Customer Reviews

The Secret Vietnam War: The United States Air Force in Thailand, 1961-1975

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I was there during the same time frame as Jeff, and I still learned a lot. Reading this book was like a step back in time. It was good and informative. Todays youth should read it and others pertaining to the Vietnam War. I only have one critisim though. As with all other books that are in print about the Air Was in Vietnam, one very important unit has been overlooked yet again. This was DET 2 TAWC (Detachment 2 Tactical Air Warfare Command), Project Rivet Top. This was the unit I served with during the Vietnam war and having been a Top Secret unit it has been ignored again.

In The Secret Vietnam War USAF in Thailand, the author toes the bureaucratic line. For 1975, he believes historians when they tell him the C5a that was destroyed (by guerillas who wanted to discourage the extraction of Vietnamese refugees) not by "structural damage" i.e. they were practically brand new aircraft. I sat through the security/intelligence brieifing. As a result he misses the fact that Security Police had to pull the repugnate duty of sniper on off loading refugees because the brass was afraid the North Vietnamese would use refugees as cover to do suicide attacks on Thailand air bases. The author misses the fact that Security Police were escorts on US C 130s to help with the early refugee extraction during Operation Babylift. The author misses the threat of student, communist querrillas, and RTG mercenaries against US military installations. I had to endure sniper harrassment on the perimeter and I was ordered to not defend myself. The author got right the assassination threat against the base commander, but missed the fact that theives and others attacked, beat, and stole equipment and weapons of SP gate guards. This is partly inferred in "Rituals of National Loyalty." He missed the fact that bases in Thailand were used by US diplomacy to smuggle herion, when I tried to stop a shipment on a KC 135 tanker the base commander relieved me of duty and put me on the next "Freedom Flight" home. I did find a book that talks about the CIA's involvement in such activities, they paid off Thai military authorities by shipping out local leader's herion.