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.

Morning Thoughts: September 29, 2107

Finished the series on the Vietnam War last evening. Watched each episode, some twice, some three times. At the risk of beating the horse, some thoughts.

My favorite line: from a veteran who said, “The veneer of civilization is very thin.” So true. The Vietnam war certainly validated the premise of Sir William Golding in his 1954 classic Lord of the Flies. His wasn’t, of course, the first warning. There were many, going back as far as the Old Testament account of the treatment of the Midianites by the victorious Jewish army (Numbers 31:15-18). The William Calleys of history have been consistently present, consistently vicious, and consistently adamant in their claim of “following higher orders.” Ofttimes, those orders originate, avowedly, at the deity level.

My favorite interviewee. the former South Vietnamese who spent over 17 years in a re-education camp (prison) after the war. His description of the mendacity, lack of character, and unwillingness to learn of Vice-President Nguyễn Cao Kỳ could be used in today’s newspapers in describing another world figure.

Most ironic sequence: the one in which the United States Marines, in "full-Chesty” mode, stormed ashore at Da Nang to be met my beautiful young girls in their best áo dais bearing wreaths. In a split-second framing, one could see Monkey Mountain in the background. That’s where I spent the last three months of my tour, guarding a communication base.

Most understated scene (for me): the sequence in which the victorious North Vietnamese army entered the Da Nang area. It featured a shot of the expensive home of a high-ranking South Vietnamese officer. I cannot be certain, but it certainly looked familiar to me. The United States had helped build it, or a similar home, on the highway between Tien Sha village and Da Nang, less than a mile from my home base. The owner was a “Number One Honcho” in the area, and one believed by most enlisted personnel to be a double dipper, politically. He “fell” from a truck full of GIs one day as they headed for a mission. No one mourned his death.

Most troubling segment: the account of the battle of Hue City. Most of the news coverage at the time centered on Saigon. Meanwhile, General Westmoreland and his subordinates, who believed the Tet Offensive was a ruse to draw American troops away from Khe Sanh, repeatedly ordered company-level troops to clear Hue of three enemy battalions, repeatedly denigrating the courage and fighting ability of those brave Marines who were being slaughtered.

Most needing of a bit more information: the iconic shot of the South Vietnamese general executing the VC could have benefited from additional information noting that the victim had, himself, just executed, I think, some 30 civilians in cold blood, including a family of eight, if I remember correctly. The veneer of civilization is, indeed, quite thin.

Most non-surprising surprise: that Richard Nixon was a noxious traitor who set the stage for future incidences in which presidential candidates would conspire with foreigners to gain political advantage in campaigns.

Most conspicuous omission: how Americans allowed the media to instill the image of the Vietnam Veteran as a half-crazed dope-fiend who couldn’t cope with the realities of coming home from the war. It was all bullshit. Those odious creatures who haunted ceremonies and street corners in filthy field jackets were seldom veterans at all and almost never Vietnam Veterans. Nonetheless, a feckless media and uncaring public loved them and allowed them to control the image of millions of loyal veterans. For the true story of this communal crime, read Stolen Valor: How the Vietnam Generation Was Robbed of Its Heroes and Its History by B. G. Burkett and Glenna Whitley.

In the meantime, watch the documentary again. It, the ordeal represented by the Vietnam War, could happen all over again. It won’t include me, but your children and grandchildren deserve better.

Never again, please, never again.

Sailing To Oblivium: August 10, 2017

Delicacy forbids details, but I just spent a day and a half in prepping for, and undergoing, a medical procedure. Mostly I read, … mostly.

I spent a good deal of time with Huế 1968: A Turning Point in the American War in Vietnam” by Mark Bowden. While it may be disturbing, the book is certainly timely, as we increasingly place our country’s future in the hands of its generals, in increasingly dangerous conditions. We can only hope they, the generals, are good ones like my friend, Brig. Gen. Troy Galloway. He is one of the best that America can produce and American needs more like him.

They weren’t so good in 1968. I’m talking about my war. During the fall and early winter, North Vietnam had positioned some 10,000 troops, along with ample arms, for an assault on Huế. Made an imperial city in the early 1800s, it lay equidistant between the Northern and Southern borders of what was Vietnam at the time. With a population in 1968 of 140,000 or so, all of Vietnam knew the city and viewed it with reverence.

The city was lightly defended for what would become known as “The Tet Offensive.” An ARVN group held a position in the Northern part of the city and a small American force occupied a MACV compound to the South.

I was only 70 miles away, at Da Nang, when 10 battalions of NVA and VC attacked Huế, immediately occupying the city and surrounding the small groups of allied forces.

Away in Phu Bai and Saigon, generals Foster LaHue and William Westmoreland refused to believe that the North could bring that many troops to the city undetected. They believed strongly that  General Võ Nguyên Giáp was using Huế as a diversion for a major attack on an American emplacement at Khe Sahn, farther North.

Giáp fooled them so completely that, after his troops had occupied the city with a force of perhaps 10,000 men and women, our generals refused to recognize or admit the truth. Their report to the public was that a few bands of Viet Cong had entered the city and were being rounded up as they spoke. Privately, they accused the ARVN troops of incompetence and the Americans of a lack of battle experience and the "jitters" for any delay.

Then they began ordering company-level groups of Marines, less than 100-strong, to cross the Perfume River and retake Huế. The disastrous and inhumane results should have triggered a formal review and appropriate punishment. That, of course, never happened.

Meanwhile, there are reports that the Northern troops were massacring up to 3,000 civilians in the city, including some Americans.

Oh well, enough is enough. Here is a film of how the Marines began re-taking the city, building by building, with a level of heroism worthy of their ancestral comrades at Iwo Jima and Tarawa. Oh, and those were the same Marines of whom General Westmoreland once commented: “the military professionalism of the Marines falls far short of the standards that should be demanded by our armed forces.”

I laid the book aside for a while yesterday, and began thinking about generals who give suicidal commands to troops from safe positions faraway. Then I thought of how General Grant spent the night, after the first day’s battle at Shiloh, leaning against a tree less than a mile from the Confederate front lines. We need to know about our generals ere we trust our youth to them.

As I say, I hope we have good ones in place during these fearful times.

Highly recommended.