Customer Reviews

The Last Battle: The Mayaguez Incident and the End of the Vietnam War

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

We entered Indochina to save a country, and ended by rescuing a ship.

-Henry Kissinger

With America now the world's unchallenged superpower, it is all too easy to forget the depths to
which we had sunk in the 1970s. Ralph Wetterhahn's Last Battle is a healthy reminder of how deep
and of some of the reasons why.

The book succeeds in three disparate tasks. First, Wetterhahn, a former Air Force pilot, reconstructs
the rarely told--and, his research suggests, never completely told before--story of the Mayaguez
"rescue", in May 1975, adeptly switching back and forth between the deadly military action and the
political games being played in the Ford White House. The stark contrast between the bravery of the
men on the ground and the conniving of Gerald Ford and Henry Kissinger, in particular, is an ugly
reminder of how disconnected the private political concerns of Washington politicians had become
from the reality of sending men to die in Southeast Asia. It is hard to avoid the conclusion, and
Wetterhahn makes it even harder, that the Mayaguez affair was scene by Gerald Ford as an easy and
cheap way to deflect attention from the ignominious Fall of Saigon two weeks earlier and from his
disastrous pardon of Richard Nixon.

Even more maddening is the level of chaos and incompetence that Wetterhahn depicts at the highest
levels of the decision making process. From attacking the wrong island to commencing after the
Cambodians had already announced they would release the ship to President Ford actually issuing
orders to pilots during the attack, the whole mess is one long example of how not to use American
military might. One illustrative moment, which would be funny if it weren't so frightening, sees the
White House photographer speak up during a meeting to suggest that the massive retaliation Ford is
contemplating might be inappropriate. And the most shocking portions of the book detail the
administration's willingness to cover up how many men were lost in the engagement--41, including 23
Air Force servicemen killed in a helicopter crash which was treated as if it had nothing to do with the
exercise--and the fact that three Marines, still alive and fighting when last seen, were left behind on
Koh Tang Island.

Wetterhahn does an excellent job of dissecting the whole morass and drawing out lessons from it. He
also makes a convincing case that the failure to openly discuss the problems at the time may well have
contributed to future disasters like the botched Iranian hostage rescue in the Carter administration.

The final portion of the book is the most poignant though, as Wetterhahn, by now pretty much
obsessed with the fate of those three marines, spends years ping-ponging between the US government
and Cambodia, trying to determine their fate and recover them or their remains. Here the story takes
on both the nature of a mystery tale, the fate of the three at the heart of it, and of a psychological
thriller, with Wetterhahn's own need to reach finality practically taking control of his life.

Mr. Wetterhahn deserves great credit for sinking his teeth into this story and refusing to let go. His
determination pays off in the fullest portrait we're likely to get of a relatively minor incident that
reveals more than we might like to know about the shabby way we treated our military forces during
the Vietnam era. In the end, it reveals the terrible costs, in human lives, human emotions, and the
continuance of faulty, even deadly, procedures, that is paid when government refuses to honestly face
up to the consequences of its actions. Though the events herein happened almost thirty years ago, the
lessons to be learned are always timely. And it is never too late to honor the sacrifices made by our
fighting men. For three brave Marines--Danny G. Marshall, Joseph Nelson Hargrove, and Gary Lee
Hall--that recognition has waited until now, but they well deserve it.

GRADE : A

I have read LTC Wetterhahn's book and find that, while it makes interesting reading, it is factually lacking in numerous areas.
As a crewmember on the mission, I find many of the details of LTC Wetterhahn's book to be inaccurate, and thus he is led to some erroneous conclusions. As a low-ranking aircrew member (I had recently been promoted to first lieutenant at the time, flying as copilot aboard one of the HH-53 Jolly Green rescue helicopters), I was obviously not privy to many of the "behind the scenes" decisions which were unfolding during the incident. However, the aircraft I was on was involved in the battle from the initial insertion to the final pullout, logging 16 hours of flight time during the mission. Based on that, I feel relatively well qualified to comment on the tactical side of the operation.
As an example, on page 102, LTC Wetterhahn states "A talented A-7 strafer can routinely get off a very tight quarter-second burst, sending twenty or so rounds within a two-square-yard area." As a former project engineer at the Air Force Armament Laboratory, Guns and Rockets Branch, Eglin AFB, FL, I can tell you that, even if all weapons mounting and aiming tolerances were to be magically reduced to zero on the A-7s gun, the manufacturing tolerances of propellant load and projectile weight alone would still put the ballistic performance of the 20-mm gatling cannon on the A-7 outside of the range quoted in the book. Add back in the mounting, boresight and aiming system tolerances, and this statement is ludicrous. If the A-7 gunnery system was so accurate, why did it take multiple passes for the A-7s to neutralize the sunken gunboat off the north end of the island, as stated on p. 226? The fact is that the gunnery skills of the fighters, particularly the F-4s, was nowhere near what LTC Wetterhahn claims.
As to his major conclusions, on page 311, he writes: "Off the shores of Cambodia, the strategic imperatives of showing a "clear, clear" American victory resulted in the conscious abandonment of three Marines."
I, and all of the crewmember with which I have spoken since this book was released, take serious exception with this statement. There was no conscious decision to abandon anyone on the island. LTC Wetterhahn himself describes how TSgt Wayne Fisk stepped off the last departing helicopter, not once but twice, in an attempt to make sure we had everyone. TSgt Fisk did this at great risk to his own life. All of the crews still flying at the end of the day asked the command section numerous times to verify that all ground personnel were accounted for, and we were given an affirmative answer. To the best of our knowledge, we had all of the personnel on board with the departure of the last helicopter. All of the crewmembers who took part in this operation felt a great loss upon learning that some Marines were not recovered from the island, and we all salute the memories of the valiant servicemen who gave their lives in service to their country. However, as far as any "conscious abandonment" is concerned, I seriously disagree with LTC Wetterhahn's assessment on this point.
I further take exception to his conclusion, on page 259, that the seizure of the ship was the result of a decision by a local official rather than of the central government. I, for one, find it much more likely that the new government in Phnom Penh did, in fact, order the seizure of an American vessel as a way to show the world that it was in charge of the country which it had just taken over. With the example of the Pueblo to go on, and the fact that the US had just three weeks before been ejected from Vietnam, the Pol Pot government saw the situation as a prime opportunity to assert its authority and gain (at least, in its view) credibility with the world community by "tweaking the tiger's tail." They did not figure that President Ford would respond with a military action, and when it turned to mud around them, the high officials searched for a scapegoat. For LTC Wetterhahn to accept the word of an official of a government which went on to murder one-third of its own population is, in my opinion, excessively naïve. Such naivete casts doubts on the credibility of other statements credited to Khmer officials.
I agree with his assessment on one point, however, and that is that attempting to run tactical military operations from the highest levels of the government has been shown, on numerous occasions, to be a less-than-optimal method. In my opinion, it is the function and duty of the executive branch to determine the goals and objectives of the country's foreign policy. When such policy involves the use of military force, the determination of how to best do that should be in the hands of the military, with appropriate executive and Congressional oversight. Lyndon Johnson proved that running a war from the White House only guarantees defeat. Henry Kissinger, in this case, underscored that fact with his meddling in affairs with which he was unfamiliar. The failure of the command and control of this operation is well documented in LTC John Guilmartin's book "A Very Small War." This the lesson which should be remembered from the Mayaguez incident.
I further salute LTC Wetterhahn's dedication to investigating this incident. It is obvious from his writing that he has spent considerable time and effort, not to mention personal funds, to pursue this investigation. I merely disagree with most of the main conclusions of the book.
By the way, what happened to the review by Charles Brown? As a crewmember on one of the participating aircraft, I should think that his opinion would be represented.
Bob Gradle
Copilot, Jolly 43

With great anticipation, I finally had the opportunity to read Ralph Wetterhahn's, The Last Battle. The book is all I hoped it would be, and more. The Last Battle reads like a novel, but the plot of this thriller was written in American blood on a fierce battlefield-and in a lonely killing field in Cambodia. He has unearthed a story that had remained buried in unmarked graves for more than twenty years.

Five years ago, Ralph shared an account of his strange return to Southeast Asia. He told of being bumped from a flight to Hanoi by none other than ex-President George Bush. Instead, Ralph had visited Koh Tang Island, the site of America's last horrific battle of the Vietnam War. He had a wild tale of a few days with the Joint Task Force for Full Accounting (JTF-FA) searching to recover remains of eighteen Americans lost on the island in May 1975. I remember his discussions of searches on the beach and in the water; a typhoon that swamped search boats of the JTF-FA; white phosphorous that dried out and ignited after the ramp of a downed HH-53 was pulled from the water; his jungle encounter with Cambodian troops; and his finding that much of the battle could still be traced through overgrown emplacements, discarded shell casings, and trees marked forever during fourteen hours of desperate fighting. And, Ralph told me that his fluency in the Thai language had helped him discover the last battle's most troubling aspect-a sad secret known only to very few for these twenty years. While US Air Force helicopters returned under heavy fire to rescue the ill-fated American force from the darkened beach, three of those eighteen Americans were inadvertently left behind. Even in the mid-1990s, Ralph was convinced that these three US Marines were critical in holding the right flank and keeping the Cambodians off the beach.

Now The Last Battle provides the long-overdue full accounting of events. We get the whole story from the moment Cambodian gunboats are spotted bearing down on the S.S. Mayaguez through the deaths of L/Cpl Joseph Nelson Hargrove, PFC Gary Hall, and Pvt. Danny C. Marshall at the hands of their Cambodian captors. Ralph Wetterhahn's extensive journalistic research into previously Top Secret accounts of National Security Council Meetings integrates the story of high-level decision-making in with the tales of valor on the beaches of Koh Tang. Through his several returns trips to Cambodia and his personal interviews with American and Cambodian veterans of the battle, he has extended all previous tellings of the Mayaguez Incident. The Last Battle is a well-integrated and highly comprehensive account. Reading of the valiant attempts to put Marines on the beaches of Koh Tang, one can't help wondering how any of these brave Americans survived the murderous fire. The many original photos provided in The Last Battle are fascinating.

As a highly decorated veteran of two combat tours in US Air Force and US Navy fighter aircraft, Ralph is the man to bring the entire story together. His approach is unlike that of so many journalists who brought a strong anti-American bias into their accounts of the Vietnam War. American Vietnam Vets deserved better. Ralph gives this factual, well documented, account built upon his well-earned membership in the brotherhood of brave men and women who served their country under adverse circumstances. He has persisted over all these years partly because those in that brotherhood feel a responsibility to those who did not return. As a veteran, he knows what it is like to be at the tip of the spear instead of being comfortably settled within the beltway. The Last Battle makes a powerful argument that just because real-time tactical information can rise to the halls of power in Washington, D.C., our national leaders shouldn't usurp tactical decision making from those in the field who know such things as daylight comes before official sunrise. Ralph gained the confidence of Em Son, the grizzled one-legged Cambodian veteran who commanded Khmer Rouge forces on Koh Tang in May 1975. Through discussions with Em Son, Ralph learned of the final resting places of the three and of a fourth American, whose body couldn't be recovered during the evacuation. It is fitting that the final photo taken in January 2001 shows the flag-draped casket thought to include remains of L/Cpl Ashton Loney, that fourth American. If not for Ralph's dedication to the memory and honor of these four men, their final resting places would yet remain undiscovered by the JTF-FA. Those of us who are veterans of that difficult war owe a sharp salute to Ralph Wetterhahn for that accomplishment. Well done!

-Jimmie H. Butler Colonel, USAF, Retired Author of A Certain Brotherhood, Red Lightning-Black Thunder, The Iskra Incident

Mr Watterhahn has put together a fine account of some really terrible events that took place off the coast of Cambodia in 1975. The book, written in a compelling and detailed style, covers the inept handling of the incident, the dedication to duty by the troops involved and the boldness and bravery of the Marines. I have read and followed the accounts about the infamous "Mayaquez Incident" since it happened in May of 1975. This book is the best available, filled with details left out of the newspapers, magazine articles and political babble from the Pentagon. The book follows the course of events from the capture of the ship, details about the crew's reactions, the ill-prepared military and political reactions and finally to the landing of the Marines on Koh Tang Island. The Marines were told that only a handful of Cambodians were on the island where they thought the captive crew were taken. Instead, hundreds of combat experienced Khmer Rouge troops surprised the helicopters as they brought in Marines. The resulting firefight lasted nearly two days of non stop combat, dozens of men were wounded, helicopters were downed, a 15,000 pound bomb was dropped haphazardly on the island by the Air Force, pockets of Marines were surrounded and nearly overrun on several occasions. Pilots risked their crew and aircraft many times bringing in more troops and pulling out casualties. Cambodian participants are interviewed at length in this acount as are American combatants. A government cover up followed the events as the losses were tabulated, 41 men dead, dozens wounded, one dead Marine left behind wrapped in a poncho and three members of a machine gun team left behind during the harried withdrawl. A sad closure to a sad episode of American history. Mr. Wetterhan's book should be manditory reading at West Point and in the White House, and next to Black Hawk Down is some of the finest material about modern combat. As a veteran, I was proud of the job done by the military personnel, and when one corporal was ordered to act as a last rear guard for the evacuation of the Marine force, he turned for volunteers and ten men raised their hands immediately. Bravery and honor. Well researched and rich in detail and with maps to follow the events make this fine reading and a lession Americans should never forget. Thumbs up, Ralph. Job well done.

I'd really like to give this book ***1/2, but I upped it to four, because of Wetterhahn's obvious passion and effort that he put into this book. Not only was he an author, he was a participant in the effort to shed the light on an the last, sad ignominous episode in America's Southeast Asian adventure.

This book does a lot to demystify the 'Mayaguez Incident,' give honor and remembrance to the fallen, and shed light on the mediocrity of Washington leadership. Long ago I read Larry Bond's novel, VORTEX, and I remember towards the end one of the characters thinking of the badguy leader, "Our president is no longer a president, but just another incompetent batallion commander" (a paraphrase, obviously). That line came to mind when reading of Ford, Kissinger, Schelsinger & Co. screwing the whole thing up in an effort to demonstrate "will" and "resolve" for Ford's legitimacy. One of the most comic and tragic moments of the book came when the White House photographer spoke up in the NSC meeting to point out the obviousness of the Cambodian situation. It's comic because it is seems such an absurdity in a modern democracy that spends zillions of dollars to know what the hell is going on, it's tragic because the chutzpah of the nation's leadership led to the tragic outcome of the Mayguez Incident.

Wetterhahn himself was actively involved in searching for the Marines left behind, and this book will serve an important role in bringing to the fore the results of a political leadership that consumed its own men as a way to communicate strength to the world, and garner political legitimacy at home. Watterhahn's personal involvement in researching the lives of the three lost Marines, and searching for them in death, needs to be honored.

Other reviewers --some personally involved in the Koh Tang battle-- have posted here, pointing out flaws in Watterhahn's work. I can't argue with any of them, and I think the criticisms of his scholarship are apt. What the book needed most was some serious editing. We read 1,000 times about how Em Son was injured in battle 16 times. If it had been 1,001 I would have bashed the book through the wall. Probably a good thirty pages could have been cut with a focus on clarity and precise writing, and the elimination of blatant redundancy. However, this was --at it's utmost-- a war story, and that sort of thing is to be expected, I suppose..

My biggest peeve was the citing. If you are not going to have direct cites in a historical work, you better have your act together when you reference other works. Somewhere along the line, three pages got inserted into the book, and nobody bothered rechecking and adjusting his references. So you had to subtract some pages (or add, I can't remember), to get to the document he was citing. That's just plain bad oversight, and is not excusable in a serious work.

A much needed telling of a forgotten incident that occurred after the fall of Saigon in Vietnam. Journalist Wetterhahn gives several different viewpoints of the capture of the SS Mayaguez by the Khmer Rouge and from the captain of the vessel. Adding some autobiographical detail, Wetterhahn travelled with an American recovery team to Cambodia, interviewed a Kmer Rouge officer and helped as much as he could with the recovery of American remains.
Although the prose is choppy in parts, this is a gripping account of the attempted rescue of the crew of the SS Mayaguez and how the White House micromanaged it and later covering up the deaths of Marines and Air Force policemen in the attempted rescue. Most poignant of all, is the backstory of the three Marines who were left behind and whatever fate awaited them.
Informative and good history for those who were not aware of the incident back in May of 1975.

I started a new Memorial Day tradition this weekend ... to read a book about an American war/battle/or so-called police action ... every year. I tend to read a lot of military history during the course of the year anyway, but since America was reminded of how sacred our Memorial Day truly is last year, I thought it proper to secure the weekend from this year forward to reading about our military heroes past and present.

THE LAST BATTLE is billed as the story of the Mayaguez incident at the very end of the Vietnam conflict. It is, in fact, the story of our last battle with the Khmer Rouge, the Cambodian Reds who instituted a strain of Maos Cultural Revolution called Angkor Wat ... an attempt to start life over from Year Zero where all forms of western civilization were severed with ultimate brutality and the citizens of Cambodian cities were evacuated to the fields for re-education ...

Author, Ralph Wetterhahn, does the three marines left behind a great service in telling their individual stories (their life at home before the war and during) ... and the three marines names were recently added to the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington D.C.

THE LAST BATTLE is a riveting read. The men who died deserve the remembrance Mr. Wetterhahn affords them. We, the benefactors of their ultimate sacrifice and heroism, owe them the attention and place they deserve in our nations history.

THE LAST BATTLE scores a perfect 10 on my scale ... a perfect 5 on the Amazon scale.

Colonel Wetterhahn has done a valuable service for the families of all those Americans, civilian and military, who went missing in Cambodia. The nitty-gritty battle details will naturally cause argument among those who had the honor of participating in the battle, but the description of the battle just sets the stage for the final act, the withdrawal without all hands accounted for and the strangely unexplained failure to cordon the isolated island until the fate of those left behind could be established without doubt. That live Marine prisoners could possibly have been allowed to be moved off the island seems shocking. Much of the information in "The Last Battle" will come as a surprise even to those Americans who thought they understood the Mayaguez "incident" and the action on Koh Tang. These same waters off the Cambodian coast claimed American lives several times during the Khmer Rouge era. The newly-published book "The Eagle Mutiny" by Linnett and Loiederman tells the story of mutiny aboard an American munitions ship during 1970 which culminated in the death of one of the mutineers (Clyde McKay) and another US Army deserter (Larry Humphrey) at the hands of the Khmer Rouge. Khmer Rouge naval forces under the command of Meah Muth, the son-in-law of Ta Mok, went on to capture four Americans (James William Clark, Lance Macnamara, Michael Scott Deeds, and Christopher Delance) and five other Westerners off the Cambodian coast during 1978 and sent them to be tortured and executed at the infamous Tuol Sleng prison in Phnom Penh. Meah Muth and Ta Mok as well as KR executioner-in-chief Duch (who has admitted killing the Americans at Tuol Sleng and claims to have disposed of the bodies on the personal order of Nuon Chea) have just this week been named as top candidates for an international tribunal on other crimes against humanity. Perhaps then these stories, like the aftermath of most wars, never really come to a full conclusion. What is certain is that Colonel Wetterhahn has once again performed beyond the call of duty. His efforts should serve as an example to all those involved in what the nation proclaims to be the search for "the fullest possible accounting", and hopefully those that disagree with the author's conclusions on the fate of the lost machinegun team will be motivated to travel to Cambodia and investigate for themselves. Action trumps argument.

This book by Ralph Wetterhahn deserves the five star ratings that it has received to date by Amazon.com reviewers. This is a great story; told in the manner similar to Mark Bowden's `Black Hawk Down' and both books sit proudly in my library. Prior to reading this account of the `Mayaguez' incident I had very little knowledge of what had occurred other than an American ship had been seized by communist forces during or just after the Vietnam War. I wasn't aware that American military personnel had lost their lives in retaking the ship or even that a battle had been fought.

This book, for me, was full of surprises. The details about the micro-management of the rescue mission, the large number of aircraft, ships and men involved and the large loss of equipment and men were all "eye openers". I read with surprise that within so little time after the end of the conflict in Vietnam that the higher echelons of the American military seemed to have forgotten all the hard lessons learnt during that war. When you read this book you cannot help but come away with nothing but praise for the soldiers, sailors and airmen involved in the mission. The story of the three man machine-gun crew was sad, more so because the author had taken the time to research their background and final fate.

It is understandable why the American Government wanted to hide the fate of these men and I would hope that those involved felt some remorse or shame in the shabby treatment that these men's actions and memory have received. Overall this is a great story with a pacey narrative that is full of action and detail. It was also interesting to be able to follow the fighting during the assault on Koh Tang from the perspective of the Khmer Rouge. The accounts of the author's visits to Cambodia and his follow up interviews with family and friends of the missing along with the surviving Khmer Rouge were quite interesting and gave the story that much more biting effect.

If you enjoyed books like `Black Hawk Down' and `Flags of our Fathers' then I am sure that you'll enjoy this book. This is the sort of story that all serving members and their leaders should read and I would like to say how deeply I felt towards those men who flew into hostile fire and those who stayed behind to cover their comrades at Koh Tang.

Ralph Wetterhahn served our country with an exemplary fighter career. Like most of the best operators he is relentlessly self critical, and his modesty is most refreshing. The story he tells spilss over into the actions of politiocians and serving members of the armed forces. This book is a "must read" for all serving members and it shows how human everyone in the chain of command just happens to be. The flying, fighting, and policy making will make you think. There is a very serious aircraft accident, plenty of real frightening action, and the quiet, serious actions that made all the difference. You will squirm as rounds fly through your helo and its performance declines. I learned that a trumpet player from my band evacuated 78 Marines from Koh Tang Island under fire. I am so very grateful for this effort and more than ever value my friend's service. Ralph Wetterhahn also found out what happened to the three marines that were left behind, and he went up the front walk to tell their families. I have done that as well and it is the hardest thing to do on Earth. Please buy this book and encourage anyone who votes to read it. All our leaders are a picture drawn by their own experience. I think you will cheer and cry when you read this. I am looking forward to the next one... My best to you all,