Sunrise With Schubert: February 3, 2018

Had you been in the Vietnamese city of Hue 50 years ago today things would probably have been different for you. Much different.

If you were a member of the three battalions of North Vietnamese regulars, Viet Cong guerrillas, and local Communist militia, you would feel great, having just infiltrated and captured a major city under the very noses of the American “brass.”

If you were a private citizen of the city, you would be terrified beyond comprehension.

If you were a member a small ARVN group in the north of the city, or a small MACV unit in the south, you would feel cut off and abandoned, not envisioning the 24-day ordeal involved in retaking the city.

If you were the senior American military leaders, generals William Westmoreland and Foster LaHue, you would be miles and miles away in a safe place, completely befuddled, denying that it was all happening.

In the south of the city,  as a member of the Second Battalion, Fifth Regiment, of the United States Marines, you would be facing a long journey of betrayal, abandonment, horror, honor, and glory.

The two generals mentioned above refused to believe that three battalions of Vietnamese held the city. They had “pre-decided” that, if the North Vietnamese were to launch a major attack, it would be at Khe Sahn and not Hue. American generals couldn’t be wrong, could they? Americans were supposed to kill the enemy and count their bodies, not defend cities. When we had counted enough bodies, the North Vietnamese would quit and go home, leaving the Viet Cong to fade from sight. We were almost there.

Everyone agreed. Right? Never mind if body counts were manufactured or inflated. Never mind if multiple human parts were each counted as a body. Never mind if many "counts" were innocent civilians. Never mind if two American officers got into a physical confrontation over ownership of a severed arm. General Giap was counting his losses and on the verge of giving up, right then, in early 1968. Any American "grunt" officer wishing to advance had better, by God, report some body counts for America and for victory. "USA! … USA! … USA!"

Meanwhile, Westmoreland and LaHue decided to solve the minor irritation in Hue by ordering companies of Marines to clear out the embedded battalions of the enemy. Company after company stormed across a bridge leading into the city and were slaughtered. Westmoreland steadfastly believed they were only encountering a small band of Viet Cong sappers. He blamed the Marines’ lack of success on inexperience and unwillingness to fight. The bodies of brave Americans piled higher and higher as the generals persisted in their beliefs. Westmoreland was later to comment on the glorious sacrifice of the Marines:

“… the military professionalism of the Marines falls far short of the standards that should be demanded by our armed forces. Indeed they are brave and proud, but their standards, tactics, and lack of command supervision throughout their ranks requires improvement in the national interest.”

Fortunately, America canned Westmoreland, by kicking him upstairs of course, but kept the Marines. They, and their ARVN brothers eventually cleared the city, leaving a leveled hell of dead and rotting bodies as Americans back home watched on TV. Before the battle was over, countless civilians lay dead or maimed, classified by that modern and horrifically callous term, “collateral damage.” Thousands and thousands of others were simply executed by Communist troops while the battle was raging. For more, read Hue 1968: A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam by Mark Bowden

It was a great victory for the brave band of warriors who stayed and defended the city. It was a great loss for American morale. Tragically, the general affair known as the Tet Offensive created a moment when Americans quit trusting their leaders. Westmoreland had been assuring them that his strategy of “body-count warfare” was working just fine and the enemy was about finished.

Naturally, that assertion came as a hell of a surprise to the troops stationed far away in that sad land and to their families back home viewing the carnage each evening.

In my opinion, that festering sore of distrust has led us to the predicament we find ourselves in today, in which America is being governed more like a professional wrestling match on television than as the moral leader of the world. That’s just my opinion and mine alone. Feel free to form your own. Those brave men who died at Hue would have wanted it that way.

Stars and Stripes photographer John Olson

captured this image of A.B. Grantham,

a Marine who had been shot in the chest at Hue.

It is on display at the Newseum to mark the

50th anniversary of the Tet offensive.

Grantham lived to tell his story.