The Terrorist’s Mirror is a semi-biographical nonfiction story of a Chief Warrant Officer of the US Army taking his wife on a trip through a free fire zone in Vietnam as bait for an ambush. The plan for the trap was conceived by the Commander of a 1st Calvary Division tanks battalion, and approved by the Commanding General of the Saigon Special Operations and Bill Colby CIA Operations.
The success of the trap depended upon complete secrecy, and needed to appear logical and genuine to the North Vietnamese. There was one Chief Warrant Officer and his wife who lived on the
*Thai Firebase Bearcat. He had flown with the Thai Marine Police in Bangkok and was working with the South Vietnamese Minister of Information, Mr. Cat Lee. He had also worked off and on in the shadows during WW-II, the Korean War, and now flew snatch & grab missions for the CIA in Vietnam.
* I imagine there was a Thai section of
Bear Cat which would make sense, but the Bearcat I knew was home of the 9th Infantry Division. The way it is written, you would think only the Thais were there. Which reminds me of this post.
I was moving from Tu Duc to Binh Duong which was fairly close to the Cambodian border. I had started late, and as I turned on the road that went there pass our 25th Infantry Division, I thought of turning back, but didn't.
Night fell quickly, and I was about half way there when the headlights on my '52 Citroen began shutting off and on. I was the only one on the road, and became quite nervous as there was absolutely no moon. I decided that if the lights went out completely, then my best bet would be to ditch the car and get a good ways from it and hide in the foliage until dawn.
Fortunately, I made it to the first VNCH outpost, and though the soldier was very curious as to what a crazy American was doing driving at this hour in the country, he waved me through.
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The End Of A Republic (My Citroen)
(10/13/08. I just found this video of the same action. The foreign reporter who stated there were only 20 or 30 VC must have gone into the bushes to count them......BT)
This is a picture of the Newport bridge from Saigon to Long Binh. The VNCH soldiers are defending it, and if you could see right over the tree in the background, then you would be able to see my 1952 Citroen that I abandoned when I left. I was told that it was riddled with holes from the fighting there. Certainly wish I could have gotten a picture of it as such. Also, I left a chrome plated AK-47, a field recovered, rough AK-47, a M-2 carbine, a Chinese Communists officer's pistol, my .45 derringer, (more on this one later) and a lightweight folding weapon that the French parachutists used. I can't remember the name of this last one for some reason. My in-laws said they threw them all down their well, because they didn't want the Communists to find them. The government paid me for everything I left there including my Citroen, but refused to pay for the weapons, because they stated we weren't supposed to have them........
The facts
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