Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2017 i Vietnam

The CH-47 arose from a 1956 decision to replace the U.S. Army’s piston-engine helicopters with more powerful gas-turbine models. After a yearlong debate over mission requirements, the Army settled on two designs: a troop carrier, the Bell UH-1 Iroquois, soon nicknamed the Huey; and a heavy-lift helicopter, the Boeing-Vertol YHC1B, which first flew on Sept. 21, 1961, and became the CH-47 in 1962. The twin-rotor CH-47, named after Native Americans in the Pacific Northwest, proved stable, agile and fast during flight tests. Production began in late 1963 and deliveries to the 11th Air Assault Division started a year later. The division, reflagged as the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) in June 1965, deployed to Vietnam with three Chinook companies that September. Crews quickly learned to mount a 7.62 mm M60 machine…

“To defend these people from VC and the NVA is right and just. To give them the opportunity to form a democracy is worthwhile. Though our efforts are often clumsy, Americans are doing those two things. I want to be a part of this effort. I want to join those Americans who are daily sacrificing to achieve those aims.” —Julius “Corky” Foster, personal notes, Feb. 8, 1968 You may not recognize his face or his name, but after you hear his story you may never forget him. Julius Cartwright Foster was a Marine lance corporal who lived and died defending the principles that all people have the right to freedom of choice and self-determination. In 1967, at age 28, Julius, called “Corky” by family and friends, felt Americans weren’t concerned…

Just as the horrific 1968 My Lai massacre is the most notorious battlefront incident of the Vietnam War, the May 4, 1970, National Guard shootings at Kent State University—killing four students and wounding nine—is the most notorious homefront incident. Within 13 seconds that day, 28 Ohio National Guardsmen fired 67 rounds into a crowd of 2,000 protesters, curious onlookers and students moving between classes. The events precipitating the shootings began with President Richard Nixon’s April 30 announcement that South Vietnamese and U.S. forces had launched operations into eastern Cambodia targeting “privileged sanctuaries”—large portions of “officially neutral” Cambodia that 40,000 North Vietnamese troops had, in effect, occupied for years. Nonetheless, anti-war groups claimed Nixon was “expanding” the war by “invading” a neutral country, and they demanded nationwide protests. On May 1,…

Two sides of the Paper Tiger Kudos to professor Christian G. Appy for “Paper Tiger,” an excerpt from American Reckoning (December 2016), in which he reveals the caustic cynicism of both Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon in their conduct of the Vietnam War. During my “tour” in Vietnam in 1970-71, a few years later than the time frame Appy describes, morale was at its nadir, drug and alcohol abuse at its peak, and suicide and fragging commonplace as the thin veneer of the war’s purpose and the duplicity of the country’s leadership became more apparent to those put in harm’s way. Great job, Vietnam, for publishing not only this very deep and meaningful analysis of the country’s leadership of the war, but also exposing the “wrong-headed” policies these so-called leaders…

A t 3 a.m. on Jan. 31, 1968, the second day of the Tet holiday marking the start of a new lunar year in Vietnam, the Year of the Monkey, Nguyen Van Lung and 21 other commandos from the T-700 Special Action Group sprinted up an alleyway in the northern suburbs of Saigon toward Gate 5 of the compound that housed the South Vietnamese Joint General Staff, the equivalent of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff. Most of the Viet Cong soldiers carried a Chinese-made version of the Soviet AK-47 assault rifle and several hand grenades. Three more had B-40 rocket-propelled grenade launchers, and several others, including a 16-year-old girl, carried bags full of extra rocket grenades. As the column of commandos closed the final 100 meters to the gate,…

On Dec. 5, 1964, in the East Ballroom of the White House, President Lyndon B. Johnson presented the Medal of Honor to Capt. Roger H. C. Donlon for “conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty” during the defense of Camp Nam Dong in the Republic of Vietnam in July of that year. Donlon was the first soldier of the Vietnam War to be awarded the Medal of Honor. When Johnson draped the medal around his neck, Donlan joined a very exclusive fraternity. Only 3,169 Americans previously had received the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest award for military valor, since it was first awarded. The Medal of Honor has a long and storied history. The medal, as we…

U.S. Navy ships docked in Vietnam’s Cam Ranh Bay in early October 2016 after an absence of more than 40 years. The destroyer USS John S. McCain and submarine tender USS Frank Cable made the visit in a display of the increased interaction between the U.S. and Vietnamese navies, reported Bloomberg News. In May, President Barack Obama lifted an embargo on arms sales to Vietnam, continuing the normalization of relations begun in 1995. The U.S. has been strengthening its ties in Southeast Asia as China grows more assertive in its claims on islands in the South China Sea. Strained relations between the United States and the Philippines— stemming from U.S. criticism of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s mass killings in a war on drug dealers— puts even more importance on agreements…

Jan. 27 Apollo 1 astronauts Edward White, Gus Grissom and Roger Chaffee die during a test on the launchpad when a fire ignites in their capsule. An investigation determined the fire was probably caused by an electrical short circuit. Feb. 2 The American Basketball Association is formed as a fasterpaced alternative to the rival National Basketball Association. The ABA, which folded in 1976, was noted for its red, white and blue ball. Jan. 30 Linda Ronstadt is introduced to the pop music world when the first album by the Stone Poneys is released. The self-titled album and the band didn’t succeed, but Ronstadt would be one of the top-selling female artists of the 1970s. Feb. 5 CBS broadcasts the first episode of the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. The Sunday night…

aves of attacks initiated on Jan. 30, 1968, by North Vietnamese Army regulars and Viet Cong guerrillas swept through more than 100 towns and cities across South Vietnam, including its capital, Saigon, and second-largest city, Da Nang, an important seaport. Da Nang was the place where the first U.S. combat troops landed when the Marines came ashore in March 1965. By January 1968, it hosted high-level U.S. and South Vietnamese operations, including the headquarters of I Corps, the military zone encompassing South Vietnam’s northern provinces. The city also had the largest air base north of Saigon. Da Nang was a target that could hardly be ignored in the NVA offensive launched during the Tet festivities celebrating Vietnam’s lunar New Year. After the attack, Marine leaders in Da Nang sought reinforcement…

Images from the Vietnam era captured the gritty reality of a war fought in jungles and villages halfway around the world. Freed from many of the ground rules of other wars, journalists could go almost anywhere they wanted and photograph almost anything they saw. Led by the Associated Press Saigon bureau, this generation of photographers walked alongside the troops to capture unforgettable images of battles, brotherhood, the enemy and death. Many photojournalists, including Larry Burrows, Dickey Chapelle and Sean Flynn, lost their lives on a mission to show the war—and the men who fought it—to people back home. Some Vietnam War journalists are among the most celebrated photographers of the 20th century. Horst Faas and Eddie Adams earned Pulitzer Prizes and Robert Capa Gold Medal Awards for courageous overseas reporting.…