Innehållsförteckning för August 2019 från Vietnam

Navy Lt. Richard C. “Tito” Lannom, missing for more than 50 years after his plane went down during a mission over North Vietnam in March 1968, was buried in his hometown, Union City, Tennessee, on March 2. Lannom, 27, served as a bombardier-navigator on an A-6A Intruder attack aircraft, piloted by Lt. Cmdr. Thomas Scheurich and launched from aircraft carrier USS Enterprise the night of March 1, 1968. They flew toward the target on a path that took the crew over islands that contained anti-aircraft artillery. The plane’s low altitude prevented radar contact, and Scheurich turned off his identification beeper, as he had been instructed to do. After the Intruder failed to return to the carrier, a search-and-rescue mission was conducted, unsuccessfully. Lannom and Scheurich were declared missing in action.…

On Feb. 22, 1967, the U.S. Army’s 2nd Battalion, 94th Field Artillery Regiment, fired its M107 175 mm guns across the Demilitarized Zone and into North Vietnam’s antiaircraft artillery sites. The shelling, in response to an attack on a U.S. Air Force spotter aircraft, marked the first time U.S. ground forces aimed at targets inside North Vietnam. The battalion’s M107s were the war’s longest-range artillery pieces used by ground forces, exceeded only by the Navy’s 8- and 16-inch guns. The M107, which entered production in 1963, arose from the desire for a family of artillery weapons that were self-propelled (drivable), transportable by air and based on the same chassis. The result was two systems: the M107 gun and M110 howitzer, with common features including the chassis, diesel engine propulsion, and…

On Panel 33E, Row 2 of “the Wall,” the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, is the name Richard Godbout. He was a 19-year-old from Goffstown, New Hampshire, who liked nothing better than riding motorcycles and working on cars. Following in the footsteps of his father, who landed in Normandy during World War II, Godbout enlisted in the Army. He became a tracked vehicle mechanic assigned to the 4th Battalion (Mechanized), 23rd Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division, one of the early units to ride to battle sites on a new breed of armored, troop-filled, machine gun-firing vehicle the Viet Cong called the “Green Dragon.” The U.S. Army, more mundanely, designated it the M113 “armored personnel carrier,” which was staffed by a two-man crew—a driver and a commander who also functioned as…

Troops in Vietnam got to take a few days off from the war during their one-year tour of duty. They were allowed a week of R&R, rest and recuperation, outside of Vietnam. They could choose from a list of approved destinations that included Hawaii, Australia, Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Singapore and Thailand. They were also eligible for shorter breaks, usually three days, inside Vietnam. Those in-country R&R days were available to unit commanders to distribute as they saw fit. The short vacations generally were granted as rewards for personal achievement, with an emphasis on enlisted men. There were two primary sites for in-country R&R: Vung Tau beach, about 60 miles southeast of Saigon, and China Beach, 8 miles north of Da Nang. Those two sites and a…

Hamburger Hill and Nixon’s Plan James Wright wrote (“The Capture of Hamburger Hill,” June 2019) that “Nixon promised that he had a secret plan to end the war.” That is one of the myths of the war. It was started by one reporter misinterpreting a Nixon campaign speech. Nixon never said that. Other than that, I commend Mr. Wright on an excellent article. Lenny RodinForest Hills, N.Y. James Wright replies: Mr. Rodin is correct. Richard Nixon did not say on the record that he had a “secret” plan. In background sessions with reporters and editorial boards in 1968 he spoke in general terms about his Vietnam strategy—to engage the Soviets to help end the war and to reduce American combat involvement. He did say that if he discussed his plans…

After years of fighting efforts to extend Agent Orange benefits to more Vietnam War Navy veterans, the Department of Veterans Affairs has given up. The VA will not ask the U.S. Justice Department to appeal a federal court ruling that said sailors in the Blue Water Navy—those who served on ocean-going ships anchored off the South Vietnamese coast—are eligible for the same Agent Orange disability benefits provided to other Vietnam veterans, Military Times reported. Veterans who served on the ground in Vietnam or were in the Brown Water Navy, manning boats on inland rivers, don’t have to prove exposure to Agent Orange to gain the disability benefits. They are presumed to have been exposed to the toxic chemical. That same presumption didn’t apply to blue water vets, who had to…

July 12 Folk-rock singers Denny Zager and Rick Evans begin six weeks atop the pop charts with “In the Year 2525”—the single’s opening words, followed by “if man is still alive, if woman can survive” the new machines and other technology that could destroy humanity. July 14 Easy Rider begins its run in theaters with Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper biking across a landscape of drugs, sex, bigotry and brutality in search of freedom. The film broke ground with its use of popular rock songs as the soundtrack and a choppy editing style. July 18 Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts and Mary Jo Kopechne leave a Chappaquiddick island party for women who worked on Robert F. Kennedy’s presidential campaign, and the senator’s car goes off a bridge. Kennedy swam to…

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Navy Fighter Weapons School, an advanced training program better known as Topgun, which dramatically increased the shootdowns by Navy aviators during the Vietnam War. U.S. pilots flying missions over North Vietnam faced dangers from anti-aircraft guns, surface-to-air missiles and enemy pilots in Soviet- or Chinese-made MiG fighters. Weapons malfunctions were also a constant fear. When U.S. Navy and Air Force pilots first entered Vietnam combat in March 1965—following stellar performances in World War II and Korea—they ventured forth with a certain cockiness. But American aircrews took unexpectedly serious hits from North Vietnamese pilots who studied U.S. tactics and learned to counter them. Directed by ground radar, enemy pilots launched effective hit-and-run slashing attacks on large U.S. aircraft formations and became even bigger…

An area that was once hotly contested during the war became an area of cooperation as Vietnamese and Americans cleaned up a different kind of “hot spot,” one created by the toxic chemical dioxin, a component of herbicide Agent Orange. Vietnam and the United States, in a joint project at Da Nang airport, have cleansed 74 acres that were contaminated by dioxin, the Associated Press reported. “It is proof that we are opening a future of good cooperation between the governments of Vietnam and the United States,” Vice Defense Minister Nguyen Chi Vinh said, adding that “Da Nang people can be assured that their health will not be destroyed by chemicals left over from the war.” U.S. Ambassador Daniel Kritenbrink said the Da Nang cleanup showed the potential for future…

During a marathon torture session something extraordinary happened to Air Force 1st Lt. John L. Borling, a prisoner of war at the “Zoo,” a prison outside Hanoi. The pilot of an F-4 Phantom II fighterbomber was “trussed up” with shackles, ropes and handcuffs that inflicted pain and could break bones. When his captors left him alone in the room, Borling managed to loosen the bindings and scooted over to a nearby desk, where he discovered letters in one of the drawers. While he rummaged through them, hoping to find one addressed to him, his captors burst in. “I had a handful of envelopes, and they ripped them out of my hand,” Borling recalled, “and there was the ‘Man on the Moon’ stamp that absolutely riveted me.” He was pummeled to…

In spring 1968, the North Vietnamese Army had set its sights on Dong Ha, a Marine Corps base about 12 miles from the Demilitarized Zone dividing North and South Vietnam. On April 30, the NVA struck near the hamlet of Dai Do, about a mile from Dong Ha, sparking a gunfight that raged through May 3 in one of the war’s deadliest confrontations—which ended in a victory by the outnumbered Marines that became one of the Corps’ legendary battles. But the first American blood in a series of fights that collectively became known as the Battle of Dong Ha was shed about 3 miles to the west on April 29 during a little remembered firefight in the deserted village of Cam Vu The NVA planned the attack as a follow-up…

AMERICA'S "LAST BATTLE" OF THE WAR WAS A FIASCO The humiliating April 29, 1975, image of U.S. helicopters evacuating Americans and Vietnamese from Saigon rooftops as North Vietnamese troops overran South Vietnam to win the Vietnam War was a political-military disaster damaging America’s global prestige. Two weeks later, the U.S. endured another humiliation in Southeast Asia. On May 12, the genocidal communist Khmer Rouge, who had conquered Cambodia on April 17 (and renamed it “Kampuchea”) seized the SS Mayaguez, an American container ship. They had attacked in small “swift boats” and were armed only with AK-47 rifles and rocket-propelled grenades. The attackers captured Mayaguez Capt. Charles T. Miller and 38 crewmen. Over the next three days, President Gerald R. Ford and his senior advisers wrestled with America’s response. U.S. forces…