Innehållsförteckning för Spring 2024 från Vietnam

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In my first week as president, I asked the Attorney General of the United States and the Secretary of Defense to report to me, after consultation with other government officials and private citizens concerned, on the status of those young Americans who have been convicted, charged, investigated or are still being sought as draft evaders or military deserters. On August 19, at the National Convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Chicago, I announced my intention to give these young people a chance to earn their return to the mainstream of American society so that they can, if they choose, contribute even though belatedly to the building and betterment of our country and the world. I did this for the simple reason that the long and divisive war in…

The North Vietnamese Army and the Viet Cong used the vast forests of South Vietnam as a shield, which American commanders wanted to strip away to destroy their troop formations, bases, supply depots, and training facilities within. As American involvement in the Vietnam War picked up in early 1965, American commanders began to focus on developing tactics, techniques, and procedures for destroying these forested areas using firebombing raids. The Boi Loi Woods lay just 25 miles northwest of Saigon and the Viet Cong used it as a basing and staging area. It was selected as the first target for a firebombing raid. Planners code-named the mission Operation Sherwood Forest. The 320th Viet Cong Battalion, the 1st Battalion, 165A Viet Cong Regiment, and elements of the Viet Cong 271st and 273rd…

It is said that life doesn’t give us obstacles any bigger than we’re equipped to handle. When Maj. Thomas W. Daniels Jr. was assigned to Advisory Team 52 of the Vinh Long Province in July 1965, he was already 39 and a veteran of over 20 years in military service. His life and military experiences uniquely prepared him for this position. If I had asked my father, “What did you do in the war, Daddy?” the response could have been, “Which one?” Like so many kids, those stories didn’t interest me when I was growing up, and I didn’t ask. A Veterans’ Oral History Project through the University of Memphis provided me with answers when I listened to the two-hour recording 10 years after his death. The best part was…

On Sept. 13, 1968, the 1st and 9th Infantry Divisions exchanged a pair of battalions in the Republic of Vietnam. The 1st Battalion, 16th Infantry (Airmobile), located in Lai Khe, north of Saigon, replaced the 5th Battalion, 60th Infantry (Mechanized) in the Mekong Delta region. The battalions, headquarters, troops, and equipment were all relocated, and the battalion “colors” were eventually exchanged. This move made sense on its face, as mechanized units could not perform efficiently in the swampy rice-growing region of the Delta. At the same time, an air assault battalion was well-suited to the terrain. The redeployment of the 1st Battalion, 16th Infantry struck a blow to the battalion when the men realized it was not temporary but a permanent reassignment. Complicating the transition was the death of the…

This excellent and finely illustrated book, the second in a series, provides a clear and detailed view of the South Vietnamese government’s Strategic Hamlet Program, a counterinsurgency initiative designed not only to destroy but to break the influence of the Viet Cong. While the first volume explores the rise and potential total success of the program, Volume 2 examines its decline in detail. Why did the program fail after demonstrating so much promise? The author explores how the concept of “winning hearts and minds” actually translated into initiatives for ground forces interacting with local communities, and the difficulties that local people experienced in the defense of their villages. Many villages faced “insider threat,” with hamlet defenses sabotaged from within. Inhabitants of villages as well as Army of Republic of Vietnam…

Henry Kissinger, U.S. national security adviser and later secretary of state at the height of the Vietnam War, died Nov. 29, 2023, at the age of 100. His polarizing career saw him advise every president from John F. Kennedy to Joe Biden, with achievements that included masterminding a new relationship with communist China, softening the Cold War friction with the Soviet Union through a diplomatic policy called détente, and eventually negotiating the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Southeast Asia and ending the Vietnam War, for which he was co-awarded (with North Vietnam’s Le Duc Tho, who declined his) the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize. Born in Germany in 1923, young Kissinger and his Orthodox Jewish family emigrated to the United States in 1938 as the Nazis’ anti-Semitic policies ramped up. He…

The varied and vital combat support roles played by U.S. Army Chemical Corps soldiers during the Vietnam War have been overshadowed by the spray operations of the defoliant Agent Orange conducted by the U.S. Air Force in Operation Ranch Hand. While defoliant operations were indeed an aspect of Chemical Corps operations in Vietnam, they in no way defined the totality of what Chemical Corps support to combat operations fully entailed. The U.S. Army Chemical Corps played an integral role in supporting both combat and intelligence gathering operations throughout the war. I was assigned to the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) in Vietnam from July 1968 to July 1969. I was commander of the 26th Chemical Detachment from July to October 1968 and then reassigned to the 2nd Brigade as the Brigade…

As the Director of Naval History (Acting) and Senior Historian of the U.S. Navy, Edward J. Marolda has the qualifications to summarize in 80 pages a comprehensive account of the many and varied operations covered in US Seventh Fleet, Vietnam, 1964-1975. At that time the most powerful American presence in the Pacific Ocean since World War II, the fleet fielded a formidable arsenal of weapons and intelligence-gathering technology to contribute to the Republic of Vietnam’s defense. Yet the author displays occasions when its effectiveness was handicapped less by the enemy so much as by the government that dispatched it. While the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong engaged primarily in a land war, the Seventh Fleet played a vital role in interdicting the trafficking of weaponry from the North, both along…

At the end of World War II the United States had the most powerful navy on earth, and its most numerous major warships were destroyers armed with guns, depth charges, and torpedo tubes—including a record 175 Fletcher class vessels. In US Navy Gun Destroyers 1945-88, retired Navy man Mark Stille traces the careers of the last destroyers of their kind from VJ-Day through the Cold War and the missile age, during which many were refurbished to adapt to the new technology. These modifications are covered in the compact but comprehensive text and ample illustrations. Needless to say, the gunships’ operational careers included the Korean and Vietnam wars. Veterans of the latter conflict will encounter some familiar names, such as Maddox, Turner Joy, and Higbee, as well as ships involved in…

Designed to compete with both foreign and domestic offerings—including the Ford Pinto, Chevrolet Vega, Volkswagen Beetle, and Toyota Corolla—the American Motors Corporation introduces the AMC Gremlin. With a reduced wheelbase and a distinctly-styled hatchback, the Gremlin was marketed to those under the age of 35 as “cute and different.” In their younger days, U.S. Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush drove Gremlins—Clinton while campaigning in Arkansas for a seat in Congress, and Bush, who drove one with a denim Levi’s interior, while working toward his MBA. On June 12 in San Diego Stadium Pittsburgh Pirate Dock Ellis pitches a no-hitter. He later claimed that during the game he could not feel the ball, nor see the batters or catcher clearly, for he was tripping on LSD. Ellis walked eight…

For new USAF airmen arriving at Thai Air Force bases, a first stop might be to the post exchange to buy a non-regulation bush hat like the one below. The cotton “Go the Hell” hats, Australian in style but made in Thailand, became the unofficial headgear of F-105 pilots and Electronic Weapons Officers on their combat missions in Vietnam. For every mission flown, the airman would draw a black hash mark on the front; missions flown against the well-defended Hanoi region earned a red hash mark. The example shown here has 32 black hash marks on the headband, along with nine very faint red lines directly above them, just under the captain’s buckle.…

On Dec. 28, 1972, a low-flying North Vietnamese MiG-21 turned to intercept an RA-5C Vigilante piloted by Lt. Cdr. Alfred H. Agnew of the U.S. Navy. He was flying a low-level post-strike reconnaissance mission to avoid anti-aircraft artillery (AAA) and surface-to-air missiles (SAM). His F-4J escort spotted the MiG and vectored Agnew to fly directly to the coast. But the MiG launched an AA-2 missile before he could intervene. It struck the Vigilante, killing Lt. Michael F. Haifley. Agnew ejected successfully, becoming the Navy’s final POW and last pilot shot down by a MiG-21. The RA-5C was the war’s third-fastest American reconnaissance aircraft behind the A-12 and SR-71. The Vigilante began life as a supersonic nuclear strike bomber. First flying on Aug. 31, 1958, the then-designated A3J Vigilante entered service…

Two months after the November 1965 Battle of Ia Drang Valley, Gen. William C. Westmoreland, Commander, Military Assistance Command, Vietnam approved what was then the largest searchand-destroy operation of the Vietnam War. Originally named Masher, this operation was redesignated White Wing at the insistence of President Lyndon B. Johnson, who wanted a more benign-sounding title. In the subsequent Sept. 9, 1966, Contemporary Historical Evaluation of Combat Operations (CHECO) report, the authors wrote, “This 1st Air Cavalry operation was actually conducted in four distinct phases, Masher, White Wing, Eagle Claw, and Black Horse.” While these designations were reflected in other reports, the main operation was referred to as “Operation Masher and White Wing.” It took place in Binh Dinh province from Jan. 24 to March 6, 1966. It included forces…

On March 23, 1961, a 315th Air Division Douglas VC-47 took off from the Laotian capital, Vientiane, with eight intelligence personnel and the U.S. Army assistant attaché to Vietnam aboard. It was to fly over northeast Laos to take photographs and intercept communications before proceeding to South Vietnam’s capital, Saigon. Communist Pathet Lao anti-aircraft artillery shot it down approximately 90 minutes later, killing everyone but the attaché, Maj. Lawrence Bailey. He bailed out successfully and was captured, becoming the Vietnam War’s first American prisoner of war (POW) and his fellow crewmen and airmen the first to be declared missing in action (MIA). He would be released 17 months later as part of the Geneva Agreement that theoretically ended the Laotian Civil War, but his planemates did not come home until…

The skill of North Vietnamese pilots flying Korean War-vintage Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17 fighters came as a shock to U.S. Air Force and Navy aircrews at the start of the Rolling Thunder bombing campaign in March 1965. It was, however, the arrival of Mach-2 generation MiG-21s in December that heralded the most air-to-air losses by American forces for the rest of the Vietnam conflict. Although they got off to a memorably bad start on Jan. 2, 1966, when five were ambushed and shot down by McDonnell F-4C Phantom IIs of Col. Robin Olds’ 8th Tactical Fighter Wing, the MiG-21 pilots (including all five pilots who survived Olds’ “Operation Bolo” coup) went on to claim more than 70 American aircraft for the loss of 35 when Rolling Thunder was curtailed on Oct. 31,…