Vietnam - April 2016_downmagaz.com

8/18/2019 Vietnam - April 2016_downmagaz.com

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Dien Bien Phu: The French Battle That Led to America’s War

CALIFORNIA DREAM

The Madman TheoryNixon’s plan to scare the Soviets

Before the HueyThe Flying Banana lands in Vietnam

American GIs bring smilesto Vietnamese children

The Mamas & the Pascore a hit in ’66

APRIL 2016

HistoryNet.com



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O O

C

THE LOST PATROLOn May 12, 1966, a 14-man squad from 1st Battalion, 9th Marine Regiment,went missing while patrolling a Viet Cong area in “Dodge City.” By Jack Wells

On the Cover:Men of the 9th MarineExpeditionary Forcescramble out of a landingbarge onto the beach atDa Nang, March 8, 1965.Photo: AP PHOTO;Inset: HENRY DILTZ/ CORBIS

April 2016

24

2 V IETNAM



THE FLYING BANANA Piasecki Helicopter Corp. developed the H-21 as an arctic perfect conditions. By Thomas R. Messick

NIGHT JUMPINTO DIENBIEN PHU

fought the Viet Minhin 1954 recounts theevents leading up tothe famous battle, of 4,825 troops.

By Pierre Fauroux

THE GI AND THE KIDCurious and fun-loving, Vietnamese

candy, basketball, money and other treats.

46 5238

32

6 Feedback

8 Today In the news

14 Then & Now

16 Voices James Jackson

18 Homefront March-April 1966

20 Arsenal .51-Caliber Copter Killer

23 Editor’s Notebook

58 Media Digest

64 Rewind Bobby Colomby, Blood, Sweat & Tears

‘MADMAN’DIPLOMACY

AND THE VIETNAM WAR A president and hisnational securityadviser’s secretplan to mine

Haiphong Harbor.By William Burr Kimball


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JON GUTTMAN RESEARCH DIRECTORDAVID T. ZABECKI EDITOR EMERITUS

HARRY SUMMERS JR. FOUNDING EDITOR

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SPENCER C. TUCKER, ERIK VILLARD, JAMES H. WILLBANKS

C O R P O R A T ESTEPHEN KAMIFUJI Creative Director

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PROUDLY MADE IN THE USA E

V E R E T T C O L L E C T I O N

I N C / A L A M Y S T O C K P H O T O

APRIL 2016 VOL. 28, NO. 6

MICHAEL A. REINSTEIN CHAIRMAN & PUBLISHERDIONISIO LUCCHESI

PRESIDENTWILLIAM KONEVAL ASSOCIATE PUBLISHERDAVID STEINHAFEL ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER

EDITOR IN CHIEF ROGER L. VANCE

NIXON AT WAR

President Richard Nixon was one

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More on 1st Cav in the Valley“A Valley Soaked in Rain and Blood,” by Mike D.

Shepherd (December 2015), was well written and

gave credit to the soldiers and airmen who performed

so heroically in the A Shau Valley campaign, but one

key unit was left out of the article. It was the 1st

Squadron, 9th Cavalry—the reconnaissance element,

otherwise known as “the eyes and ears” of the

division. The 1st of the 9th was made famous in the

Apocalypse Now , with actor Robert Duvall as

Lt. Col. Bill Kilgore (Lt. Col. John B. Stockton).

Master Sgt. Mike Kelley, U.S. Army (ret.)

Tewksbury, Mass.

criticality of logistics in the Vietnam War. The C-130

certainly proved itself in that war and is doing so still.

But the Air Force could only get the bullets and butter

so far forward. After the C-130s put supplies on the

ground at the forward airstrips, they still had many a

mile to travel. That’s where those guys pictured on pg.

33 came in. The photo is of a Boeing Vertol CH-47A. The

author mentioned that two Chinooks were shot down

pilot at Fort Rucker. As a proud veteran of the 228th

Aviation Battalion, I and my fellow 1st Cavalry Division

Chinook pilots would like to recognize the work of the

Air Force in reducing our haul distances. That’s what

Lt. Col. Patrick R. Glass, U.S. Army (ret.)

Westminster, Md.

Petersen’s Squadron

forward to many more. I am writing to inform you that

Lt. Col. Frank E. Petersen Jr. (whose death was noted

in Farewell, December 2015) was never commanding

War II. He commanded VMFA-314, the Black Knights

of Marine Air Group 13, based at Chu Lai in 1968 and

1969, when I proudly served under him in Air

followed to the letter

the U.S. Marine Corps

doctrine of leadership

by example but also of

the entire Marine Air

Group 13, and the entire

1st Marine Air Wing.

Knowing him has

my whole life, especially

my 33 years as a

Lawrence M. Brazie

U.S. Marine Corps

Chesterland, Ohio

Wild Weasels Kudos As an Air Force

the back seat of the F-4

I appreciated your

story on the Wild

Weasel program

(August 2015). I was

not a Weasel type, but

I knew several who were. I was with the 12th Tactical

Fighter Wing at Cam Ranh Bay in 1969-70. Your

articles bring to light things I never knew about what

went on over there. That is why your publication is

always read promptly when it arrives!

W. David Herbert

Billings, Mont.

Correction:

maximum load of a B-52D bomber in a graphic

accompanying the article “Nightmare Up North”

(February 2016). The correct number is

488,000 pounds.

Send letters and email:

Vietnam Editor, 1600 Tysons Blvd., Suite 1140

Tysons, VA 22102-4833; or [email protected]

FEEDBACK

At the movies: The1st Squadron of the9th Cavalry was madefamous in ApocalypseNow , with RobertDuvall playing Lt. Col.Bill Kilgore.



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TODAY

On paper Vietnam could be a big winner

other countries on both sides of the

and includes provisions on labor rights

and environmental protection.

much of Vietnam’s international trade

-

on Vietnamese goods exported to the

estimate Vietnam’s exports could increase

not have conditions in place to attract

investors are concerned about Vietnam’s

infrastructure problems and lack of

skilled workers.

-

claims as its own.

“The TPP is not just economic. It

Washington Post . “It has more

Trade Deal Could Boost Vietnam

WAR ADOPTIONS HIGHLIGHTED

C O C S O

O P

S O C

A C O S

A C Q S P A O S S G A C O S

A C O

S

Photographs of Vietnamese children adopted near the close

Scenes from 1975:

Top: A boy saysgoodbye as heleaves a Vietnameseorphanage. Left: Two

Amerasian childrenin Saigon. Bottom:

A New York womanbrings her adopteddaughter home.

V I E T N A M



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TODAY

C

O C S O

O P

O S P P S C O S

A O O P O O S A O

Agent Orange Focus of Oral Histories

Tattoo ArtistHonored

CaliforniaCows Head

to Vietnam



Hard To Find Video Titles!

101st Airborne A Shau Valley 1969-71, 60 min. 101st Airborne Div. In Vietnam, 90 min.

5th Infantry Div. Vietnam 1968-70, 45 min. 1st Inf. Div: Vietnam & Germany, 102 min.

196th Light Infantry Brigade, 52 min. 198th Light Infantry Brigade, 60 min.

173rd Airborne Battle for Dak To, 50 min. Military Police (MPs) Vietnam, 70 min.

9th Infantry Division In Vietnam, 60 min. Huey UH-1: Training to Vietnam, 115 min.

Army Helicopter Units Vietnam, 90 min. 1st Div. Search/Destroy Missions, 60 min.

173rd Airborne Brigade in Vietnam, 60 min. Army Artillerymen in Vietnam: Fire

Support & Fire Support Bases, 80 min. Army Basic at Fort Ord & Advanced

Training 1960s, 90 minutes 199th Light Inf. Bde 1967-70, 60 min.

ArmyIn

Vietnam

Marines 1965/ Ops Starlite/Harvest Moon, 90 min. Marines 1966, Ops Macon/Hastings/Prairie, 70 min.

Marines 1967 with Op Independence, 90 min. Marines 1968, Op. Baxter Gardens, 80 min.

San Diego Boot Camp ‘69 & 73, 45 min. Parris Island Boot Camp 1960s, 45 min.

Marine Staging Battalion, Camp Pendleton, 30 min. Khe Sanh Base with 1st Marines, 45 min.

Con Thien & Op. Buffalo, 60 min. Battle for Hue City, 45 min.

Marine Aviation: 1st MAW, 90 min. Siege Khe Sanh & USAF, 45 min.

Marines In Vietnam

F-4 Phantom In Combat, 60 min. B-57 Canberra at Phan Rang, Bien Hoa, Danang, 60 min.

C-130 Operations In Vietnam, 81 min. C-7 Caribou In Vietnam, 70 min.

Jolly & Super Jolly Green Giants, 85 min. Tactical Air Recon With RF-4, RF-101, 90 min.

Tet: Attack on Tan Son Nhut AB, 60 min. C-47, EC-47 & AC-47 Vietnam, 80 min.

Close Air Support & Forward Air Controllers, 100 min. F-105 Wild Weasel at Korat AB 1966, 20 min.

F-105 Thunderchief In Combat, 75 min. AC-119 Gunships, 100 min.

Air Force In V ie tnam

Dong Ha Base & 1966-68, 50 min. Assault on Long Binh Tet 1969, 60 min.

Takhli AB 1964-1970, 110 min. Bien Hoa AB 1964-69, 80 min.

Tuy Hoa AB 1966-1968, 75 min. Phan Rang AB 1965-70, 60 min.

Cu Chi 1967-70, 50 min. Phu Bai 1968-71, 60 min.

Tan Son Nhut AB 1965-1968, 60 min. An Khe, 1965-67, 75 min.

Long Binh 1967-72, 60 min. Chu Lai AB 1965-68, 75 min.

Camp Eagle 1971, 35 min. Phu Cat AB 1966-68, 70 min.

Cam Ranh Bay AB 1966-68, 70 min. Dong Tam Base 1967-1969, 45 min.

Nakhon Phanom AB 1966-70, 60 min.NSA Da Nang, Camp Tien Sha 1966-71, 60 min.

Camp Evans & Op. Delaware 1968, 60 min. Nha Trang/Camp McDermott 1965-69, 60 min.

U-Tapao, Thailand 1967-72, 60 min. Korat AB, Thailand 1965-1970, 70 min.

Camp Carroll & Rock Pile 1967-1970, 30 min.

Binh Thuy Naval Base 1968-69, 50 min. Lai Khe, Di An & Phu Loi 1966-1970, 80 min. Da Nang AB/USMC 1965-1970, 100 min.

Camp Enari (Dragon Mtn) 1968-1969, 30 min. Ubon & Udorn, Thailand 1966-69, 60 min.

Dau Tieng Base & 1965-70, 45 min.

Marine Tankers In Vietnam, 60 min. Road Warriors: Truckers Vietnam, 60 min. American POWs in Vietnam, 60 min. USMC Camp Reasoner, Hill 510, 3rd MAF, 45 min. Da Nang Outer Limits: Dog Patch, Danang 500, 60 min. 1st Air Cav. Div. Battle For Ia Drang Valley, 70 min. 25th Inf. Div. Search & Destroy Missions, 45 min. 4th Infantry Division Search & Destroy Missions, 45 min. 11th Armored Cavalry, Black Horse Regiment, 80 min. Army Engineers In Vietnam, 110 min. Operation Pegasus: Khe Sanh Rescue 1968, 45 min. Andersen AFB, Guam 1965-75, 70 min. 9th Inf. Division Search & Destroy Missions, 50 min. 11th Light Infantry Brigade Vietnam, 60 min. Combat Trackers & Their Dogs 45 min. Combat Inf. Soldier: Life In Field, 60 min. Dogs of the Vietnam War: Scout, Sentry, Patrol, 100 min. 23rd Infantry Div. “Americal” In Vietnam, 80 min. NVA Easter Offensive Of 1972, 60 min. Special Forces With Montagnard Training, 100 min. Special Forces in Vietnam: Early Years, 60 min.

Small Boat Warfare, 90 minutes USS Oriskany Fire Off Vietnam 1966, 60 min. USS Oriskany Off Coast of Vietnam, 40 min. USS Forrestal 1967 Fire Off Vietnam, 70 min. USS Forrestal (CV-59) 1950s-60s, 90 min. USS Enterprise Fire Off Hawaii, 1969, 45 min. USS Enterprise (CVAN-65) 1960-70, 90 min. USS America (CVA-66) 1965-68, 60 min. USS Midway (CVA-41) 1945-70, 60 min. USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63) 1961-79, 75 min. USS Constellation (CVA-64) 1964-70, 45 min. USS Independence (CVA-62) 1960s, 90 min. USS Princeton (CV-37) 1950s-60s, 80 min. USS Shangri-La (CV-38) 1944-1968, 45 min. USS Coral Sea (CVA-43) 1965-70, 50 min. USS Intrepid (CV-11) Off Vietnam, 60 min. USS Yorktown (CV-10) Vietnam, 45 min. USS Bon Homme Richard 1950s-60s, 45 min. USS Franklin D. Roosevelt 1960s, 85 min. USS Repose & Corpsmen, 60 min. USS Ticonderoga, 60 min.

Navy In Vietnam

Questions? Call Us Because All Sales Are Final

First DVD $29.95

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SCENES FROM IN-COUNTRY BASES:

Newer Releases 101st Airborne Div: Search/Destroy Missions, 50 min. 173rd Airborne Div: Search/Destroy Missions, 55 min.

Bangkok, Thailand R&R In The 1960s, 50 min. National Route 9, A Journey along Route 9 near the DMZ., 60 min. “Rocket City”: Attacks On Da Nang AB, 70 min. 1st Aviation Brigade In Vietnam, 60 min. Op. Pershing, 1st Air Cav., May 1967, 60 min. Destroyers In The Vietnam War, 65 min. 3rd Brigade 82nd Airborne In Vietnam, 60 min. 5th Special Forces Group Vietnam, 55 min. African Americans In Vietnam, 60 min. Op. MacArthur, 4th Inf. Div. in the Battle Of Dak To 1967, 60 min. 1st Air Cavalry, 1965-1967, 60 min. Southern Man: The Road To Vietnam Training at Forts Jackson,Campbell, & Gordon in the 1960s, 70 min.

1-760-765-1283To Talk To A Live Person,

Or Order Online At

MilitaryVideo.com

Videos For Vietnam Veterans

Sammy Davis Jr.

Some DVDs are nar-

rated, some are not.

Each one is different!

Call or visit the

website for details.

saw wide release and faded into obscurity.Bonus: You’ll also experience a behind-the-scenes perspective from a combatcameraman who accompanied SammyDavis from Los Angeles to Vietnam toHawaii. 60 Minutes. Color.

Were you at: or aboard

when the

entertainervisited in 1972?See it all againin the originaldocumentaryplus outtakes

and photos!



FAREWELL

-

Henry Rowen

the

V

Caves Galore

TODAY

C O C S O

O P

O A A



With the Dragon’s Children is a second edition non fiction accountof the author’s experience in Go Cong province, Vietnam. The

assignment was with the amnesty program for the Vietcong. The bookis seamless, fascinating, informative and entertaining. Further, the bookdraws on declassified information that was not available when the book

was first published.

The book is about the Vietnamese with whom the author connectedand the stories beneath the stories. The book offers a reliable

retrospective on the Vietnam War – understanding and appreciatingVietnam’s rich culture, traditions and history.

With the Dragon’s Children is a gentle and fascinating book

that provides insight into a time and place that is far too oftenoverlooked and clichéd.

“A lanky, idealistic Minnesota farm boy and ex-Peace Corpsolunteer, Dave Garms joined the U.S. Agency for InternationalDevelopment (USAID) in 1967. He soon found himself immersed in a nasty rural insurgency in Vietnam.

Read With the Dragon’s Children , and be proud of your country again.”

- Bruce Kinsey, Former Foreign Service Officer

With the Dragon’s Children

Available in Hardback, Paperback, and E-book.

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VIEP-160400-018.indd 1 12/28/15 1:57 PM


http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/vietnam-april-2016downmagazcom 16/6814 V I E T N A M

FRENCH BATTLE TRENCHES

French soldiers man the trenches at

Dien Bien Phu on May 7, 1954, notlong before the humiliating surrenderof their base of operations to the VietMinh rebels they failed to defeat. Giventhe battle’s pivotal role in Vietnamese— at Dien Bien Phu are preserved by

Vietnam today. V

THEN & NOW

S O P C S S A A A S O C P O O

S

C O O C A A S O C P O O



A M E R I C A R E M E M B E R S® P R E S E N T S

The Mort Künstler Vietnam War Tribute PistolHonoring All Those Who Served in Vietnam

They came from all over the country, from all walks of life, to answerthe call of duty. They left home and fought for freedom in an unknown

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America’s involvement in Vietnam spanned three decades. It’s estimated that morethan 2,500,000 Americans served.More than 58,000 lost their lives, and another 365,000 werewounded. All those who served with valor and bravery in Vietnam deserve their honored placein American history. From the Mekong Delta to the bustling capital of Saigon, from the CentralHighlands to the DMZ, America’s rank and file service members fought with courage and loyalty.

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Nothing was easy about the Vietnam War. Even if you weren’t there, you rememberthe constant coverage on the nightly news, and you remember the sacrifice of those braveAmericans who served. Perhaps your brother or father served. Or maybe another familymember, friend, neighbor, or co-worker is your connection to Vietnam. You may know someonewho lost their life in Vietnam serving our country. Let us never forget their sacrifice.Reserve your Mort Künstler Vietnam War Tribute Pistol today, and pass down this Tribute inremembrance for generations to come.

The left side ofthe pistol features

American ground forces firing into thechaotic blaze of battle,causing enemy forcesto flee. To the right of thecenter image, you’ll find acombat scene depicting abattle in the thick elephantgrass, which can grow astall as seven feet in Vietnam.To the far left, three Americans

fire from—and jump from— ahelicopter flying close to aswampy marsh, capturing atense moment in battle. At themuzzle end, you’ll find thebanner, HONORING ALL THOSEWHO SERVED IN VIETNAM. In front of the hammer

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painting Indiana Rangers , which represents members of the Company D,151st Infantry division, one of the Guard units deployed to Vietnam, onduty in the jungle. Mort Künstler’s signature symbolizes his approval ofthis honorable Tribute to our veterans.

Display Case Available An optional luxuriously-lined, custom-built, wooden display case is available for purchase.

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I L L U S T R A T I O N D A N W I L L I A M S

Out of 9 million U.S. veterans who served worldwide during the Vietnam War, 7 million are stillliving. It’s retired Maj. Gen. JamesJackson’s job to make sure the

country honors them during the war’s 50th anniversary .In May 2015 Jackson was named director

of the Defense Department’s Vietnam War

Commemoration, which began in 2012 and ends

in 2025. The main mission for Jackson’s organization,

thanks and appreciation” for the service of the surviving

veterans and the families of all those who were on active

duty from Nov. 1, 1955, when Military Assistance

Advisory Group, Vietnam, was formed, to May 15, 1975,

when the war’s last battle took place in Cambodia.

What role does your organization play in the com-memoration? We’ve been recruiting commemorative

partners across the country. We have about 9,000. Al-

most any organization can sign up. We ask them to con-

duct events twice a year to recognize the veterans. We

can put teams on the ground to make their events better.

We make it easier to thank veterans, and we do that with

lapel pins and materials about the commemoration.

Some critics say the commemoration is overlook-

We’re

the war, and we’re not into rewriting history. We’re into

recognition of those who served at the nation’s request

and the families that supported them.

-

earlier. Your thoughts on those events? It was a real

tragedy. There was really no reason for it. Kent State

was not a radical campus. There was a series of bad de-

cisions on both sides, and it led to a confrontation. A

change in any one of those things might have prevented

it. We don’t know.

If you’re going

to commit the nation’s young people to an event overseas,

the country must get past the decisions made [by leaders]

and support them. The country asked them to do this.

Some were drafted and had no choice. When they came

home, the country basically said: “We’re not interested

in what you did. We don’t like what you did.” That’s what

-

hind had to deal with the loss of a spouse, for a time or

potentially forever, and we had not built the structures to

support those families. From a legacy perspective, that’s

one thing that has been pretty well addressed.

Born

Residence

Education

Military service

Retired

March 4, 1949, Fort Knox, Kentucky Arlington, VirginiaBachelor’s degree in aerospacetechnology, Kent State University,ROTC graduate,1971Major assignments include battalioncommander, 82nd Airborne Division;regiment commander, 75th RangerRegiment; commanding general,Military District of Washington2003

VOICES

An y ot he r pos it ive ou t-

One is the

National League of POW/MIA

Families [formed in Washington on May 28, 1970],

missing in action and POW families. These people, with

sheer collective horsepower, were able to change a gov-

were treated in POW compounds. Additionally, their ac-

tions prompted legislation dealing with the recovery of

those missing in action.

on the military? When the military came out of Viet-

nam, there was a clear indication it needed to change,

adapt, reformat, reorganize and readdress its prob-

lems. The people who built the plans for this change

changes were almost all Vietnam veterans. The work

these people did to rebuild the military in the ’70s and

’80s made it into a force that is probably the best mil-

itary ever formed. I don’t think Vietnam veterans get

enough credit for that.

mind? There are two books. One is Street Without Joy,

the French in Indochina and the transition into a U.S.

Fields

of Fire, by Jim Webb, a great story about his time in

-

tremely poignant and interesting from a small-unit ac-

tion perspective.

vets during the commemoration? We want American

citizens to thank veterans where they live and work—

Hometown USA. We want them thanked by people who

know them. We encourage people to sit down and say,

“Tell me about your time.” Help get the message out that

there is a national commemoration. If they are inter-

ested in participating, they can go to our website, www.

vietnamwar50th.com. V

During the Vietnam War’s 50th anniversary,

Vietnam is interviewing people whose lives are inter-

on that era in American history. You can read more of

this interview at www.historynet.com/Vietnam.



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April 18 Bill Russell

is named

head coach

of the Boston

Celtics—the

NBA coach.

April 19

March 3 An F5tornado destroysthe CandlestickPark shoppingcenter in Jackson,Miss., on its 200-mile track throughMississipi and Alabama. Thestorm killed 58people and causednearly $18 billion

in damages.

March 25 The

-

constitutional

the “poll tax,” a

payment some

too). The 1966

decisions.

March 28

The Mamas and the Papas

MARCH-APRIL

1966

March 16

Gemini 8,withNeil Armstrongthe commandpilot, completes

of two spacecraft.

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March 5

Barry Sadler’s

“The Ballad

of the Green

Berets,” rises

to No. 1 onthe Billboard

charts and

then becomes

the No. 1 song

for all of 1966.

March 22

At a Senate

hearing, Ralph

Nader receives

an apology from

General Motors

President

James M. Roche,

for the company’s

harassment

campaign

against the

author of Unsafe

at Any Speed.

March 4-7

March 26

April 1

April 12

April 26

April 29

V

April 21

April 18

At the 38th Academy Awards,

The Sound of Music wins bestpicture. Best actor was Lee Marvin

in Cat Ballou. Best actress was

Julie Christie in Darling .

BATTLEFRONT



Operation Lamar Plain from May 15 to Aug. 14, 1969, a

follow-up to the Battle of Hamburger Hill in the A Shau

Valley, annihilated the North Vietnamese 2nd Regiment.

In the end, 497 enemy soldiers were dead, including

the regiment’s commander, and 21 were prisoners. The

Americans reported 126 dead and 404 wounded. Added

to the human toll were three Hughes OA-6A light obser-

vation helicopters destroyed, four brought down but re-

coverable, three Bell UH-1Hs downed and so many other

Airborne Division reported only one OA-6 and two Bell

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38

EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK

Little Known but Very Important

When asked to name the most famous battles in U.S. history, many

Americans would likely mention engagements such as Yorktown,

the Battle of New Orleans, the Alamo, Gettysburg, the Little Big-

horn, Pearl Harbor and Normandy.

But there was another battle, of even greater consequence than

some of those, which is little noted or remembered by Americans

today. Yet it set the U.S. government on a path that led to the loss

of tens of thousands of American troops. That battle didn’t occur in

the United States; it didn’t even directly involve Americans. It was

the Battle of Dien Bien Phu in French Indochina, fought in March-

May 1954, when Communist-controlled Viet Minh nationalists were

trying to throw out their colonial rulers.

The insurgents were stunningly successful. After nearly two

memoir, pg. 38.

A peace agreement in July 1954 divided a portion of the for-

mer French Indochina into Communist-held North Vietnam and

non-Communist South Vietnam, supported by the United States. An

attempt to peacefully unify the two portions failed, and the Com-

munists decided to take the South by force. Because of the loss at

Dien Bien Phu and the terms of the peace agreement that followed,

Military Assistance Advisory Group, Vietnam, which trained South

complete their takeover.

While the big battles get the most attention from the public and

historians, the stories of small-unit engagements can be just as dra-

matic. In May 1966 a 14-man squad from the 9th Marine Regiment,

1st Marine Division, was on patrol in an area south of Da Nang that

the Marines had dubbed “Dodge City” because of all the shootouts

there. In the midst of the patrol, all radio communications from the

squad stopped.

What had happened? Had the radio conked out? Been shot out?

Had the squad been ambushed? Was everyone dead?

Wells tells what it discovered in “The Lost Patrol,” beginning on pg. 24.

–Chuck Springston



The Walking Dead’s Lost PatrolOutnumbered and outgunned, Marines

courageously fought for their lives on a killingground near Da Nang

By Jack Wells

On land: Afterarriving in Da Nangon March 8,1965,the 9th MarineExpeditionaryBrigade takes updefensive positions.The next year someof their comradeswould be in the

“lost patrol.”



At 6:30 in the morning on

May 12, 1966, a 14-man re-

inforced squad from Bravo

Company, 1st Battalion,

9th Marine Regiment,left the company perime-

ter near the village of Bao

Tran, about 15 miles south-

west of Da Nang, on a routine

security patrol in a broad valley

east of the Vu Gia River. A May 11 intelli-

gence report stated that a company from a

Viet Cong battalion had moved into Do Nam,

mile northeast of Bravo Company’s position.

About an hour later, the Marine squad,

designated BP10, approached a village and

The squad, led by Sergeant Dallas Young,

responded with 20 rounds of small-arms

launcher. It then advanced toward the

enemy. Later, Young radioed Bravo com-

mander Captain Norman Henry and told

him the squad had apprehended a suspected

Viet Cong. Young added that his men were

small group of VC they had spotted. At 8:30

path. Henry ordered the men to avoid the

9 a.m. the Marines reported that they had

The patrol came under harassing fire

-

Bravo’s mortar section shot an 81mm spot-

ting round. The patrol could not see where

to be sure the rounds didn’t hit his own men.

About that time, radio communications

with BP10 ended.

When the transmissions stopped, the

Bravo patrol had been moving through rice

paddies northeast of where the Vu Gia and

east toward the sea. The Marines dubbed

the area “Dodge City” because of the many

“shootouts” that occurred there. An area of

rice paddies on the west side of the rivers’

after the rugged and sometimes dangerous

terrain of America’s Southwestern badlands



The Bale of the Lost PatrolMay 12, 1966

0 KILOMETER 1

In sight: A squad from Bravo Company of the 1stBattalion, 9th Marine Regiment, battled the VietCong in the Dodge City area during May 1966. Thecircled area in this 1968 photo shows the battle site.

with the blood of gun battles almost since

the day the Marines arrived in South Viet-

nam the previous spring.

On March 8, 1965, about 3,500 Marines

from the 3rd Marine Division’s 9th Marine

Expeditionary Brigade landed at Red Beach

ground combat unit in Vietnam, consisted

of troops from the division’s 1st Battalion,

3rd Marine Regiment, and 3rd Battalion,

9th Marines. The battalions were sent to

Da Nang to protect an air base there, which

had been using to launch attacks on North

Vietnam since Operation Rolling Thunder

began on March 2, and the air base needed

added security.

Initially, defense of Da Nang outside the

air base was primarily in the hands of South

Vietnamese troops, who also served as the

-

-

rected that the Marines “will not, repeat will

not, engage in day-to-day actions against the

-

cerned about the stability of South Viet-

on April 1, permitted the Marines to become

the secretary of defense.

The Marines started aggressively pa-

one-third of the villages and hamlets outside

the local rice crop to support their troops

and taxed villagers based on their food pro-

duction or yearly income. Village chiefs and

family members who did not comply were

often assassinated, or homes in the villages

were burned down.

The 1st Battalion, 9th Marines, arrived

N



All ashore: Troops fromthe 3rd Marine Divisionstep out of their landingcraft at Red Beach inDa Nang Bay onMarch 8,1965.

Ready to fight: After a helicopter head toward a VietCong village nearDa Nang on April28, 1965. Many of

the villages in thatarea were underViet Cong control.



for the defense of the Da Nang Air Base from the 1st Battalion, 3rd

Marines. On July 1 an 85-man Viet Cong force breached the base’s

southeastern defensive wire. The attackers destroyed three U.S. Air

Force aircraft and severely damaged three others.

While patrolling about 9 miles southwest of the air base on July

12, two teams from Alpha Company, 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion,

3rd Marine Division, were ambushed by 50 to 100 Viet Cong at An

while running to help a wounded Marine. He became the Marine

Another Viet Cong attack hit the Marble Mountain Air Facility,

south of Da Nang, on October 28, when an estimated 90 Viet Cong

penetrated the northwest perimeter wire. The intruders destroyed

19 helicopters, damaged 35 other aircraft and a section of a U.S.

Navy Hospital being constructed at Marble Mountain.

Viet Cong forces in the Da Nang area had now been joined by North

Vietnamese Army units arriving via the Ho Chi Minh Trail. In Sep-

tember 1965 elements of the NVA 308th Division came out of the

mountains southwest of Da Nang to join the 1st VC Regiment. By

the end of 1965 the intelligence section of Military Assistance Com-

mand, Vietnam, estimated that more than 26,000 NVA soldiers had

arrived in South Vietnam.

General Vo Nguyen Giap promised President Ho Chi Minh he would

wipe out the 1st Battalion, 9th Marines, as a present for the leader’s

birthday (May 19). In describing the fate that awaited the Marines

in Arizona Territory and Dodge City, Giap allegedly used the term

di bo chet , translated as the “walking dead”: The Marines should

be considered already dead, just not buried yet. The 1st Battalion,

its nickname.

-

paign, designed to clear the enemy out of a broad swath south of

the Thu Bon River all the way to the coast (one of the rivers in that

Col. William Doehler, was responsible for the western portion of the

on May 12.

When radio communications withBP10 stopped on May 12, Cap-

tain Henry, the Bravo Company commander, sent a reaction squad

from 1st Platoon to locate the lost patrol. Moving quickly east, the

reaction force tried to follow BP10’s route.

was moving through a small village “trying to regain radio contact

-

ber of the squad. “We came into a large open graveyard. Almost

immediately we were brought under heavy small-arms and mortar

ceased,” Maurer said.

At 10:30 the reaction squad heard a heavy volume of small-arms

squad,” Maurer said.

Thinking the reaction squad had found the missing patrol, Henry

nearby and spotted the reaction squad moving toward Do Nam. The

Into the brush:

Marines crossthrough enemyterritory near BinhThai, about 9 miles

from the Da Nangair base on April22,1965.



First warning: An Army pilot acting as anobserver for Marinessearching for the lostpatrol spotted trouble ina trench and dropped asmoke grenade canisteralerting the groundtroops to the presenceof Viet Cong.

Second warning: The Army pilot saw moreViet Cong in the treeline and droppedanother smokecanister to let theMarines know thathe was calling in

trench line in front of the Davis’ unit. On an-

other pass the AO dropped a smoke grenade

to the Marines. Written on it in grease pencil

-

ured his men could handle 10 VC and contin-

ued toward the village. A few minutes later

the AO dropped a second smoke-grenade

message: “10-20 VC in tree line, I’m calling

into trenches next to a nearby road and ad-

vised Henry of the warnings. Bravo made

contact with the AO, and Maurer heard him

say, “Your point is catching hell, you’d better

get up here fast.”

“We guessed that the AO had seen Ser-

geant Young’s squad forward of our posi-

tion,” Maurer said. “Davis contacted the AO

and was told that a trench line by Loc Thuan

village, to our front, was swarming with VC.”

Around 11:45 Henry sent the rest of Bravo

Company to rescue the embattled Marines,

with 1st Platoon commander 2nd Lt. Bruce

Capel and his remaining squad as the point

element. Meanwhile, Davis’ reaction squad

was unable to reach Young’s BP10 because

it ran into another Viet Cong force and was

pinned down.

“The rest of the day was chaotic, with air-

strikes, artillery and gunfire going on all

around us,” Davis said. “Luckily, we found

shelter in another trench line. The rest of

Bravo came up from our rear, and we were

able to pull back into their lines.”

By 12:30 p.m. all of Bravo was heavily en-

gaged, but the company’s 81mm and 60mm

mortars failed to silence the enemy’s weap-

ons. Henry asked for additional artillery and

air support. After an artillery barrage from

2nd Battalion, 12th Marine Regiment, the

action died down for about 20 minutes, and

then the enemy opened up again with small

arms and mortars. By this time, however,

McDonnell F-4B Phantom IIs from Marine

overhead. The jets’ first runs on the en-

trenched VC in Do Nam temporarily silenced

the enemy guns.

“At that time we reorganized and went

back out to locate BP10,” Davis said.

At about 1:20 p.m. Maurer, in the reaction

squad, spotted two members of BP10, Pfc.

James Binkley and Pfc. Reuben Morales,

crossing an open field about 150 yards in

front of him. Maurer, Pfc. Robert Mettert

and Lance Cpl. Bernard Triano ran toward

the two men, who were severely wounded,

and helped them back to the safety of the

Bravo perimeter, while other Marines pro-

Morales said, “the

for was water.”

Morales and Bin-

kley were also given

been shot through

both arms and could not

move either of them. Cap-tain Henry asked the two men, before they

went under sedation, where the rest of the

squad was. Morales and Binkley pointed to

the northeast and said they were all dead.

Binkley and Morales later recounted

the tragic story of the lost patrol. BP10 had

been lured into an ambush by two or three

Viet Cong companies, estimated at 250 sol-

diers, from the R-20 Main Force Battalion,

who were equipped with machine guns and

“the radio was hit and we couldn’t call the

company,” Morales said.

BP10 was crossing a rice paddy when its

point man was shot, followed by the Navy

bullets poured into the patrol, one struck

Morales in the head, and he went down. The

Marines’ only shelter was a

small paddy dike. “When

someone tried to run, he

was hit,” Morales said.

One who tried to make

a run for it was Lance

Cpl. Edgardo Caceres, the

machine gunner, who had

only two days left to serve

in Vietnam. Caceres was hit in the back, got

up and started running, only to be hit again.

“I knew he was running for help,” Morales

said. “He fell three different times. After

being shot, I stood up. I was dizzy but could

see the Viet Cong coming toward us. The

away. The wounded were shooting too.”

By the time the VC reached the dike, a low

mound of dirt in front of the Marines, Mo-

rales was out of ammunition. “I was ready to

neck,” he said. “I fell on my back, but I was

not unconscious. I heard all the noises—the

mortars and grenades. A few seconds later,

it stopped. Then the shooting started again.

I opened my eyes and saw the Viet Cong

shoot two other guys out in front of me on

the second paddy dike. I heard them coming

toward me and closed my eyes.

ammunition. Then one picked me up by my

shirt to search me, but dropped me back. I



was waiting, thinking, When will he pull the trigger?

More shooting started, and the two VC near me started

constantly moving up and down the perimeter during

-

Binkley, like Morales, had

the sun got higher, temperatures

rose above 100 degrees that day,

and the two men lay in the blis-

When the Marine artillery and

the tree line, Morales saw Bravo

in the distance and decided

There was a Marine with his legs

across the rice paddies, but they

-

The other Marines of Bravo Company continued

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-

low, remembers Capel, who had reported to the Marines

just two months earlier, as a “brave, hard charging, gen-

-

-

Pressuring the enemy: A South Vietnameseinterrogator presses hisknee against the throatof a captured Viet Cong

Da Nang.

On the move: Viet Congpositions in thedense vegetationnear Binh Thai



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The 9th Marines -

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V

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Patrol found: Thebodies of lost patrolBP10 are recoveredby men from BravoCompany, 1st Battalion,9th Marines, onMay 13, 1966.

Captain Henryasked the twomen, beforethey went undersedation, where

the rest of thesquad was.Morales andBinkley pointedto the north-east and saidthey wereall dead



The Flying BananaBefore the ubiquitous ‘Huey,’ an unsung

hero brought mobility to Vietnam’s battlefields

By Thomas R. Messick

When John F. Kennedy was elected president in 1960,

he was faced with a multitude of problems concerning

Vietnam. His military advisers in Saigon were asking for

American combat troops and large increases in aviation

support. While the president was reluctant to commit

combat troops, he did authorize teams of U.S. Special

Forces to be strategically placed throughout South

Vietnam. But it was not until mid-1961 that Kennedy

approved any increases in aviation forces. These came

in the form of one Marine Corps helicopter squadron

-

copters are named after Indian tribes, the aircraft was

-

selage shape it was more commonly referred to as the

“Flying Banana.”

arrived in Vietnam late in December 1961. Over the

operational. At that time about 11,000 Americans were

in Vietnam, including advisers, aviation units, Special

Forces and personnel in the Military Assistance Com-

mand, Vietnam, or MACV, the organization in charge

of all U.S. combat forces. There had been a 9,000-man

increase in two years, but that was just the beginning.

be in Vietnam.

A standard transportation helicopter company con-

-

geant and two clerks made up company headquarters.



Takeoff time: A rowof Piasecki H-21helicopters, nicknamed“Flying Bananas,” areready to be loaded upwith South Vietnamese

troops in March 1963.



Important missions: An H-21 Shawnee leaves heading to Camp David in Maryland for ameeting with President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

At left, the pilot of a Cessna L-19 Bird Dog

Firepower: Asthe Flying Banananeared a landing and door gunner

Corps copter: TheMarines’ Sikorsky H-34,with the same engine a heavier sling load butfewer troops.

On the way: During feet above the grounduntil they were about20 kilometers fromtheir destination and treetop level.



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C

O S O A S

S S C

O P P O S O P

G G O P O C

G

A

A S A S C C A C O C O S

Supplies for allies: Flying Bananas delivered food toMontagnard tribesmen who fought the Viet Cong.



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Replacements: New BellUH-1 Huey helicopters,like these shown in 1965,took on the functions ofthe Flying Bananas.

PIASECKI H-21 SHAWNEE,THE FLYING BANANA

4 (pilot, co-pilot, chief crew

and door gunner)

Wright R-1820 radial engine, 1,425 hp

52 ft. 6 in. 44 ft.

15 ft. 9 in. 8,950 lbs.

20 troops or 12 litters

4,450 pounds

15,200 pounds

127 mph 9,450 ft.

265 miles

2 .30-cal. machine guns



Night Jump Into Dien Bien Phu

By Captain Pierre Fauroux, French army

A firsthand account of the landmark battle that,as much as any single event,

led to American involvement in Vietnam



Pierre Fauroux was born in 1921. He

graduated from the French Military Acad-

emy at St. Cyr in 1942, when France’s Vichy

government was dominated by Germany. In

1943 he escaped from France via Spain and

joined the Free French movement based in

Britain. Trained by the British in special op-

erations, he parachuted into France in June

1944 during the D-Day invasion. At the end

of 1944 the restored French government

sent Fauroux to Indochina to prepare for the

return of French forces at the end of the

war. He participated in many clandes-

tine reconnaissance missions until he re-

turned to France in late 1946. Fauroux

returned to Indochina in 1952 as the ex-

ecutive officer of a parachute battalion

and fought at Dien Bien Phu, a French

defeat that set in motion a series of

political and military decisions in the

United States that would send U.S. ground

combat troops to Vietnam in March 1965.

Fauroux was captured by the Viet Minh, a

Communist-controlled organization fight-

ing for independence from colonial rule.

He was repatriated in September 1954

and later served in Algeria. During his

military career Fauroux was awarded the

French Legion of Honor and the American

Silver Star. Fauroux died in 2010. His mem-

oir written six years earlier includes the

following account of the Battle of Dien Bien

Phu, translated by retired U.S. Army Colonel

Stephen Smith.

Jumping into action:French airborne troopsdrop near a blockhouseon March 23, 1954, asFrance tries to defend itsIndochina colony fromViet Minh rebels duringthe March 13-May 7siege of Dien Bien Phu.Opposite, Pierre Fauroux

receives the Silver Star in1993 for his service to theU.S. Army in World War II.


http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/vietnam-april-2016downmagazcom 42/68 V I E T N A M40

In 1952 I received orders to report to

Quimper, in France’s Brittany region, where

paratroop battalions were trained, on May 2

before heading back to Indochina. Major

Marcel Bigeard was at Saint-Brieuc [a town

in Brittany] in command of the 6th Battal-

ion of Colonial Paratroops. My battalion was

the 10th Colonial Paratroops, commanded

by Major Jean Bréchignac. In November

1952 we went to Marseilles to embark for

Saigon. While in Marseilles we received

1st Regiment of Paratroop Chasseurs.

Shortly after our arrival in Hanoi around

Christmas 1952, we were transported to

Na San in Tai territory [a section of north-

ern Vietnam inhabited by people of the Tai

culture], where an important strongpoint

had been organized over the previous sev-

eral months. Two Viet Minh divisions had

knocked themselves out trying to attack it.

The French Foreign Legion paratroops dis-

tinguished themselves there. Na San was

without question a French victory that cost

the Viet Minh very dearly. By the time we

We assumed responsibility for conducting

all the patrols within a 30-kilometer radius

around Na San. The objective was to make

contact with the Viets there, who at that

That, however, did not prevent us from

1953. We fell upon a large enemy battalion

killed, including one officer, 70 wounded

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machine-gunned the entire area.

We remained in Tai territory until Easter,

to rest and reorganize for one week. For the

operations in the Red River delta and other

places in Tonkin. I still have bitter memo-

was a category of promotable colonels who

commanded large Mobile Reconnaissance

Groups, composed of various types of bat-

talions. Before ending their tours of duty

in Indochina and returning to France, they

would mount an operation to burnish their

campaign credentials. Command of a para-

troop battalion lent a certain sparkle to their

tenures. Twice, each time for a dozen days,

we were the paratroop battalion involved,

and it cost us two company commanders,

among others. We paid dearly for this kind

of foolishness, which contributed nothing to

the wartime mission.

to the north of Tourane [Da Nang] in the

coastal region nicknamed the “Street With-

out Joy.” [French soldiers were continually

of Highway 1 that ran through the area.]

number of prisoners, whom we brought back

to Tourane and turned over to the navy for

evacuation.

In the spring of 1953 the French govern-

ment decided to look for an honorable way

out of the war that was bogging down. Un-

able to achieve victory over the Viet Minh,

who were supported by Soviet Russia and

Communist China, the government desig-

nated a new commander in chief and gave

him the task of reinforcing the Franco-

Vietnamese troops. It also undertook a

series of diplomatic initiatives aimed at

achieving a negotiated solution to the war.

The new commanding general, General

Henri Navarre, was given a mission that

included countering the threat while hold-

ing the Viet Minh divisions in the Red River

delta, mounting precision operations in the

The defenders: In theaerial photo aboveleft, French tanks andinfantry leave theirbesieged fortress on

April 4,1954, for an

attack on Communistforces. Above right,after surviving a night

April 3, a French patroltries to determine theenemy’s position.



heart of their supply zone and against Communist-infested areas in

the center of Annam [a region in the central portion of what is now

along the coast.

since 1948. The senior commander in northern Vietnam was Lt.

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The commanders:

Top: Henri Navarrebecame commandinggeneral of French forcesin Indochina in spring1953. He decided tooccupy Dien Bien Phuto defend northernLaos from Viet Minh

the garrison at DienBien Phu. Bottom: Lt. commanded the 2nd

Airborne Task Force,which parachuted intoDien Bien Phu inNovember 1953.



wave, carried in 27 C-47s. I did not take part in that

initial jump of Operation Castor. All forward-deployed

parachute units require a solid rear detachment, ready

to immediately resolve any resupply and replacement

problems. Major Bréchignac asked me to take charge of

that detachment.

The battalion encountered no resistance when it arrived

on the ground and took two prisoners. Six soldiers were -

erations, total French losses came to 15 killed (one during

the jump) and 47 wounded. The Viet Minh suffered

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tains. Within three days the landing strip was improved

enough to accommodate C-47s. After November 26,

air-landed infantry units came to reinforce and relieve

the paratroops. As the arrival of reinforcements permit-

ted, the paratroop units were transported by air back to

Hanoi December 8-17. The 2nd Battalion was withdrawn

on December 10.

From Nov. 26, 1953, to March 13, 1954, the base

at Dien Bien Phu was continually improved and rein-

forced [primarily by setting up eight defensive positions,

or strongpoints, each with a female name]. By Decem-

ber the garrison totaled some 12,000. A general sense

of optimism reigned at the headquarters in Hanoi and

Drawing the Viets into the valley was the dream of the

concentrated target that we could hammer.

The entrenched camp appeared impregnable, and

none of the civil and military dignitaries who visited it

raised any concerns. And yet toward the end of Decem-

ber General Navarre realized the risks we were running

at Dien Bien Phu. Very reliable military intelligence re-

ports indicated the enemy was bringing in heavy artil-

lery. All too late he understood that the coming battle

required support from a much more powerful air force.

Even worse, the entrenched camp could only receive ae-

rial support from distant bases in the Red River delta,

which would mean delays in getting assistance.

While we waited for the Viet Minh to attack Dien Bien

Phu, an event of great importance changed everything.

We learned on February 18 that our national leaders

had decided to meet to discuss the Indochina issue in

Geneva at the end of April. General Navarre had not

been forewarned. He later placed much of the blame

for the failure at Dien Bien Phu on that conference: The

news encouraged the Viet Minh to pull out all the stops

so they could go to the conference carrying a big mili-

tary victory to bolster their position in the negotiations.

By the beginning of March the Viet Minh had encircled

Dien Bien Phu with 60,000 to 80,000 troops from 28

infantry battalions, three artillery regiments, an anti-

aircraft regiment and an engineer regiment. They had

enormous stockpiles that were being augmented at the

rate of 50 tons a day by an interminable supply chain

that included coolies, heavily loaded bicycles and 700

Molotova trucks provided by Soviet Russia.

In addition to our infantry forces, we had two bat-talions of 105mm artillery and one battery of 155mm

artillery, two 120mm mortar companies, 10 M24 light

tanks and two engineer companies. We had nine days of

Colonel Christian de Castries commanded the garrison,

and Langlais, the 2nd Airborne commander, led the

paratroops. As the battle unfolded, however, it became

On March 11 the Viet Minh artillery began harass-

to see that the Viet Minh had such artillery, which were

sheltered in practically invulnerable tunnels hollowed

they managed to hit something, and the French artillery

at Dien Bien Phu was neutralized quickly. Faced with

this failure, the French artillery commander, Colonel

Charles Piroth, committed suicide in his bunker.

The first assault, on the evening of March 13,

was directed against the strongpoint designated

Béatrice, defended by 450 troops of the 13th For-

eign Legion Demi-Brigade. The position fell just after

midnight. On March 14 the 5th Battalion, Vietnam-

ese Paratroops, dropped back in as reinforcements.

Two days later Major Bigeard and the 6th Battalion,

Colonial Paratroops, dropped back in. But strong-

point after strongpoint fell as the fighting contin-

ued without interruption through the rest of March.

When the battle started on March 13, the 2nd Bat-

talion, 1st Paratroop Chasseurs, was in southern Laos

at Savannakhet, where we had taken part in clean-up

operations in that region. We quickly headed back to

Hanoi and immediately prepared to jump into Dien

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able. The news correspondents acted like the paparazzi

do today, trying to interview every man in the street.

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tions of the news magazine with anti-military

editorials appeared on the stands. We felt betrayed. We

doing more to support us. In that atmosphere we took

We repulsed the attacks, ofteninflicting considerable losses, butenemy artillery fire was incessant



The beginning and the end: Below: Frenchparatroops land in Dien Bien Phu in November1953 as part of Operation Castor to secure thearea from Communist Viet Minh forces. Aboveright: Viet Minh soldiers assault a French positionin May 1954, shortly before taking complete

1

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6 7

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N

The Battle ofDien Bien Phu

DEFENSIVE POSITIONS1. Gabrielle2. Anne-Marie3. Béatrice4. Huguette5. Dominique6. Claudine7. Eliane8. Isabelle

0 MILE 1

N a m Y u

m R i v

e r

2 A I R S T

R I P



We knew that the battle was already lost.

Colonel Henri Sauvagnac, one of the found-

ers of the French Airborne, came to see us

conditions. I remember that as we were

of the embarkation hall. Bréchignac said to

me, “She really is a beautiful woman!” as

if to say, “This is the world we are about to

abandon!” And there we were, like others

items, leaving for a lost battle, looking like

for three waves on three successive nights.

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than I found myself in the middle of an ex-

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gnac arrived the following night. Landing

in barbed wire, he had to leave his trousers

hanging on it in order to extricate himself.

the men in other units, we would not see a

calm day again until May 7.

After the battles for the Huguette strong-

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all sides. As we lost soldiers, those still in

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and higher altitudes. Large amounts fell on

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Chinese territory on Taiwan. Chennault had been the commander of the American Volun-

them were shot down.

the longest artillery concentration of the

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On May 4 and 5 the assaults on Eliane 2

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May 5. On the afternoon of May 6 Bréchi-

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semble the surviving elements of the battal-

ion. I advanced through the trenches in mud

fall. At a bend in a trench I lost sight of the

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I made it back

still see the dugout 2 meters under the earth

where huddled together were Bigeard, Lan-

glais, Major Pierre Tourret of the Colonial

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moted to brigadier general.

During the night of May 6 Bréchignac

destroying the radio. Adieu to all.” Bigeard,

Langlais and all of us believed that we

De Castries sent us a message indicating

Failed effort:

French forces tryto drive the Viet

Minh out of theCommunist trencheswith napalm bombson March 28, 1954.Covered Frenchtrenches are inthe foreground.

Above: Frenchand Vietnameseprisoners of war,watched by VietMinh guards, aremarched out ofDien Bien Phu.



V



PORTFOLIO

THE GI AND THE KID



NEED A LIGHT TOO?

tribal people of the Central Highlands area who were recruited

frequently brought their families with them to the base camps.

HOW TO PUMP A SWING

A Vietnamese child and a lieutenantin the U.S. 25th Infantry Division testa swing set in a new playground at the American base in Cu Chi in 1966. The

HOP ON POP

Two kids of Le Myenjoy a ride on theshoulders of a U.S.Marine in 1965.During a lull in Leathernecks inthe village madenew friends.



PORTFOLIO

48 V I E T N A M

O C S

A SHOT FOR

A SHOT

While waiting to seea doctor from the1st Marine Aircraft

Wing’s medicalteam, a Vietnamese

boy takes a shot onthe shoulders of1st Lt. WilliamSpace in 1965.



SOME LIGHT READING

Vietnamese children in Saigon barter with and sell a magazine to Pfc. Mark W.

SMILES ALL

AROUND

Children at the HoaBinh orphanage nearSaigon horse around with an American

CANDY CRUSH

A U.S. Marine hands out candy for the Vietnamese children.



PORTFOLIO

50 V I E T N A M

I DO, I DOMarine SergeantJim Colton plays with a group ofchildren at theUniversity ofHue, which had been turned intoa refugee centerto handle personsdisplaced by

in 1968.



YARDS TO THE FRONT

A Navy corpsman treats children of

1966. Family members often accompaniedthe “Yards” to American base camps.

THINGS GO BETTER WITH COKE

Morgan shares some light refreshments

with them.



‘Madman’ Diplomacyand the Vietnam War

Nixon and Kissinger hoped a bombing and interdiction campaignagainst Haiphong would worry the Soviets and convince them that the

U.S. was losing patience and might get ‘out of control’

Excerpted from Nixon’s Nuclear Specter: The Secret Alert of 1969, Madman Diplomacy, and the

Vietnam War,

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conditions unsuitable for direct and dramatic military

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War review: In WhiteHouse communicationswith the Pentagon aboutblockading and miningHaiphong in 1969,President Richard Nixonand his national securityadviser Henry Kissingerwanted the planning tobe kept secret even fromthe departments andagencies of the nationalsecurity apparatus.

mining ruse—or feint—against Haiphong in conjunction

with a diplomatic maneuver aimed at Moscow.

On the coast of the Gulf of Tonkin 70 miles east of

Hanoi and just south of the 21st parallel, Haiphong was,

as it is now, North Vietnam’s major seaport and trans-

shipment center, with road, rail, air and water connec-

tions to the interior and other points along the coast. In

1968 about 90 percent of North Vietnam’s ocean-borne

imports had passed through the city—most from the So-

Haiphong as “by far the most important and critical

war-supporting logistic installation in North Vietnam.”

Nixon had been a longtime advocate of targeting the

North, especially Haiphong. As a presidential aspirant

in 1967, he had pressed Lyndon B. Johnson’s adminis-

tration not only to bomb Laos, Cambodia and North Viet-

nam more heavily but also to mine and impose a naval

blockade of the port of Haiphong. Nixon additionally

had advocated trade reprisals against foreign shippers

and the curtailment of foreign aid to allies supplying

North Vietnam.

The Johnson administration had investigated the pros

and cons of a bombing-and-mining interdiction campaign

against Haiphong and its lines of communication after

the president had imposed restrictions upon Operation

Rolling Thunder on March 31, 1968. A May 1968 CIA

study of the advisability of such a campaign was largely

negative, citing its likely adverse impact on negotiations;

potential international and domestic objections; strong

defenses in the area; and North Vietnam’s ability, with

its allies, to compensate over a relatively short period

of time for the closure of the port. Nonetheless, there

were those within the national security bureaucracy,

including the Joint Chiefs, who strongly favored mining

and blockading Haiphong.

Nixon’s National Security Study Memorandum of Jan. 21,

1969, his directive to the Joint Chiefs on January 27

to develop indicator actions [military actions to “create



fear in the Hanoi leadership” that the United States

was preparing “new highly damaging” attacks] and the

White House’s desire to launch retaliatory measures in

generated additional recommendations from the chiefs

for attack options against North Vietnam. All of these

included proposals for mining Haiphong and other ports

in North Vietnam.

The Joint Chiefs’ January 1969 working paper for in-dicator actions explained that mining operations were

particularly well suited to the purpose of jarring Hanoi’s

leaders, signaling to them “the picture of a hardening

-

-

and Joint Chiefs Chairman General Earle Wheeler [the

left for South Vietnam, Kissinger discussed attack op-

tions against North Vietnam with Assistant Secretary

from South Vietnam. All six called for air attacks on

selected military and logistics targets in North Vietnam:

North Vietnam.

-

-

New Jersey opposite

south of the 19th parallel. If Communist attacks contin-

ued, the United States should respond with a “propor-

taking operation. Nixon wanted to retaliate for Post-Tet

impatience increased,” Kissinger recalled. The president

wanted to do “something.”

situation and see what we can do with minimum loss

day, Nixon expressed his intention to “crack the North

and crack it good” if the attacks continued or escalated

deferentially reminded the president of their agreed-upon

strategy of retaliating against

Viet Cong–North Vietnamese

-

ing out the direct threat of major

or drastic escalation against the

North at a later date.

Kissinger explained. After Opera-

tion Breakfast, the United States

should continue responding to

the other side’s actions in a low-

key manner “for a long time,” he

only target worth doing it to.”

-

tion, Nixon came around to their

original strategy. “I don’t want

-

into the Gulf of Tonkin. “But if

-

erence to Kissinger’s remark

night Nixon decided to go ahead

with Breakfast, then retracted

the order the next day.

White House communications

and discussions with the Penta-

-

ing Haiphong is spotty, in large

nature of the planning, which

Nixon and Kissinger wanted to

-

ous departments and agencies of

the national security apparatus.

-

C O C S O O P

O S P O O A A S O C P O O

O S A C S C O S

Who’s in?



O O

off and updated several 1967–68 plans for impeding

North Vietnam’s imports.

On March 13 General Wheeler sent Kissinger two

plans: one to block a main channel to the harbor by

sinking a submarine, the other to mine deepwater and

close-in approaches to the harbor. The blocking plan re-

quired U.S. Navy SEALs to perform a secret hydrographic

survey of the Nam Trieu Channel, a major approach to

the Maritime Canal, to determine the worth of a blocking

operation. Then, a submarine could be covertly “scuttled

athwart the channel,” with another submarine waiting

nearby to collect the crew.

into the main ship channel” while foreign governments

were warned about the blockage and hazard. Harassing

airstrikes would prevent dredging operations to open a

new channel. The Joint Chiefs deemed this plan feasible.

The mining plan was based on concepts developed

when Admiral Moorer had been commander in chief of

administration to mine the harbor. It called for 22 carrier-

based A-6 Intruder aircraft to lay four minef ields in

three deepwater areas and a narrow close-in passage-

Destructors, which operated at all depths, including shal-

low waters where sampans, junks and other small boats

But the plan had shortcomings. Aerial mining, for ex-

ample, would “provoke a cry of unwarranted escalation

by Hanoi and its allies” and “endanger foreign shipping.”

Moreover, although mining would “exact the maximum

hardship” on North Vietnam and shape its reaction to-

ward the war, Hanoi could use alternate

anchored outside minefields—“unless the

plan is carried out in concert with an inten-

sive air campaign.”

Kissinger asked Wheeler for additional

analyses of the plans’ pros and cons, for

suggestions and analysis of other options

to limit North Vietnam’s imports and for

the Joint Chiefs’ assessments of their com-

19 Kissinger also created a task force to re-

view contingency operations in Haiphong.

It included representatives from the Joint

and the CIA. The members were “directed to

hold the matter closely to avoid any implication within

the departments that such studies are underway.”

This heightened interest in Haiphong mining options

was fundamentally the product of Nixon’s and Kissing-

er’s staunch faith in military escalation as a means to

advance their Vietnam strategy. But the multiple play-

ers—the secretary of defense; the Joint Chiefs; Military

Assistance Command, Vietnam; the State Department;

the CIA and the Paris negotiating delegation—continued

sustained escalation, and others wanted none; they also

disagreed about how to handle the negotiations in Paris.

Laird and Wheeler returned from South Vietnam and

submitted their reports to the president on March 13.

Laird opposed military escalations generally and ad-

vocated U.S. troop withdrawals and strengthening the

Army of the Republic of Vietnam—otherwise known as

Vietnamization. Wheeler recommended major military

escalations across the board: preemptive ground and

air raids against enemy base areas in Laos as well as

in Cambodia; naval and/or air attacks against targets

in North Vietnam; and air and ground attacks in the

southern DMZ.

Wheeler and the chiefs thought that escalation should

be aimed at achieving concrete military objectives, not

political, diplomatic and psychological results. In par-

indicator actions the chiefs had assembled in mid-March.

The chiefs concluded that “it is unlikely that any one of

the ‘indicator’ actions alone would cause a reduction of

[North Vietnamese] combat activity in South Vietnam or

produce a more forthcoming attitude at the Paris negoti-

ations…even in combinations.” Laird agreed.

Kissinger later wrote, inWhite House Years

, that

Attack feint: Haiphong,on the Gulf of Tonkin’scoast, was NorthVietnam’s major seaportand a transportationcenter. In 1968 about 90percent of the country’simports passed throughthe city.


http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/vietnam-april-2016downmagazcom 59/6857 A PR I L 20 1 6

during March and April he had “concluded that time was

of bringing matters to a head.

“I sought to involve the USSR in a complex maneuver

and recommended Cyrus Vance as the ideal man for the

mission.” Vance was a corporate lawyer who had served

Presidents John F. Kennedy and Johnson in high-level

defense positions and had recently been co-chairman of

the U.S. delegation in Paris. -

ing a secret contact with North Vietnam separate from

the Paris negotiations. It would be, as Kissinger thought

of it, a new “framework” for negotiations. Kissinger sug-

gested that Vance be authorized to undertake a “mission...

to Moscow,” where he would begin talks on strategic arms

limitation and, linking these with Vietnam, also meet se-

cretly with a “senior North Vietnamese representative.”

In these latter discussions, he would be empowered to

negotiate both political and military issues—a departure

from the previous dual-track tactic.

A timetable for talks would be set, backed by military

threats and stepped-up military action, which included

mining Haiphong Harbor. Kissinger constructed the pro-

posal in a way that would appeal to Nixon.

Sending Vance to Moscow on a SALT mission could

garner the Soviets’ cooperation because of their suppos-

edly greater interest in reaching an arms-control agree-

ment. Moscow would become more amenable on the

Vietnam issue and use its sway to assure a more compli-

ant attitude on Hanoi’s part.

The next day, March 19, Kissinger told Vance by tele-

phone that the scheme he was proposing had originally

been his “personal idea,” but he had had “a very full dis-

cussion with the president since then, and the more they

kicked it around, the more attractive it looks.”

Vance expressed some perplexity about the plan: “How

do you spend time on ‘a’ aspects of it without ‘b’ group

knowing what is going on?” Vance might have meant that

if he were to lead a secret SALT-Vietnam initiative in Mos-

cow, how could it be kept secret from the U.S. negotiators

in Paris or SALT experts in Washington?

There were related objections from Kissinger’s associ-

Haig [Kissinger’s military assistant] characterized the

Vance Ploy as “bold but extremely risky.” When Saigon

and other allies found out about the ploy, there could be

“serious domestic and international repercussions.” Con-

gress would be in the dark, and because “certain adminis-

terms, it “could lead to deep divisions in the government.”

Whether Nixon learned of those concerns is unknown.

-

work for winning Nixon’s approval for the ploy in a mem-

orandum that was sent to the president on March 22. In

it, he summarized the diplomatic and military situation

and recommended choices “for action in the next several

months.” He argued against de-escalation and reiterated

the strategy of synchronizing military and diplomatic

moves that would increase the time available to reach a

Saigon, pace and delay the negotiations to suit their own

timetable, focus on military and not political issues in the

talks (even though, he said, “we must at some point be

prepared to discuss a political settlement”) and escalate

militarily for the purposes “we are trying to achieve.”

These purposes, Kissinger emphasized, were mainly

political vis-à-vis the U.S. citizenry, the North Viet-

namese and especially the Soviets, whom Nixon andKissinger regarded as central to progress in the negoti-

ations. “Our escalatory moves,” Kissinger wrote, “would

not have primarily a military objective. Our concern

The Soviets “would like the war to end,” Kissinger af-

to an end if they decided to put pressure on Hanoi.” But

he added, “We have not yet found the leverage to get

them to act on that desire.” Though some in the admin-

istration argued that a show of good faith would yield

Soviet assistance, Kissinger thought otherwise, arguing

that “the Soviets will put pressure on Hanoi only [when]

they [have] decided that it is in their interest to do so,”a conviction often voiced by Nixon.

Kissinger declared that “we must find a way either

within the Vietnam context or beyond it to change the

current Soviet calculation of gains and risks.” In that con-

nection, “possible escalatory steps” were relevant.

“We must worry the Soviets about the possibility that

we are losing our patience and may get out of control,”

Kissinger said. “We have just begun to give imaginative

thought to this problem.”

In the memo, Kissinger recommended, “We should

begin immediately to develop alternate plans for possi-

ble escalatory military actions with the motive of con-

vincing the Soviets that the war might get out of hand.

(At your direction, work is underway on this question.)”

This was most probably a reference to the mining plans

Kissinger had requested from the Joint Chiefs.

Out of control and out of hand were phrases that both

Kissinger and Nixon had used in the past and would

again in connection with their Vietnam strategy—phrases

whose meaning in this context was consistent with the

Madman Theory. [Nixon coined the name Madman Theory

for his version of the principle of threatening and signaling

the use of force.] Their aim was to alarm the Soviets, wor-

rying them that U.S. escalation against North Vietnam

would not only expand the war but endanger the North’s

survival as a nation, perhaps requiring the Soviets to step

up their support of Hanoi.

At a minimum, U.S. escalation could undermine hopes

for détente. At a maximum, American escalation in the

form of a mining operation, for example, could cause the

destruction of a Soviet ship with loss of life, creating the

risk of political if not military confrontation. V

William Burr is senior analyst at the National Security

Kimball is professor emeritus of history at Miami

(Ohio) University. He is the author of The Vietnam War

Files and Nixon’s Vietnam War.



A Failure of Leadershipin South Vietnam

by Frank Scotton, Texas Tech

University Press, 2014

Was the Vietnam War essentially

“unwinnable” because of the incor-

rigibly venal, consistently corrupt

and—worst of all—egregiously

incompetent South Vietnamese

military commanders? Frank Scot-

who spent at least part of every

year from 1962 to 1975 in Vietnam

working for the United States Infor-

mation Agency, thinks so.

In his extensive and detailed

memoir,

on Viet Nam Counterinsurgency ,

Scotton looks back on the 1975

overwhelmed the U.S.-trained and

Vietnam. He concludes: “There

really never had been anything

wrong with the courage and endur-

ance of the [ARVN’s] basic soldiers,

experienced noncommissioned

higher up the chain of command.”

The reason inept ARVN generals

says. In a corrupt system main-

tained by patronage, blind loyalty

to political bosses in Saigon easily

in the selection of generals. The

military leadership problem was

worsened, Scotton notes, “by the

deaths in combat or helicopter

who led from the front.” Most tell-

ing is the author’s conclusion that

the South Vietnamese government,

our crucial ally in the war, “failed to

develop a viable political ideal for

which men would risk dying.”

Although most Americans who

served in Vietnam were involved

in combat against North Vietnam-

ese regulars and Viet Cong main

force guerrillas, Scotton fought the

“other war,” the counterinsurgency

-

olutionary development” or “paci-

get South Vietnam’s population to

support the Saigon government.

Over the years, he worked closely

with a cast of South Vietnamese

military, that reads like a “Who’s

Who” of counterinsurgency, notably

including John Paul Vann, Robert

Komer and William Colby.

Uphill Battle seems a particularly

apt title for this memoir. Scotton

programs at the local level against

dedicated and experienced

Communist operatives, South

Vietnamese government corruption

Considering that Scotton wrote

this book four decades after the

events he describes, it is a remark-

ably detailed account of his expe-

riences. He explains that “stored

boxes of maps, correspondence,

books and other research material”

helped him reconstruct his expe-

riences so thoroughly. Although

barrage of unfamiliar Vietnamese

tough going, those who persevere

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In the same boat:

An American adviser,center, crosses ariver near Saigon withSouth Vietnameseinfantrymen in 1966.



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REWIND

The band’s name: I am playing in Washington, D.C., with Odetta,and someone phoned Al [Kooper] and said the opening act forthe James Cotton Blues Band [in New York] canceled. “Can you

The 1969 Woodstock Festival, where BS&T got a top slot: At

walking around smoking joints and the police were lined up with

BS&T and the antiwar movement: Our singer was against the

munism. It was frightening. After I was tour, an article in the New York Post said and that we should cut our hair shorter.

Strangest thing that happened on atour: On that State Department tour we

show . We look at the audience and the expressions the show so much that, at least for him, it was all worthwhile. Iwait for him to come as close as he can, and I greet him with a the sound. It was just a mush of audio. Either that, or we really attacked the crowd with dogs to stop them.

A serviceman in the band:

from his apartment in Manhattan to this camp in New Jersey, or

Best things about being in a popular band: Meeting people.

Favorite BS&T song:

How Blood, Sweat & Tears should be remembered:

sang in tune and clear enough so youcould actually hear the lyrics. I would to raising the standards of musicianship

in pop music. V

Drummer Bobby Colomby is one of the founders of Blood, Sweat& Tears, a groundbreaking band whose sound combines jazz with

rock. BS&T was formed in 1967 with Al Kooper as lead singer.

The next year its second album, with Canadian David Clayton-

Thomas the lead singer, rose to No. 1 and won the Grammy for

Album of the Year, beating The Beatles’ Abbey Road. The album

included megahits “Spinning Wheel” and “You’ve Made Me So Very

Happy.” Blood Sweat & Tears is still performing with a new gener-

ation of musicians—more than 175 have played with the band over

four decades. Colomby, who now owns the Blood, Sweat & Tears

franchise, reminisced about the band’s early years.

BOBBY COLOMBYOF THE HIT BAND

BLOOD, SWEAT & TEARS



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The longest war in history which was the 1,049 year long Vietnamese War of Independence from

China and the lessons that should have kept France and the US out of Indo-China. The Cherokee Wars that came very close to wiping out the colony of South Carolina.

The wars of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade that took the lives of more than 12 million Africansand the slave revolts of the Caribbean andSouth America.

The wars of the Spanish Conquistadorsto conquer the American Southeast andSouthwest in the sixteenth century andthe Native American apocalypse in NorthAmerica that followed.

Before the Holocaust of World War II,there was a mutual Christian holocaust that

took the lives of close to 8 million livesduring the Thirty Years War (1618 – 1648)between Catholics and Protestants. Someof the battles of this war were actuallyfought in Africa and in the Caribbean.

The wars that involved the Great Wallof China over its’ 1,865 year history as adefensive barrier.

The wars of the Khmer Empire (802 – 1431)and the unlikely hero that emerged in atime of crisis in 1177.

The Jewish Bar Kokhba Revolt (132 – 136)

that caused the Emperor Hadrian to coverup the massacre of two veteran RomanLegions and the truth about how close therevolt came to succeeding.

The Taiping Rebellion (1851 – 1871) thatwas caused by a Confucian scholar whomisunderstood a poorly translated gospeltract and started a rebellion that led to over30 million deaths.

The 74 year Mongol conquest of Chinaand disasters in Syria, Japan, Vietnam,and Java that led to the breakup of theMongol Empire.

England’s Pirate Wars — The FrenchConquest of Indo-China 1857 – 1884.

The future wars that half of the world’s population of Jews,Christians, and Muslims are expecting in the near future.

Or der y our c o py t oda y THIS CHAPTER EXPLAINS HOW THE CURRENT CONFLICTS IN IRAQ, SYRIA,

GAZA, AND THE WEST BANK ARE ROOTED IN ISLAMIC LAST DAYS PROPHECIESAND IS A MUST READ FOR ANYONE WANTING TO UNDERSTAND THE CONFLICTSOF THE MIDDLE EAST THAT ARE TAKING PLACE NOW.



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Vietnam - April 2016_downmagaz.com

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