Leave No Man Behind: Bill Bell And The Search For American POW/MIAs From The Vietnam War

Available HERE.
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Letter Excerpt
Leave No Man Behind:

"As the US Marine Corps helicopter lifted from the roof of the American
Embassy in Saigon at daybreak on April 30, 1975, I thought about the carnage
that would result from a heat-seeking missile fired by Vietnamese Communist
forces gradually encircling the besieged capital of the dying Republic of
Vietnam (RVN). Exhausted by a lack of sleep for the previous several days,
I no longer felt fear, only curiosity. Tears welled up in my eyes, perhaps
due in part to the anguish of witnessing the tragic events unfolding before
me, but also from caustic smoke belched out of rooftop incinerators glowing
cherry-red from reams of frantically burned secret US Government documents.
Feeling a sense of relief, I nevertheless harbored an even stronger sense of
guilt. On the Republic of Vietnam's final day, as I looked down into the
gradually diminishing compound and into the terrified eyes in the upturned
faces of hundreds of Vietnamese nationals and citizens of other countries
friendly to the United States, who were being left behind, I knew that I
would be haunted for many years to come. As the venerable 'Sea Stallion'
throbbed its way through the damp morning air toward a helicopter carrier
anchored off the coast at Vung Tau, blazing multicolored tracers rising
from the dark-canopied jungle below bade farewell to America and to an era
known as the Vietnam War.

With the fall of the RVN, as many analysts had predicted, jubilant communist
forces quickly invaded and occupied the populated areas. Hundreds of
thousands of former military and civilian officials were required to be
screened, classified and registered as enemies of the revolution to be
detained in remote, isolated concentration camps under horrific conditions.
Thousands died due to disease and malnutrition, many never to be heard from
again by family members. At the same time, the communist leadership
insisted that the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in the north and the
Provisional Revolutionary Government in the south be united as one.

From that day forward, according to the constitution, only one political
party, the Vietnam Communist Party, would be allowed to exist. On official
letterheads of government stationery the three previously used terms
comprising the national motto of the communist north:
'Freedom, Independence and Democracy' were changed forever to read 'Freedom, Independence and Happiness.'
To the Vietnamese people this change in terminology, especially
the reference to happiness, would provide one of the few sources of humor
during a desperate time. To add insult to injury, the graves of fallen RVN
military personnel were razed by bulldozers in cemeteries across the
country. Typewriters, radios, televisions and anything that could be used
for propagation or communication were required to be registered with the
'Military Management Committee' responsible for political security under the
new 'Socialist Republic of Vietnam.' As interest began to wane, occasional
references to the Vietnam War coined phrases such as 'a noble cause' or 'an
unnecessary war.' The question as to whether the Vietnam War was or was not
necessary was just as divisive in postwar debate as it was during the days
following the 1968 'Tet Offensive.' In my own assessment of both the
necessity for and the outcome of the Vietnam War two primary
considerations were the U.S. national interest at the time and the mission
of the U.S. Military Forces that fought in Southeast Asia.

At the beginning of the War in Vietnam, the basic mission of American
soldier worldwide was to kill, destroy, or capture the enemy, or repel his
assault by fire. Over one million men and women answered their nation's
call, and they did their level best to carry out their mission in Southeast
Asia. As a result, some 58,000 Americans and some 225,000 allied personnel
made the ultimate sacrifice, while by comparison, communist Vietnam
suffered the loss of over 1,300,000 personnel, including 150,000 personnel
who were killed-in-action but never recovered. I personally witnessed the
strongest blow struck at communist forces by hard-fighting American and
South Vietnamese troops that occurred during the January 31, 1968, 'Tet'
offensive. The bodies of thousands of communist personnel were stacked in
piles around installations throughout South Vietnam, and losses were so
heavy for the communist side that the entire military rank structure was
temporarily abandoned and cadre selected to command and control units were
assigned based on position or job title only, rather than actual military
rank. The loss of life to the communist side was nothing less than
staggering, and any U.S. military commander whose losses approached even a
small percentage of actual communist fatalities at that time would most
likely have been relieved of command.

Even though America's servicemen and women fought valiantly during the
1968 'Tet' offensive, the U.S. and international media nevertheless managed to
reshape their hard-earned victory into a political defeat. Vietnamese
communist propaganda experts were so skillful that they were able to
convince many members of the media and even some military analysts that two
separate governments, the National Liberation Front in South Vietnam and
the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in the North, existed side by side and
that both were involved in a 'civil war.' It has since been proven that
both the NLF and the DRV were tightly controlled by the Vietnam Communist
Party and both governments were actually one and the same. Moreover,
personnel of the two purported military organizations of both illusionary
governments, the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) and the Viet Cong (VC),
were in reality members of the Peoples Army of Vietnam (PAVN).

Successive administrations in Washington, D.C. have pressed for democracy in
many countries around the world, including Russia, Haiti, South Africa,
Afghanistan and Iraq. But there has been very little interest shown in
gaining democracy for Asians, and this double standard is difficult to
understand. It is almost as though we Americans have a collective mentality
whereby we believe that peoples with yellow skin cannot manage freedom, and
that tight control is the only option available.

The American business community, aggressively buying up cheap products
manufactured in Asia for resale on the U.S. market, is blinded by the lack
of labor unions, cheap wages and fear of violent reprisals against labor
strikes. It is ironic that after some 58,000 fine young Americans died in
Vietnam while fighting for democracy the American business community is
now steadily developing the economy of communist controlled Vietnam,
insuring that the Vietnam Communist Party will not only remain in power,
but that it will increasingly have the ability to maintain an even larger and
more powerful military force. Concerning the plight of the families of Vietnam
War POWs and MIAs, democracy can also go a long way to help in this regard.
I believe that most Americans, especially Vietnam veterans, will agree that
for the most part the Vietnamese people are honest and hardworking. Like
our people right here at home, I can't imagine a situation where the people
of Vietnam would be willing to hide the remains of anyone's loved one in
order to extort money from them. Although during the past 30 years the
ruling communists have gradually doled out bits and pieces of skeletal
remains and personal effects in return for large monetary sums, once the
Vietnam Communist Party has collapsed the Vietnamese people will rise to
the occasion and provide whatever assistance is necessary to resolve the
issue of our missing men. We should all be doing everything we can to make
sure that day comes.

Garnett 'Bill' Bell, a retired GM-14, DoD, went to Vietnam as an infantryman
in 1965 and served four tours there. Bell was awarded 20 individual
decorations and numerous unit awards. Bell later served as an instructor in
the Department of Exploitation and Counterintelligence, U.S. Army
Intelligence Center and school. During his career Bell served in the 327th
Airborne Battle Group, 101st Airborne Division, the 1/35th Infantry
Regiment, 25th Infantry Division, the 2/506th Airborne Infantry Regiment,
101st Airborne Division, the 101st MI Company, the 525th Military
Intelligence Group, the Defense Language Institute, the U.S. Army
Intelligence and Security Command, the 6th Special Forces Group, the Joint
Casualty Resolution Center (JCRC), the Four Party Joint Military Team
(FPJMT) and the Joint Task Force Full-Accounting (JTFFA). *Bell's wife and
son were killed and a daughter critically injured in April 1975, when the
families of U.S. officials assigned to the American Embassy in Saigon were
evacuated in conjunction with the 'Operation Babylift' program. After
being evacuated by helicopter from the roof of the American Embassy on the
final day of the Republic of Vietnam (RVN) (30 April 1975), Bell returned
to postwar Vietnam as the first official U.S. representative after the war
ended when he was assigned as the Chief of the U.S. Office for POW/MIA
Affairs in Hanoi. He served more than 12 years on the POW/MIA Search Teams.

An Airborne-Ranger and Jumpmaster, Bell eventually became a member of the
Congressional Staff, U.S. House of Representatives. Fluent in Vietnamese,
Thai and Laotian, Bell is a graduate of Chaminade University and the author
of 'Leave No Man Behind.' Bell is employed as an investigator in the 12th
Judicial District western Arkansas.

Dr. Stuart Rochester, co-author, 'Honor Bound: The History of American
Prisoners of War in Southeast Asia, 1961-1973'
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*Vietnam Babylift, My Story

Via Dan