Volume 2, Number 11 5 November 1988 +---------------------------------------------------------------+ | | | NN NN AAAA MM MM VV VV EEEEEEE TTTTTTTT | | NNN NN AA AA MMM MMM VV VV EE TT | | NN N NN AA AA MM M M MM VV VV EE TT | | NN N NN AA AA MM M MM VV VV EE TT | | NN N NN AAAAAAAA MM MM VV VV EEEEE TT | | NN N NN AA AA MM MM VV VV EE TT | | NN NNN AA AA MM MM V V EE TT | | NN NN AA AA MM MM VVV EEEEEEE TT | | | | The International Newsletter for Vietnam Veterans | +---------------------------------------------------------------+ Editor in Chief: Todd Looney Assistant Editor: G. Joseph Peck Nam Vet is a special newsletter dedicated to Vietnam Veterans around the world, and provided electronically as a service to participants in the International Vietnam Veterans' Echo Conference (IVVEC) available on many FidoNet (tm) bulletin boards in the U.S., Europe, Canada, and Australia. Not all of the articles appearing in NAM VET are written by participants in the IVVEC, but the NAM VET is very much an electronic newsletter by, of, and for Vietnam veterans, their friends, wives, lovers, as well as all other interested military veterans and non-veterans. Articles from anyone wishing to express themselves about Viet Nam or related experiences are always welcome. We openly invite all to submit their writings for publication to the Vietnam Veterans Valhalla (143/27), the VETlink #1 (321/203), or to any node carrying the IVVEC whose sysop can forward your work from there. NAM VET is published monthly by the Vietnam Veterans Valhalla. The views expressed are not necessarily those of the NAM VET, it's staff or volunteers. This newsletter is made up of articles from a wide variety of sources. We are not responsible for the content of this information nor are any of the above mentioned parties. Duplication and/or distribution is permitted for non-commercial purposes only. For use in other circumstances, please contact Todd Looney by FidoNet electronic mail at 1:143/27, or in writing at: VIETNAM VETERANS VALHALLA, 28 CECIL AVENUE, SUITE 179, SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, 95128, ATTN: NAM VET NEWSLETTER. NamNews 2-11 5 Nov 1988 Table of Contents 1. EDITORIAL ................................................ 1 Helping Incarcerated Vietnam Veterans .................... 1 Hidden Cages ............................................. 2 2. SERVICES ................................................. 4 Agent Orange Research Project ............................ 4 CENTRALIZED APPLICANT REFERRAL SERVICE ................... 5 Cost-of-Living Adjustments for Veterans Next Effort ...... 6 Judicial Review Clears Committee ......................... 8 Senate Approval!!! ....................................... 12 3. MEMORY ................................................... 13 Vietnam era service, A personal view ..................... 13 Come for Me??? ........................................... 21 The Story of One POW ..................................... 22 A HERO NEVER REALLY DIES ................................. 26 I AM A POW ............................................... 27 YES ...................................................... 28 Memories ................................................. 29 Things That Go Bump In The Night ......................... 30 Isn't there ANYTHING **ANYONE** can do? .................. 32 Reruns ................................................... 33 Keep yer head down ....................................... 34 A Day In Uniform - Eight Years Later ..................... 35 What if .................................................. 37 When ..................................................... 38 Vietnam Vets Wife Patch! ................................. 39 4. GENERAL .................................................. 40 Vietnam War .............................................. 40 Creches to Cope With Food Need ........................... 56 Correspondence with Incarcerated Vietnam Veterans ........ 57 Maggie's Drawers by Mike Dealey ......................... 60 Vietnam, The U.S. and the M.I.A. Question ................ 61 Vietnam Cooperates in MIA Search ......................... 64 POW Information Update ................................... 66 VFW Criticizes Vietnam on POW/MIA's ...................... 68 5. WANTED ................................................... 69 Free WALL Rubbings ....................................... 75 NamNews 2-11 Page 1 5 Nov 1988 ================================================================= EDITORIAL ================================================================= Helping Incarcerated Vietnam Veterans By: Todd Looney Editor, Nam Vet Newsletter Vietnam Veterans Valhalla, 1:143/27 San Jose, California Joe has done some fine work in looking at the plight of the Massachusetts incarcerated Vietnam veteran, and has learned a lot from his experiences. Many of our brothers were incarcerated very shortly after returning from Vietnam before America had learned of the devastating effects of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Therefore many of these men were sentenced without the benefit of todays knowledge surrounding this ruinous disorder. Granted, many of those who were incarcerated may not have quali- fied for such a defense, but certainly, based on the facts we know today, many did, and may not be where they are today had they been properly treated upon their release from military service. We, however, are not qualified to make that judgment, and I, like Joe, feel it is our responsibility to at least see that these men are treated as the brothers they are...the com- rades-in-arms we served beside while *we* were in Vietnam. They do not deserve to be deserted, for they certainly did not desert us in *our* time of need 20 years ago. Thanks to the fine efforts of Colleen Groarke, and the Darwin J. Thomas Memorial Chapter of the Vietnam Veterans of America, Post #201, in San Jose, California, I have obtained a list of Vietnam veterans incarcerated in San Quentin State Peni- tentiary. Their names, and addresses appear later in this edi- tion of the NAM VET. I hope that you will take it upon your- selves to take the time, just a few minutes each week, to corres- pond with one or more of these veterans. Some of them, whose names appear at the top of the list, are priority cases as they are receiving no correspondence with the outside world at all. Contact with someone who shares something in their past is essen- tial to well-being, it's the least we can do for them. And there will be more...I assure you...there will be more. This, by the way, is the first edition of the second year of the NAM VET. I would like to thank all of you who read it on a monthly basis, and especially those of you who contribute your thoughts and views by submitting articles. For those of you who would like to be a part of this ever-growing publication, speci- fications detailing the acceptable format for submitting articles and stories of your own can be file requested electronically from Fidonet nodes 1:143/17 in California, 1:18/6 in Tennessee, and 1:321/203 in Massachusetts. Or you can write to me personally (just enclose a stamped, self-addressed diskette mailer or en- velope-specify which you would like) and I'll mail it to you by return mail. This year has all the makings of another great year for this publication. Stay tuned for further developments! NamNews 2-11 Page 2 5 Nov 1988 OUR HIDDEN CAGES by: G. Joseph Peck Sysop - VETLink #1 321/203 Here we are, a week before Veterans' Day, the completion of our first full year of NAM VET publication. 'Bout ready to fall asleep here in front of the computer, been here all night tryin' to make sure this issue got out on time... Was hopin' THIS month to be able to have it all put together for Todd so's he wouldn't have too much to do save mailin' it out to the rest of ya'... unfortunately I didn't quite make it and the final touches on this issue will, as usual, be done by our Editor-In-Chief himself... Thanx Todd... As I put the final touches on MY end of this publication, I'm reminded of the cruel enemy general who went out and had one of his own countrymen captured, brought to the Town Square, and had him placed in a cage. "Why... Why are you doing this to me?" the bewildered villager called out. "What have I done? What is wrong? Please, let me talk to the General" Upon the orders of the General, none of the soldiers talked to the man. Other villagers were warned to say nothing to him else they, too, would fall prey to some undesir- able punishment. This went on for days, then weeks, then months. Finally, the twisted curiosity of the general was satisfied. After placing the prisoner's food in his cage, the soldiers noticed that he just sat there staring... staring into space, not seeing them or any of the people around them. "Well, that's just a story," you might be saying, "Something like that might have happened a long time ago but it sure wouldn't happen in today's world." No? Look around you. Look for the incarcerated veteran who hears from no one; look for the homeless veteran sleeping under a nearby bridge; look for the hungry/unemployed/underemployed veteran, barely having enough to survive on, who "falls through the cracks of just about every program that could help him/her give beautiful meaning to their life; look for the veteran who doesn't want to be seen - for, having once been easily identifiable by almost all, that veteran was the object of ridicule, rejection, discrimination and now just wants to remain away from public view... No? Listen around you. Listen for the sounds of the night broken by cries of anger or panic; listen as a citizen reads aloud the daily paper: "Vietnam vet..."; listen to the often heard words: "I'm sorry, you're not eligible..." No? Stop. Think about how often you, like I, have not answered NamNews 2-11 Page 3 5 Nov 1988 a letter or a telephone call or a request for help. Think about how often your talents and abilities, like mine, have been requested in order to help get an important assignment completed but other things have always held higher priority. VETERANS' DAY 1988... on the horizon. Just a few short days away. Time for each of us to pause and reflect upon the freedom each of us have given part of our lives for. Freedom to vote; to have a part in our nation's present as well as it's future; Freedom to choose the path we might follow... VETERANS' DAY 1988... in the foreground. A chance; an opportunity; a beginning for all those precious things so dearly bought with hard work, sacrifice, fear - and a strong determi- nation to rise to our very best. VETERANS' DAY 1988... just about here. A time to let your fellow veteran know s/he is no longer alone, that help for any of their problems is only as near as you are; a time, by communicating and sharing, to shatter the silent prisons of the mind - prisons which have held each of us in their bondage and we, in turn, have held others... it's time... TIME...to think and do something about helping produce NAM VET... to think and do something about our homeless... to think and do something about our future... 'til next issue... Show a brother/sister veteran that YOU care... Ci'ao for Ni'ao -Joe- NamNews 2-11 Page 4 5 Nov 1988 ================================================================= VETERAN SERVICES ================================================================= Attention '67-'68 1/9, 2/9, 3/9 Marines: The New Jersey Agent Orange Commission needs the immediate assistance of all former members of the Ninth Marine Regiment, including the First Battalion (1/9), the Second Battalion (2/9), and the Third Battalion (3/9), who served in Vietnam in 1967 and 1968. We need you to participate in "Pointman II." We are investigating the dioxin levels of veterans exposed to Agent Orange. Selected individuals will be asked to come to New Jersey for extensive medical examinations. All travel and lodging will be paid for by the state of New Jersey. All inquiries will be kept confidential. Please contact: New Jersey Agent Orange Commission P. O. Box 1717 Trenton, N. J. 08607-1717 - or call - 609-984-7396 or 609-984-7397 NamNews 2-11 Page 5 5 Nov 1988 CARS by Jim Deputy 204/40 (408-992-0846) - Sponsored by: State of California, U.S. Department of Labor, and the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. - Operated through the California Employment Development Department, or better known to some of us as the Unemployment Office. CARS is designed to facilitate the recruitment into Federal Civil Service: 1. Veterans rated 30 percent or more service connected disabled. 2. Veterans Readjustment Appointment (VRA) eligible veterans. - CARS use these two special hiring authorities specifically to appoint veterans noncompetitive into the Federal Civil Service. - CARS is a cooperative venture between the State of Calif. (EDD), US Dept. of Labor (DOL-VETS), Federal Office of Personnel Management (OPM), and the federal employers. The program was developed as a one-stop center for eligible veterans who are interested in federal employment. Instead of the inconvenience of having to visit numerous separate civilian personnel offices at various federal agencies. The benefit to the agencies is that they can call the CARS Rep in their area and list their job openings then interview several referrals that meet their minimum requirements. CARS Centers can, and do, maintain the applicant supply file for the various federal agencies on the VRA and 30 percent or more service connected vets. Federal agencies are not required to hire CARS referrals. It is their desire to refer the best qualified and the best prepared candidates to the federal agencies and to make the employment process as simple as possible for both parties. CARS Centers provide workshops on filling out the SF-171 Employ- ment application. In the San Jose Area you can contact: DAN HAFELFINGER - CARS Coordinator Employment Development Dept. 50 S. King Rd. San Jose, CA 95116-2599 (phone 408-277-1873 -- 8-4:30) Please make an appointment. Dan handles both Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties, and is really pressed on drop-ins. NamNews 2-11 Page 6 5 Nov 1988 [Excerpt from LEGISLATIVE ALERT, by Senator David Karnes, (R-Nebraska)] WASHINGTON, DC -- Legislation cosponsored by United States Senator David Karnes was passed in the Senate elevating the Veterans Administration (VA) to a Cabinet level department, called the Department of Veterans Affairs. The changes made by the bill, S.533 will take effect in January 1989. Cabinet level status is appropriate for the Veterans Administration because of the size and scope of its operations. The VA health care is the largest in the free world with 172 medical centers, 229 out- patient clinics, 117 nursing home care units, and 16 housing units for a total of 90,000 beds. Care is furnished for 1.2 million inpatients and over 18 million outpatients per year. The VA will distribute over $ 14 billion in income maintenance and approximately $626 million in education, training, and rehabilitation assistance payments in fiscal 1988. It operates a home guaranteed program with over 4 million loans currently guaranteed. Additionally, it administers the largest direct insurance program in the country. Perhaps more important, Cabinet level status will best serve American veterans, the American public, and the President by strengthening the Cabinet as a policy-making mechanism. "By elevating the Veterans Administration to a Cabinet level position, Congress has assured that veterans needs --and opinions-- will be fully represented among the President's closest advisors." C O L A L E R T Although VA Cabinet level status is a major victory for American veterans, more needs to be done. Senator Karnes is next addressing Cost-Of-Living-Adjustments (COLA's) for veterans. Karnes is pushing for the passage of S.2011, the Veterans' Compensation Cost-Of-Living Adjustment Act of 1988. He is asking that the bill come to the floor of the Senate in the next few weeks. S.2011 would increase the COLA for veterans with service-connected disabilities and increase the rates for dependency and indemnity compensation for the survivors of certain disabled veterans. Unlike many benefits paid by the federal government, veterans disability compensation is not indexed. An act of Congress is required to provide and offsetting increase in veterans' disability compensation and survivors' dependency and indemnity compensation. The COLA which would take effect on December 1, 1988, would be the same percentage as the COLA which will automatically be provided for Social Security and VA pension beneficiaries effect on that same date. According to the projections Congressional Budget Office made in August of 1987, the VA/Social Security pension increase will be 5.3 percent. Senator Karnes said, "Veterans have kept our country free. Veterans should not receive a COLA that is less than other benefit programs -- there needs to be equity for veterans and their COLAs. They have made large sacrifices for us in the past. Their COLA's are needed and necessary. [Interesting fact: There are 27.7 million American Veterans; 189,000 are NamNews 2-11 Page 7 5 Nov 1988 Nebraska Veterans. How many live in your state?] The following is an Opinion Ballot. I'm sure you'll be very eager to complete and send to the Senators of your states: ---------------------------------------------------------------- O P I N I O N B A L L O T Please check your response, detach ballot, place in an envelope and return with first class Postage to: (Your Senators name) U. S. Senate Washington D.C. 20510 -----Senator ____________________, I support your efforts to maintain spending power for disabled veterans and their dependents through the cost-of-living adjustments. I am a veteran. I will be directly affected by legislation granting COLAs to veterans. (Please circle if true) -----Senator ____________________, I support your efforts to Maintain benefits for veterans and their dependents cost-of-living adjustments although I am not a veteran. -----Senator ____________________, I do not think we should increase for veterans. Additional Comments: NamNews 2-11 Page 8 5 Nov 1988 From the House Veterans Affairs Committee September 15, 1988 BILL WOULD AUTHORIZE INDEPENDENT COURT REVIEW OF VETERANS' CLAIMS, REMOVES CAP ON ATTORNEYS' FEES WASHINGTON - Controversial, complex, and emotional. That is Sonny Montgomery's description of the arguments that have been presented before his committee many times and in thousands of pages of testimony over the past several years on an issue that today may have finally reached resolution. The House Veterans' Affairs Committee voted 29 to 4 to report to the House legislation that will authorize the establishment of an independent court of review for veterans' claims. "The time has come to resolve the matter of judicial review, in the spirit of compromise, I have come a long way from my original position," said Montgomery (D-MS), Chairman of the Veterans' Affairs Committee who, with Gerald Solomon (R-NY), the Committee's ranking Minority Member, developed the bipartisan compromise proposal that was approved today. "This package preserves the best of the present VA claims and appeals process and incorporates many new ideas strongly supported by the major veterans' organizations that we believe can strengthen that system," said Montgomery. Under the Montgomery-Solomon bill, H.R. 5288, the VA's Board of Veterans' Appeals would be replaced by an Article I (executive branch) court similar to the Court of Military Appeals and the United States Tax Court. The Article I court, or Court of Veterans' Appeals, would be entirely independent of the Veterans' Administration and, therefore, would not be bound by decisions of the VA Administrator, VA regulations, or the VA General Counsel. The Court of Veterans' Appeals would have exclusive jurisdiction to consider all questions - on claims for benefits under laws administered by the VA. The only matter that would not be subject to review by the court is the schedule for rating disabilities for compensation purposes. Determinations by the Court of Veterans' Appeals on factual matters would be final and could not be reviewed by any other court. However, challenges to VA regulations, interpretations of statutes and matters of constitutionality could be appealed to the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and on to the Supreme Court. Under provisions of the bill, limitations on attorneys' fees (there is now a $10 cap) would be lifted once the claim is brought before the Court of Veterans' Appeals. However, the attorney would be required to file a copy of the fee agreement and the court would be authorized to order a reduction in the fee if it is found to be excessive or unreasonable. "Feelings about judicial review still run the gamut from `leave the current system alone, it's fine' to `throw everything into the Federal District Courts,'" said Montgomery. NamNews 2-11 Page 9 5 Nov 1988 "I sincerely believe that we have struck the common ground that should appeal to every camp." NamNews 2-11 Page 10 5 Nov 1988 13,000 VA Hospital Bed Taken Out Of Service From the House Veterans Affairs Committee News August 29, 1989 WASHINGTON: More than 13 thousand Veterans Administration hospital beds have been taken out of service and a Congressional panel wants to know why top VA management has painted over this and an array of other veterans' health care resource problems. The House Veterans Affairs Committee took a survey of the VA's 172 hospitals following initial staff site visits to 16 medical facilities across the country. During the site visits, staff discovered hundreds of closed beds due to severe staff shortages, which suggested critical system wide funding short- falls. The Committee's follow-up survey, conducted by question- naire, revealed that each VA hospital, on the average, has had to absorb $1.4 million in unfunded operating requirements thus far in fiscal 1988. According to the survey, hospital directors are being forced to juggle resources and are raiding equipment, drug, medical supply, maintenance, and other accounts in order to meet daily operating requirements. Inadequate VA funding has resulted in a barrier to competi- tion with the private sector for health care professionals, a plunge in the number of available medical care beds and, ulti- mately, less health care delivered to eligible veterans. The VA, however, at least at the Washington level, has not acknowledged its medical funding problems. "It is amazing the dramatic contrast between what we are learning from the field and what we are told officially by [the VA] Central Office [in Washington]," said Rep. G.V. "Sonny" Montgomery, Chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee. He referred to testimony presented to the committee over the past two years by VA Administrator Thomas Turnage in which Turnage defended Administration budget cuts and claimed the agency is "not making compromises" with VA funding levels. When asked why the agency is not requesting needed funds, VA Chief Medical Director John Gronvall told the Committee that an FY '88 supplemental appropriation to address the problems 'is judged not appropriate...in the view of other priorities in the Administration's budget. "[VA Central Office] is either oblivious to the problem--well-insulated from its true magnitude--or is toeing the Administration line with little regard for its consequences to American veterans," said Montgomery, adding that "the situation is not nearly as encouraging as the problem managers would have us believe." The survey found that 13,039 hospital beds (including medi- cal, surgical, and psychiatric beds) in VA medical centers have been reported unavailable for patient care primarily due to (1) renovation or construction projects; (2) lack of money; or (3) staff shortages due to recruitment problems or insufficient funds for salaries. The VA officially reports as of June 1988 an operating hospital bed average of 73,588. It is unknown how many of the out of service beds are in this official count but find- ings of the earlier 16 site visits--14 percent of "official" operating beds were, in fact, out of service--have Montgomery NamNews 2-11 Page 11 5 Nov 1988 convinced that VA hospitals are being directed to meet "on paper" Congressionally-mandated minimum bed levels. A Committee staff report on the original site visits states that "since the official [operating] bed capacity is greater than the actual bed capacity, the occupancy rates cited by senior VA officials are artificially low and not likely to correlate well with hospital demand and efficiency. The number of eligible veterans who are being denied treatment as a result of inadequate health care funding is unclear, according to Montgomery, but he cautions,"Such a drastic level of bed closures necessarily yields a sharp decline in service quantity and quality." Though the Congress has fought to maintain "current service", or "straight line" funding levels, a seven percent health care inflation rate coupled with the increasing medical care demands of an aging veteran population has further diluted the budget's effectiveness. VA sources project a medical budget shortfall of $800 million in fiscal 1989, and VA medical care, construction and research continue to take direct broadsides from Administrative budget dictates. For instance, the VA has been forced to implement successive "productivity" increases that translate into staff reductions. As a result, an additional $130 million and more than 5,000 full-time employees have been taken from VA health care over the past three years. Montgomery singles out the work of hospital directors and other local management personnel as the sole encouraging finding in the Committee survey. "Local administrative and medical staff alike have been handed critically inadequate resources as a result of budget cuts. Their distress calls, until now, have gone unheard or unheeded, yet they still have managed to keep the ship afloat. In the entire process of VA health care delivery, they alone deserve the accolades. Excellent local management has kept veterans' health care solvent in recent years." Claiming it is time for "straight talk and tough questions," MONTGOMERY HAS SCHEDULED A SEPTEMBER 7 HEARING ON THE STATUS OF VA MEDICAL CARE OPERATING FUNDS. [Note from Todd] In attendance were representatives from: Ameri- can Ex-Prisoners of War, The American Legion, AMVETS, Blinded Veterans Association, Disabled American Veterans, Jewish War Veterans, Paralyzed Veterans of America, Veterans of Foreign Wars, and Vietnam Veterans of America. NamNews 2-11 Page 12 5 Nov 1988 Women Veterans Memorial Approved!! Input by: G. Joseph Peck VETLink #1 321/203 Senate Approval!!! Contact: Sandra Cohen Executive Director Vietnam Women's Memorial Project (202) 328-7253 BILL AUTHORIZING MEMORIAL HONORING WOMEN VIETNAM VETERANS UNANIMOUSLY PASSES HOUSE Senate Approval Expected WASHINGTON, D.C. -- (September 23, 1988) The House unanimously approved an amended version of S2042 offered by Congresswoman Mary Rose Oaker (D-Ohio). The original House Bill was introduced by Sam Gejdenson (D-Connecticut) and Sonny Mongtomery (D- Mississippi). S2042 now states: "The Vietnam Women's Memorial Project, Inc. is authorized to establish a memorial on Federal Land to honor women who served in the Armed Forces of the United States in the Republic of Vietnam during the Vietnam Era" According to the language of the Bill, the intent of Congress is that "it would be fitting and appropriate to place the memorial within the 2.2 acre site of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. The Bill represents a victory for the private, nonprofit Vietnam Women's Memorial Project - the culmination of a four year grassroots struggle. "Between 1965 and 1973, 10000 American military and an unknown number of civilian women served in Vietnam. At least 250000 women were in uniform during the Vietnam Era. After more than a decade, the nation is now prepared to honor these patriots. S2042 makes this long overdue honor possible", states Diane Carlson Evans, a Vietnam veteran and the Project's founder. Mary Stout, National President of Vietnam Veterans of America was enthusiastic in her comment on the House Bill, "The VVA along with almost all other veterans service organizations have supported this legislation and are extremely pleased that our efforts have succeeded." It is the conviction of VWMP Board Chairperson, P. Evangeline Jamison, a WWII, Korean War, and Vietnam veteran, that "The millions of men, women and children who support a statue of a woman at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial will be thrilled to learn of the victory gaining recognition for female Vietnam era veterans. The Vietnam Women's Memorial Project is a nonprofit, almost totally volunteer organization with the threefold purpose of making the public aware that women served in Vietnam, locating and providing a network for these women, and placing a statue of a woman on the grounds of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. The Project is funded solely by private contributions and has the support of every major veterans group in America, as well as the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Foundation. NamNews 2-11 Page 13 5 Nov 1988 ================================================================= MEMORIES ================================================================= A PERSONAL VIEW, #5 of a series by: Chuck Sterling Las Cruces, NM NASW, Las Cruces, NM (Opus 305/101) This is the fifth of a series of essays documenting my experiences and recollections while in the U.S. Navy during the period from early 1967 until my release from active duty in mid 1969. Beginning with this installment, I'm backtracking somewhat. My parents kept every letter I ever wrote to them, and I want to share some excerpts from them with you. These letters are from not only the time I served in Vietnam, but from the Seabee construction school in Port Hueneme, California, where I learned to see through dust, and from the Seabee base at Davisville, Rhode Island, the home port of the unit I was assigned to in Vietnam, Mobile Construction Battalion (MCB) Forty. Oddly, there are absolutely *no* references to Vietnam in this first group of letters although I was well aware that I could be assigned there. One of the reasons I was in the Navy, as opposed to the Army or the Marines, was to try to avoid ground combat. I guess I just had other things on my mind... Appropriately enough, my first day on active duty was April Fool's Day, 1968. I reported for training on that day to the Equipment Operator's School, NAVSCON, USN CBC, Port Hueneme, California. April 1, 1968 Dear Mom and Dad, All's well. We checked in today partially. The school starts next Monday, the 8th and gets out the 28th of June. I'll get some leave after graduation, I suppose. No mailing address, yet. I'm not anyplace, I guess. I'll probably have to move Friday, anyway. Send a few shirts, two white, my two new ones, my two trousers, a belt, and my shoes. We can wear civvies after 1600. I'll let you know where to send the care package as soon as I find out where I am. I'll go for now. How's the wheels? Love, Chuck April 5, 1968 Dear Folks, NamNews 2-11 Page 14 5 Nov 1988 Well, this is Friday. Nothing to do, so I'm writing now. Here's my address: Mom, send my two shirts, one pair of pants, my loafers, no belt, and send 'em in a medium sized suitcase. I'll be getting the rest of my seabag soon, and I won't have anyplace to carry civvies. Everything's O.K. here. We were out at the school today. The EO's (us) have a mountain they push around the grounds and haul around. Send care package. I have to run - Love, Chuck April 9, 1968 Dear Folks, It's me again. I'm in school now. Very thrilling. We just began a very complete and thorough discussion and lecture on eighth grade math. I got a pair of glasses today, but I found out that regular glasses are a complete letdown. The best he could get was a blur, compared to contacts. By the way, the reason I got glasses so quickly was that I lost my left lens in the dust today. Would you order the left lens for me, tinted grey, and send it as soon as you can. So far, everything's O.K. I won't be able to send any money for a while. I got paid yesterday for my first week, and I still got E-2 pay. $21, but probably enough to last thru to next Friday, with my leftover from what I carried. If you haven't sent the care package yet, would you put in both pairs of pants, and three more pairs of underwear? Lights out. Love, Chuck Easter Sunday, 1968 Dear Folks, Well, this marks my first Easter away from home. I didn't even know it was Easter until somebody remarked that he should go to church, seeing as how it was Easter. Well, Happy Easter! I had a very pleasant experience today. One of the guys bought a Honda 350 like Jerry's and I tuned it. After I finished, we rode up into the foothills east of Oxnard - Man, talk about scenery! I haven't seen that much green since summer at Michigan. A few other fellows are bringing their bikes by rail, etc. Anyway, I'd like you to do me a few favors. Check to see what it would cost to have the bike shipped to Oxnard. Sure would like to have the bike here. See what you can work out, will you? I'll write again tomorrow. Thanks. Love, Chuck NamNews 2-11 Page 15 5 Nov 1988 April 15, 1968 Dear Folks, Here I am Monday nite. Thought I'd write before I left for the gym. Got a letter today, and I was kinda glad to hear about the progress on my car. Say, why don't you send the spare contact, also, just in case. I don't really need any more socks, etc., Mom. I got the rest of my issue, which includes five pairs of socks, three T-shirts, and I bought three jockey shorts. If you've already sent 'em, it's O.K. I hope it won't be too expensive to get the bike out here, because I would like to have it. Is there any money left from my last check? That might help send the bike. I'll probably find out this week or next how much money I'll be paid, E-2 or E- 3. If E-3, it will help. In September, I'll go up for Third Class, and the checks should be a little better, then. Everything's pretty good, so far, even the chow. Love, Chuck April 25, 1968 Hi Folks, Sorry I haven't written sooner, but this weekend I kept pretty busy on odds and ends. I built a small speaker enclosure over at special services for twelve cents, the cost of the screws. The wood came out of the scrap pile, and I bought a speaker for $4.95. It sounds pretty good, but I'm going to get some decent wood and build a decent enclosure. Plugs into my little radio. For your information: Both care packages arrived safely. I've enough underwear, (except handkerchiefs) to go two weeks if I have to. My paycheck was ridiculous - $19 - I found that I wasn't advanced to E-3. I'd like you to get an OFFICIAL statement saying what my grade for the seaman course was. I'll need it as soon as you can get it, and have them write down the date the course was finished. This man's Navy doesn't know which way is up. You may as well forget the motorcycle. For five or ten dollars each, two or three of us can rent a Mustang for the weekend and have comfortable transportation. This small check stuff stinks. I think they skimped a little this time. If I don't get a decent one this next payday, I'm going to get our counselor to chase down my money. Say, would you check with Bob about that small amplifier for my car radio and see if he's got anything going? I was thinking, if you come out here you could NamNews 2-11 Page 16 5 Nov 1988 rent a clamp-on carrier that fits the rear bumper and carry the motorcycle yourself, maybe. Just a thought. Have to muster (that's assemble in Air Corp lingo). Love, Chuck April 26, 1968 Dear Folks, It's whatsisname again. I've been building a speaker cabinet in the evenings since Tuesday. So far I have $10.50 in it, including the five inch speaker. I cut a port large enough for an eight inch speaker, and I may install one next week. It keeps me busy, and that's sort of important, here. I'm going to the disbursing office to tell them to take out $20 a month. Maybe I'll be able to save a little. As it is, the money goes way, way too fast. Lights out - I'll finish tomorrow morning. Well, it's 8:15 Saturday morning. I'm too wide awake to sleep, but I'll tire out early tonight. By the way, send $10 if you can spare it. This check shot me down. I'm not broke, but most of what I have in my pocket is accounted for, laundry, haircut, etc. I'm not sure what I'll be paid next Friday - if it's like the last one, I'll need ten. Guess I'd better hang up for now. Love, Chuck May 4, 1968 Dear Folks, It's another duty day for me, so I'm in the barracks for the weekend unless I can find something fairly interesting to do on station. I put an eight inch speaker in my enclosure today and it *did* improve the sound. If you'd like to send $10 to arrive every other weekend, I'd sure appreciate it. I got the $10 Thursday, so it got here. I have to stand a watch Sunday nite from eight to twelve, so I imagine I'll be in great shape for Monday's inspection. Our class has set a new mark for class grade average so far. Usually they run from 70% to 80%, ours is 91%. My average is 95.71% so far. I hope I can keep it up there, but I suppose it'll go down. We're getting into things that I know absolutely nothing about, like fork-lifts and front-end loaders. Wish me luck. Vince and I are going to rent a car for next weekend and see a little of California. That's depending on how much it runs to rent a car - I think it's $3 a day plus eight cents per mile for a '68 Mustang. See you later. Oh yes. I might have a ride to Anthony after NamNews 2-11 Page 17 5 Nov 1988 school. Lindy may go the fair at Dallas. Love, Chuck May 8, 1968 Dear Folks, I have duty tonite, so here I am, with almost nothing to do, so I write letters. May 9, 1968 I forget now what cut my letter short last night, but here I am again. No duty 'till next Thursday. I've been advanced to E-3 effective April 1, 1968, so I should get a fair check next week, but who knows? Now I've got to concentrate on Third Class. If everything works out right, I should make Third in October. I got a reserve check - $10. Last one. Say, did you ever ask Bob about my little car radio amplifier? This fellow is getting pretty homesick. This place is O.K., but there's something missing. Guess I'd better go. Love, Chuck May 17, 1968 Dear Folks, Sorry, but my letter writing is getting slim. There's so little to write about. I went to L.A. with Lindy for the weekend, and we did *almost* nothing. Saw a couple of movies that I'd seen before, and saw a softball game. Oh, yes, I also saw the Museum of Science and Industry in L.A. while there. They have a lot of very interesting exhibits. Some are only toys, but some others are O.K. IBM has a display on mathematics, and GM has one on autos and engines. When Bob finishes my amp, I'd like to have it out here. So ask him how much, and I'll send you the money. I have another watch tonite, twelve to four, so I'm gonna be a mite tired when I go to work tomorrow. With love, Chuck May 22, 1968 Hi Folks, This will be quick because I'm in kind of a hurry tonite. Sorry I haven't written sooner, but I just haven't found the time to. I'm really happy the car's O.K. - I'll be home to get some use out of it in five weeks. If Bob gets that amp built, don't send it here - it'll be more trouble than it's worth for the short time I'll be here. Everything's O.K. here. My grades are still up NamNews 2-11 Page 18 5 Nov 1988 in the 90's - hope I can keep them there. We rented a Mustang last weekend and saw 447 miles of California. $48 worth... Spent one evening in Santa Barbara (especially the college) - saw the Undersea Gardens, and undersea room with glass walls and caged fish outside. Bye for now, Chuck May 24, 1968 Hi Folks, Friday's here again, and my grades are still pretty fair. I ended up with a 94.65 for the first seven weeks. Not bad, huh? We'll start on dozers Monday - man, they are *big*. At least, 25 tons seems pretty big to me. I spent quite a chunk of money these two weeks, but I intend to save a good portion of my next checks so I can get home next month. I have about $53 left from my last check - I managed to spend about $50 last weekend, but that was my first and last expensive one here ($25 for car and gas). How's my car run? Pretty peppy, I hope. I'll *bet* those mufflers are loud. They only cost $5.50 each in the first place. How's the idle? Does it lope a little (doesn't matter, just curious)? This weekend, three of us are going to Santa Barbara again, but my money will have a tendency to stick to my billfold, more than last week. Much more. I feel a little bad about spending all that money, but enjoyed the weekend. Love, Chuck June 2, 1968 Dear Folks, Here's another duty day, and another letter. I have two watches this weekend, so at least eight hours is fully accounted for. Less than four weeks left. I certainly hope it passes relatively quickly. It should, because the next three weeks we'll be in dozers and scrapers. They're pretty big - the one we spent last week on weighs 43,500 pounds dry. I'm getting pretty homesick, but I guess that's pretty normal with only a month before coming home. Besides, it's very boring around here without transportation or money. My check was $44 this payday, and after laundry, haircut, a trip to the exchange, a tank of gas for Lindy's car (used it last weekend), I've $27 left. I picked up an old radio downtown so I'd have something relatively inexpensive to kill time with. Muster in five minutes. Love, Chuck NamNews 2-11 Page 19 5 Nov 1988 June 7, 1968 Dear Mom and Dad, Thursday night again. Three more weeks and one day and I'll be on my way home. That'll be a welcome feeling. We finished dozers today. All we have left in them is the written test tomorrow. I'll have to do some studying tonight so I can keep my grades up. I'm not sure if I'm tired or what, but I'm in some kind of grouchy, depressed mood. It only takes something really insignificant to make me angry, and I've got to get rid of that, fast. That's one reason I'm getting off station tonight - this place is a little too tense for me. I wish I had my motorcycle here. I could just get on it, and scram for a few hours - go up in the hills or down by the beach or something. As it is, I walk, but anyway, it's good exercise. I might have a ride home, in which case, I won't need any money, but if I have to ride a bus, I don't know how much it'll cost. But, I will know by next week, one way or the other. I'll let you know what's happening as soon as I find out myself. I have two more checks, and I'm going to see how much I can save out of them. One I'll get the day I leave. Bye for now. Love, Chuck June 13, 1968 Hi Folks, Before I forget, send my car's registration. I'll be able to receive travel pay for my driving my car, if I get someplace besides here for ny next duty station. It could amount to $100 or so. I really don't have much to say. This place doesn't change a heck of a lot from day to day. We did start scrapers this week, but that's about it. I drove a Cortina this weekend. We rented it, and then disconnected the speedo. Paid for 93 miles, roughly one-third of what we drove. Pretty peppy little number. I was very surprised with both handling and get up and go. It was perfectly stable at 90, and the engine was purring happily at less than 5000. Also like the four-speed. Second only to my '59. My speaker still sounds excellent. I believe I'll finish it when I get home. Might come in handy someday. Keep my car warm - my driving foot's starting to itch again. Be home soon. Love, Chuck June 23, 1968 NamNews 2-11 Page 20 5 Nov 1988 Dear Folks, ELEVEN MORE DAYS!!! As you can see, I'm getting a little anxious to get home, again. I'll find out where my orders send me, tomorrow. I kind of expect Davisville, R.I., but I'm far from sure. Bad news. Order right contact. Fell out when I got hit by a volleyball, and somebody stepped on it. Three pieces. I finally got a pair of fairly decent goggles to wear. They look Mickey Mouse, but I don't care - they stop the dirt. I'll be coming home with Lindy. I expect to be in Saturday. We were on scrapers last week, and will be this week, also. I'm not doing too badly. I have 92.8 now and I have to have 89.0. Have you sent my registration, yet? I'll probably be able to use it, and save some money. Travel pay. Send it as fast as possible, please. Love, Chuck By not even mentioning the war in Vietnam, these letters speak loudly on the subject. By today's recollections, you would think that Vietnam was in the forefront of every serviceman's awareness, but my mind was fully occupied with other, mostly trivial things. Vietnam was apparently not a large concern to me at the time. I was just a kid away from home, with few cares about world politics, even Vietnam. I guess that just about sums it up. I believe that I was average in my interests; I wanted to drive my car, listen to the stereo and loud mufflers, spend foolishly what little money I had, crash around on my motorcycle. I got homesick. I went off on weekends chasing college girls in Santa Barbara (with modest success). My girlfriend back home told me to shove off (smart girl...). I couldn't wait to get home. I was counting short days until I would leave southern California! I must have been balmy. From Port Hueneme, I spent a short leave at home before driving toward Davisville, Rhode Island. I met a friend at his home in Indiana, just in time to attend his wedding. We were assigned to the same unit, MCB 40, and traveled together. My revered '59 Ford never made it; a rod came through the side of the block in Rye, NY, and I gave the car to a guy in a service station. I didn't have time or money to fix it, and fact is I may not have been able to afford to drive it afterward. All my stuff and myself we piled into Dave's car, and went on to Davisville. NamNews 2-11 Page 21 5 Nov 1988 by LeAnn Thieman 1987 VVA Michigan >> COME FOR ME << Twenty years in the jungle has taken its toll on me. I'm not the same man I used to be. But one thing's consistent... I long to be free. Please, Mr. President, come for me. The scars of my torture will never go away. I'm fifty pounds light. My hair is now gray. But their shackles can't chain the freedom in me. Please, lawmakers, come for me. If my family believed there's a chance I'd survived, They'd fight to their deaths to prove I'm alive. I last saw my son when he was just three. Please, lovin' family, come for me. Some captors say you don't know I'm here, That I'm doomed to this prison year after year. God Bless America, the land of the free. Please, friends and parishioners, come for me. Other captors say you know that I'm here But refuse to accept the evidence, so clear. Will some caring citizens hear my plea? Please, fellow countrymen, come for me. I'll have faith in my country 'til my dying day. I'll never believe you could leave me this way. My country, 'tis of thee... Please, please, America, come for me. NamNews 2-11 Page 22 5 Nov 1988 The Story of One POW by Bill Herr, Jr. The following article consists of notes of a briefing given by U.S. Navy Captain Bill Franke who was a POW in Vietnam for 7 1/2 years. He was flying off of the U.S.S. Midway as a fighter pilot. On his second mission of 24 August 1965 while conducting a raid on Tan Hoa bridge, he was hit by a SAM [Surface-to-Air- Missile]. He and his copilot parachuted out of his crippled aircraft seconds before the aircraft exploded in a ball of flame. He was in a state of shock and as he was drifting to the earth and came to his senses he saw Vietnamese waiting for him below. Although he had experienced [only] a broken wrist and had shrapnel in this body from the SAM hit and subsequent ejection from the aircraft, he didn't experience any pain and was wondering what awaited him when he hit the ground. Before he ever hit the ground the Vietnamese were on him with machetes. They cut the parachute risers and cut his clothes off. They cut everything off of him except for his undershorts. They even removed his shoes. All of his survival equipment and pistol were in the hands of the enemy. All of the training at SERE [Survival Escape Resistance and Evasion] School seemed not to be applicable. The first course of action that was taught in schooling was evasion which was not applicable since enemy troops were waiting for him on the ground as soon as his chute hit the ground. With all of his survival gear having been taken and without any clothes, shoes, or help, escape was out of the question. He was then tied up and blindfolded and put through the grueling experience of a forced march. It was during that march when he learned how difficult it is for Americans to survive a forced march without shoes. Eventually the Vietnamese recanted and gave him his shoes back only when he was tied up. Finally an old jeep came and met them. He was then trans- ported in a tied up and blindfolded position north to Hanoi. During the trip north, he was amazed at the amount of traffic. It was all trucks and busses, but they were cleverly camouflaged so as to not be visible from the air. During the trip north, he kept thinking how long would he be a POW and fear began to set in. Once at the Heartbreak Hotel [also known as "The Hanoi Hilton", a Hanoi prison], he was issued basic gear consisting of a teapot, a broken toothbrush, a tube of tooth paste from the Hanoi soap works which was to last for 6 months, a bar of lye soap that had to last for 2 months, a blanket, a mosquito net, a cup, and a small mat. It was tough to getting used to doing nothing and to have your life completely regimented as dictated by the North Vietnamese. Capt. Franke found out that he had been declared KIA from another pilot that had been shot down 20 minutes after he was. The wingman aircraft saw the exploding aircraft and not the two chutes and consequently everyone thought Capt. Franke was dead and KIA from the SAM hit. This really brought out a sinking feeling in him realizing that everyone including his wife and family would think him dead. The most pressing thought on the POWS minds were how long they would be prisoners...from 4 months - 2 years most thought. After 7 NamNews 2-11 Page 23 5 Nov 1988 years time was nothing. The first year is the toughest. The mind has to be placed in the proper frame. Getting used to doing nothing is one of the worst things. When a person would go on a hunger strike, the Vietnamese would cut off the water. The problem with hunger strikes is the prisoner hasn't that much going for him and the more he eats the better his chance of escape. While in cell # 7, he received his first meal, it looked like Spaghetti-O's with ants all through it. New prisoners would pick through it, but old prisoners wouldn't, they would lick the bowl clean. Prisoners wouldn't get rice. That was much too good for prisoners. Fortunately they would get bread, but it was speckled with weevils. No salt was in the diet. The bread was the lifesaver, a loaf a day made from Russian wheat that came from U.S. What was fed was what was [was collected from] the floor sweepings from the local economy. The diet basically was sewer greens from the sewer runoffs, full of chlorophyll with no protein, but did keep one alive. That is what the summer diet was. In the winter time the diet would be pumpkin. They would boil it after being beat with a machete, and that was what the prisoners got. Bread, water, sewer greens, and pumpkin was the menu depending on the time of year. The POWS had two basic goals... [to] survive, and to return home with honor. The pows were pawns to be used against the U.S. in world public opinion. The interrogators wanted the prisoners to make statements. The code for military personnel is to give name, rank, serial number, and date of birth to the BEST OF ONES ABILITY. Capt. Franke recommends that one find out what they (the interrogators) want and when it is at the point where you are going to lose it all, you give them something - not necessarily the truth - but something without giving away the store when they are giving QUIZ [interrogation]. Be polite and military and answer is No sir with a reason. The second goal is to return home with honor. One has to live with themselves so one has to be very careful as to how they conduct themselves. There wasn't a man there that didn't give away something that he didn't want to. The way to keep from going nuts is to communicate. When in solitary, you then communicate whenever you had the chance to talk with someone else. A code was set up when talking with another American. Camp rules and regulations prohibited talking and if you didn't answer truthfully and honestly you were punished. They would segregate those that were dead [shown to be KIA by U.S.] from those that were listed as MIA and POW. The Rabbit, nickname for the head interrogator, would read the same papers U.S. troops would, and would get those papers from Hong Kong. Hence whatever was out in the press was common knowledge to the Vietnamese as well. Nels Tanner, another POW, had given out false names such as Clark Kent, Davey Crockett, etc. when under interrogation. This was printed in the press as a Vietnamese Coup. When it was discovered that it was bogus information and that the Vietnamese had lost face and ridiculed in World public opinion, Tanner was punished and got electrical shock, put in irons etc. Some Americans couldn't stand it, and went over to helping the Vietnamese. So NamNews 2-11 Page 24 5 Nov 1988 after this ploy, any news releases were cleared by two Americans who would say it was true or false. Don't let the interrogators talk you into giving away the store, everyone has a threshold of pain and give it a try before you start talking. Keep in mind that they would kill you if it would suit their purposes. Capt. Franke was 60 feet away from the interrogators when they kicked a man to death after having been gagged with a stick through the mouth. All the guards and interrogators spoke English. They would not let the prisoners learn Vietnamese. The information was spread through the walls with the knocking code. Capt. Franke was moved 28 times in 7 1/2 years, as they thought these moves were breaking up the communications network. It was a very traumatic experience during the moving. Americans never got out of their cells. Fortunately there were 3 Thai prisoners, and they were allowed out of their cells and were put to work during the day. They communicated with the Americans. One of the Thai's would hallow out sticks and put messages in them or pound them out on the wall. Are there any POWs left in Vietnam? His opinion is that everyone would have been killed since the Vietnamese would have done so since they are so much of a race to save face. By 1970 the POWs were pretty much entrenched in what was going on. There was a news box in each cell. They would put out news about the millions of people in the peace movement. Hearing about the constant peace movement protests really scared the prisoners into thinking about would they ever get out of Vietnam. Don't go to war if you don't intend to win. A prisoner realizes how insignificant they are in this life. The only thing that you are a part of is the little society in that prison. You would follow the orders of the SRO [Senior Ranking Officer] in order to return home with honor. The prisoners had to stick together, and there were no secrets in prison and [it was] tough to live if one betrayed the other POWs, and one always had to keep in mind wanting to return home with honor. 1972 arrived and prisoners were not being tortured, which was a change. The food was just the same, the bombing was halted, and McGovern was running against Nixon and it was thought that the senior officers would never go home if McGovern was elected. When Nixon was elected and they heard the B52's coming,it sure made the prisoners feel good when the bombing came. All night long the bombing continued. Every once in awhile you would see a big flash when a B52 would be hit with a SAM and 8 [more] Americans were killed. This is where the war should have started in 1965. Once a year you would get coffee, and turkey for Christmas. Be careful with how you think with what you hear or the POWs might get false hopes about returning home. On Christmas there wasn't any bombing but the next night it continued. The bombing was beginning to overwhelm the Vietnamese. No POW was ever hurt by the bombs [that we know of]. Finally all the doors were opened and POWS were taken to camp commanders area and they were told they were going home. Each prisoner got told they were going home in the order shot down...after the sick and wounded. People were then placed in group cells instead of NamNews 2-11 Page 25 5 Nov 1988 solitary cells. What were the POWs going to wear home? It was settled with the camp commander. When they left they were given a present from the Vietnamese of tooth brush and tooth paste. The prisoners were loaded in busses and were taken south to a building where the Red Cross was located and then they were put into a bus and back to an airport and there were some C-130's and some C-141's [U.S. transport aircraft]. He was met by a Colonel and was told "Welcome to freedom." He was then led into a C-141 and transported to Clark AFB in the Philippines. He was shot down at age 39 and had missed 8 Christmases at home. Capt. Franke considers himself fortunate to be alive. Every man there learned to exercise in order to kill time so most were in pretty good shape. They were transported into a sterile hospital. He got into a shower and about 3 hours later was told it was time for chow. All kinds of chow. It was really great. Basically all prisoners had parasites and worms but other than that most were in good health. He stopped in Hawaii, went to Travis [AFB in California], and back to Balboa Navy Hospital [in San Diego]. Upon return was a shock seeing all of the kids, one married, one teenager and one 9 year old and all of a sudden had to be reaccepted into his own family. Most POWS were divorced in a short time after return. Many times the thinking and life-styles had changed. Fortunately he is still married to the same lady for 39 years. He retired in 1977 after 33 years [service]. He does not put much credence in what Private Garwood says. He says he got his first mail in 1971 which was number 37 even though in since 1965. In 1967 he found out that he was changed to POW instead of KIA. He was changed to POW status from KIA status because of Stockdale getting some CIA invisible ink on the back of a letter listing him as a POW instead of KIA. He hates Jane Fonda as she is a Communist. Jane Fonda has put out a tape made outside of the camp showing her true colors. It [the tape] shook the feeling of the POWs wondering whether they would ever get out seeing the distention among the American people. How to keep from cracking up? Get past the self pity. Assume everything is going well at home. Memorize the list of who is there as POW. A simple slogan was among the POWs, each day is a small victory. Mental attitude is everything. No successful escapes. More trouble living together than living in solitary. ----------------------------------------------------------------- NamNews 2-11 Page 26 5 Nov 1988 by Kathy S. Deatherage- > HERO < I knew a soldier long ago, this man died a hero. He served his own country, no one had to pay him a lot of money, he did what he was told. Some said he carried more than his load. His name? Well, it's often heard-- even though he lies still in his coffin as he died one bright Sunday morning. His platoon was in front of all, fighting. His orders were to take over a small village... There were many there, many of older age; the soldiers went in carefully. The village people were praying, faithfully... to an idol, an old, golden cow! My friend, he didn't know what now. "These people" he though, "they know no better" so he thought "I'll lead them in our prayer". He took over the village, then taught them right; first he taught them how to read and write. He and his men taught them of the Bible, even those who were old and unable. Now my story comes to an end... my soldier friend was killed that weekend. He was out with a young girl of seven, while teaching her of God and heaven... the hero, he dies, almost everyone cries... But everyone knows a hero... never really dies. NamNews 2-11 Page 27 5 Nov 1988 -Anonymous "I am a POW... I was born during the first war. I've been in every war since then. I didn't plan to be a POW when I became a soldier - I only wanted to do the job that my superiors sent me to do. I've been cold, hot, hungry, tortured, used, abused, humiliated and beaten. In some wars I've been killed. In some wars I've been made to do work that hurt my fellow countrymen. I did what I could to survive and came home alive. As a POW, no one can understand what I went through, unless they've been a POW, too. Sometimes I try to explain to my family and friends, but they feel so bad for me. I quit telling them about it. I've joined other POW's and they help me because they understand. The only thing worse I could be right now would be if I were a POW and listed as an MIA." ----------------------------------------------------------------- NamNews 2-11 Page 28 5 Nov 1988 Submitted by: Alex Humphrey From: At the Vietnam Veterans Memorial: Between the Lines > Eugene E. Grollmes < Depending on the date of death -- Their names are listed...Fulton... Jackson...Nottingham...O'Rourke... In polished black granite from Bangalore -- row upon row -- Forever in honor of those who Died in the rice paddies, jungles, Mountains, fields: oh, they are Already beyond the confines of Time: yet they are present in the Hush of the valley -- watched Over by comrades in bronze -- On a nearby ridge looking down at The Wall -- almost in disbelief At the number of dead -- can They all be dead?...Pritchard... Randall...Sheridan...Wolf...?"Yes," The Wall answers...and answers. Yes ----------------------------------------------------------------- NamNews 2-11 Page 29 5 Nov 1988 Input by: G. Joseph Peck VETLink #1 321/203 From the book: "Memories" by Msg. David H. Puckett (RET) "... It should have come as no surprise that the young returning GIs, only two or three days out of the madness of combat, were puzzled by this cold reception. They didn't expect or want everyone in New York to turn out for a ticker tape parade, as they had when Johnny came marching home from over there. We didn't return home as a unit, like they did. We came back as individuals to face our dreams and nightmares alone. There were many sleepless nights and nights of waking up in a cold sweat, screaming. For some it was too much, for others the nightmares still occur. The only thing we expected from our nation was that our services and accomplishments be recognized and appreciated, nothing more." NamNews 2-11 Page 30 5 Nov 1988 NOISES by Mike Dealey Lots of vets complain about noises that freak them out. Probably the one you hear about most is a car backfiring. Some guys claim it's like, "Lock...one magazine ball ammunition...load...ready on the right... the flag is up... prone... you have 5 seconds to get into position... unlock your weapons...fire when ready...fire, fire, Fire, FIRE!!! I dunno, a backfire doesn't seem to bother me. Oh, I jump, just like any normal person does. But the instant my mind recognizes it for what it is, everything's cool. To me it's not a "memory sound". Okay, maybe like some dummy trying to run a deuce and a half on JP-4, but not the sounds of bad stuff going down. Yet, some things do bother me. Like the sound of hogs coming in. Not those dinky little Sikorsky "loaches" like the News-8 Traffic Control uses, but your full-blown Hueys with their Lycoming turbo props going whomp, whomp, whomp. No matter where I am or what I'm doing, I can't help but look up at them. Just the sound of chopper blades makes my muscles start to tense up like I was getting ready to go out on a CA. However, I've found that if I catch it early, it's easy enough to shrug off. But if one of those birds ever started to flutter in on me... I dunno, I might just run screaming, "I ain't never gonna get on one of them _____ers again!" I did make that commitment back in the mid-70s. Here's what happened: I was forced to take an air shuttle from La Guardia to JFK. Thing turned out to be a chopper. Not a Huey, but some commercial jobbie that size-wise was like half way between a Sh_thook...oops, I mean Chinook and a 1D. Seated about 10 or 12 in plush seats like commercial airliners. At least I think it did; not sure because I had my eyes closed the whole time. Swore then I'd never get on another one. To me, choppers are for carrying instruments of war and body bags, not commercial passengers. But I found out a couple of years ago something that really blows me away big time: a rock concert. I got snookered into going to a KISS concert by some nephews and nieces that claimed "Unc" needed to "find out where it's at." Frankly, I wasn't too keen on the idea from time zero. Not that I don't like rock, it's my favorite music. Bon Jovi is doing some great stuff. Whitesnake, too. Even ol' David Lee Raunchy is a darn good entertainer. And that Samantha Fox! Woo-woo, world's greatest singer (you mean she can sing, TOO?). But I say, "Hey, what the heck. Anything to satisfy the natives." So we go. It was a setup from the start. I'm surrounded by this seething hoard of humanity. Screaming, yelling, jumping up and down, bumping into you, stepping on your toes... it's like a full frontal assault. Hot, sweaty... it's June or July... outdoor concert. The Fire Dept is periodically spraying everybody down to keep us cool. Things are starting to seem unpleasantly familiar. On stage there's these strange looking dudes, faces painted with camo paint, tongues trying to flick fur balls out of their own belly buttons. The smell of dew is so strong in the crowd that it NamNews 2-11 Page 31 5 Nov 1988 reminds you of your hootch after getting back from a hot CA. I'm starting to get this feeling just like Nam... that I was dropped into the middle of a Disney movie set... the Wicked Witch, not Mary Poppins. The music is deafening. Coming out of speakers that must have had magnets that would erase a floppy disk at 50 meters. If I listen carefully I can hear the Moog making sounds like a sixteen ripping away. Then the harsh chatter of an AK. The traps sound like an RPD splattering tracers at my feet. I'm starting to sweat for more than one reason. The bass goes thunk, thunk like a 82-mm mortar tube. The bass drum sounds like...INCOMING! The dude on keys is doing funny sounds like those funky Laotian bugles. A cop on the sideline blows his whistle... the hair bristles on the back of my neck. I expect to hear the PA system blare out anytime, "American, this night you die!" The high-pumping adrenaline level of the crowd is infect- ious. BLAP! It hits me. All I can see is a sea of pith helmets and slant eyes. We're surrounded... it's Xe Than all over again. Somebody up ahead of me is screaming, "Make it, make it!" I think they're screaming 'medic'. By now the band's output is nothing but a steady palpitation of tracers. But all I can hear is that never-ending squelch... why won't the FAC answer... out of arty range... where's that FAC? Damn! Channel five... "Bird Dog, Bird Dog, this is Rover-One Actual. We have heavy contact. We are being overrun. Request IMMEDIATE extraction. Get us the____ out of here. We're dead in oh-five!" About this time some stage hand pops smoke and the entire stage erupts into a fireworks display. Man, I about sh_t a block of C4. Crowd's eating it up...I'm getting the dry heaves. Freaked. Couldn't take it. Had to go sit in the car and wait for the others. Man, it was playback time... slo-mo, stick it in and twist it. Every scene retched its way up out of my subconscious in living panovision...after 17, 18 years. Glad no one could see my eyes. Glad I could hunker down in a car seat. Glad I hadn't accepted a suck off any joints. My assessment of rock concerts? Stark terror, Jack! So now my family thinks I'm an old fuddyduddy that doesn't like modern music. I just let 'em think it. They couldn't under- stand. But it's not a generation gap, it's an experience gap. Don't mean nothing. NamNews 2-11 Page 32 5 Nov 1988 Isn't there ANYTHING **ANYONE** can do? ==================================================== >>>>>>> P.O.W. - M.I.A. <<<<<<< Doesn't Anybody Care About Me? Hear me, help me, Uncle Sam. I'm a prisoner of war in Vietnam. I came to serve my blessed land. Now I'm confused on where I stand. They tell me that the war is through. But I have yet to see the proof. The man by the door still has a gun. And I have yet to see the sun. I've been here for eighteen years. My eye are wet from lonely tears. I pray some day that I may see My lovely wife and my family. Leeches live upon my skin, Parasites down deep within. Mosquitoes land upon my face. I've got to get out of this place! Men have died since I've been here. I feel my number's getting near. My vision's dim, it's hard to see. Doesn't anybody care about me? Alan C. Harnack 199th Light Infantry Brigade ===From VVA Chapter 362 Cadillac, MI Chapter Newsletter NamNews 2-11 Page 33 5 Nov 1988 Input by: Stephan Cheney 142/329 > Reruns < by Joseph Miller Imagine the ultimate VCR With infinite storage slow motion stop action frame advance fast forward clarity better than life and thought controlled You own it Baby Playing those old tapes over and over Out of control (remote or central) Red lines of death and flashes of light. Turn up the radio and watch people die To the sound of Bob Steele "This morning's word is cacophony" Or Craig and company "Hey, 14 in a row coming right up" Rewind and see that last silly smile before The trip wire snapped and robbed you. See the macabre death dance in slow motion, stop action His flying body twists and bends in improbable directions Baryshnikov in olive drab The flying Walendas in their prime With no safety net And a stunt that can only be performed once In front of a live audience. Move closer and its a tragic Pas de Deux A love dance shared by two Viewed in time with Beethoven's ninth. A surreal bloody reverse angle slow motion. With John Madden's commentary: "Whop. Blam. A big pile-up over here near the trail, there's a guy in the mud with blood all over his uniform and stuff hanging out of his nose, he's my kind of guy! Can we hold that shot for a minute?" Yea, John. For a minute a decade a lifetime. NamNews 2-11 Page 34 5 Nov 1988 Input by: G. Joseph Peck VETLink #1 321/203 (Modified from an IVVEC message to Glenn Toothman) I KNEW there was a reason one special article in the most recent edition of "INCOMING" (a beautiful mag produced by Vietnam Veterans Benevolent Association, Inc POBox 1135 Waltham, MA 02254 617-894-4265) sorta stuck out... Keep yer head down, brothers/sisters... Here's what one vet said about THE WALL: ======================================================== THE WALL Slowly I walked towards the names, the names of my friends, my relatives, my buddies from the war. The giant Wall seemed to close around me. Memories flooded back from those awful days of the war. Pain of the faces who looked at me in their last minutes, sorrow from the thought I would never see these people again. Guilt that I should be on that Wall instead of "Bud", but what could be done. I lowered my head and prayed for those Brothers, and Sisters, whose names are on the Wall, the people who gave their lives for the belief of Freedom. As I looked up, I saw a name engraved in the Wall. It read: Dave Mann. He was my friend, a best friend, a brother. Yes, I cried, but the feeling of guilt was gone. I had served my country and fought for what I believed in, just as the brothers, and sisters, on the Wall did, but I was the "Lucky" one and survived. As I turned to leave a thought came to me of my brother. I turned back and saw his face. He said, "Don't forget me or this Wall. Forget the pain, the sorrow and the guilt, but don't forget this Wall". I promised him I wouldn't and gave one last look at the great Wall, and I did forget the bad things, but I'll Never, Never forget The Wall. Hank Houghton S/Sgt. US Army Ret. 82nd. Airborne Rangers 3B3C 5th. SFG. 1962-1974 Vietnam 1968-1972 ======================================================= Would that I could, I would be there to meet ya all ... it's only 8-1/2 hours, tank-and-a-half of gas away... darned if finances aren't a bit tight just now and time schedules just about the same... A few of our IVVEC user's live in the DC area. How's about lettin' us know when ya'd be there and maybe we can make some kinda connections 'fer ya? Ya can bet we still lay down some good cover... NamNews 2-11 Page 35 5 Nov 1988 A Day In Uniform - Eight Years Later By: Mike Gordon Flash Port BBS 720/7 18/7 (901)525-2710 Veterans of all services I have a challenge for you. Spend a day of the work week in your old uniform. I did and the reactions I got went a long way to helping me explain to myself what has happened in this country. The apathy for MIA's, POW's and the like. I was up most of the night preparing my old camouflage utilities for the day. Remember all those long nights spent preparing for inspections of one sort or another? This was no exception. It took about eight coats of boot polish to bring those old combat boots back to a respectable shine. I never did find a single one of my old Marine Covers so I had to improvise and use an old hunting hat. It did not do the uniform justice at all but that's the way it is eight years later. The day began a little earlier than usual. Resetting the chevrons, name tag and going bananas trying to find a button to replace the one that I notice missing not half an hour before I was due to leave for work. I never did find one but again that's the way it is eight years later. When I did get to work I was almost late so most of those I work with were already setting up for the day. Most took a quick look at who was coming through the door right at opening time. There was a difference this time when I walked in that door. I felt as though I was embarrassed. Eight years earlier I was proud (and still am proud) of the uniform, but this particular day something was different. I have not quite pinned it down to one special look that day. Initial reactions to the uniform from the work force was a mixed bag. It covered the total gambit of the spectrum from down right shear laughter to reserved stand off-ish-ness. As the day wore on, some of the people who had complemented me two earlier days on my dress (I wore dress clothes and a tie in a tie shirt and grease environment) were strangely stand offish. One of the two never did say a word to me that day. The other said only a casual; "hello" Other reactions were not what I expected in many ways. Memphis is a large city and familiar with the Navy installation just 20 miles to the North (NAS Millington - Electronics training facility) so I expected some positive reactions to the old uniform, but to my dismay my co-workers all seems to think I was going Dove hunting, or even worse was going to go crazy and kill a few people as the now famous postal employee did. One of the most memorable comments went something like this: "Well you have been driving that tank (1972 Impala) for years now NamNews 2-11 Page 36 5 Nov 1988 and didn't have a uniform for it now you do!" Another comment goes with what I said earlier. It went something like this: "When you go crazy and start killing people please remember I'm a friend and leave me out of it, PLEASE...." Then there was another lady who when catching sight of me exclaimed, "OH MY GOD!" I've had some time to try to sort through my personal feelings about wearing the uniform. It definitely brought back some memories both good and bad. It reminded me where I came from. I started replaying the last 20 years of my life over and over in my mind. Maybe this is what some would call flashbacks. I don't know, but it was definitely a day I will remember for a long time. The reactions of my co-workers served only to emphasize to me why this country is in the state of confusion it is. There is just no pride in a man wearing a uniform anymore. I'd wager a guess that if a World War Two veteran was to put on their uniform eight years after returning from the war they would not have been given the kind of reception I was. In all fairness, my co-workers are young and most have not been in service to their country at all but from them I did not expect to receive the coolishness that I did from other working NamVets! The President gives lip service to any questions about MIA's and POW's. He always says we are doing all we can to bring them home, but really doesn't fund the efforts nor publicize them either. The FULLEST ACCOUNTING POSSIBLE has been beat to death! The apathy shown by my "friends" shows only to well why our congressmen have allowed the VA Hospitals to deteriorate into such deplorable conditions. If I was to sum it all up in two words they would be apathy and disrespect. Apathy for those that served and their problems and disrespect of the uniform they served. What ever happened to American Honor, American Pride? I will repeat my challenge to all veterans reading this. Put on your old uniform for a weekday and watch the reactions of those around you. I hope your experiences will be better than mine. Only one thing I ask. Write about it and post it here in NamVet. I would like to read about others experiences. NamNews 2-11 Page 37 5 Nov 1988 -Anonymous " What If..." My son asked me some questions tonight About the POW's plight, For he has heard much that has been said. What if they're not there? What if they're all dead? What if the refugees are lying - for some reason we don't know? What if there's been no prisoners of war since a long time ago? What if they all died in torture in a place without a name? What if the POW issue is all just a horrible game? What if all our hopes are all in vain? What if the Vietnamese are using us for their own personal gain? What if what many are saying is really right? What if we brought them all out at the end of that fight? What if they're dead? What if they've all been shot? I answered him simply -- " What if they're not?" Poor is the nation that has no heroes, Shameful is the one that, having them, forgets. NamNews 2-11 Page 38 5 Nov 1988 by: CPL T.E. Williams Vietnam (1965-1967) 1st INF. Division Co. A 1st Aun BN (Gunner) Co A 1st 26th INF (Machine Gunner) 18 month tour Input by: The Armed Forces Reunion BBS (704) 667-8021 " W H E N " Twenty years and still the nightmare continues in my mind. When does it stop or does it ever? I still hear the gun fire, the beat of the helicopter blades. I smell the rot of the jungle, I hear the Viet Cong. I see the faces of those I've killed, those who wanted to kill me. All the signs are there, the feeling that death is near. Will peace ever come for me? Must I live these memories every day in my mind? Oh, God! How I pray it will someday end, this war I believed in. The war my people hated, the people I fought for, the people who rejected me when I came home. The people who reject me now. I live with the memory, the guilt, the guilt they make me feel. I live it alone as do thousands of others who remember as I do. They build monuments to us now after all those years. In remembrance for the loved ones we lost. This helps the survivors of those left behind. Where are the monuments to the soldiers who survived. The ones who need the understanding. Those who went as boys and came home as old men. So young to lose so much so quick. The men who now stand alone with the nightmare. My question, are the dead the survivors? They are at peace. The Wall of Tears, a wall with all the names of my friends who believed as I did. All men should be free. Were we wrong? NO! Death will bring my peace. Then I shall be a survivor. I will have won the war. NamNews 2-11 Page 39 5 Nov 1988 It's finally here - a patch which acknowledges the other side of the Vietnam Veteran: His wife! Hardly needing any explanation, it is multicolor with Red, White, Blue, Green and Gold for the Map of Vietnam. While the text drawing below doesn't really do it justice, I think if you run it out on your printer, you'll sorta get the idea of how special this unique patch is. They are available for $5 each from VETLink #1 - Dept. 65 P O Box 2056 Pittsfield, MASSACHUSETTS 01202 (Please allow 4-6 weeks for delivery) @@@@@@@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ @@@@@@@@ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@@@@@@ @@@@ @@@ @@@ @@@@ @@@@ @@@@@ @@@@ @@@@ @@@@ @@@ V I E T N A M V E T S W I F E @@@ @@@ @@@ @@@ :@@@@@@@@@@@: :@@@@@@@@@@@: @@@ @@@ @.............@ @.............@ @@@ @@@ @...............@ @...............@ @@@ @@@ @.................@ @.................@ @@@ @@@ (...................@@...................) @@@ @@@ @............. ..............@ @@@ @@@ @.............. MAP OF USA ..............@ @@@ @@@ @................. .................@ @@@ @@@ @................. WITH .................@ @@@ @@@ @.............. ...............@ @@@ @@@ @............... MAP OF ...............@ @@@ @@@ (........ .......) @@@ @@@ @...... VIET NAM SUPERIMPOSED ......@ @@@ @@@ @........ .........@ @@@ @@@ @.......... OVER IT ............@ @@@ @@@ I @ ............................ @ N @@@ @@@ @............................@ @@@ @@@ @..........................@ A @@@ @@@ S @........................@ @@@ @@@ @....................@ M @@@ @@@ T @..................@ @@@ @@@ @................@ @@@ @@@ A @............@ Y @@@ @@@ @..........@ @@@ @@@ N @......@ M @@@ @@@ @..@ @@@ @@@ D @@ @@@ @@@ @@@ @@@ B Y @@@ @@@ @@@ @@@ @@@ @@@ @@@ @@ @@ NamNews 2-11 Page 40 5 Nov 1988 ================================================================= GENERAL ARTICLES ================================================================= Vietnam War By: S/SGT C.E. "Sonnie" Hensley USAF Retired (Medically) The nearly 20-year conflict between the United States and the indigenous revolutionaries in Vietnam ended in the mid-1970's with a victory for the Asian insurrectionaries. As the first major military defeat ever sustained by the U.S. government and a noteworthy triumph by Communist-led insurgents the Vietnam War had momentous ramifications in Southeast Asia, in the United States, and throughout the world. The conflict began in the mid-1950's as the United States took over from the French, who had colonized Indochina during the late 19th century. At first supporting the pro-American government of NGO Dinh Diem, then sending military advisors to aid Diem's campaign against the developing insurgency, then finally moving in with massive military power in the late 1960's, the United States eventually withdrew hastily between 1973 and 1975. Not only did the insurgents prove themselves capable of withstanding the U.S. military assault,with the help of military aid from the USSR and from China,but they also attracted support within the United States from an active peace movement that grew and became increasingly militant as the war in Vietnam escalated. ROOTS OF THE CONFLICT The Vietnamese insurgency had deep, historic roots, beginning long before World War II and relying for inspiration on earlier Vietnamese rebels who fought off Chinese domination. The French colonial presence generated an upper class of Frenchified Vietnamese landlords and officials who collaborated with the foreigners. Many of these Vietnamese were Roman Catholic converts, a group that later supplied much of the support enjoyed by the pro U.S. regimes of Ngo Dinh Diem and Nguyen Van Thieu. The future lay, however, with those Vietnamese who opposed the French,first, members of the old Vietnamese scholar-gentry elite, and later, rebels of a more modern character, whose vision was an independent Vietnamese republic similar to the one taking shape under the direction of Sun Yat-sen in China. French repression, however, choked off all these forms of Vietnamese anticolonialism except for the Indochinese Communist party, organized by Ho Chi Minh from outside of Vietnam in 1930. Building up support, especially in those regions which had been scenes of earlier insurgencies, the Vietnamese Communists were poised for action as World War II began. World War II. Succumbing to German power in 1940, France was nominally NamNews 2-11 Page 41 5 Nov 1988 governed during the war by the collaborationist Vichy Government. In France's overseas colonies, such as Vietnam, French Vichyite officials were in no position to oppose demands of Germany's Asian ally, Japan, for a joint occupation of the colony. Ho Chi Minh and the Communists responded by the formation in 1941 of the Viet Minh, a coalition of most groups opposed to foreign domination of Vietnam, including "elders and prominent personalities "who were urged to emulate "the example set by our forefathers,who,rose up indignantly" hundreds of years earlier to repulsea Mongolian invasion. Animated by ancestral example and by the Leninist program for national liberation struggles, the Viet Minh made rapid progress during the war years. Ho Chi Minh's organization was an important component of the antifascist resistance movement in both Indochina and China, and because it was fighting against the Axis power in the region, Japan, it also received aid from the United States. In exchange for Viet Minh support in the common struggle, American officials promised to support Vietnamese bids for independence at the close of the war. These promises, however, did not represent a commitment by the highest levels of the U.S. government and were easily overlooked in the postwar era. As the military tide turned against Japan, the Japanese sought to curry favor with local nationalist forces. In Vietnam this meant supplanting the French, which the Japanese occupation forces did in March 1945, seizing the French garrisons and inducing the Annamese emperor Bao Dai to declare his country's independence. The Japanese action immensely aided the Viet Minh cause. Bao Dai made no real attempt to govern the country, and Ho Chi Minh's Communist-led insurgents emerged as the dominant political force. At the close of the war in August 1945, the Viet Minh seized control of Hanoi, forced the abdication of Bao Dai, and proclaimed the establishment of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. The great powers, however, had little interest in the emergence of a socialist society on the Indochinese peninsula. U.S. president, Franklin Roosevelt, believed in the establishment of some sort of United Nations trusteeship for the former French colonies, but his successor, Harry Truman, wished to cement relations among the Western allies by permitting Great Britain and Chiang Kai-shek's government in China arole in reoccupying the region after the war. Hence, at the Potsdam Conference in August 1945, just as the Viet Minh forces were taking control in Vietnam, the great powers were planning to divide Indochina at 17 deg latitude, giving the north to China and the south to British forces. This occupation lasted only a few months, and French garrisons returned in 1946. The USSR did not oppose this first postwar partition of Indochina. First Indochinese War. By 1947, despite French assurances of formal independence to the three Associated States of Indochina, Cambodia (now Kampuchea), Laos, and Vietnam, the French Union looked like a revived empire. NamNews 2-11 Page 42 5 Nov 1988 Assertion of Vietnamese autonomy became rebellion against the French colonial authority, especially in the south where the British occupation had provided a rapid reintroduction of French power. The First Indochinese War (in the post-World War II period) had begun. The French had a hard time combating the Vietnamese insurgents, who had controlled some areas for nearly two decades and who had a vivid sense of the legitimacy of their August 1945 revolution. In 1949 the French reached an agreement with Bao Dai, who returned to Vietnam as head of state. This failed to have appreciable effect, however, and the following year the United States began to subsidize the French effort, thus setting the stage for the reolongation of conflict in Vietnam for another quarter of a century. The United States entered the war by supplying arms and materiel to the French colonial regime in Indochina on the grounds that the region was threatened by "Soviet Russian imperialism." American attitudes and policies reflected heightened cold-war fears and anxieties following the 1949 victory of Communist forces across the border in China. By 1954, U.S. aid represented 80 percent of the total French military budget for the war. Even this massive aid, however, could not ward off the Vietnamese victory, which came dramatically at the time of the Battle of Diem Bien Phu in the spring of 1954. The peace conference at Geneva quickly followed, arranging for a cease-fire; temporary partition of Vietnam at latitude 17 deg, with provision for eventual reunification and elections; and regroupment of combat forces, the Vietnamese to the north of the demarcation line, the French to the south. The War From 1955 to 1964 American policy makers had difficulty in accepting the victory of the Communist-led Vietnamese forces over the French, and in the mid-1950s the United States gradually became the successor to colonial power in the region. The Republican administration of Dwight D. Eisenhower, which had blamed the Democrats for the"loss" of China to the Communist revolutionaries, attempted to create a stable, anti-Communist regime south of the 17 deg demarcation line. The compromised and weak Bao Dai was replaced by Ngo Dinh Diem, a Vietnamese Catholic with powerful U.S. supporters. Consolidating his power with the help of Catholic refugees from the north, who preempted local offices in violation of local tradition, Diem also refused to hold the elections that were scheduled in the Geneva Accords for 1956. When Diem also initiated an "agrarian reform" that actually returned land to locallandlords and reversed the more egalitarian policies of the Viet Minh, he virtually goaded the non-Christian peasantry into rebellion. The authoritarian regime found itself under attack from a variety of groups thatDiem contemptuously called VIET CONG and that by 1960 would federate into the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam (NLFSV). U.S. Policy. The U.S. government, viewing Diem as an exemplary Asian NamNews 2-11 Page 43 5 Nov 1988 anti-Communist leader, began giving the South Vietnam regime increasing amounts of military aid in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The expressed basis for this deepening U.S. military involvement was the obligation to defend a friendly government from "outside" attack and to halt the tide of Chinese Communist influence. Official policy statements ascribed the struggle in Vietnam to "aggression from the north," but independent observers could see little evidence of North Vietnamese involvement until the mid-1960's, whereas the repressive policies of the Diem administration seemed sufficient explanation of the growing insurgency in the south. Brushing aside such observations, the administration of John F. Kennedy assayed schemes to help the Diem government overcome the rebellion in Vietnam. NamNews 2-11 Page 44 5 Nov 1988 Counterinsurgency Strategy. U.S. counterinsurgency strategy stressed isolating the local population from the active guerrillas and increasing the U.S. military presence both to augment combat forces and to impart confidence to the Diem government and the Army of South Vietnam (ARVN). U.S. experts designed "strategic hamlets" where peasants could be relocated to reduce their susceptibility to NLFSV propaganda and recruiting, but the population forcibly uprooted from village fields and deprived of ancestral shrines viewed the policy as another example of oppression by the remote Diem administration and its American allies. The hamlets became virtual concentration camps, a fact that propelled many Vietnamese into the Viet Cong. Increased U.S. military presence did bolster counter-insurgency forces, but in the long run this aspect of the strategy also backfired. At the beginning of the Kennedy presidency, fewer than 2,000 U.S. troops were in Vietnam. (There was also a small U.S. contingent in Laos waging a covert counterinsurgency campaign against the Communist-dominated PATHET LAO guerrillas.) Within a year that number doubled, and it rose to at least 15,000 by the crisis year of 1963. A considerable number of these troops were in such elite units as the Green Berets, trained in sophisticated techniques of jungle warfare and using technologically advanced equipment such as helicopter gunships. U.S. arms, ammunition, and materiel were made available to the ARVN on a massive scale. Although such a military effort achieved short-run success in inflicting heavy casualties on insurgent forces, in the long run it reinforced the growing conviction among Vietnamese that the Diem regime was so dependent on the United States that it could not be considered a legitimate government in Vietnam. Guerrilla War. By contrast, the Viet Cong was, until 1965 at least, conducting a guerrilla war on the classic model, relying on local sources for most of its cadres and supplies. After the failure of Diem to hold elections in 1956, many Viet Minh fighters who had regrouped north of latitude 17 deg in accordance with the provisions of the Geneva Accords returned to their villages and towns in the south. (The reappearance of these men gave some semblance of truth to the official U.S. position that the Vietnam War resulted from aggression from the north.) In the late 1950's and early '60's the guerrilla forces relied on the tactics of mobility, swift attack and withdrawal, assassination of Diemist village chiefs, and avoidance of large-scale engagements. Although a trickle of supplies arrived from North Vietnam, most of the weapons deployed were U.S. arms captured from the ARVN, leftovers from the anti-French struggle, or weapons handcrafted in clandestine jungle arsenals. Overthrow of Diem. NamNews 2-11 Page 45 5 Nov 1988 Even with the massive U.S. aid, the Diem regime was not able to crush the insurrection. Meanwhile, its repressive policies were generating widespread opposition throughout society in South Vietnam. Disaffection appeared among the intelligentsia, in the ARVN, but especially in the Buddhist religious establishment. Heavy-handed repression by the government, in which Diem's Catholic family was heavily represented, stimulated dramatic acts of Buddhist protest, including the widely publicized self- immolation of an elderly Buddhist monk, Quang Due, at a Saigon traffic intersection in June 1963. Diem had clearly become a liability, and when a group of ARVN officers plotted to overthrow him, the plan had covert U.S. support. The coup took place on Nov. 1, 1963, and Diem and his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu were killed. A few weeks later John F. Kennedy was also assassinated, be- queathing the intractable Vietnam struggle to Lyndon B. Johnson. Tonkin Gulf Resolution. At first continuing the policies of his predecessor, supporting Diem's successors in Saigon with arms and increasing numbers of U.S. military personnel, President Johnson soon faced the same dilemmas that had plagued all American policymakers trying to devise an anti-Communist victory in Vietnam. Greater emphasiswas placed on military solutions, continuing a trend that would soon be called "escalation." The Johnson administration authorized missions inside North Vietnam, as well as continuing covert raids in Laos, which had formally been neutralized (1962) with the agreement of interested powers, including the United States. In the presidential-election year of 1964, Johnson had to fend off the criticisms of Republican candidate Barry Goldwater that excessive leniency was being shown North Vietnam. Goldwater repeatedly called for use of atomic weapons against the Viet- namese enemy. While portraying such statements as irresponsible and needlessly belligerent, Johnson was pondering similar proposals from such "hawks" within his administration as Gen. Maxwell Taylor and Walt W. Rostow. The occasion to order air strikes against North Vietnam came in early August 1964, when two U.S.naval vessels tangled with North Vietnamese boats in the Gulf of Tonkin. In alleged retaliation for what many doubted was an actual attack on U.S. ships, Johnson ordered the bombing. At the same time he obtained from the U.S. Congress a resolution (the Tonkin Gulf Resolution of Aug. 7, 1964) empowering him "to take all necessary measures" to pursue the conflict in Vietnam. The War From 1965 to 1975 U.S. Escalation. The precedent had been set for the most devastating phase of the Vietnam War, massive air assaults on both North Vietnam and rebel-held areas in the south. Attacks by Viet Cong forces, such as the assault on Pleiku air base in South Vietnam in February 1965, called forth ever intensified bombing by the United States. In the midst of this escalating conflict, the South Vietnamese government tottered from crisis to crisis, with ministers NamNews 2-11 Page 46 5 Nov 1988 succeeding each other in office with dizzying rapidity. Many observers believed that the deepened U.S. military commitment was necessitated by the political instability in the south after the assassination of Diem. Ironically, the U.S. presence was necessary to uphold the sagging morale of the government in Saigon, whose very instability was accentuated by its reliance on U.S. military support. Another factor in the escalation of the airwar was interservice rivalry between the U.S. armed forces. The U.S. Air Force was anxious to obtain a greater share of the vast appropriations becoming available for the Vietnam conflict, expenditures that were eventually to have a destabilizing effect on the domestic economy in the United States. The growing role of air power in the Vietnam War did not bring any reduction of U.S. ground forces; rather, the numbers of such forces in Vietnam steadily increased in the mid-1960s. Expanding their role from advising ARVN units to independent combat missions, American military forces grew to more than 180,000 by the end of 1965; a year later they totaled 385,000. By early 1968 more than half a million U.S. troops were deployed in Vietnam, engaged in "search-and-destroy" missions against rebel villages and installations. Given the nature of the struggle in Vietnam, however, American troops could not easily distinguish guerrilla fighters from the general population, in such a war, the two groups tended to merge. Hence, confining military attacks to combat targets was not always possible. Often civilian populations were the victims of U.S. armed assault, as in the case of the tragic massacre at My Lai hamlet in the spring of 1968. Air assaults were even more likely to inflict damage on nonmilitary targets, and thousands of Vietnamese civilians perished from napalm attacks. As part of the strategy of isolating the guerrillas from their supporters in the peasantry, the American policy makers hit on the strategy of systematic destruction of the ecological system, the agriculture and forest cover, of rebel areas in Vietnam. The rationale was that the population would flee to urban areas under the protection of the ARVN and U.S. forces. Although based on questionable political and psychological, not to say moral, assumptions, the air war achieved many of its objectives. Four million persons, or about one-quarter of the population in South Vietnam, became refugees. Large portions of the countryside were laid waste and defoliated by a combination of bombing and herbicide spraying. In North Vietnam the U.S. bombing destroyed much of the transportation system and many industrial sites. Also, evidence began to accumulate of air strikes, whether accidental or calculated, against such civilian targets in the north as schools and hospitals. The Vietnam War began to take on the character of a mighty technological Goliath attacking a puny, agricultural David. Tet Offensive. NamNews 2-11 Page 47 5 Nov 1988 By 1965, North Vietnamese army units appeared in the south, and the guerrillas were able to count on increased amounts of military aid from the USSR and from China. By 1967 the insurgents appeared to be faltering, or so American policymakers believed. Nonetheless, in the early part of the following year, the NLFSV took the grave risk of staging a coordinated, massive attack at about 120 targets during the Tet (New Year) festival in January-February 1968. Thirty-six provincial capitals, the old imperial capital of Hue, and the gigantic U.S. Tan Son Nhut air base were all hit by Viet Cong forces, guerrillas in the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon even penetrated the U.S. embassy compound and held it for 6 hours. Finally driven back, with staggering losses, from most of the positions they had taken during the Tet offensive, the Viet Cong had nevertheless demonstrated that once U.S. power was removed nothing could stop their domination, and that of their North Vietnamese allies, over South Vietnam. NamNews 2-11 Page 48 5 Nov 1988 Antiwar Movement. If the sheer persistence of the Vietnamese guerrillas was the dominant factor in forcing a change in U.S. policy toward Vietnam in the late 1960's, another set of developments that shaped the outcome of the war was the growth of dissent and antiwar sentiment within the United States. U.S. universities comprised one main center for peace activism, a vast protest movement developed there from after the first "teach-in" was held in March 1965 at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Criticism of U.S. policy centered on the vulnerable theory of "aggression from the north" as the main factor in the Vietnam conflict and on the military means being used in the attempt to subdue the insurgents. Many Americans found it difficult to reconcile this attempt with any commitment to freedom, self-determination, or democracy. As the Johnson administration began to suffer from a severe "credibility gap," a portion of the antiwar movement stepped up its protests. Major peace rallies took place in Washington, D.C., in the spring of 1966 and in the fall of 1967, when demonstrators marched on the Pentagon. Reappraisal of U.S. Policy. Within the government an agonizing reappraisal of Vietnam policy was taking place in the wake of the Tet offensive. The military, speaking through the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Gen. William C. Westmoreland, commander of U.S. forces in Vietnam, dismissed the Tet offensive as a rebel defeat. At the same time, however, it asked for 100,000 more U.S. combat troops within 60 days, nor could it guarantee that additional troop requests might not be soon forthcoming. Some American officials (Defense Secretary Clark Clifford, for example) began to doubt that a U.S. victory in Vietnam was possible without crushing the country and jeopard- izing U.S. interests elsewhere. The troop request was rejected, and President Johnson, seeing the Vietnam war undermine his domestic "Great Society" programs, dramatically declared in March 1968 that he would not be a candidate for reelection in the fall. At the same time he cut back the bombing of North Vietnam. The ensuing presidential electoral campaign was at first a national referendum on the Vietnam War. The strong showing of the antiwar Democratic candidate Sen. Eugene McCarthy in the New Hampshire primary was one of the factors that influenced Johnson's with- drawal. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy also entered the Democratic race urging U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam and won several primaries before his assassination in June 1968. The Democratic National Convention, however, gave the nomination to Vice-President Hubert H. Humphery, a vocal supporter of Lyndon Johnson's escalation policies. Shortly before the election Johnson announced the cessation of bombing of North Vietnam and the establishment of peace negotiations in Paris (earlier but ineffectual discussions with the North Vietnamese had taken place in Warsaw). This pro- bably helped Humphrey's campaign to gather momentum, but he still lost the election to Richard M. Nixion. Nixon had earlier advocated a harsh policy toward the Indochinese revolutionaries, NamNews 2-11 Page 49 5 Nov 1988 but as president from 1969 to 1974, he initiated a series of policies and was subject to a set of forces that eventually undermined the U.S. war effort. Negotiations. Although as fully committed to cold-war doctrines as his predecessor, President Nixon exercised in the early months of his tenure in the White House a certain tactical flexibility toward Vietnam. The stalled and hesitant efforts of the Johnson administration to arrange meaningful negotiations gave way to more serious efforts to get peace talks under way in Paris. The new administration was even able to convince an unwilling South Vietnamese regime, now headed by Gen. Nguyen Van Thieu, to participatein these nego- tiations, after preliminary agreement on the symbolic issue of the shape of the conference table was concluded. Antiwar agitation in the United States abated for a time as both activists and the American electorate appeared to be willing to give Nixon a chance to conclude peace in Vietnam. Internal events in both the United States and Vietnam, however, quickly came to dominate and shape events at the Paris negotiations, which dragged on until 1973. Vietnamization. A political shake-up in Saigon in the summer isolated the Thieu government further and rendered it even more dependent on the United States. This very dependency was one of the main propaganda issues raised by the NLFSV, and, coupled with growing popular resentment of the widespread destruction wreaked by American weapons, it created ever-increasing support for an ending of the war on the rebels' terms. By June 1969 the rebels of the NLFSV, along with other opposition groups in South Vietnam, organized a Provisional Revolutionary Government (PRG), which eventually assumed its place at the Paris peace conference. In partial response to the increased legitimacy and prestige won by the insurgents, the Nixon administration began in the fall of 1969 to withdraw U.S. military detachments from Vietnam while intensifying the bombing raids in the south. Nixon explained the policy as one of "Vietnamization" of the war, although U.S. military expendit