The (Vietnam) War and I [Excellent, new info and pictures]

Via taurusndixie

That sounds like a pretentious title. Even presumptuous. "The War and I." My father, who saw combat through the worst days of World War Two--in North Africa, Italy, France, Belgium--and was critically wounded at Bastogne, would have never personalized his participation. He took pride in viewing himself as a part of the "Good War," simply a patriotic American who had served with other men exactly like him. He asked for nothing in return except to be honored with the U.S. flag draped over his coffin.

He was.

But the Vietnam War did not work out that way. It was such a debacle that if you didn't come out of it with your own personal story, you came away with nothing. And so my generation's war has produced a million different stories of how the conflict affected the individual.

That is the reason, I believe, the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington has become so important to so many. You go to The Wall to touch a person, not a cause like the "Good War."

The conference on the Vietnam War at the College of William and Mary. Left to Right - Zalin Grant, Peter Arnett, Wallace Terry and Joseph L. Galloway. I've known the three for 35 years. All of them are journalists and authors--and were extraordinarily brave war correspondents.

I was invited to participate in a conference at the College of William and Mary, in Virginia, on the 25th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War.

After I returned home, I said to my wife Claude: "I finally feel the war is over for me. Maybe now I can tell my personal story."

"What's that got to do with a letter from a French village?" she asked.

"I wouldn't be here if it hadn't been for the war," I said. "That's how I met you."

"You are right," she said. "Do it."

A few weeks before I attended the William and Mary conference, Frank McCulloch's two daughters asked me--as they asked others who had worked with him--to write an appreciation of their father, as a surprise for his 80th birthday.

Frank McCulloch started me on my journalism career in the Saigon bureau of Time magazine in 1965. After he left Time, McCulloch, a former US Marine platoon sergeant, held many high positions in journalism, including as managing editor of the Sacramento Bee and the San Francisco Examiner.

AN APPRECIATION: Frank McCulloch

It doesn't surprise me that Frank McCulloch has turned 80. He has handled aging like he has handled everything else in his life. He has simply looked at it squarely in the face, and said, "OK, you want to challenge me, then I'm ready."

Of course, Frank knows who will win. He is a total realist. But that attitude defines Frank for the people who know and love him.

"I ain't giving up."

Frank McCulloch in Vietnam 1965. Tough and gentle, it's rare in a man. McCulloch hired me in the Time magazine bureau after I completed my tour as a US intelligence officer. He also hired Pham Xuan An, who turned out to be a Viet Cong intelligence officer. Oops!

As I say, I'm not surprised that Frank is turning 80. Actually, I'm surprised by how old that makes me. But I know Frank understands that at this moment of celebrating him, I'm thinking of myself. That's another thing that defines Frank. Spare him the b.s.of life. He'll chuckle because he knows I'm telling the truth. Only then can I say that I--we--love him, that he has made our lives better in countless ways. For only when Frank knows that you are speaking from the hard edge of truth, not the soft edge of sentimentality, will he believe it.

I count it as one of the luckiest moments of my life when I met Frank in Saigon in 1965, just before I was to be discharged from the Army Intelligence Service. Actually we had met before, when he came to Danang to cover the US Marines.

As weird as the idea seems to me today, I had established the US Army's covert intelligence headquarters in Danang as a first lieutenant, which was eventually used by the 525th MI Group. I took pride in that point until I discovered, much later, that I had rented the villa from a member of the Central Committee of the National Liberation Front (Viet Cong).

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My recollections and more.

THE SUICIDES ON APRIL 30, 1975

5. Brigadier General Tran Van Hai (1925-1975)

Brigadier general, commander, 7th Infantry Division at Dong Tam, near My Tho.
General Hai was born in Phong Dinh province (Can Tho). He graduated from the Dalat Military Academy, Class 7, 1951. Hai was renown of being incorruptible, outspoken and brave. In 1968, he was commanding the Ranger Branch Command, directly supervising the Ranger's raid to clear the enemy force that infiltrated into the business quarter of *Cho Lon area.

He was then assigned National Police Chief. In 1970 he was commander, Special Tactical Area 44... before commanding the 7th Division.

He won the adoration of everyone who once worked with him, as he was renown of being incorruptible. At midnight, 30 April 1975, he committed suicide at the Division Headquarters, Dong Tam Army Base.

(*This was TET '68. A friend of mine, Bill Lemon, was caught in Cholon when the Communists came. They were going door to door, street by street searching all the houses. After the second day, it was apparent that they would get to where he was staying the next day. Now picture this: George weighed 300 pounds, but his wife made him a white top with black pants like women wear there especially when they are selling wares, put a conical hat on his head, and he was able to walk a few blocks to where a man, who had been contacted by telephone, met him in a jeep, and got him away safely under a hail of fire! BT)

The FSEE And My 45. Caliber Derringer
I took the FSEE in Saigon, 1969. Actually it was at the *Cholon PX.

Saigon Cholon Fighting (Short One)
(The reporter exaggerates. No where near one half of Saigon was destroyed, etcetera. I like the soldier going on the offensive pushing a trash cart! Near the end there are a couple of shots of *Colonel Loan. BT)



Saigon Police Chief Executes VC Officer TET "68
(Colonel Loan, one of my heroes. BT)
Here is the actual background to this picture, contrary to what the Bleeding-Heart-Liberals espouse.

The VC under this man's command had just gone through an ARVN compound and killed all, including the women and children. Colonel Loan knew this when this man was bought before him, and acted quite compassionately, I believe, for the culprit would not have been so lucky if I had been in charge.

Colonel Loan was later saved after being wounded on a Saigon bridge by an American MP who got a medal for his action.

Colonel Loan made it to the states where he ran a restaurant in Northern Virginia.