEFT: RGB VENTURES/SUPERSTOCK/ ALAMY STOCK PHOTO; AP; HO IMAGES/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO; AF ARCHIVE/ ALAMY STOCK PHOTO; GETTY IMAGES; HERITAGE AUCTIONS, DALLAS; ISTOCK; MICHAEL OCHS ARCHIVES/GETTY IMAGES

DECEMBER 2016

21

Got it handled The PK has a changeable barrel, and the carrying handle helps gunners to swap barrels rapidly.

At the front The open post front sight could be adjusted in the field for elevation.

To the rear The rear sight could be adjusted for windage and range.

Belt in a box A detachable box held a 100-round link belt. The gunners could also use external linked belts totaling up to 250 rounds.

Dual-purpose bipod The bipod stand offered more than support to stabilize the gun. The right leg also contained cleaning rods.

THE NVA’S GENERAL PURPOSE MACHINE GUN By Carl O. Schuster

22

VIETNAM

Crew: 2-3 Rounds: `UU rimmed ball, armorpiercing, tracer Weight: 19.84 XW]VL[JQXWL# 36.3 pounds \ZQXWL Overall length: 47.4 inches Barrel length: 25.9 inches Rate of fire: 650 rounds per minute Muzzle velocity: 285 meters per second Maximum range: 1,000 meters

GREGORY PROCH

The Soviet-made PK general purpose machine gun—never as widely employed as the ubiquitous AK-47 assault rife and RPD light machine gun—began to replace the Soviets’ DP light machine gun in the North Vietnamese Army in late 1965. QM\VIUM[M ][MLQ\QV[Q\]I\QWV[_PMZM\PMQVNIV\Za¼[)3̆:8,ÅZMXW_MZVMMLMLZMQVNWZKMUMV\.WZ most combat missions, however, the combination of AK-47/RPD guns and rocket-propelled OZMVILM[_I[KWV[QLMZML[]ЅKQMV\ The PK was often employed to cover a unit’s withdrawal or teamed with RPGs and light mortars against enemy strong points or small-unit concentrations. It saw widespread use QV\PM6>)¼[ÅVITWЄMV[Q^M[QV;W]\P>QM\VIUIVLQVQ\[[]J[MY]MV\_IZ[_Q\P+IUJWLQI and China. It remains in frontline service to this day. V

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DMZ TURKEY SHOOT U.S. Marine tanks and ARVN troops unload on a North Vietnamese battalion By James P. Coan

24

VIETNAM

Downtime Marines repair a broken track on one of their tanks. In August 1968, Marine tankers discovered hundreds of enemy troops on the banks of the Ben Hai River.

O

ne of the most devastating defeats inf licted upon the North Vietnamese Army by U. S. Marines and their South Vietnamese allies occurred on Aug. 15, 1968, in the coastal sand dunes northeast of Gio Linh and on the south bank of the Ben Hai River separating North and South Vietnam. Ten Marine M-48A3 Patton tanks from 3rd Tank Battalion, 3rd Marine Division, surprised a North Vietnamese battalion at dawn. The tankers, with elements of the 2nd :MOQUMV\)ZUaWN\PM:MX]JTQKWN>QM\VIUWXMVMLÅZMIVLI\tacked, overrunning the NVA and destroying a frogman training facility at the Ben Hai River. The Marines, who described the day’s action as a “turkey shoot,” also destroyed several trucks and sank two enemy boats in the river. There were no Marine casualties. But that remarkably successful joint Marine Corps–ARVN operation, called Lam Son 250 by the ARVN, was largely ignored by American press, for reasons that aren’t clear. Perhaps it was because the battle was primarily an ARVN operation.

DMZ in name only The Ben Hai River ran through the center of the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Vietnam, and the land on its southern side was a much-contested batleground.

DOMINIC BYRNE/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO; TOP: ROBERT PEAVEY

In July 1954, the Big Four (United States, Great Britain, the Soviet Union and France), along with representatives of the People’s :MX]JTQKWN+PQVIUM\QV/MVM^I\WÅVITTaZM[WT^M\PM3WZMIV?IZ stalemate, but the focus shifted to Indochina after the French army’s disaster at Dien Bien Phu in May brought an end to France’s colonial rule. The Geneva Accords, issued on July 21, called for temporarily dividing Vietnam at the 17th parallel (referred to as a “provisional UQTQ\IZaLMUIZKI\QWVTQVMº_Q\PI,MUQTQ\IZQbMLBWVMI[IJ]ЄMZ )UMZQKIVIVL;W]\P>QM\VIUM[M\ZWWX[_W]TLÅOP\\PM6WZ\P>QM\namese in the strategically important region throughout the war. The DMZ generally followed the broad, winding Ben Hai River west from its mouth at the South China Sea for 30 miles until the river’s source in the mountains and then straight to the Laotian border. ?PMZM\PM*MV0IQMUX\QM[QV\W\PM[MIQ[IJIZZMVM`XIV[MWN[IVL dunes and occasional swamps. Inland a dozen miles from the coast, the lowland terrain becomes increasingly verdant and alive with rice ÅMTL[WZKPIZL[IVLWKKI[QWVITPIUTM\[JWZLMZQVO\PMZQ^MZ The DMZ eventually evolved into anything but “demilitarized” as the North Vietnamese moved their forces in, using both sides of the *MV0IQ:Q^MZI[[\IOQVOIZMI[NWZI\\IKS[IVLQVÅT\ZI\QWVZW]\M[QV\W

D EOCCETM OBER 2016

25 25

NO RT H V IE TNAM 17TH PARALLEL

TURKEY SHOOT

DEMILITARIZED ZONE

SOUTH VIETNAM

CON THIEN

561

CAM LO

South Vietnam. The South Vietnamese and their American allies observed the rules of the Geneva agreement for many years and kept their ground forces out of the DMZ, but in May 1966, after the NVA 324B Division attacked two ARVN outposts just below the zone at Con Thien and Gio Linh, that policy changed. Four Marine battalions and a sizable South Vietnamese infantry unit invaded the [W]\PMZVXIZ\WN\PM,5BNWZ\PMÅZ[\\QUM_PMV\PM5Irines’ Operation Hastings was coordinated with the ARVN’s Operation Lam Son 289. In May 1967, after a massive NVA attack that nearly W^MZZIV\PM5IZQVMÅZMJI[MI\+WV):MOQUMV\IZW]VL\PMÅZMbase at Gio Linh, the commander of the 2nd ARVN Regiment, Lt. Col. Vu Van Giai, asked permission to launch another attack into the southern half of the DMZ. Final approval was granted by Marine Maj. Gen. Ray Davis when intelligence reports indicated that the NVA was J]QTLQVO]XQ\[NWZKM[QV\PMbWVMNWZIVI]\]UVWЄMV[Q^M After several B-52 bombing runs that blasted known and suspected enemy locations in the DMZ, a diversionary attack was launched before dawn on August 15 by

VIETNAM

CUA VIET RIVER

1

MIEU GIANG RIVER

26

MARINE OUTPOST C-4

GIO LINH

DONG HA

9 elements of the Marines’ Amphibian Tractor Battalion—15 tracked landing vehicles (Amtracs) and two tanks. Rolling noisily out of Marine outpost C-4, the Amtracs and tanks halted about a half-mile south of the DMZ’s southern boundary, then reversed course back to C-4. This diversion set the stage for the joint MarineARVN attack into the DMZ later that morning. Five tanks from 1st Platoon of Alpha Company, 3rd Tank Battalion, were led by 2nd Lt. Frank Blakemore, who had been with the platoon for only a month. Captain R.J. Patterson, the new commanding officer of Alpha Company, was the overall detachment leader and rode aboard tank A-15. That tank (with its name, “StinkFinger,” painted on the main gun barrel) was normally commanded by Corporal Virgil Melton Jr., a lanky, combat-wise Marine from Canton, Texas. The lieutenant told Melton, “The captain will have to ride on your tank, so you’ll have to move over into the loader’s spot.” Melton remembers that the move gave him few anxious moments. “I’d never seen the new CO, so I could only hope that this captain had his act together,” he said.
BRIAN WALKER

ENLARGED AREA

SOUTH CHINA SEA

BEN HAI RIVER

1 Ready, or not Let: A Marine tank platoon is parked, awaiting orders for its next mission. Inset: A tank crewman takes a look at mine damage.

FROM TOP: USMC VIETNAM TANKERS ASSOCIATION (2); AP (3)

engine with a Continental V-12 supercharged 750 horsepower diesel engine, _PQKPOZMI\TaZML]KML\PMZQ[SWNÅZM7\PMZ enhancements were a 360-degree vision ring on the tank commander’s cupola and a Xenon searchlight with infrared capability NWZVQOP\WXMZI\QWV[ The M48A3’s armament included a !UŬQVKPUIQVO]VĬKITQJMZ co-axially mounted machine gun and a ̆KITQJMZUIKPQVMO]VQV\PMKWUUIVLMZ¼[K]XWTI)N]TTaTWILML\IVS_MQOPML \WV[IVLPILI\WX[XMMLWNUXP The four-man crew consisted of a tank KWUUIVLMZIO]VVMZITWILMZIVLILZQ^MZ The gunner had a ballistic computer that could automatically set the main gun tube’s MTM^I\QWV\WPQ\I\IZOM\JaLQZMK\ÅZM]X\W UM\MZ[LQ[\IV\0Q\\QVOIVa\PQVONIZther away would necessitate employing “Kentucky windage”—aiming without using the barrel sights and instead estimating the elevation and wind with educated guessing, I[[PWW\MZ[LQL_Q\P\PM3MV\]KSaTWVOZQÆM WN)UMZQKIVXQWVMMZ[QV\PM[ At 4 a.m. on August 15, the Marine-ARVN detachment moved north from its overnight TWKI\QWVMI[\WN/QW4QVP1VILLQ\QWV\W\PM 5IZQVM\IVS[_I[I\IVSZM\ZQM^MZ+̆ commanded by Captain Dan McQueary, comUIVLQVOWЅKMZWN\PMZL6QVNIV\ZaUMVZWLMI\WXMIKP\IVS6\P)ZUWZML+I^ITZa 5W^QVO[QVOTMÅTM\WUQVQUQbMM`XW[]ZM\W mine damage, the allied attacking force, its path illuminated by predawn moonlight and periodic artillery flares, continued slowly VWZ\P)\NQZ[\TQOP\\PM^MPQKTM[\]ZVML

Firepower Below top, middle: Marines make a dash for foxholes as the North Vietnamese respond with mortar atacks ater the Marines begin Operation Hastings in July 1966. Below botom: A Marine M48 Paton tank fires on the enemy south of the DMZ in September 1966. northwest, coming to a halt atop an ex\MVLML[IVLL]VMZQLOMZ]VVQVOMI[\\W_M[\ To the troops’ complete astonishment, directly downslope in front of them were an estimated 600 to 700 unsuspecting NVA KWWSQVOJZMISNI[\IUWVO\PML]VM[+WZXWral Melton recalled, “We were so close to \PMU_MKW]TL[UMTT\PMQZNWWLº The ARVN soldiers dismounted from the 10 Marine tanks, which then pulled up IJZMI[\1VZM[XWV[M\W\PM¹7XMV.QZM ºKWUmand from Captain Patterson, the detachment leader aboard A-15, they blasted away with their 90mm cannons and machine O]V[;WUM6>)[\IT_IZ\[ÅZMLJIKS_QTLTa with the weapons they had at hand, but tank IZUWZ_I[QUXMZ^QW][\WJ]TTM\[ Despite the deafening blasts of adjacent tank cannons, Patterson was able to contact the ARVN commander on the radio and in[\Z]K\PQU\WÆIVS\PMMVMUaWV\PM_M[\ 7VKM\PI\N TIVSQVOUW^MUMV\_I[KWUpleted, the ARVN soldiers dismounted their )8+[IVLI\\IKSMLMI[\\W_IZL\PMKWI[\ The boxed-in, panicked enemy soldiers JMOIVIPI[\aLQ[WZOIVQbMLZM\ZMI\VWZ\P WVNWW\\W_IZL\PM*MV0IQ:Q^MZ

Bound for batle A column of Marine tanks heads for the Demilitarized Zone.

28

VIETNAM

turned over to South Vietnamese authorities at Gio Linh later that evening; it turned out he had valuable information for his South Vietnamese captors. Patterson made radio contact with a Marine Corps =0̆,PMTQKWX\MZQV\PMIZMIIVLJZW]OP\Q\QV\W\PMNZIa )[WTLQMZ[ As the morning wore on, an increasing number of mor\IZ[ZWKSM\[IVLW\PMZIZ\QTTMZa_I[ÅZMLI\\PM\IVSMZ[ NZWUMVMUaXW[Q\QWV[VWZ\PWN\PM*MV0IQ;W\WM`XMZQenced a near miss by a 122mm rocket that rocked his tank. None of the tanks was disabled. “A few of our tanks []ЄMZMLLIUIOM\W\PMQZ[MIZKPTQOP\[^Q[QWVJTWKS[IVL IV\MVVI[NZWUÆaQVO[PZIXVMTJ]\_MLQLV¼\TW[MIVabody,” Melton said. Under the Sav-a-Plane policy that top U.S. military commanders put in place the previous year, the Marines KW]TLVW\KITTNWZIZ\QTTMZaÅZM\WVM]\ZITQbM\PMMVMUa¼[ O]V[VWZ\PWN\PM*MV0IQI[TWVOI[NZQMVLTaIQZKZIN\_MZM in the attack area. This rule was imposed after two incidents at Con Thien when Marine Corps helicopters were [PW\LW_VJa¹NZQMVLTaÅZMº
JOHN WEAR

The tanks soon outdistanced the ARVN foot soldiers, and from then on it was indeed a turkey shoot. The shock-and-awe factor of 10 Marine tanks bearing down on the NVA troops overwhelmed them. “It was a wild melee,” said Corporal Claude “Chris” Vargo, the gunner on B-34. “The NVA broke ranks and scattered. Many ran WЄTMI^QVO\PMQZ_MIXWV[JMPQVL)[_M_MZMITTZWIZQVO LW_VWV\PMUÅZQVOXWQV\̆JTIVS_Q\PW]ZKIVQ[\MZIVL beehive rounds [steel darts], I lost count of how many dead NVA we passed.” Sergeant Sal Soto, B-34’s tank commander, saw the MЄMK\[WN\PMJMMPQ^MIUU]VQ\QWV¹
TOP: GETTY IMAGES; MIDDLE: AP

instantaneous,” recalled Gunnery Sgt. Baldwin, the Bravo Company 3rd Platoon leader. ¹
there frantically signaled the tanks to stop, but it was too late. Waggle’s tank ran over and detonated an anti-tank mine. ¹?PMV?IOOTM¼[\IVSPQ\\PI\ÅZ[\UQVM1 [I_I[M\WNZWIL_PMMT[OWÆaQVO]XQV\PM IQZºZMKITTML;W\W¹1SVM__M_MZMQVNWZQ\ IN\MZ\PI\º+WZX[KWUUIVLMZ reported to General Creighton Abrams, the top U.S. combat commander in Vietnam: “The 1st Battalion, 138th NVA Regiment, was to have attacked south across the DMZ last night; it will do no attacking for some time to come!” Operation Lam Son 250 was a tanker’s dream. Participants at Vietnam veteran reunions still refer to it as the “DMZ turkey shoot.” U.S. Marine tanks were credited with 189 enemy killed and 70 “probables” out of a total of 421 reported. All tank and retriever crewmen and attached personnel were authorized to wear the Meritorious Unit Comm e n d a t i o n r i b b o n . T h e r e m a r k a b ly successful Marine-ARVN operation on Aug. 15, 1968, may not have received coverage in the American press, but the actions of those who fought there won’t ever be forgotten by the participants. V

Casualties Top: A wounded Marine is helped of Hill 861 near the DMZ ater a batle in April 1967. Above: An evacuation helicopter is ready for a Marine being carried across the sand at the mouth of the Ben Hai River during Operation Hickory in May 1967.

James P. Coan was the platoon leader of 1st Platoon, Alpha Company, 3rd Tank Battalion, for nine months during 1967-68. He had just become the executive WЅKMZWN)TXPI+WUXIVa when Lam Son 250 occurred. Coan is the author of Con Thien: The Hill of Angels, University of Alabama Press, 2004.

DECEMBER 2016

29

Common Men, Uncommon Valor A documentary salutes the men of Bravo Company, 26th Marines, who withstood the siege of Khe Sanh

DAVID DOUGLAS DUNCAN, PHOTOGRAPHY COLLECTION, HARRY RANSOM HUMANITIES RESEARCH CENTER, UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN

By Pamela Kleibrink Thompson

30

VIETNAM

“Everything around you is just riddled with shrapnel. You see that right away. There isn’t anything that isn’t torn open; sandbags are ripped open, buildings are just shredded.” That’s how former Marine Ron Rees describes the scene inside the base at Khe Sanh during the monthslong siege by the North Vietnamese Army in 1968. Rees recalled the battle in an interview for Bravo! Common Men, Uncommon Valor, a documentary that tells the stories of 15 survivors of the siege and reveals the long-term costs that the war had on their lives. .QZ[\̆\QUM ÅTUUISMZ[ 3MV :WLOMZ[ I TIVKM KWZXWZIT I\ 3PM ;IVP IVL PQ[_QNM*M\\aXZWL]KML\PMLWK]UMV\IZaIJW]\3MV¼[W]\Å\*ZI^W+WUpany, 1st Battalion, 26th Marine Regiment, 5th Marine Division, attached to the 3rd Marine Division, one of the units assigned to defend the remote Marine base in the northwestern corner of South Vietnam.

A heavy toll Dead Marines are loaded onto a chopper at Khe Sanh airstrip.

DECEMBER 2016

31

T

he setting was just 14 miles south of the Demilitarized Zone separating North and South Vietnam and only 6 miles east of the Laotian border and the Ho Chi Minh Trail, the primary route the North Vietnamese used to send supplies to Communist forces in the South. The Khe Sanh base, established in 1962 as an Army Special Forces camp and assigned to the Marines in 1966, was at the far end of a tenuous American supply line on Route 9, the northernmost east-west highway in South Vietnam. In the words of General William Westmoreland, overall commander of American forces, Khe Sanh was “the cork in the bottle” of the most likely enemy approaches to South Vietnam. The base, covering 2 square miles, was tough to defend. Much of the high ground overlooking the base was ]VLMZMVMUaKWV\ZWT\PMJI[M¼[_I\MZ[]XXTaÆW_ML through hostile territory and Khe Sanh was often fogged in during the early months of the year. By December 1967, at least two North Vietnamese Army divisions had positioned heavy artillery in the area around Khe Sanh. Some 20,000 enemy troops were poised to attack. The Marines and a small contingent of South Vietnamese

32

VIETNAM

army rangers defending the base totaled about 6,000. Westmoreland ordered the Marine commander at Khe Sanh, Colonel David E. Lownds, to “hold at all costs.” The NVA began its assault on Jan. 21, 1968. After PMI^aÅOP\QVO\PM5IZQVM[\PZM_JIKS\PI\QVQ\QITI\tack, but the enemy controlled all land approaches to Khe Sanh, including the crucial Route 9. The siege began. Ten days later Khe Sanh was bumped off the VQOP\TaVM_[KI[\[Ja\PM
COURTESY MIKE MCCAULEY

Defensive squad Bravo Company Corporal Steve Wiese, far right, and his squad are entrenched at Khe Sanh. Wiese and Pfc. Mike McCauley, far let, were interviewed for the film.

RIGHT: DAVID DOUGLAS DUNCAN; SNAPSHOTS FROM TOP: MICHAEL E. O’HARA; COURTESY BEN LONG; MICHAEL E. O’HARA

Khe Sanh, American aircraft were able to QVÆQK\PMI^aKI[]IT\QM[ )TW[[M[UW]V\MLIVLQV5IZKP\PM IZ\QTTMZaJWUJIZLUMV\MI[ML\PW]OPQ\ZMUIQVMLIKWV[\IV\\PZMI\)IK\Q^Q\aUILMQ\KTMIZ\PI\ \PM6WZ\P>QM\VIUM[M_MZM_Q\PLZI_QVO7V )XZQT=;)ZUaMVOQVMMZ[LMKTIZML:W]\M !WXMV\W^MPQK]TIZ\ZIЅK )TW[\\PW][IVL[ “When I left Khe Sanh NWZOWWLQVMIZTa )XZQT! 1NTM_WVI+0̆\W,WVO0Iº ZMKITT[3MV:WLOMZ[_PWVW_TQ^M[QV*WQ[M 1LIPW¹?PMV1LMXTIVML1TWWSMLJIKS\W\PM _M[\I\\PMUW]V\IQV[_PMZM3PM;IVP[I\ IVL1[IQL\WUa[MTN»M\MZIV[)[[WKQI\QWV*M\\a:WLOMZ[_I[TQ[\MVQVO\W\PM O]a[I[\PMa[I\IZW]VL\MTTQVO\PMQZ[\WZQM[ ¹1\ZMITTa[IVSQVI\\PI\\QUM\PI\_M[WUMPW_VMMLML\WXZM[MZ^M\PQ[\PMQZPQ[\WZa \PMQZ[\WZaº[PM[IQL )VL\PMJM[\_Ia\WLW\PI\3MV\PW]OP\ _I[\WTM\\PMUMV\MTT\PMQZW_V[\WZQM[QVI LWK]UMV\IZaÅTU*MNWZM\PM:WLOMZ[]VLMZ\WWS\PMXZWRMK\*M\\a[XWSM_Q\P*ZI^W +WUXIVaKWUUIVLMZ+IX\IQV3MV8QXM[ _PWZM\QZMLNZWU\PM5IZQVM+WZX[I[ITQM]\MVIV\KWTWVMT\WOM\PQ[JTM[[QVO )T\PW]OPVM_\WÅTUUISQVO\PMP][JIVL̆ IVL̆_QNM\MIUPILIKY]QZMLZMTI\ML[SQTT[ \PI\_MZMIJQOPMTX3MV_Q\PI5I[\MZWN .QVM)Z\[LMOZMMNZWU\PM=VQ^MZ[Q\aWN;IV .ZIVKQ[KWITZMILa]VLMZ[\WWL\PM[\Z]K\]ZM WN[\WZa\MTTQVOIVL*M\\a_I[ITWVO\QUM XPW\WOZIXPMZ*W\PPILJMMV_I\KPQVOIVL IVITabQVOÅTU[NWZaMIZ[ *]\ILUQ\\MLTa\PMa[\QTTPILITW\\WTMIZV ¹?MSVM__M_W]TLVMML\W[]ZZW]VLW]Z[MT^M[_Q\P\ITMV\MLIVLXI[[QWVI\MXMWXTM _PWKW]TLPMTXº*M\\a[IQL
QV\PW[MÅMTL[¹M\MZIV[)[[WKQI\QWV_PWPILJMMVQV *ZI^W +WUXIVa L]ZQVO \PM [QMOMº *M\\a [IQL¹7]\WN\PW[MIOZMML\WIVQV\MZ^QM_?MIT[W\ZQML\WÅVLW\PMZ[_PWPIL VM^MZRWQVML\PMWZOIVQbI\QWVJ]\PIL^MZa TQ\\TMT]KS_Q\P\PI\º 3MV¼[QV\MZ^QM_QV1LIPW_I[ÅTUMLÅZ[\
Khe Sanh snapshots From top: Lance Cpl. Ken Rodgers, 1st. Lt. Ben Long, Pfc. Dan Horton

Aerial atack A KC-130F tanker from Marine Aerial Refueler Squadron 152 is ablaze ater being hit while landing at Khe Sanh.

, DE+ CE5 M* BE: R 2 0 1 6

33

“Making Bravo! was cathartic to me on a number of levels,” Ken said. “I discovered, while conducting the interviews, that I wasn’t the only one who had survived the horrors of Khe Sanh. I knew it intellectually but not emotionally. Hearing the men tell their stories helped me understand that we shared the terrible memories.” 4I\MZ_PQTM_WZSQVO_Q\P\PMÅTUMLQ\WZ3MV_I\KPML those interviews over and over again. “Initially, I would end a screening session feeling like someone had abraded my soul on my grandmother’s washboard,” he said. “But as time went on, the trauma lessened, and I \PQVS\PMKWV[\IV\^QM_QVOWN\PMÅTUPI[PMTXMLUM X]\Ua3PM;IVPM`XMZQMVKM[QV\PMQZXZWXMZXTIKM1 don’t think someone who endures what we lived 34

VIETNAM

through at Khe Sanh will ever get over the event, but we can learn how to place those memories in a mental spot that allows us to keep our lives in balance. Vietnam veterans didn’t talk about the war for over 40 years, and now we can. Bravo! often starts the dialogue, and that is cathartic in itself.” 1V\PMÅTU?QM[MWXMVML]XIJW]\IVIUJ][PWNPQ[ platoon while on a patrol outside the Khe Sanh base. He was walking through a bomb crater when the enemy struck. Wiese hunkered down in the crater and made his way back to the base by jumping from bomb crater to bomb crater. It took the corporal all day to cover about 400 yards. “The only reason I survived was I just happened to be standing in a bomb crater where it was like 2½ feet LMMXºPM[Ia[QV\PMÅTU¹1R][\PIXXMVML\WJM_ITSQVO through that at the time the ambush opened up.” “You don’t know what war is until you face it,” said Dan Horton in his interview. “And it’s not John Wayne. John Wayne has never been to war.” Frank McCauley revealed that because of his Roman Catholic faith he did not want to kill anyone. “I was hopQVO1KW]TLOM\\PZW]OP\PQ[M`XMZQMVKM_Q\PW]\M^MZ using my weapon,” he said. Nicholas Warr, a Marine lieutenant who described his >QM\VIUM`XMZQMVKM[QVPQ[JWWSPhase Line Green: The Battle for Hue, 1968,[IQL\PI\\PM:WLOMZ[¼ÅTU¹KIXtures the essence and the humanity of warfare, the physical and mental pain, the fear, the elation upon sur^Q^IT\PI\QV[\IV\Ta\]ZV[QV\WO]QT\IVL\PM[]ЄMZQVO IVL[WZZW_WN_IZI[Q\_I[M`XMZQMVKMLJa\PMaW]VO Marines of Bravo 1/26 who fought at Khe Sanh combat base in early 1968.”

Bravo! won Best Feature Documentary at the 2015 GI Film Festival in San Diego, and the Major Norman Hatch Award for Best Feature Documentary from the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation. Filmmaker Ben Shedd, whose The Flight of the Gossamer Condor won the 1979 Oscar for best short documentary, has praised Bravo! for its look and feel. “The pacing is superb, deliberate, delicate, harsh, real.” The National Society of the Daughters of the American :M^WT]\QWVPWVWZML3MVNWZPQ[ÅTUJaXZM[MV\QVOPQU with its highest award, the Ellen Hardin Walworth Founders Medal for Patriotism, given to a person “who has displayed outstanding patriotism in the promotion of our country’s ideals of God, home, and country through faithful and meritorious service to our community, state and nation.” Betty received the DAR’s award NWZ-`KMTTMVKMQV+WUU]VQ\a;MZ^QKMNWZPMZXIZ\QVXZWL]KQVO\PMÅTU The Rodgers have traveled all across the country for screenings of Bravo! They have been invited to diverse places, Betty said, “from San Quentin, to the Boston VA; NZWU*ZW_V_WWLIVL,ITTI[
FROM TOP: COURTESY MICHAEL E. O’HARA; T.H. NAIRNS, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE PHOTO/NATIONAL ARCHIVES; ROBERT ELLISON/BLACK STAR

+XT5QKPIMT7¼0IZINZWU1VLQIVIIVL8M\\a7ЅKMZZL Class John “Doc” Cicala, a hospital corpsman, from Michigan. After the reunion, the Rodgers went on the road to talk with other members of Bravo Company who agreed \WJMQV\MZ^QM_ML
On the line Ken Rodgers, let, poses for a photo in January 1968 with fellow Bravo Marines Quiles R. Jacobs, center, and Michael Carwile.

Fire when ready Corporal R.J. Strik shoots his flamethrower during the batle of Khe Sanh.

Dug in As enemy gunfire pours into Khe Sanh, Marines take cover in a trench at the base. DECEMBER 2016

35

said to Betty, “You know, you wives are Vietnam veterans too, because you’ve had to live with us and the impact our combat experience had on us.” That comment [XI_VML\PMVM_ÅTUI Married the War. The Rodgers received a grant for the project from the 1LIPW0]UIVQ\QM[+W]VKQTIVLPI^MÅTUMLIVQV\MZ^QM_ with Terri Topmiller, the widow of Robert “Doc” Topmiller, who was a medic at Khe Sanh during his time as a Navy corpsman. The couple are seeking additional grants and corporate sponsors to fund the production. V

Pamela Kleibrink Thompson, a career coach, speaker, writer and recruiter, has written for more than 100 publications. You can reach her at [email protected]. Her husband, Lance Thompson, a screenwriter who has written magazine articles for Air & Space Smithsonian and other publications, contributed to this article. You can reach him at [email protected].

Cinematographer Mark Spear; Ken Rodgers at the National Archives; Ken and Bety Rodgers with a Khe Sanh map. More on Bravo! To schedule a screening of Bravo! Common Men, Uncommon Valor in your community, contact Ken Rodgers at [email protected] or call 208-340-8889. DVDs of Bravo! are available at http://bravotheproject.com/buy-the-dvd/. Bravo! is on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/Bravotheproject/. The website is Bravotheproject.com. For information on the new project, go to www.imarriedthewar.com. 36

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ALL PHOTOS BETTY RODGERS

and many, many more locations.” The documentary was shown at the 2016 Justice for Vets Conference in Anaheim, California, on June 1. Ken said that viewers will come up afterward and say, “Now I understand my dad,” or “I understand my brother” or “I understand people who had this happen to them and now they can’t function like the rest of us; now I understand why they were the way they were.” )T\PW]OP\PMÅTUNWK][M[WVWVM]VQ\Q\PWVWZ[\PM service of other Vietnam veterans as well, Ken and Betty say. The word “bravo” was put in the title not only to represent Ken’s Bravo Company but also to applaud all of those who served in Vietnam. Ken and Betty, both now 69, are producing another documentary. This one is about the wives of combat veterans. Ken Korkow, one of the Marines in Bravo!, once

Looking back John “Doc” Cicala, let, and Ken Korkow recalled their Khe Sanh experiences in interviews for the film.

Reflections at the Wall Ken Rodgers looks for members of Bravo Company on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington.

BETTY RODGERS

Bravo’s Battle at Khe Sanh On Jan. 20, 1968, a Marine advance on one of Khe Sanh’s nearby hills met unexpectedly strong resistance. As the hill IH[[SL^HZYHNPUNHSVUL5VY[O=PL[UHTLZL(YT`VɉJLY approached the camp at Khe Sanh and surrendered to Cap[HPU2LU7PWLZJVTTHUKPUNVɉJLYVM)YH]V*VTWHU`Z[ )H[[HSPVU [O 4HYPUL 9LNPTLU[ [O 4HYPUL +P]PZPVU H[[HJOLK[V[OLYK4HYPUL+P]PZPVU;OLLULT`VɉJLYJVUfirmed not only that two NVA divisions—20,000 enemy soldiers—had surrounded the camp but also said they planned to attack the very next day. As the NVA prisoner had warned, the opening artillery bombardment hit the Marine base on January 21, and it ZPNUHSLK[OLILNPUUPUNVM[OLZPLNL;OLIHYYHNLZ[Y\JRH hard blow when one round hit an ammunition dump at the LHZ[LUKVM2OL:HUO»ZHPYZ[YPW;OLL_WSVZPVUKL[VUH[LK TVYL[OHU[VUZVMZ[VYLKHTT\UP[PVUT\S[PWS`PUN[OL effect of the bombardment and killing 18 Marines while wounding many others. ;OL\UP[H[2OL:HUOJSVZLZ[[V[OLL_WSVKPUNHTTV K\TW^HZ7PWLZ»)YH]V*VTWHU`^OPJO^V\SKWSH`HJYP[ical role in the 77-day siege of Khe Sanh. +\YPUN[OLZPLNL4HYPULZZ[PSSWH[YVSSLKYLN\SHYS`HS[OV\NO UL]LYTVYL[OHU`HYKZMYVT[OLIHZLWLYPTL[LY6U-LIY\HY`[OL4HYPULJVTTHUKLYH[2OL:HUO*VSVULS+H]PK E. Lownds, needed fresh intelligence, the kind that could only ILVI[HPULKMYVTWYPZVULYZ)YH]V*VTWHU`^HZ[VSK[VWHtrol outside the southeast perimeter, and Pipes assigned the QVI[V3PL\[LUHU[+VU1HJX\LZSLHKLYVM)YH]V»ZYK7SH[VVU -VN^HZQ\Z[ILNPUUPUN[VSPM[HZYK7SH[VVUTV]LKV\[ beyond the protection of the wire and mines. At 9 a.m., three enemy soldiers leapt from their hiding places and ran into the open, directly in front of the surprised Marines. As soon as [OL4HYPULZVWLULKÄYL[OLLULT`ZVSKPLYZKPZHWWLHYLKPU[V H[YLLSPUL1HJX\LZYLJLP]LKWLYTPZZPVU[VW\YZ\L[OLTI\[ Pipes warned him not to get into anything he couldn’t handle. It was possible that the three NVA were trying to lure the 4HYPULZPU[VH[YHW1HJX\LZSLKOPZLU[PYLYK7SH[VVUPU pursuit, and it was ambushed from two sides by NVA heavy

machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars. ;OLSPL\[LUHU[JHSSLKMVYHY[PSSLY`Z\WWVY[I\[OLOHK strayed so far from his original course that artillery crews JV\SKU»[ÄYLMVYMLHYVMOP[[PUN[OLWSH[VVU4HYPULZVM)YH]V»Z 1st Platoon went out to relieve 3rd Platoon and also were HTI\ZOLK1HJX\LZHUKV[OLY4HYPULZMYVT[OL[^V platoons were killed, while few others escaped without wounds. Survivors trickled back to base in small groups or PUKP]PK\HSS`SLH]PUNKLHKJVTYHKLZVU[OLÄLSK On March 30, Colonel Lownds issued aggressive orders to Pipes: “Movement to contact.” In other words, leave the safety VM[OLIHZLWLYPTL[LYHUKNVSVVRPUNMVYHÄNO[(SS[OYLL)YH]V Company platoons would deploy to the same area where 3rd Platoon was ambushed a month before. One objective was to retrieve the Marines who had been killed in the ambush. ;OL4HYPULZVM)YH]V*VTWHU`^LYLYLHK`MVYHÄNO[ ;OL`OHKILLUWV\UKLKMVYV]LY[^VTVU[OZI`[OLSHYNLS` \UZLLULULT`»ZHY[PSSLY`HUKTVY[HYZ;OLPYI\KKPLZOHK ILLUHTI\ZOLK;OL`^HU[LK[VH]LUNL[OLPYKLH[OZ0MHU` man had doubts about what was coming, an order that WHZZLK[OYV\NO[OLYHURZLYHZLK[OLT!¸-P_IH`VUL[Z¹ *HW[HPU7PWLZSLK)YH]VPU[V[OLÄNO[;OL4HYPULZHZsaulted the enemy trenches and bunkers aggressively and met strong resistance. North Vietnamese soldiers fought ÄLYJLS`I\[JV\SKUV[[\YUIHJR[OL[PKL)YH]VZ\YNLKMVY^HYK[HRPUNJHZ\HS[PLZI\[UL]LYMHS[LYPUN;OLLULT` ZVSKPLYZÄUHSS`IYVRLHUKHIHUKVULK[OLPYWVZP[PVUZ ;^LS]L4HYPULZ^LYLRPSSLKVU[OLWH[YVS(O\UKYLKTVYL ^LYL^V\UKLKPUJS\KPUN7PWLZ^OVZ[H`LKPU[OLÄNO[KLspite serious wounds from a mortar round. ;OL)YH]V*VTWHU`H[[HJRKPKUV[LUK[OLZPLNLI\[VU April 6 a U.S.–South Vietnamese relief force reached Khe :HUO]PH9V\[L IYLHRPUN[OL5=(Z[YHUNSLOVSKVU[OL IHZL,]LU^P[O[OLZPLNLSPM[LKOV^L]LYÄNO[PUNJVU[PU\LK in the surrounding area until Marine forces were permanently withdrawn from Khe Sanh and the combat base was abandoned in July. —Lance Thompson

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At Ease U.S. troops take a break from the war

38

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Incursion timeout A soldier of the 2nd Battalion, 12th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division, relaxes before pulling out of Firebase Speer, 6 miles inside the Cambodian border, June 24, 1970.

AP

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Southwest of Saigon A gunner grabs a nap near his 155mm howitzer on Nov. 16, 1968. The weapon was brought in for an operation that lasted a week J]\VM^MZÅZML because the Viet Cong avoided contact.

Binh Long GIs with the 1st Infantry Division play a hand of cards on Sept. 7, 1966, at their base camp as they wait for transport to their next operation.

40

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PHOTO CREDIT

Bunker during a moon launch Soldiers of the 9th Infantry Division in the Mekong Delta listen to a radio broadcast of the Apollo 11 launch on July 16, 1969. From left, Pfc. Earl C. Hollingsworth III, Sgt. Stephen C. Dionne and Spc. 4 Rodney D. Sparks.

CLOCKWISE FROM ABOVE LEFT: AP (4); EVERETT COLLECTION INC/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO; AP (3)

Jungle northeast of Saigon After a day’s patrol as part of a two-week operation against the Viet Cong, Pfc. Everado Torres of the 1st Cavalry Division writes a letter home while his comrades set up an area in the bush, Feb. 12, 1972.

Khe Sanh Marine base Mounded dirt walls and stacked timbers help protect these players from enemy machine gunners and snipers, Feb. 11, 1968.

Flooded base camp at Ben Loc Part of his daily routine, a 25th Infantry Division soldier washes his soiled fatigues after patrols in the Mekong Delta’s rice paddies and canals, Dec. 10, 1969.

Surfside 7ZOIVQbMZ[WNI=;7̆ [XWV[WZML[]ZÅVOKWV\M[\ KPI\_Q\P]VQLMV\QÅML _QVVMZ[WV;MX\!

Laotian border An American artillery crew, who provided covering ÅZMNWZ;W]\P Vietnamese troops inside Laos during 7XMZI\QWV4IU;WV 719, takes a break under a crudely UILMXMIKMÆIO February 1971.

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Field and stream Members of the 9th Infantry Division, above, look over the sports pages of ;\IZ[;\ZQXM[ after ÅVLQVO>QM\+WVO_MIXWV[QV\]VVMT[ near Saigon on Oct. 15, 1967. A Marine relaxes in a cool mountain stream, 1968.

Firebase Pace northwest of Saigon An American cavalryman enjoys the comfort of a shower at the base near the Cambodian border shortly before 150 troops departed on Oct. 23, 1971, leaving Firebase Pace to the South Vietnamese.

China Beach By 1971, more and more troops were OM\\QVO\QUMWЄNWZ visits to places like China Beach, an WЅKQIT::IZMI in South Vietnam. It was usually jammed with Americans on weekends. The baths of Vietnam Soldiers pulled back from the front take their ÅZ[\JI\P[QV 10 days in a Vietnamese crock. Spc. 4 Mack A. Hassier douses Pfc. Lee A. Bilbrey on March 7, 1966. 42

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CLOCKWISE FROM OPPOSITE TOP LEFT: AP (2); EVERETT COLLECTION HISTORICAL/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO; AP (5)

Foxholes and shelters Above and inside their sandbagged bunker, troopers of the 25th Infantry Division catch up on their reading at a camp in a jungle clearing west of Pleiku, near the Cambodian border, Nov. 28, 1966.

Mail call Inhaling his letter’s fragrance, a private opens mail sent from his girlfriend in Jay, Oklahoma, April 12, 1966.

Firebase “North Pole” A soldier gets some holiday cheer reading a Christmas card from his wife on Dec. 22, 1966. That year there were 385,000 U.S. troops in Vietnam.

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FRIENDS FEATURE — 6 PAGES — 3 SPREADS

Smile! Gary Obrist took this picture of his friend, Tom “Doc” Cameron, right, with another soldier, Ken Jarman, when their infantry unit was at Lai Khe. 44

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Don’t make friends in a combat unit What happens when you think your only friend in Vietnam was killed, but you can’t find his name on the Wall? By William Leslie

I

n the years following the initial deployment of major U.S. units to Vietnam in 1965, the formation of many troop units was random. This wasn’t the Band of Brothers. You didn’t ordinarily serve with men you had trained with. Instead, you _MZMLZWXXMLQV\W]VQ\[ÅTTML_Q\P[\ZIVOMZ[;WUM_MZM¹VM_JQM[º _PWPILIZZQ^MLI_MMSJMNWZMIVLW\PMZ[_MZM¹[PWZ\̆\QUMZ[º_PW _W]TLZW\I\MW]\QVINM_LIa[I\\PMMVLWN\PMQZWVM̆aMIZ\W]Z[ That was the way it was in the 1st Infantry Division in 1967. Much of the Big Red One was scattered in and around Lai Khe along Route 13 northwest of Saigon. The division faced frequent UWLMZI\M\WPMI^a>QM\+WVOI\\IKS[/IZa7JZQ[\I[SQVVăaMIZ̆ old from Gresham, Oregon, was a radio telephone operator in C Company, 1st Battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment. He had arrived QV̆KW]V\ZaQV)]O][\!IVL_I[]VKMZMUWVQW][TaXZWUW\MLQV MIZTa,MKMUJMZNZWUIOZ]V\KIZZaQVOIV5\WIV:<7_PMVPQ[ squad’s radio operator caught a round. Gary’s squad leader had XWQV\ML\W\PMZILQW"¹8]\\PI\WVAW]¼ZMUaVM_:<7º )T\PW]OP/IZaSVM_VW\PQVOIJW]\ZILQW[PMKW]TLTMIZVIVa\PQVO PMSMX\PQ[KWWTQVKWUJI\IVLPMKW]TLSMMX]X_Q\P\PMTQM]\MVIV\ WVXI\ZWT[QM\VIUNWZ^MZaTWVOJ]\QNaW]KW]TLLW\PMRWJaW]OW\\PMZIVS

GARY OBRIST

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Vietnam album Tom Cameron took a picture of Gary Obrist on patrol. Insets below: Gary’s other new friend and Gary with actress and singer Chris Noel. Tom Cameron dressed up his leters with cartoons of a soldier’s life in Vietnam. One is shown lower right.

46

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CLOCKWISE FROM TOP; TOM CAMERON (2); UNKNOWN PHOTOGRAPHER; TOM CAMERON

Gary had arrived weighing 135 pounds. Four months later, at 128 pounds, he could carry a 100-pound load— IV5MQOP\KTQX[WNIUUWNW]ZÆIZM[I8:+̆ZILQW in its backpack carrier, rations, two canteens, an entrenching tool and a knife—for 12 miles without stopping. Stopping to rest could be bad for your health: The more time you spent in the field, the more time the enemy had to shoot at you. Gary was serious about Vietnam and about what he did. He didn’t screw around because he didn’t want to OWPWUM\WPQ[_QNM3I\PaQVIJW`8MWXTM_PWOW\ drunk or stoned were likely to get killed—and they often took others with them. Besides acquiring the survival skills to keep from becoming a statistic, Gary had learned not to get too close to anyone. It hurt too much when someone you knew too well was killed in action. More often, if you made a friend, he would get rotated home. Either way, it wasn’t worth the pain. Gary was friendly with everyone in his squad, but he wasn’t close to anyone. Nevertheless, one man stood out in his mind. Tom “Doc” Cameron, a draftee. Tom wouldn’t carry a gun, so =VKTM;IUUILMPQUIUMLQK1V\PMÅMZKM[\ÅZMÅOP\ while Gary was trying to disappear into the dirt, Tom would scurry to the side of a wounded man. After a quick patch, he would move on to the next. “Damn, he’s brave,” Gary wrote his wife. “And he won’t even carry a gun.” Why does someone become a conscientious objector? Doc had played out every scenario in his mind and in letters home. He tossed around his thoughts with Gary. “Could I shoot to save myself? To save the man next to me?” Blame it on his two years in Bible college educa\QWVWZWVPQ[XIZMV\[
part of my vocabulary,” he wrote. “I don’t use them, but they are there anyway.” The daily ration was one can of pop and one cold beer. Doc didn’t drink alcohol, so he always took two cans of pop. The Army issued Doc a pistol, and he wore it for a _PQTMJ]\VM^MZÅZMLQ\QVJI\\TM;WWVIN\MZPMOW\\PM weapon, the squad spent a couple of nights with an artillery group and someone swiped it, according to one of his letters home. When Doc reported the theft, he was threatened with disciplinary action for losing his weapon. The punishment could include a rank reduction by as much as three grades, a pay cut amounting to onehalf of his base pay for two months and 45 days of extra duty. Instead, Doc was “invited” to pay $57—the cost to replace the gun. He agreed to pay for a pistol that he PILV¼\[QOVMLNWZIVLPILV¼\_IV\MLQV\PMÅZ[\XTIKM Fortunately, the Army lost the paperwork. Medics usually hung around with medics, but often didn’t have a hooch of their own. They slept anywhere they could, based on availability. When Gary’s hooch mate rotated home, Doc and Gary began sharing a hooch in the early fall of 1967, and by November they were friends. Gary often talked about his pregnant wife, Kathy, his sweetheart since junior high school. Gary wrote Kathy telling her about the medic who had moved into his hooch. Gary didn’t make friends easily, so Doc stood out to Kathy. Doc even wrote Kathy several times to say that he was looking after Gary and that he wouldn’t let him make stupid mistakes. ,WKPILIVI\]ZITÆIQZNWZLZI_QVOIVLLMKWZI\MLPQ[ letters home with cartoons of GIs, palm trees and coconuts. He sent drawings of .30-caliber machine guns, exXTIQVMLÅMTL[WNÅZMIVL[SM\KPMLW]\\PMXZWXMZ_Ia\W make a night defensive position. He was very frank about how hairy it got sometimes and about a few guys who bought it. It was probably more than his parents and his young wife needed to know. He prayed a lot, for his wife, for Gary, for himself and for an end to the war. Doc had a funny reaction to Vietnam, partially motivated by his faith. He wrote home, “I’ve an unfair advantage with all the prayer you guys minister to me.” He didn’t spend a lot of time thinking about getting killed. “I’ve been laughing all day,” he wrote, “clowning around, had a great patrol and am now in quite an elated mood. I have this stupid ability to adapt, ya know, and as a result I really have a lot of good times. We look forward to patrols, we had a fun one this morning. We looked like a patrol on the way out, a safari on the way in. Four bunches of bananas and all the grapefruit we could carry.” He wrote home that FTA stands for “Fun, Travel, Adventure,” which was better than explaining its real, UWZMXZWNIVMUMIVQVO".èèè\PM)ZUa When Gary or Doc received a letter, the other got to ZMILQ\)VL_PMVIKWЄMMKIVN]TTWNKWWSQM[IZZQ^ML they shared the treats. In photos Kathy sent when she was pregnant, Gary and Doc followed her progress as she got bigger with Gary’s unborn son. It helped Gary to know that Doc was around. “I knew that if I ever got hit, Tom would come running. No matter what, he’d be there for me. It didn’t make me braver

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but it allowed me to focus. He was sort of like an insurance policy.” They salvaged a periscope from an armored vehicle and mounted it in their hooch so that they could look around during mortar attacks. Sometime after May 1968, Gary spent three days of leave in Vung Tau, a port city about 80 miles south of Saigon where troops went to relax. When he returned to Lai Khe, Tom’s gear was gone, and so was Tom. Gary sought out another grunt. “What happened to Doc?” “He caught a round in the head. He didn’t make it.” And that was that. One day Doc was there; the next day he was gone. Dwelling on someone who didn’t make Q\_I[ILQ[\ZIK\QWV\PI\aW]KW]TLV¼\IЄWZL1V>QM\VIU the answer was to keep your head down, focus on what you were doing and count the days until your tour was up. Mourning could get you killed. 1V)]O][\! /IZaKWUXTM\MLPQ[\W]Z_Q\PJIZMTa a scratch and rotated home to his wife and 5-month-old son in Oregon. Like many vets, he didn’t talk much about KWUJI\WZIJW]\QM\VIU>M\MZIV[ Memorial was dedicated on the Mall in Washington, D.C. The memorial was a shiny granite wall engraved with the names of American troops who died in the war: !!VIUM[I\\PM\QUMWN\PMLMLQKI\QWV arranged in chronological order according to the date of casualty. People who paid their respects at the memorial frequently made rubbings of the names, and the Wall became a place of healing and a source of closure. 1V\PM\ZI^MTQVO>QM\VIU>M\MZIV[5MUWZQITI \PZMM̆ÅN\P[̆[KITMZMXTQKIWN\PM?ITTIZZQ^MLQV/ZM[PIU R][\INM_UQTM[NZWU_PMZM/IZaIVL3I\PaTQ^ML/IZa had been busy running an excavation and demolition business, and raising two children with Kathy. He told Kathy \PI\\PMaPIL\WOW[MMZMXTQKI1NPMKW]TLLWVW\PQVOMT[M at least he could touch the letters of Tom Cameron’s name. Maybe they could make a rubbing as a remembrance. /IZaJMOIV\W\ITSUWZMIJW]\>QM\VIU0MPIL\WÅVLI _Ia\WUIZS,WK¼[[IKZQÅKM But when they got to the traveling Wall, Tom’s name wasn’t on it. Maybe his middle name was Thomas, and PQ[ÅZ[\VIUM_I[[WUM\PQVOMT[M6WXM?I[\PMQZ[XMTTQVOWN
QMLQV\PM;\I\M[[PM_W]TLÅVLPQUQM\VIU_Q\P \PM[\1VNIV\Za,Q^Q[QWVQV!̆ 7VKMIaMIZWV 6M_AMIZ¼[,Ia*QTT¼[KWUX]\MZ_W]TLZMUQVLPQU\W spend an hour looking for Tom.

When Gary returned, Tom’s gear was gone, and so was Tom

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On New Year’s Day 2012, Bill called Kathy. ¹0IXXa6M_AMIZ1NW]VLPQU 1NW]VLQM\VIU>M\MZIV¼[ Memorial, timed so that they would arrive during the Rolling Thunder event in Washington on Memorial Day. Tom had even designed the patch for the back of some WN\PMZQLMZ[¼RIKSM\[1\ZMIL¹0WUMWN\PM.ZMM*Mcause of the Brave.” Before he passed the information on to Gary, Bill wanted to make sure that he had found the right Tom

KATHY OBRIST (2)

Old friends Gary Obrist welcomes Tom Cameron to his home in Oregon in June 2014. Tom rode up from California on his motorcycle, below.

Cameron. Bill picked up the phone, and within a few minutes he had this Tom on the line. Yes, he had served in Vietnam in 1967-68 in the 1st Infantry Division. Yes, he had been a conscientious objector and a medic. But he had never been hit in the head. In the spring of 1968, Doc had been reassigned. Instead of humping through the jungle, he would spend \PMZM[\WNPQ[\QUMQVITIZOMÅMTLPW[XQ\IT*QTTI[SML him whether he remembered a guy named Gary Obrist. He really didn’t remember. Tom’s memories of Vietnam were fuzzy, but he said he would dig out his photo albums and see whether he could find someone named Gary. He called Bill back a few hours later. His wife had kept all of his letters. Gary featured prominently in letters home for the several months that they lived together. Later, Tom told Gary that he was struck by how dumb he had been to be so open about combat. “I probably made my wife and my mom watch the driveway for the black government car every day! So weird to see this from my more mature years! On the other hand, it sure made them pray. Maybe that’s why I made it.” Gary and Tom spoke on the phone several times and tried to puzzle out what had happened. Perhaps another

medic had been hit. After all, every medic was called Doc. Maybe Gary had just misunderstood. Their memories were a little hazy; Vietnam was a long time ago. Gary and Kathy made plans to visit San Diego, where the vets could renew their friendship while the two wives began one. Several visits to each other’s homes have followed. In their first call, Gary finally delivered the message to Tom that had been on his mind for more than 40 years. “Man, I can’t believe how brave you were. Bravest man in the squad.” Tom replied, “I just had a job to do, and the guys were depending on me.” V

William Leslie is a writer and a consultant specializing in family-owned businesses. He lives in Sandy, Oregon. He is Kathy Obrist’s brother.

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paper Johnson, Nixon and the fear of being the first president to lose a war by Christian G. Appy

50

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cGeorge Bundy, the president’s national security adviser, didn’t need to see the burnedout barracks in Pleiku to realize it was time to begin the systematic bombing of North Vietnam. Bundy was as tough-minded as any of the president’s men. It’s just that no one had seen him so emotional, [WÅZML]X/MVMZIT?QTTQIU?M[\UWZMTIVL_PWKWUUIVLML)UMZican forces in Vietnam from 1964 to 1968, said he thought Bundy, IKQ^QTQIV[\IЄUIV[W]VLMLTQSMIÅMTLUIZ[PITI[PMJIZSMLQVstructions at U.S. military headquarters in Saigon. It was Feb. 7, 1965, just a few days into Bundy’s first trip to Vietnam. Since John F. Kennedy’s inauguration in 1961, “Mac” had been one of the three or four most important architects of U.S. policy in Vietnam, but he had never been “out there,” the quaint phrase American officials often used for that faraway land. President Lyndon B. Johnson thought it was high time for Mac to get out there and take a fresh, hard look—make sure it was really necessary to commence the daily bombing of the North that insiders had been seriously considering for the past year. So there was “Field Marshal” Bundy in a tense, early-morning meeting at the operations center of Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, the organization in charge of U.S. combat forces. Alarming reports were coming in from Pleiku. Up on the red clay plateau of South Vietnam’s Central Highlands, the military had built an airstrip and barracks, Camp Holloway, for one of its aviation battalions, a unit that supplied helicopter transportation to South Vietnamese ground troops and their American advisers. A few hours earlier, at 2 a.m., Viet Cong commandos had cut through a double apron of barbed wire, slipped past inattentive South Vietnamese guards and blown up parked helicopters and light reconnaissance planes. At the same time, from a nearby hamlet, another VC squad launched a

tiger

Grim news National Security Adviser McGeorge Bundy and General William Westmoreland, at right, are briefed by Lt. Col. John Hughes on Feb. 7, 1965, ater an atack on U.S. forces at Pleiku. DECEMBER 2016

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A bad dream Johnson, shown here in the White House on July 17, 1965, had nightmares about losing Vietnam and being called a “coward” and “weakling.”

barrage of 81mm mortar shells at the barracks using ammo they had captured from the Americans. Nine Americans were killed. Most of the 137 wounded were evacuated to a field hospital in Nha QM\+WVOPILX]TTMLWЄ\PM[VMISI\\IKSI\ Camp Holloway suggested that they were getting lots of information and support from local villagers. And what if bombing North Vietnam prompted China to intervene? It could be worse than Korea. )TTOWWLXWQV\[J]\VWWVM[QLML_Q\P5IV[ÅMTL Even George Ball, an undersecretary of state who usually played the role of designated dissenter, challenged

TOP: AP; LEFT: WHITE HOUSE PHOTO/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

Three of the president’s men From let, McGeorge Bundy, Defense Secretary Robert McNamara and State Department official George Ball are ready to brief reporters ater President Lyndon B. Johnson’s April 7, 1965, speech on Vietnam.

can empire than by deep and persistent anxiety that its failures might tarnish all his achievements. The greatest failure Johnson could imagine would be to lose a country to communism, especially one he had pledged to protect. Johnson remembered the political blows Democrats PIL[]ЄMZML_PMV5IWBMLWVO¼[ZM^WT]\QWVIZaNWZKM[ \WWSKWV\ZWTWN+PQVIIVLLZW^M+PQIVO3IQ̆[PMSWЄ\PM mainland. Republicans holding President Harry S. Truman and the Democrats accountable kept banging the drum: “Who lost China?” By the early 1960s, one lesson that might have been drawn from the loss of China was that many valuable experts had been unjustly scapegoated and that now, more than ever, it was time to draw upon just such people to help formulate policies in Southeast Asia—time to listen to people who had lived in the region and understood its languages, history and culture. But Johnson and his IL^Q[MZ[LZM_IVMV\QZMTaLQЄMZMV\TM[[WV")Va[QOVWN weakness in the Cold War struggle with communism would be politically fatal. Bundy did his best to reinforce the lesson. Most Almost a year earlier, on May 27, 1964, Johnson got Americans, he advised Johnson in 1964, believed we Bundy on the phone. The president sounded like a man could and should have done more to prevent the fall of China in 1949. Vietnam, he said, was ripe for a repeat. on the way to his own funeral: “That is exactly what would happen now if we should Looks like to me that we’re getting into another [MMU\WJM\PMÅZ[\\WY]Q\QV;IQOWVº Notice Bundy’s hedging. He does not say that withKorea. It just worries the hell out of me. I don’t see what we can ever hope to get out of there with drawal from Vietnam would doom Johnson’s political fuonce we’re committed….I don’t think we can fight \]ZMWVTa\PI\PM[PW]TLVW\¹[MMU\WJM\PMÅZ[\\WY]Q\º them 10,000 miles away from home and ever get
the senator. Ball’s only concern was that some citizens might ask why we were bombing North Vietnam when it was the Viet Cong in South Vietnam who initiated the attack on U.S. forces. Therefore, the public announcement should clearly state that North Vietnam was responsible for the attack at Pleiku. (There was no evidence to uphold the claim.) The president, of course, had the final word. “We have kept our gun over the mantel and our shells in the cupboard for a long time now,” he said, “and what was the result? They are killing our men while they sleep in the night. I can’t ask our American soldiers out there to continue to fight with one hand tied behind their backs.” Johnson ordered 132 carrier-based planes to bomb North Vietnamese military barracks. The Pentagon estimated that the attack would produce 4,500 Vietnamese casualties. Now Bundy was on board, and Johnson needed his advisers to assure him that his military escalations were absolutely necessary and unavoidable.

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Bundy advised the president to “execute our reprisal policy with as low a level of public noise as possible.” Johnson followed the advice. As the massive, daily bombing of North Vietnam began—Operation Rolling Thunder—the president told the media that it did not represent a change in U.S. policy. Johnson had as little hope as Bundy that the bombing would break the will of Ho Chi Minh and his followers. At best, Bundy believed it might be a “stimulant” that would “encourage” the South Vietnamese to build a ¹UWZMMЄMK\Q^MOW^MZVUMV\º1VW\PMZ_WZL[\PM=VQ\ML States was bombing the North to buck up the South. But, even more shocking, Bundy said the outcome of bombing didn’t matter: “What we can say is that even if it fails, the policy will be worth it. At a minimum it will damp down the charge that we did not do all that we could have done, and this charge will be important in many countries, including our own.” ?MPMIZ\PMLMILTIVO]IOMWN\PMIKKW]V\IV\WЄMZQVO IKW[\̆JMVMÅ\IVITa[Q[WN)UMZQKI¼[ZMX]\I\QWV"¹5MIsured against the cost of defeat in Vietnam, this program [war] seems cheap. Even if it fails to turn the tide—and Q\UIa¸\PM^IT]MWN\PMMЄWZ\[MMU[\W][\WM`KMMLQ\[ 54

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cost.” The unstated, but implicit, bottom line was this: Mr. President, you need to bomb to win the next election. Bombing failed on every count. Far from weakening the will of the North and the Viet Cong in the South, it deepened their resolve and incited others to join the anti)UMZQKIVKI][M1\LQLVW\¹[\QU]TI\Mº\PM;IQOWVZMgime; it made the regime all the more dependent on the =VQ\ML;\I\M[1\LQLVW\XZW\MK\)UMZQKI¼[ZMX]\I\QWVWZ that of the administration; it led to bitter opposition to the war at home and abroad. Even in the narrowest political terms, it was a colossal failure. Johnson’s war had made him so unpopular that, far from being re-elected in 1968, he—the master politician—dropped out of the presidential race before it even began in earnest. Why was Bundy so sure that the “cost” of bombing was “cheap” even if it failed? The best answer comes from some personal notes he made on March 21, 1965, in which he addresses his own reservations about the =;QV\MZM[\QV>QM\VIU¹1[W]ZQV\MZM[\MKWVWUQK'º PMI[S[PQU[MTN¹1[W]ZQV\MZM[\UQTQ\IZa'º0MLWM[VW\ even mention helping South Vietnam, but, as always, returns to what he regarded as the “cardinal” principle of U.S. policy: “Not to be a Paper Tiger. Not to have

AP

A show of strength President Richard Nixon points out Communist sanctuaries in Cambodia as he announces on April 30, 1970, plans for an invasion of the country.

it thought that when we commit ourselves we really mean no major risk.” “Which is better,” he asks himself, “to ‘lose’ now or to ‘lose’ after committing 100,000 men?” His “tentative answer” is that it would be better to lose IN\MZ_IOQVOI[QOVQÅKIV\_IZ Realities within Vietnam were never enough to justify our presence, even to those who supXWZ\ML\PM_IZ
The key war managers expanded and prolonged the war with full knowledge that the prospects for success were, as Bundy put it, impossible to estimate “with any accuracy.” They eventually ordered 3 million American \ZWWX[\WÅOP\QVQ\5IVaJMTQM^ML_PI\\PMaPILJMMV told—that they were there to save the South Vietnamese from Communist aggression and help them be free and independent. What would those soldiers have thought if they were XZQ^a\WIKTI[[QÅMLUMUW_ZQ\\MVQV5IZKP!Ja)[sistant Secretary of Defense John McNaughton? While outlining the “course of action” in Vietnam, McNaughton includes a brief, haunting breakdown of American objectives in Vietnam: U.S. aims: 70 percent—To avoid a humiliating U.S. defeat (to our reputation as a guarantor). 20 percent—To keep SV N (and then adjacent) territory from Chinese hands. 10 percent—To permit the people of SV N to enjoy a better, freer way of life. Here at the beginning of 1965, when there were still fewer than 30,000 American troops in Vietnam and fewer than 500 American fatalities, key officials believed the primary goal in Vietnam was to prevent a blow to America’s “reputation.” Withdrawal was unthinkable only because policymakers believed it would be an intolerable blow to America’s image, and their own. The few internal dissenters were easily dismissed. One reasonably high-ranking insider to recommend withdrawal was Undersecretary of State George Ball. His opportunity came in July 1965 when 2WPV[WVKWV^MVMLSMaÅO]ZM[\WLQ[K][[IZMY]M[\Ja Westmoreland to raise the number of U.S. troops in Vietnam to 125,000 immediately, with another 75,000 by year’s end. “We cannot win, Mr. President,” Ball began. “This war will be long and protracted. The most we can hope for is a messy conclusion….The enemy cannot even be seen in Vietnam. He is indigenous to the country. I truly have serious doubt that an army of Westerners can successfully ÅOP\7ZQMV\IT[QVIV)[QIVR]VOTMº*ITT[]OOM[\ML\PI\ \PM=VQ\ML;\I\M[ÅVLI_Ia\WOM\;IQOWV¸\PMITTQM[¸\W demand a U.S. withdrawal. “But George,” the president responded, “wouldn’t all these countries say that Uncle Sam was a paper tiger, wouldn’t we lose credibility breaking the word of three presidents, if we did as you have proposed?” “No, sir,” Ball said. “The worse blow would be that the mightiest power on earth is unable to defeat a handful of guerrillas.” If others had rallied to Ball’s position it might have UILMILQЄMZMVKM*]\VWWVMLQL By 1966 McNaughton concluded that avoiding humiliation had moved from 70 percent of America’s goal in Vietnam to 100 percent. “The reasons why we went into Vietnam to the present depth are varied; but they are now largely academic. Why we have not withdrawn

DECEMBER 2016

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is, by all odds, one reason: to preserve our reputation…. We have not hung on to save a friend, or to deny the Communists the added acres and heads.” To preserve an image of strength, Johnson systematically escalated the war. After leaving the presidency in 1969, he asked writer Doris Kearns Goodwin to help him with his memoirs. At Johnson’s ranch, Goodwin took Waiting to deploy notes while Johnson talked:

Truck tractors are parked in an open field at Fort Bragg, Everything I knew about history told me that if I the got homeout base the 64th ofofVietnam…I’d be doing exactly what Transportation Company. [Neville] Chamberlain did in World War II [at

Munich]. I’d be giving a big fat reward to aggression. And I knew that…Harry Truman and Dean Acheson had lost their effectiveness from the day that the Communists took over in China. If we lost Vietnam… there would be Robert Kennedy out in front leading the fight against me, telling everyone that I had betrayed John Kennedy’s commitment to South Vietnam. That I had let a democracy fall into the hands of the Communists. That I was a coward. An unmanly man. A man without a spine. Oh, I could see it coming all right. Every night when I fell asleep I would see myself tied to the ground in the middle of a long, open space. In the distance, I could hear the voices of thousands of people. They were all shouting at me and running toward me: “Coward! Traitor! Weakling!” They began throwing stones. At exactly that moment I would generally wake up. 56

VIETNAM

The term “credibility gap” emerged as a signature expression in the mid-1960s to describe the gulf between Johnson’s claim that U.S. escalation in Vietnam was limited and defensive and the growing evidence that it was massive, open-ended and aggressive. But public trust did not explode overnight. It took years to develop and widen. In Richard Nixon’s presidency, the credibility gap took on Grand Canyon–like proportions. Nixon was elected in 1968 with a vague pledge to bring an honorable end to the war. Instead, the nation got four more years of it. But Nixon understood that the American public would no longer tolerate the presence of 540,000 U.S. troops in South Vietnam and weekly death \WTT[QV\PMP]VLZML[-IZTaQVPQ[ÅZ[\\MZU6Q`WVIVnounced that he would gradually withdraw U.S. combat \ZWWX[IVL\]ZVW^MZUWZMIVLUWZMWN\PMÅOP\QVO\W\PM South Vietnamese—a program he called Vietnamization. But how could Nixon convince the American public he was winding down the war while also convincing the Communist leaders in Vietnam that he had every intention of preventing a takeover in South Vietnam? He knew it would take something more provocative than idle threats. 2][\\_WUWV\P[QV\WWЅKM6Q`WVQVQ\QI\ML\PM[Mcret bombing of Cambodia, which, as it turned out, only QV\MV[QÅML\PM+WUU]VQ[\[¼ZM[WT^M
AP

Flag-draped coffins Caskets with casualties from the Pleiku atack of Feb. 7, 1965, are ready for transport from Saigon to the United States.

feat. Because let us understand: North Vietnam cannot defeat or humiliate the United States. Only Americans can do that.” Then, on April 30, 1970, Nixon announced that the United States would invade Cambodia. Explaining his decision on TV, Nixon pointed to a map of Cambodia where red blobs along the border with South Vietnam indicated the presence of North Vietnamese “military sanctuaries.” For five years, Nixon claimed, the United States had not attacked those sanctuaries “because we did not wish to violate the territory of a neutral nation”—a blatant lie given Nixon’s heavy secret bombing of Cambodia and the many secret cross-border operations since the early 1960s. To protect U.S. forces, Nixon claimed, and to “guarantee the continued success of our withdrawal and Vietnamization programs,” it was necessary to “clean out” the sanctuaries. But there was something much greater at stake, Nixon continued, putting away the pointer. “It is not our power but our will and character that is being tested tonight.” If the United States did nothing about \PM+WUU]VQ[\[IVK\]IZQM[J]\\WWЄMZ¹XTIQV\Q^MLQXTWmatic protests,” then “the credibility of the United States would be destroyed,” he said. In his most hyperbolic passage, Nixon claimed that the war in Cambodia was a test of civilization itself and neces[IZa\WXZM^MV\IÅVITLM[KMV\QV\WKPIW[WZLQK\I\WZ[PQX" My fellow Americans, we live in an age of anarchy, both abroad and at home. We see mindless attacks on all the great institutions which have been created by free civilizations in the last 500 years.

CREENPROD/PHOTONONSTOP/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO PHOTO CREDIT

Flag-draped general Before Nixon ordered the invasion of Cambodia, he watched George C. Scot portray General George Paton saying that Americans “will never lose a war.”

If, when the chips are down, the world’s most powerful nation, the United States of America, acts like a pitiful, helpless giant, the forces of totalitarianism and anarchy will threaten free nations and free institutions throughout the world. “Pitiful, helpless giant.” The fear of impotence and loss was as primal with Nixon as it was with Johnson To bolster his confidence in the days just before and after the invasion of Cambodia, Nixon repeatedly watched Patton, the 1970 blockbuster in which George C. Scott plays the famous World War II commander. It begins with the swaggering General George Patton exPWZ\QVOPQ[\ZWWX[QVNZWV\WNIOQOIV\QK)UMZQKIVÆIO 5MVITT\PQ[[\]ЄaW]¼^MPMIZLIJW]\)UMZQKIVW\ _IV\QVO\WÅOP\_IV\QVO\W[\IaW]\WN\PM_IZQ[I lot of horse dung. Americans traditionally love to ÅOP\)TTZMIT)UMZQKIV[TW^M\PM[\QVOWNJI\\TM° Americans love a winner and will not tolerate a TW[MZ°
Christian G. Appy is a professor of history at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and the author of two other Vietnam War books, including Patriots: The Vietnam War Remembered From All Sides.

Lowering the Standards to Fill the Ranks McNamara’s Folly: The Use of Low-IQ Troops in the Vietnam War plus the Induction of Unfit Men, Criminals, and Misfits Ja0IUQT\WV/ZMOWZa1VÅVQ\a Publishing, 2015 Books and articles about the Vietnam War tend to focus on “the best and brightest,” whether to praise them for superior performance or to criticize them for failures in judgment and not measuring up to their promise. Author and Vietnam veteran Hamilton Gregory, however, examines servicemen at the opposite end of the ability and intelligence spectrum—the men inducted under the Pentagon’s “Project 100,000,” which began in October 1966. 58

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The project extended eligibility for enlistment and the draft to previously ineligible low-IQ men—those in the bottom tiers of the Armed Forces Qualification Test—and to some men who earlier would have been deemed medically unfit. The continuing program was planned to bring in 100,000 men each year. The brainchild of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s defense secretary, Robert S. McNamara, and thus inevitably called “McNamara’s 100,000,” the project was a way to meet the manpower demands of an escalatQVO_IZ=V_QTTQVO\WÅTT\PMZIVS[ through politically risky policies such as drafting college students or deploying large numbers of National Guard and Reserve personnel to Vietnam, the Johnson administration turned to the pool of men the president privately termed “secondclass fellows.” The book also addresses a separate but related issue: lower standards that led to recruiting or drafting men with criminal records, medical defects, social maladjustments and psychiatric disorders. By the time McNamara’s project ended in December 1971, 354,000 formerly ineligible men had been inducted into the Army (which had 71 percent of the total), Marine Corps, Navy and Air Force. Overwhelmingly, they were sent to Vietnam. Of course, terms like “substan-

AP

Demand and supply Defense Secretary Robert McNamara meets with Maj. Gen. John Norton on a visit to Vietnam in October 1966, when the expanding war required more troops.

LIZLºWZ¹UMV\ITTa]VÅ\º_MZMVM^MZ used by the Johnson administration to describe McNamara’s 100,000, ofÅKQITTaZMNMZZML\WI[¹6M_;\IVLIZL[ Men.” The program was part of the Great Society/War on Poverty initiatives to provide education, training and opportunity to a disadvantaged class of American society. In fairness, as Gregory acknowledges, the idea for Project 100,000 was proposed as a social betterment program in 1964, two years before the war’s manpower crunch. But opposition by senior military leaders and Congress prevented implementation until that resistance was overcome by \PMOZW_QVOVMML\WÅTT\PMJ]ZOMWVQVO ranks in 1966. Gregory, instead of merely launching into a dry account propelled by a blizzard of numbers and statistics, ][M[\PMÅZ[\ XIOM[WN\PMJWWS\W clearly demonstrate the profound unÅ\VM[[NWZUQTQ\IZa[MZ^QKMWNUIVaWN McNamara’s 100,000 by describing his personal experience with some of them during Army basic training at Fort Benning, Georgia, in 1967. Pressure from higher headquarters to ensure the New Standards Men graduated from basic training (making them qualified to serve in Vietnam) caused training company cadres to frequently manipulate and subvert the standards so that _WMN]TTa]VÅ\8ZWRMK\UMV “passed” basic training. But Gregory writes of the unfit men with compassion and understanding. He agrees with a claim that \PM_WZ[\IJ][M[\PMXWTQKaQVÆQK\ML on the least intelligent of these men constituted “a crime against the mentally disabled.” Gregory reveals the disproportionate price paid by the New Standard Men for Johnson and McNamara’s disastrous policy: “A total of 5,478 low-IQ men died while in the service, most of them in combat. Their fatality rate was three times as high as that of other GIs. An estimated 20,270 were wounded, and some were permanently disabled (including an estimated 500 amputees).” How many of their comrades the “McNamara’s Folly” men caused to be killed or wounded is not known. —Jerry D. Morelock

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North-South discord over war and peace—particularly on decisions about going to war and war strategy—has been with us since the country’s founding. Even before things boiled over in 1861, Southerners and Northerners frequently held sharply opposing views on the subject. Based largely on economic issues and social concerns (primarily slavery before 1861 and civil rights after the Civil War), leaders of what would become the 11 Confederate states, generally, wanted to declare war on England in 1812, on Mexico in 1846 and on Spain in 1898—times when pro-war sentiment in the North was tepid. The South strongly supported Woodrow Wilson’s decision to take the United States into World War I in 1917 while substantial isolationist sentiment prevailed elsewhere. (After Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the country was all but united in a declaration of war.) The United States has had “a long history of responding to U.S. foreign relations from a distinctly regional perspective,” historian Joseph Fry says in The American South and the Vietnam 60

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;W]\P+IZWTQVI
Protests against protesters At the University of South Carolina in Columbia, supporters of President Richard Nixon’s war policies march through an antiwar protest on Oct. 16, 1969.

AP

The American South and the Vietnam War: Belligerence, Protest, and Agony in Dixie by Joseph A. Fry. University Press of Kentucky, 2015

War. Fry has produced a deeply researched, well-written and generally persuasive book that puts the South’s role in Vietnam War policymaking under an illuminating microscope.
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First experience with the antiwar movement: In 5I[[IXMY]I1[I_\PMXWTIZQbI\QWVCIN\MZPQ[ÅZ[\\W]ZE :M[Q[\IVKM\W\PM_IZWЄMVLMLUM0MZM_MIZMZQ[SQVO our lives the way our fathers did in World War II, and these people are saying that we’re in the wrong. It made me so mad that I wanted to go back to Vietnam. I volun\MMZML\QUM[JMNWZM\PMaÅVITTaTM\UMOW)VL1_I[ wounded, which sent me into some dark places. I received the last rites. I wrote Born on the Fourth of July as my last will and testament. The goal of his writings: I have tried in my books to show that combat doesn’t happen the way John Wayne movies or Rambo movies portray it. My uncles had been Marines in the Second World War and Korea. When I was 9 or 10, I was reading the Marine Corps manual. I remember being WVUaÅZ[\\W]ZWNL]\a?M_MZM in a Huey over Chu Lai, heading into the landing zone, and I was humming the Marines’ Hymn. How Marine friends reacted to his antiwar activities: I wasn’t in touch with my buddies from Vietnam. In Massapequa a friend who was a holder of the Silver Star was very upset with me for speaking out at the Republican convention in August 1972. Neighbors of my parents told their children to keep away from me. People called me a Communist, a traitor.

Ron Kovic, born July 4, 1946, in Ladysmith, Wisconsin, joined the Marines in September 1964, after high school in Massapequa, New York. He served a tour in Vietnam, returned home and volunteered to go back. On Jan. 20, 1968, a bullet smashed his spinal cord, paralyzing him from the chest down. Kovic became a vocal war protester and advocate for veterans. His memoir, Born on the Fourth of July, published in 1976, became a New York Times bestseller. The book was made into a 1989 movie starring Tom Cruise. Kovic and director Oliver Stone won a Golden Globe Award for best screenplay and were nominated for an Oscar. A second book, Hurricane Street, published this year, covers a 1974 hunger strike that Kovic and other veterans staged to protest poor care at veterans’ hospitals. Early influences: I always liked history, and I could tell a story, but otherwise I wasn’t much of a student. After I came home from the war, I enrolled at Hofstra =VQ^MZ[Q\a1_I[ZMILa\W[\]La5aÅZ[\M`XMZQMVKM with political activism was a group on campus called PUSH, which organized to support people with physical challenges. 64

VIETNAM

Type of war he could support: I went to jail 11 times protesting the Vietnam War, and I opposed the Iraq and )NOPIV _IZ[ 1\¼[ ^MZa LQЅK]T\ NWZ UM \W KWVKMQ^M WN I war that I’d support. We are too quick to drop bombs, to X]TT\ZQOOMZ[\WR]UXQV\WKWVÆQK\[1IUTQ^QVO_Q\P\PM emotional and physical consequences of combat that result from those kinds of decisions. I am proud to have served my country, but I’m equally proud to have been committed to peace and nonviolence. Would he have turned against the war if he had not been severely wounded: I think I would have. My Catholic moral upbringing would have caught up with me. But I wouldn’t have been a leader or had the same passion. I always respected my fellow soldiers, and I hoped that they would understand. Advice to young severely wounded veterans: Never, M^MZOQ^M]XAW]PI^M\WÅOP\\PQ[\PQVO\PZW]OPQVKI[M a day comes when you can say to yourself, Thank goodness I didn’t give in. I was wounded on Jan. 20, 1968.
LEFT: AP

BORN WRITER

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