As a psychological operations officer who studied Vietnamese at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey California prior to my tour in Vietnam from July 1969 to July 1970, I can say with some confidence that we did indeed win this war. Our area of operations extended from Da Nang, Vietnam northward to the DMZ, so called "I Corps".
During that year, I was attached to the 3rd Marine division in Dong Ha, the 101st Airborne in Phu Bai just outside of Hue City, and the 1st of the 5th infantry division in Quang Tri. As most readers know, the Tet Offensive of 1968 was heavily fought in the cities of Hue and northward. Vietcong had dominated these areas. Hamlets throughout were intimidated by the Vietcong and the North Vietnamese regular army occupied the jungles.
While combat raged in those jungles for the infantry units I mentioned above, the hamlets had become quite peaceful after Tet. We had three man teams consisting of an officer like myself, and enlisted man usually a specialist, and a Vietnamese interpreter. In the early evenings before we would venture out to the hamlets in our truck and interact with the people in the hamlets. For fear of ambushes or mines we spent the night in the hamlets. Amongst the three of us we had two M-16 rifles and a .45 pistol. Rarely, we would check out M-79 grenade launcher when we had heard there had been some activity in the area. I preferred to spend the night on top of the truck, gazing at the stars above unless it was the rainy season.
During that entire year, sometimes no more than 7 miles from the DMZ where combat was raging, the hamlets were peaceful and friendly. The elders were very polite and often fed us; the children adored us. Not once were we ever harassed or injured. We had great opportunities to talk with the Vietnamese. They feared the communists. Some who were Christians or Buddhists had left North Vietnam as Ho Chi Minh was killing people of faith after they defeated the French. The people in the hamlets were grateful that we were there and they feared that we would leave.
I shall never forget when my interpreter, who had become my friend, and who loved America and loved the Beatles responded to a comment I made while we were riding along in our truck. I said to him, "Someday, Sgt. Lap, when the war is over, we will bring our families together either here in your country or maybe even in mine." He turned to me with a serious look -- we were both in own mid-20s -- and said "We will never see each other again." I was speechless. Inside I was pained and confused. Why would a friend say this? I realized only later it was an act of kindness couched in the hard truth that at the time only he could see.
Further, when I was attached to the 101st Sgt Lap and I one evening a week would leave the base at Phu Bai and go to a high school in Hue city where allegedly Ho Chi Minh had matriculated and we taught English. The class was filled to standing room only with children as young as 6 and adults well into their 70s. I was too naďve at that time to understand why they were there. Like Sgt. Lap, they saw what was going on in America as people in my generation were marching in the streets, spitting on soldiers and calling us baby killers. They saw the end coming for themselves but at that point I was too blind to see it. They surely could see our country's loss of will to fight. No matter what I said or believed they had to deal with the truth, because for them, it was a matter of life and death, a matter of survival.
I returned home, started medical school, but could never get Vietnam off my mind. I found myself debating with my fellow students, trying to tell them something they were not learning from the Washington Post, the New York Times or the major news TV outlets. I was largely unsuccessful. The specialist I worked with maintained contact with Sgt. Lap for the next several years.
However, as Nixon lost his political battles and resigned over Watergate and Pres. Ford was unable to convince the Democratic Congress to continue funding the South Vietnamese army a formally beaten Communist army saw an opportunity in that weakness. Then came 1975. I recall standing in the shower listening to the radio in my home as they described the helicopters landing on the roof of the American embassy in Saigon trying to save a few people from the communist barbarians literally "at the gate". I cried bitterly. I feared for Sgt. Lap. It would be easy to find out that he had worked with Americans. Both the soldier I worked with and I have concluded that Sgt. Lap was likely killed, no, executed, by the communists.
This book tells the story as it should have been told 30+ years ago. Every chance I get at 63 years of age I try to tell the real story of what happened. As a Hungarian woman told me in 1971 as she described the pain of realizing that the liberators after World War II were not going to be the Allies but rather the Soviet Union and that their lives would be forever changed until the era of Reagan: "You never realize how fragile your civilization is until you have lost it."
We are now in dangerous times once again. We never really learned the lesson of Vietnam as told in this book. Read the book, find the truth here.
