FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2015
Volume 7, No. 47 ©SS 2015
CONTINUING SERIES
Stumbling into war INSIDE
From the front: Killing, dying, suffering ‘indelibly marked us all’ was the year America took the gloves off in Vietnam, moving from “advising and assisting” the South Vietnamese military to an active combat role. The first U.S. ground combat troops arrived there in March. That same month, the United States began bombing North Vietnam in Operation Rolling Thunder. In November, troops would take on North Vietnamese regulars for the first time in the Battle of Ia Drang Valley. Gen. William Westmoreland, commander of the U.S. Forces, was Time magazine’s Man of the Year. Once again, America was at war.
War correspondent Joseph Galloway did four stints in Vietnam, including a 16-month tour in 1965, during which he covered the pivotal Battle of Ia Drang Valley. Galloway, the co-author of the acclaimed Vietnam War book “We Were Soldiers Once ... and Young,” which was the basis for the movie “We Were Soldiers,” shares with us his unique perspective from the ground at Landing Zone X-Ray and a lifelong brotherhood forged under fire. Page 4
AT STRIPES.COM/VIETNAM50
‘Slippery slope’ The first U.S. combat troops waded ashore near Da Nang in March 1965, and within a few months the Vietnam conflict became an American war. Although it barely registered in the national consciousness at first, the war would have dire consequences for the country, the presidency and American optimism and faith in government.
Unrest at home The self-immolations of 1965 were the most dramatic acts of a budding antiwar movement. The centralized and diverse effort intertwined with movements for civil rights and free speech and against war, nuclear weapons and communism — then overtook them all.
Interactives, galleries & much more Interactive features include bios of key players, a timeline of major 1965 events and an Ia Drang Valley battle map. Plus, view photo galleries, read Stars and Stripes reporting from 1965 and veterans can share their experiences.
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Members of the 229th Assault Helicopter Battalion carry wounded 1st Battalion soldiers away during the fight.
Lt. Col. Hal Moore, commander of the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, is seen on the radio during the fight for Landing Zone X-Ray in the Ia Drang Valley of Vietnam.
A wounded soldier of the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, is attended to by fellow comrades.
U.S. Army photos
Ia Drang Valley: where the US truly went to war BY H EATH DRUZIN Stars and Stripes
On Nov. 14, 1965, soldiers from the 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry loaded onto helicopters and flew to a remote patch of ground in the Ia Drang Valley of South Vietnam’s central highlands. Within an hour, they came under attack for the first time by North Vietnamese regulars, launching a four-day battle that killed hundreds of Americans, perhaps more than 1,000 Vietnamese and changed the course of the Vietnam War. The Ia Drang Valley is where the U.S. truly went to war. After years of advising the South Vietnamese against the communist North, and months
of chasing black-clad guerrillas, a large formation of American troops faced well-trained, well-equipped regulars of the People’s Army of Vietnam. The North Vietnamese enjoyed numerical superiority in the valley. Unlike Viet Cong guerrillas, the northerners were prepared to stand and fight. “It had been a small unde-
clared war mainly fought by South Vietnamese troops with a few U.S. advisers in the mix, sometimes on the ground, sometimes in helicopters,” said Andrew Wiest, a history professor at the University of Southern Mississippi and the founding director of its Dale Center for the Study of War and Society.
“It was much bigger than what we had seen before against a much more tenacious enemy,” Wiest said of the battle. “The largely (North Vietnamese Army) units we ran into, they were interested in staying and fighting.” Fighting was so intense that a battalion commander, Lt. Col. Hal Moore, reported finding a dead American “with his hands at the throat” of a dead North Vietnamese soldier. Three U.S. soldiers were awarded the Medal of Honor for bravery during the battle. Mindful of the effects of propaganda, each side declared victory. Moore considered the outcome a draw. By whatever measure, the chaotic, bloody Battle of the Ia
“It was much bigger than what we had seen before against a much more tenacious enemy. The largely (North Vietnamese Army) units we ran into, they were interested in staying and fighting.” Andrew Wiest a history professor at the University of Southern Mississippi and the founding director of its Dale Center for the Study of War and Society
Drang Valley set the tone for the rest of war. To the Americans, the battle validated their new “airmobile” strategy — using helicopters to move troops quickly into remote jungle areas often without roads and inflict heavy casualties by airpower and artillery. The outcome convinced the North Vietnamese that they could reduce the threat of U.S. firepower by engaging the Americans at close quarters where U.S. airstrikes would prove risky and then melt away into the jungle or across the border into sanctuaries in Cambodia. Each side realized it was fighting a war of attrition. The only question was which side could outlast the other. The battle was part of a campaign for control of the strategic central highlands, which divided South Vietnam north to south. Controlling the central highlands would enable the North Vietnamese to cut the south in two and separate South Vietnam’s northern cities of Hue and Da Nang from the capital Saigon to the south. SEE PAGE 3
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FROM PAGE 2
A month before the Ia Drang operation, North Vietnamese regulars attacked a U.S. Special Forces base at Plei Me, hoping to lure the ineffectual South Vietnamese army out of its base at the provincial capital Pleiku and destroy it. U.S. airpower lifted the siege and drove back the North Vietnamese. Lacking confidence in the South Vietnamese, Westmoreland ordered the U.S. 1st Cavalry Division, which had been in country about a month, to pursue the enemy, using newly minted airmobile tactics. Moore and his 450-man 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, flew into Landing Zone X-Ray at the base of the Chu Pong Mountain west of Plei Me and miles from the Cambodian border. U.S. intelligence knew that North Vietnamese regulars — probably a single regiment — were in the area. Shortly after landing, a U.S. patrol captured an unarmed North Vietnamese deserter who told them that three regiments, roughly an entire division, were hiding in the nearby mountain. About 40 minutes later, North Vietnamese launched their attack, hiding in the tall elephant grass and in stands of trees. A U.S. platoon was lured into a trap and surrounded, holding off repeated North Vietnamese attacks despite the death of the platoon leader and several non-commissioned officers. After two days of intense North Vietnamese attacks
ONLINE BATTLE OF IA DRANG VALLEY See an interactive map depicting key battles in the Ia Drang Valley.
stripes.com/ vietnam50
and mounting casualties, Moore radioed the code word “Broken Arrow,” calling for all available aircraft to rescue an American unit about to be overrun. The airstrike broke the North Vietnamese siege and enabled reinforcements to reach the LZ. Moore and his battalion were evacuated the next day, Nov. 17. A fresh unit, the 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry, was ordered to march from LZ XRay to LZ Albany a few miles away. Shortly after the battalion set out, the North Vietnamese sprang a massive ambush. Nearly 70 percent of the battalion’s soldiers were killed or wounded before airstrikes, artillery and reinforcements drove the North Vietnamese into nearby Cambodia. It would remain the U.S. military’s single bloodiest day in Vietnam through the entire war. Among the survivors of the ambush was 1st Lt. Rick Rescorla, a platoon leader who died Sept. 11, 2001, rescuing people from the World Trade Center’s south tower until it crashed around him. The North Vietnamese regulars and Viet Cong guerrillas absorbed even higher casualties from better-equipped American troops on the ground as well as helicopter gunships and B-52s raining bombs, bullets and napalm. A young United Press International reporter, Joseph Galloway, became the only civilian decorated for gallantry during the war, awarded a Bronze Star with “V” de-
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Maj. Bruce Crandall’s UH-1D helicopter climbs skyward after discharging a load of infantrymen on a search-and-destroy mission. U.S. Army
vice for valor for carrying a wounded soldier off the battlefield under intense fire. Westmoreland, a veteran of World War II in Europe, declared Ia Drang a victory because the North Vietnamese were driven from the field after suffering major casualties. The communist threat to the central highlands subsided. The losses at Ia Drang prompted the North Vietnamese to rethink their plan to confront U.S. forces with large, conventional formations, reverting to hit and run attacks where U.S. air and artillery power was less effective. The American death toll was a shock to President Lyndon Johnson, who immediately dispatched Defense Secretary Robert McNamara to Saigon to find out what was going on. McNamara told Johnson that the U.S. could continue with its limited engagement or massively escalate the war with hundreds of thousands more troops. Each option, he warned, had a good chance of leading to a stalemate. But Westmoreland believed the battle validated the airmobile tactic of quick strikes to catch the enemy off guard, kill as many as possible and
withdraw back to base. The idea was to kill the enemy, not necessarily hold ground, and bleed the North Vietnamese until they tired of war. “This strategy, as flawed as it was, had some potentiality of working,” Wiest, the historian, said. “The problem was it had to be applied by a country that was much more willing for it to be applied for the long haul. Westmoreland’s biggest problem with the strategy was that he thought it would work in two or three years when it would have taken 10 or 12.” Absent was an effective plan for winning over the civilian population caught in the crossfire, said James Willbanks, a Vietnam veteran who is the director of the Department of Military History at U.S. Army Command and General Staff College. “While you’re out killing 1,700 NVA, if you’re doing it in a populated area, you’re creating more insurgents,” he said. In Hanoi, the North Vietnamese leadership was prepared for huge losses. In 1946, Ho Chi Minh had warned the French, who were trying to restore control over their former protectorate, that “you can kill 10 of my men for every one I kill of yours, yet even at those
odds, you will lose and I will win.” He assumed that like the French, the Americans would tire of seeing their young men coming home in body bags. “They realized, ‘Yeah, it’s going to be bloody, but we can fight these guys,’” Willbanks said. In Washington, Ia Drang convinced Johnson that he was in for a long, bloody war. Westmoreland’s recommendation for more troops carried the day -- even as Johnson and his advisers privately questioned prospects for success. No one wanted to look weak in the face of “communist aggression.” “I think McNamara knew, deep down; I think Johnson knew,” Wiest said. “I think it also speaks to the depths these guys were into the Cold War reality at the time. There’s certainly politics involved in it, but I do think these guys, as mythological as it turned out to be, were true Cold War believers. “I think this battle pushes Johnson further into Westmoreland’s corner. He’s in a unique position to want to believe these optimistic reports and he’s getting a lot of them.” druzin.heath@stripes.com Twitter: @Druzin_Stripes
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Resupply at Landing Zone X-Ray Photos courtesy of Joseph L. Galloway
FROM THE FRONT
Killing, dying, suffering, ‘indelibly marked us all’ BY JOSEPH L. GALLOWAY Special to Stars and Stripes
It was Sunday, Nov. 14, 1965, just after dark when I climbed aboard a Huey helicopter filled with crates of ammunition and hand grenades and hitched a ride into the pages of history. We were bound for a small clearing called Landing Zone X-Ray, where an understrength battalion of the 7th Cavalry was fighting for its life. I had been in that small artillery firebase trying to find a ride into X-Ray most of the afternoon. Five other journalists had gathered there on the same mission, including my nemesis Pete Arnett of The Associated Press. But I had an edge on them: I had marched with Lt. Col. Hal Moore’s 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, troops three days before and I knew some of their faces. A young captain hurried past and I recognized him. It was Capt. Matt Dillon, Moore’s operations officer. I
grabbed him and told him I needed a ride to the battle. He told me he was taking two Hueys full of ammo to X-Ray as soon as it got dark, but he couldn’t take me unless Moore cleared it. I followed him to a radio tent and listened as he reported to his boss on the nighttime mission. Then he told Moore “that reporter Galloway wants to come along.”
“Follow me and I’ll take you to the [command post]. Watch where you step. There’s lots of bodies here and most of them are ours.” Sgt. Maj. Basil L. Plumley
Moore’s reply, over the sounds of battle crackling on the radio: “If he’s crazy enough to want to come and you’ve got room, bring him!” I hid out from the other reporters until near dark when they caught a chopper back to Pleiku and a hot meal, shower and a nice bunk. Then I climbed aboard that Huey, piloted by Maj. Bruce Crandall, and sat down on some ammo crates. No question I knew where I was going and what waited for me there. I had overflown X-Ray early that afternoon with the 3rd Brigade commander, Col. Tim Brown. Smoke was rising 5,000 feet over a desperate battleground below. Moore was waving his boss off, warning that his command chopper with all its antennas would be a bullet magnet if we landed. As we circled overhead an A-1E Skyraider trailing a hundred yards of smoke and fire flashed below us. “Anyone see a chute?” someone shouted over the intercom.
Joseph L. Galloway, seen here with a Swedish K submachine gun and Nikon F, in August 1965. I leaned out and watched the plane crash into the jungle below. I clicked my mike and responded: “No chute! No chute! He rode it in!” Brown dropped me off at a landing zone near X-Ray. SEE PAGE 12
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Friendly chat between Marines and Viet Cong BY ERIK SLAVIN Stars and Stripes
DA NANG, Vietnam — Fifty years ago, two of the men sitting around this table at the Red Beach Resort were enemies of the United States. They were part of the Viet Cong, the irregular North Vietnam forces that used small-force tactics in the bush against U.S. fighters during the Vietnam War. Any animosity they felt toward the U.S. — and more specifically, toward the U.S. Marine veterans living in Da Nang who they now call friends — is history, they said. The Marines at the table in late September completely agree with their former foes. They’ve gathered together a few times at Red Beach, where the Marines first landed on March 8, 1965, and talked about the old days. Every time, the Marines say, they’ve learned something new. The friends agreed to talk to Stars and Stripes. The Marines at the table were Larry Vetter, a former engineer and later a Recon company commander, along with Chas Lehmann and Chuck Palazzo, both of whom were enlisted. The Viet Cong were Phan Van Tai, a former captain, and Nguyen Tien, who worked on propaganda and psychological operations. A translator also attended. Their conversation has been edited for length and clarity. What were you doing when the Marines landed? Tai: We looked like normal people. I was just looking and watching. Tien: I watched the time they landed, the place, how many fighters and what types of weapons they were using. Vetter: He and I were in small teams, Recon. Were you out there in the mountains, or mostly around here? Tien: Most of the time I stayed here, but sometimes I followed a group in the mountains. We would
ERIK SLAVIN /Stars and Stripes
Nguyen Tien, center, a former Viet Cong soldier, has coffee with U.S. Marine veterans at the Red Beach Resort in Da Nang, Vietnam, on Sept. 25. At left is Phan Van Tai, a former Viet Cong captain. talk to the girls who’d meet the sollearned it in school. But the VC very diers to get information. quickly attacked. Lehmann: That was common Vetter: He’s saying the Marines knowledge. brought what they learned in AmerVetter: One of the things we’d do, ica to Vietnam, and they’re Vietwe were required to do, was to hire namese, they know how to work the Vietnamese to work in our camps. terrain, they know how to work the They’d clean, they did barbershop people, they know how to move in and work, and we all knew there were out fast. many VC coming in and out. I always Tien: Before the Marines finish was afraid, I don’t know if they knew setting up, we fight. any barbers that cut hair. They’d cut Lehmann: Their reaction was more your hair, but then they’d pick up a without planning. straight razor and do the edge all the Vetter: Much more mobile. The way around. I’d [think] “This guy’s people were their friends, for the a VC, he’s going to bring that around most part. My analysis of it was the edge and slit my throat.” that you had about 20 percent of the What were your impressions of Vietnamese that were pro-South the Marines? Vietnamese, pro-French, pro-AmeriTien: The first time when we saw can. Then you had 20 percent who the Marines landing, we thought they were very active against us, and the were strong and their weapons were 60 percent in between were passively very good. ... After some months, we against us, not wanting us here really. thought that we can win, because Right over here at this town … I the Marines, when they prepare for had people from the higher headfighting, they prepare for a very long quarters tell me I had to get up a joint time. We knew where the Marines patrol with a South Vietnamese squad would fight. and I said no, and they made me do Lehmann: So they looked at the it. As they were walking into the Marines and said, ambush zone … the “The Marines moved South Vietnamese ONLINE slow”? army squad stood up, Tien: No, they spoke in Vietnamese More photos from the interview prepared slow. It and ran. And my with U.S. Marines and Viet Cong looked like they did Marines are saying, everything how they “Holy [expletive], stripes.com/vietnam50
what just happened?” And the Viet Cong, NVA, whoever they were, it was 1969, they opened fire where the South Vietnamese squad had been. I had one Marine killed and a couple wounded. And they of course ran off the VC, but that’s an example, even as late as 1969, you didn’t trust most of the South Vietnamese. These guys [Viet Cong] were better. Lehmann: The VC were more aggressive. The ARVNs were trying to get away from that, even though they had uniforms ... I think these guys were better than the ARVNs. [ARVN is an acronym for the Army of the Republic of South Vietnam.] Tien: I think the South signed up so they could get a salary from the Americans. When did you begin to see Americans as something other than enemies? Tai: From when Bill Clinton visited in 1995. Palazzo: When the trade embargo ended. Yeah, they just celebrated 20 years. [Bill Clinton returned for the anniversary in July.] Tai: Before Clinton opened trade, it was really difficult. After that, it became better. After Clinton opened trade, a lot of countries showed interest, so the government said that Vietnam wanted to make friends with other countries. So we close the door to the past, and open the door to the future. Do you think about those days that you were VC a lot, or is it something you try not to think about? Tien: When I’m alone, I think about my friends, about the people who died. Other Viet Cong, we meet together and we talk about it, about once a month. Do your friends in the VC feel the same way about Americans as you do, or do they still have some hard feelings? Tien: They don’t hate Americans. They look at you the same way we do. You are friendly. We want more friends to love Vietnam.
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Marines landing at Red Beach in Da Nang, Vietnam. U.S. Marine Corps History Division
Red Beach, Da Nang: Then & now Courtesy of Larry Vetter
Red Beach U.S. Marine Corps Force Logistics Command supply base in 1966, one year after the Marines landed there in Da Nang.
ERIK SLAVIN /Stars and Stripes
Red Beach in Da Nang, as seen on Sept. 25, 2015.
ERIK SLAVIN /Stars and Stripes
Red Beach, where U.S. Marines first landed in March 1965, now includes a small vacation resort, seen on the left.
U.S. Marine Corps History Division
Marines come ashore at Da Nang.
Four U.S. ships of Amphibious Task Force 76 appeared off Da Nang, Vietnam, on March 8, 1965. Intermittent rain and up to 4-foot waves delayed the landing at Red Beach 2 for about an hour. With the arrival of the Marines and the escalation of the air campaign, America’s military role in Vietnam crossed the line from advise and assist to offensive warfare. Called Red Beach because of the colors reflected over the water at dawn and sunset, it is now considered a clean, peaceful tourist attraction, about 9 miles from Da Nang’s city center.
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FROM PAGE 4
Before moonrise, we landed in the tall grass at X-Ray and bailed out, throwing the crates of ammo and 5-gallon plastic jugs of water out into the grass, and then fell flat as the two Hueys lifted off. In the silence and darkness we waited. Then came a gruff voice: “Follow me and I’ll take you to the CP. Watch where you step. There’s lots of bodies here and most of them are ours.” It was Sgt. Maj. Basil L. Plumley policing us up. Plumley led the small party to Moore, who welcomed me and told me he could not guarantee my safety. I didn’t expect any such guarantee. I carried an M16 rifle on my shoulder, 20 loaded magazines in my pack, two Nikon F cameras, three lenses, lots of Tri-X and Kodachrome film. And I had an exclusive front-row seat at the biggest battle of the still-young Vietnam War. With my back against a small tree, rifle and cameras on my lap, I waited through a long nervous night as the enemy probed our lines and a constant barrage of 105mm artillery fire impacted around us. When the sun came up, I took stock of my surroundings. Moore and his small command group and their radio operators sat with their backs to a large termite mound, big as a Volkswagen and hard as concrete. Nearby was a makeshift aid station. Also nearby was a sobering sight: a long line of American dead, wrapped in their green ponchos, their boots sticking out the bottoms. The colonel was making plans to send a strong patrol out to rescue a platoon of B Company that had been lured into an ambush and had withstood repeated enemy assaults all night long when fighting erupted along the Charlie Company line on the perimeter. Two battalions of enemy troops assaulted the thin line of Americans. Everything they fired that didn’t hit something seemed to be passing right through the command post area about knee-high. I rolled over on my belly and got real low to the ground as all that lead flew by. Suddenly I felt a thump in my ribs and turned my head
Above: Lt. Col. Hal Moore and Sgt. Maj. Basil L. Plumley at the “termite mound,” also known as the command post. Left: Soldiers evacuate a casualty at Landing Zone X-Ray. Courtesy of Joseph L. Galloway
carefully to see what it was. It was a size 12 combat boot on the foot of Plumley: “Can’t take no pictures lying down there on the ground, Sonny!” he shouted over the din of combat. It had not escaped my notice that I was now with the 7th Cavalry, Custer’s old outfit, and chances were good that none of us would make it out of this place alive. So I got up and followed Plumley — a three-war Airborne and Infantry veteran from West Virginia — as he moved over to the aid station and addressed the battalion surgeon, Capt. Robert Carrara, and the medical platoon sergeant, Thomas Keeton: “Gentlemen, prepare to defend yourselves!” Plumley yanked out his .45 pistol and jacked a round into the chamber. Plum-
ley was gathering a battalion reserve in case the North Vietnamese broke into the clearing. Later that second day of battle an Air Force F-100 Super Sabre jet fighter dropped two cans of napalm right on the command post. By then I was sitting alongside the command group, backs to the termite hill. The first can passed right over our heads and impacted 15 or 20 yards from us, right where two engineers were standing. Then they were screaming and dancing in the flames. I got up and ran into the burning grass and helped carry Pfc. Jimmy D. Nakayama to the aid station. Nakayama, a native of Rigby, Idaho, died two days later. His wife, Trudie, gave birth to a baby girl that same week. The fighting, sometimes hand
to hand, would continue all this day and all night and into the third morning on Nov. 16. The American dead and wounded flowed into the CP area and the aid station. The helicopters, led by Crandall and his wingmate Capt. Ed “Too Tall to Fly” Freeman, braved the enemy fire bringing supplies and carrying out the wounded on mission after mission. Those two, Crandall and Freeman, would earn Medals of Honor long after the fact. Lt. Walter J. “Joe” Marm would earn his MOH taking out an enemy machine gun nest on the first day. On the third day the survivors of the X-Ray battle were pulled back to Pleiku to rest and refit. The battalion had lost 79 troopers killed and over 120 wounded. Our sister battalion, the 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry, held X-Ray that night, and on the morning of Nov. 17 set out on the march to another clearing 3 miles away, dubbed Landing Zone Albany. They walked into
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a hasty ambush by a fresh unit of North Vietnamese, and in six hours of horrific slaughter in the high grass and thick jungle, would lose 155 men killed and 130 wounded. The 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) during that terrible November campaign in and around the remote Ia Drang Valley lost 305 troops killed in action and hundreds more wounded. It would go down as the bloodiest fighting of a war that would drag on for eight more years. Not one of us who survived emerged the same as he arrived. The images of killing, dying and suffering indelibly marked us all. I left the X-Ray battlefield knowing that 79 young men had given their lives so that I might live. I left with a charge from Moore ringing in my ears: Go tell the American people what my troopers did here. Go tell them how my troopers died. Moore and the 7th Cavalry battalions would fight on for eight months, and I would join them every chance I got. They were my brothers-in-arms, my blood brothers. They still are and will be always. I would go on to do a total of four tours in Vietnam; ride with the 24th Infantry Division (Mech) in the Gulf War; go into the Haiti incursion with Special Forces; and do two tours covering the Iraq War. I gave up my helmet and armor after the last tour in 2006. Hal Moore and I became best friends, and eventually we researched and wrote “We Were Soldiers Once … and Young,” a book that told the stories of the battles of X-Ray and Albany, and “We Are Soldiers Still,” the story of our return to those two bloody battlegrounds in company with the North Vietnamese commanders who did their best to kill us all there 27 years before. For we who survived, the days dwindle to a precious few. Each year there are fewer who answer the roll call at battalion reunions. Our good buddy, Sgt. Maj. Basil Plumley, died three years ago at 92. We remember them all, those who died young and those who died old, dimly through our tears.
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FAMILIES IN HANOI
Evacuated and often separated BY ERIK SLAVIN Stars and Stripes
HANOI, Vietnam — Do Dinh Thuy grew up with five siblings in a prosperous Hanoi family. The northern capital was relatively peaceful in the late 1950s and early 1960s, even as thousands of U.S. military advisers aided the Saigon government in the escalating war to the south. In 1965, the U.S. began Operation Rolling Thunder, an air campaign aimed at encouraging the beleaguered South, while reducing the communist North’s morale with targeted bombings. By the end of the year, more than 180,000 U.S. troops were at war in Vietnam. Thuy was in the fifth grade when his teacher told him that school in Hanoi was canceled. In the months that followed, Hanoi’s children, elderly and other citizens considered nonessential to the war effort were evacuated to the countryside. Thuy’s father, a doctor, was sent to one province; his mother and siblings moved to three others. “There was no choice where you got to live,” Thuy, now 62, said. “At that time, everybody had to do it.” As difficult as the fam-
ERIK SLAVIN /Stars and Stripes
Do Dinh Thuy, 62, sits at a cafe just outside of Hanoi’s Old Town on Sept. 29. Thuy was part of the mass evacuation of children from Hanoi, following the U.S. escalation of the war effort against communist North Vietnam. ily breakups were, Thuy and other Vietnamese today largely view the evacuation of Hanoi as a triumph of organization and resolve. Far from the crippling morale blow that U.S. planners had hoped for, many of Hanoi’s citizens came out of 1965 and 1966 steeled for the war’s escalation. After relocating to a village
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20 miles from Hanoi, Thuy enrolled in a new school. The classroom was built about three feet underground, using earth and bamboo. About 50 children crowded inside. There was little distinction between rich and poor, Thuy, now 62, recalled recently at a café just outside of Hanoi’s Old Town. Once each month, his fam-
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ily reunited in Hanoi. Thuy’s parents bicycled 30 to 40 miles to get there, he said. “We didn’t talk much about war,” Thuy said. “We just spent time together as a family, because the next day we had to go back.” Tran Thi Thao, 62, discussed the war years while fanning herself on a hot September afternoon near Trúc Bach Lake in central Hanoi. She happened to be standing behind the area where John McCain was hauled out of the water and taken prisoner in 1967. Today, the lake is a backdrop for coffee shops and high-rise apartments. “Looking back, we couldn’t have imagined how well we could overcome the hardship,” Thao said. Thao saw her parents once each week at the evacuation camp where she lived, she said. Despite preparations, the fight never came directly to Hanoi in 1965. In 1966,
the U.S. bombed Hanoi’s oil reserves. U.S. aircraft struck at more of the North on heavier runs, though civilian centers in Hanoi were generally spared, for a time. Nguyen Tien Thanh, 63, who runs a small, roadside snack shop in Hanoi, knew little about the war in 1965 and 1966. He mostly remembered how quickly the city was evacuated, and the first time he saw the effects of a targeted bombing. “When they bombed the oil stores and I saw all of the fire coming out — the memory is so vivid to me,” Thanh said. By 1971, he volunteered for the Army and marched to the south. Airstrikes hit Thanh’s unit hard at the Thach Han River and Thanh was ordered to swim across the river, between the floating bodies. Thanh was still fighting in 1972, when Operation Linebacker II began. For 12 days in December, U.S. B-52s and other aircraft pummeled the North’s capital. With that, Hanoi’s people finally saw the destruction they had anticipated in 1965. On Jan. 27, 1973, the U.S. and the North signed the Paris Peace Accords. The withdrawal of troops began. Everyone who spoke of their lives during the 1960s and 1970s recalled witnessing war. Some saw it firsthand, while others felt the rumble of bombs and the fear that came with it. Few people talked much about the ideological struggles of the day. Nearly all reflected on how Hanoi’s families persevered. “I fully understand now what [my parents] were thinking — the pain they had to face when living apart from their children,” Thuy said. Slavin.erik@stripes.com Twitter:@eslavin_stripes
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