Innehållsförteckning för October 2015 från Vietnam

When we talk about the U.S. airplanes of the Vietnam War, we are often talking about fighters or bombers, such as the F-105 Thunderchief, F-100 Super Sabre, A-4 Skyhawk, F-4 Phantom and A-7 Corsair II. The dramatic actions of those aircraft and their pilots are indeed on display in this issue: Don Hollway’s “Slaying the Dragon” (pg. 36) recounts a seven-year air campaign to destroy a single bridge—a bridge so strong that some described it as the latch that held the Earth together. But less flashy planes were also crucial to the war effort, in both traditional and novel ways. Among those flown on traditional missions was the C-130 Hercules cargo plane, whose name is frequently preceded by the adjective “lumbering.” The C-130s, not heavily armed initially, were big targets…

A first-generation American, Mike Sierra spent two tours in Vietnam. He joined the Texas National Guard in 1957 while in high school, became active duty after graduation, went to officer candidate school in 1964 and retired in 1990 as a colonel. He worked in the office of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, served as a political-military planner for the Middle East and Persian Gulf, commanded the School of the Americas in Panama (where he negotiated with dictator Manuel Noriega), was a battalion and brigade commander with the 25th Infantry Division and chaired the Army War College’s Military Strategy Department. Born July 26, 1941, San Antonio; parents immigrated to Texas from Mexico during the revolution of the early 1900s. Residence Round Hill, Virginia Education Bachelor’s degree in government,…

Seven months after Marines hit the ground in Da Nang in March 1965, officially becoming the first U.S. ground combat forces in the Vietnam War, a lone Navy aircraft departed Tan Son Nhut Air Base near Saigon with a surprise, nonlethal weapon. It would bring immediate support to the American buildup and, over the coming months, would transform Vietnamese culture on both sides of the conflict. Fifty years ago, on October 6, a Lockheed NC-121J Super Constellation turned loose its payload: a live radio broadcast of the 1965 World Series. Anyone within range could tune in a receiver, even a cheap transistor radio, and listen to the opening game between Los Angeles and Minnesota; the Dodgers’ Don Drysdale versus the Twins’ Jim “Mudcat” Grant. The NBC broadcast, announced by Joe…

MILITARY HISTORY Madrid Battles Insurgency Madrid in November 1936 was a city in a civil war, under siege by its own countrymen. Four months earlier disaffected generals within Spain’s armed forces had launched a coup against the leftist coalition government of President Manuel Azaña Díaz. After the uprising failed to secure any major cities other than Seville, the rebels brought in the professional Army of Africa—seasoned Moroccan troops led by Spanish army officers. Those soldiers from the Spanish protectorate of Morocco arrived in German-supplied planes and merchant ships screened by Italian bombers. The insurgents, calling themselves Nationalists, had quickly taken Seville, then driven methodically north toward Toledo and Madrid, seizing provinces and cities in between. By late October the rebel forces had reached and taken Toledo and were fighting their…

My Bracelet POW/MIA Accounted For Thank God my wife recently signed me up for a subscription, or I would have missed the June article “Accounted For,” about the six servicemen whose remains were brought home in 2014-15. One of the men mentioned, U.S. Army Master Sgt. James W. Holt, accounted for on Jan. 10, 2015, is an old close friend. I’ve been wearing his POW/MIA bracelet for 36 years! I’ve never taken it off my wrist, except for medical procedures. Now, after all these years, I will have some peace of mind. On May 30, 2015, I am going to travel to the Vietnam Memorial and finally take Sergeant Holt’s bracelet off…and leave it where his name is enshrined on the Wall. But I will never forget his name and…

A TASTE OF HONEY is another hit song for Herb Alpert’s Tijuana Brass, whose popularity had grown enormously in the two years since his admirers started shouting “Olé” for “The Lonely Bull.” CAPTAIN AND THE GENIE Astronaut Tony Nelson frequently finds himself in a pickle as he contends with a genie in a bottle who has fallen in love with him in the TV series I Dream of Jeannie. NEW BIKE IN TOWN With its “banana” seat and hi-rise handlebars, the “Stingray” bicycle design transforms the average 20-inch bike into a kid’s roadster. ANTIWAR DEMONSTRATIONS are held in about 40 U.S. cities and other places around the world, the first in what will be a series of international protests against the Vietnam War. PAUL VI IN NEW YORK The first…

Operation Rolling Thunder. Its very name evoked, no doubt intentionally, waves of U.S. carpet-bombers obliterating the cities of World War II Germany and Japan. But the tactical air campaign against North Vietnam, beginning in March 1965, required pinpoint accuracy against enemy infrastructure: “Communist concrete and steel,” said President Lyndon B. Johnson, “not human lives.” On April 3 more than 80 American jet fighters, bombers, tankers and camera planes attacked one bridge, 80 miles south of Hanoi, carrying enemy troops, supplies, trains and vehicles over the Ma River, at the village of Thanh Hoa. Eight-victory Korean War ace Lt. Col. Robinson Risner, commanding Republic F-105D Thunderchiefs of the 67th Tactical Fighter Squadron out of Korat, Thailand, planned to apply almost 100 tons of high explosive to the bridge. Thirty F-105s each…

Reporting Vietnam, Newseum exhibit, 555 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, D.C., runs through Sept. 12, 2016 The Newseum, the interactive museum of news and journalism, opened its newest exhibit, “Reporting Vietnam,” on May 22 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War. The first display panel gets right to the point: Did the press lose the war in Vietnam? And two accompanying quotes set the parameters of the debate: “Press and television had created an aura not of victory but of defeat.” —General William Westmoreland, commander U.S. forces, Vietnam “It was not our war to win or lose, but it was our war to understand and to explain.” —Fred Friendly, CBS News president The Newseum, funded by the Freedom Forum, a foundation set up by USA Today founder Al Neuharth, states…

Defense Secretary Makes Historic Visit to Vietnam U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter made his first trip to Vietnam from May 31 to June 2. Carter is the fifth secretary of state to visit Vietnam since diplomatic relations were normalized in 1995, but he became the first to visit a Vietnamese navy base and ship. He also toured a Vietnamese Coast Guard vessel in the port of Hai Phong. During his visit, the defense secretary pledged $18 million toward purchasing patrol boats for Vietnam. Carter also discussed the possibility that the United States would ramp up its sales of defensive weapons, including those that would enhance Vietnam’s air defenses. The longstanding ban on U.S. weapons sales to the country was partially lifted in October 2014, and Vietnam has been welcoming closer…

A four-plane flight of F-4C Phantoms providing combat escort to F-105D Thunderchiefs northwest of Hanoi on July 24, 1965, heard a SAM-launch warning. Seconds later, a Soviet-built SA-2a surface-to-air missile struck a Phantom crewed by Captains Roscoe H. Fobair and Richard P. Keirn, who ejected and were captured. (Keirn was later released; Fobair’s fate remains unknown.) The other F-4Cs were damaged but able to fly home. After months of building and linking more than 44 SAM sites and a related air-defense network, North Vietnam had launched its first guided missile against Operation Rolling Thunder. During those initial attacks American aviators lacked installed radar warning systems or countermeasures. Additionally, they were denied permission to strike SAM sites under construction. The SA-2 Guideline, the NATO designation for the Soviet Union’s S-75 Dvina…

On Jan. 27, 1973, after nearly five years of acrimonious negotiations, the signing of the Paris Peace Accords on Ending the Vietnam War provided a diplomatic end to an almost 30-year conflict. The accords, however, didn’t completely satisfy any of the contending parties, and most of their stipulations were never fulfilled. North Vietnam quickly violated the agreement, and South Vietnam was also guilty of some breaches. Two years later North Vietnamese troops launched a massive military assault that conquered South Vietnam in just two months. On April 30, 1975, Saigon fell. President Richard Nixon and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger both later wrote vigorous defenses of their efforts to attain a peaceful resolution to the war. American historians subsequently published widely divergent criticisms of the motivations and policies of these…