Innholdsfortegnelse for Winter 2023 i Vietnam

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No. This myth appears to have originated from a blog written by prolific conspiracy theorist Wayne Madsen more than 40 years after the incident. The blog post claimed that McCain, then a U.S. Navy A-4E Skyhawk pilot aboard aircraft carrier USS Forrestal, was responsible for causing the devastating fire that killed 134 sailors and wounded 161 others. Madsen’s theory falls apart under scrutiny. It is contradicted by dozens of eyewitnesses and the Navy’s official investigation report. Shortly before 11 a.m. on July 29, 1967, the Forrestal was cruising in the South China Sea as its crew prepared for another bombing mission over North Vietnam. Forty strike aircraft crowded the flight deck, attended by several hundred sailors making last-minute checks before the airplanes launched. Suddenly, a Mark-32 Zuni rocket mounted on…

In the spring of 1969, I arrived in Vietnam as a sergeant in the 101st Airborne Division (Airmobile) after completing a small unit leadership training program at Fort Benning, Georgia. Even though I was an untested infantry squad leader, I was put in charge of a dozen men who had been in-country four, five or six months. Since my men had previous combat experience and I had none, the pressure I faced when taking control was enormous. I did not have to wait long for the opportunity to prove myself because my company had just been ordered to take part in the famous battle for Hamburger Hill, May 10-20 in the A Shau Valley of northern South Vietnam. Upon entering the assault staging area, we were instructed to leave all…

At 7:30 p.m. on Dec. 18, 1972, Hanoi time, U.S. Air Force F-111 Aardvark attack aircraft initiated Operation Linebacker II by striking six North Vietnamese airfields. One minute later, EB-66 Destroyer electronic warfare planes started to jam enemy radars, and F-4 Phantom II fighter-bombers began laying corridors of small metal strips of chaff to confuse enemy radar and protect the first wave of B-52 Stratofortress bombers approaching Hanoi and Haiphong. Completely surprised and blinded, Hanoi’s Air Defense Command aimed its anti-aircraft artillery fire along the routes and altitudes used by B-52s during the Linebacker I bombings of May-October 1972, conducted in response to the North’s massive ground offensive started during Easter weekend. Surface-to-air missile sites launched Soviet SA-2 Guideline SAMs based on the Linebacker I pattern, only to come under…

Vietnam has fought numerous invasions over the past two millennia, usually against China or whoever happened to have conquered China, including the formidable, ruthless Mongols. Whenever they could not defeat the invaders, the Vietnamese armed forces eventually wore them down by simply refusing to quit. When the United States involved itself in bolstering the South Vietnamese government against the insurgent communist Viet Cong, it did so with the expectation of crushing a guerrilla movement. In November 1965, however, the U.S. 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) fought its first major battle against North Vietnamese Army regulars, who had been infiltrating the South via the Ho Chi Minh Trail snaking along the Laotian and Cambodian borders since the early 1960s. The communists also made extensive use of South Vietnam’s rivers and, to a…

In the Autumn 2022 issue’s “What’s Your Favorite Song?” (Homefront, with a photo of soldiers gathered around a radio), you characterize troops as listening to tunes. In actuality, this is Team 11 of E Company, 75th Ranger Regiment, on the chopper pad waiting to be inserted on a long-range reconnaissance patrol/Ranger mission. The photo was taken by AP combat photographer Oliver Noonan. The team was listening to Neil Armstrong’s walk on the moon [July 20, 1969]. It was a staged photo by Noonan to highlight the contrast between missions. I was the leader of Team 11 and am in the picture wearing the PRC-25 [field communications radio] on my back. This pic was in the center section of Stars and Stripes beside Armstrong on the moon. It also appeared in…

At 8:05 a.m. on July 24, 1965, four F-4C Phantom II aircraft from the Air Force’s 47th Tactical Fighter Squadron were patrolling for MiGs that could threaten U.S. bombers southwest of Hanoi when two EB-66C Destroyer electronic warfare reconnaissance planes warned the F-4s about a surface-to-air missile launch. Seconds later three SAMs downed one of the Phantom IIs and damaged the others. That attack finally awakened the Pentagon to the SAM threat and the need for tactical aircraft with electronic countermeasures. The Air Force EB-66, installed with those electronics, derived from the Navy’s A-3D-1 Skywarrior, designed in 1949 to carry a 5-ton nuclear weapon out to 2,300 miles. The Air Force wanted to purchase the Navy planes to replace its B-26 Invader bomber and RB-26 reconnaissance aircraft, but the required…

Of the many battles the U.S. fought in the Vietnam War none hurt more than the 1965 battle in the Ia Drang Valley and the 1968 Tet Offensive. The outcome of those clashes and hundreds of smaller ones were not the clearcut, decisive victories that senior American commanders expected. That’s because they didn’t think the “primitive” enemy was shrewd enough and sophisticated enough to intercept radio communications, then use that information against U.S. troops. When it was conclusively proved that the North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong had those capabilities, military intelligence agencies briefed Gen. Creighton Abrams, the head of Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, in early 1970. He responded: “This is terrible. They are reading our mail, and it has to stop! Get the word out to every division and…

If asked, “When did America lose the Vietnam War?” most respondents with some knowledge of the war would likely answer, “April 30, 1975.” That day, North Vietnamese Army tanks crashed through the gates of the Republic of Vietnam’s Presidential Palace in Saigon and celebrated a communist victory in the Second Indochina War (1955-1975). Certainly, that day was the end of the shooting war. But when exactly did the U.S. and its allies lose their ability to win the war? When did defeat become inevitable in America’s efforts to preserve a democratic South Vietnam in the face of North Vietnam’s relentless, ruthless aggression? The answer to that question is key—determining when America lost reveals how and why the decades-long effort failed. The “Usual Suspects” If asked to pinpoint the date when…

On July 5, 2022, President Joe Biden awarded the Medal of Honor to retired Army Maj. John J. Duffy for conspicuous gallantry while serving as the sole American adviser with the 11th Airborne Battalion, Vietnamese Airborne Division. The U.S. military’s highest decoration was presented 50 years after Duffy’s heroic conduct on April 14-15, 1972. Duffy’s story and that of the acting South Vietnamese battalion commander, Maj. Le Van Me, during the North Vietnamese Army’s Easter Offensive are described with riveting detail in retired Col. William “Bill” Reeder’s book, Extraordinary Valor: The Fight for Charlie Hill in Vietnam. On March 31, 1972, the 2nd Brigade, Vietnamese Airborne Division, was deployed to the Central Highlands and ordered to occupy old U.S. firebases on terrain nicknamed “Rocket Ridge,” the key high ground northeast…

Richard Edward Cavazos, born Jan. 31, 1929, was a sixth-generation Texan of Mexican American descent related to Francita Alvarez, known as the “Angel of Goliad” for persuading a Mexican officer not to kill Texas prisoners of war in the Goliad Massacre of 1836 during the Texas Revolution. Cavazos was born in Kingsville and grew up on the King Ranch, where his father, a World War I veteran, was employed. Cavazos entered Texas Technological College (now Texas Tech University) and graduated in 1951, two years behind older brother Lauro, who became secretary of education under President Ronald Reagan and was the first person of Hispanic descent to serve in a president’s Cabinet. Richard Cavazos went to college on a football scholarship, but his hopes for a football career ended when he…

There is now a face for every name inscribed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., thanks to volunteer researchers. The Wall of Faces gallery, a webpage that profiles members of the military who died as a result of their service in Vietnam or remain missing, is complete after more than two decades of research, according to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, the organization that built The Wall. Working on the project since 2001, researchers have collected at least one photograph for each of the 58,281 service members whose names are inscribed on The Wall. The quest for photos was intended “to ensure that visitors to The Wall understand that behind each name is a face—a person with a story of a family and friends who were forever changed…

The 1965-72 seasons were a historic time for professional football, with the kickoff of the first Super Bowl, the merger of the National Football League and the American Football League, Jets quarterback Joe Namath’s brash boast of victory for his underdog team, and a Miami Dolphins’ record that still stands. 1965 SEASON AFL championship, Dec. 26, 1965, San Diego The Buffalo Bills trounced the San Diego Chargers 23-0. The MVP was Bills quarterback Jack Kemp, who threw for 155 yards and one touchdown. NFL championship, Jan. 2, 1966, Green Bay The Green Bay Packers beat defending champs Cleveland Browns 23-12 in the last NFL championship before the Super Bowl era. The MVP was Packers’ fullback Jim Taylor, who rushed for 96 yards. 1966 SEASON Jan. 15, 1967, Los Angeles In…

There are several painful examples of the impact that intercepted radio signals had on U.S. operations, but perhaps the most notable occurred in the first major encounter between American forces and the North Vietnamese. In mid-November 1965, 500 troopers in UH-1 “Huey” helicopters of the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile), under the command of Lt. Col. Hal Moore, were dropped into a small landing zone in the Ia Drang Valley in South Vietnam’s Central Highlands. The landing zone had been named LZ X-Ray. It was common practice to give landing zones identifiers and call signs, most of which didn’t change. X-Ray was only 15 miles from Plei Me, the base camp of Moore’s parent 3rd Brigade and his source of combat support, but Plei Me was…

Barbara Annette Robbins checked her luggage at the United Airlines desk, passed through the doors and walked toward the airplane waiting on the tarmac at Denver’s Stapleton airport in August 1964. In film footage captured by her father, the young woman in a simple pastel suit turns and waves before boarding the silver aircraft. He kept filming as the plane took off. Three layovers later, Robbins touched down at Tan Son Nhut Air Base on the outskirts of Saigon and was eager to begin her job fighting communism. There would be no film of her happy return home. Less than a year later Robbins became the first American woman and first CIA officer to die in Vietnam and remains the youngest CIA employee killed on duty. ROBBINS WAS BORN ON…

In Year of the Hawk: America’s Descent into Vietnam, 1965, author James A. Warren sets out to chronicle the Vietnam War with an emphasis on one particular year. The book contains three parts: background on the war, the various methods used to fight it, and reflections about the war overall. Warren’s book is detailed, straightforward and easy to understand. Readers who already have a broad base of knowledge about the Vietnam War, or who experienced it, will likely find that the book covers familiar ground as the author presents a general overview of the conflict. Year of the Hawk introduces readers to major themes of the war with sections including “Vietnam and the Vietnamese,” “The First Indochina War,” “[Gen. William]Westmoreland’s Strategy of Attrition,” and “The Secret CIA War in Laos,”…