Our Year of War Page 37

  21. Ewell and Hunt, Sharpening the Combat Edge, 118–20, 129–30; Gittinger, Interview with Lieutenant General Julian J. Ewell, 22–23, 25, 32.

  22. Hunt, The 9th Infantry Division, 23–25.

  23. Headquarters, 2nd Battalion (Mechanized), 47th Infantry, Significant Activities for Calendar Year of 1968, 4. Binh Phuoc is in Long An province.

  24. 9th Infantry Division, Operational Report of 9th Infantry Division for Period Ending 31 October 1968, 21. A small segment of Route 25 near Dong Tam also had to be secured.

  25. Stanton, Vietnam Order of Battle, 150–53; Bolger interview with Charles T. Hagel.

  26. Perry, “Interview with Senator Charles Hagel.”

  27. Bergerud, Red Thunder, Tropic Lightning, 109. For a detailed examination, see Jean L. Dyer, Kimberli Gaillard, Nancy R. McClure, and Suzanne M. Osborne, Evaluation of an Unaided Night Vision Instructional Program for Ground Forces (Alexandria, VA: U.S. Army Research Institute, October 1995), 2–4, B-1, B-2.

  28. Hunt, The 9th Infantry Division, 64–77; Bolger interview with Charles T. Hagel. Hagel said he led “a lot of ambush patrols.”

  29. Perry, “Interview with Senator Charles Hagel.”

  30. Penner, “Interview with Charles Timothy Hagel and Thomas Leo Hagel, Part 7 of 21.”

  31. Stanton, Vietnam Order of Battle, 277.

  32. Doleman, Tools of War, 40–41.

  33. Ibid., 305.

  34. Bunting, The Lionheads, 47, 54–58. Bunting’s novel reflects many of the attitudes he witnessed during his time serving under Major General Ewell’s command with the 9th Infantry Division in Vietnam.

  35. For a good description of setting up a Claymore mine in a night ambush, see O’Brien, If I Die in a Combat Zone, 93–94.

  36. Perry, “Interview with Senator Charles Hagel.”

  37. Berens, Chuck Hagel, 31.

  38. David C. Isby, Weapons and Tactics of the Soviet Army (London: Jane’s Publishing, 1988), 251–52, 284–85, 331–33, 419–21. The Soviets and Chinese shipped towed mortars, towed rocket launchers, and towed heavy machine guns to the North Vietnamese. All of these came mounted on rubber tires, to be pulled by trucks. In Vietnam, the VC and NVA often dragged these weapons by hand.

  39. Berens, Chuck Hagel, 31.

  40. Perry, “Interview with Senator Charles Hagel.”

  41. Berens, Chuck Hagel, 32.

  42. Perry, “Interview with Senator Charles Hagel.”

  43. 9th Infantry Division, Operational Report of 9th Infantry Division for Period Ending 31 October 1968, 6–8, 21.

  44. Bergerud, Red Thunder, Tropic Lightning, 109–10.

  45. Gittinger, Interview with Lieutenant General Julian J. Ewell, 34.

  46. John “Fats” Spizzirri, “One Day in Nam (For Chuck),” at http://www.angel fire.com/ny2/SGTFATS/page10A.html, accessed July 13, 2016. John Spizzirri served in 2nd Platoon, Company B, 2-47th Infantry in 1968–69. Like Chuck and Tom Hagel, he advanced to sergeant and spent most of his time as an acting NCO. He knew the men on the patrol of October 3–4, 1968, and participated in the morning reaction force mission.

  47. Ibid.; Bolger interview with Thomas L. Hagel. Tom Hagel was part of the reaction force. For his additional recollections, see Brad Penner, producer, writer, reporter, “Interview with Charles Timothy Hagel and Thomas Leo Hagel, Part 9 of 21,” Nebraska Educational Television, August 14, 1999, at http://memory .loc.gov/diglib/vhp/story/loc.natlib.afc2001001.88134/, accessed July 14, 2016.

  48. Argabright, The 9th Infantry Division “The Old Reliables” Those Who Gave Their Lives in Southeast Asia 1966–1970, 3, 9, 11, 17, 26, 41, 44, 50; Bolger interview with Charles T. Hagel.

  49. The words of a Vietnam-era military death notification message are noted in Harold G. Moore and Joseph L. Galloway, We Were Soldiers Once… And Young: Ia Drang—The Battle That Changed the War in Vietnam (New York: Presidio Press, 1992), 345.

  50. 9th Infantry Division, Operational Report of 9th Infantry Division for Period Ending 31 October 1968, 16, 21.

  51. Carroll, House of War, 320; Carter, The Politics of Rage, 359–61; Lessing, George Wallace, 425–26.

  52. Perlstein, Nixonland, 354. Wallace won Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi, and Louisiana. He was the last third-party candidate to earn an electoral vote in a U.S. presidential election.

  53. Perry, “Interview with Senator Charles Hagel”; Berens, Chuck Hagel, 37; Roger L. Vance, “Chuck Hagel Nomination: An Interview with Senator Hagel on His Vietnam War Experience and Vision for the War’s Commemoration,” Vietnam, December 2012, 30.

  54. Perry, “Interview with Senator Charles Hagel”, Bolger interview with Thomas L. Hagel.

  55. Perry, “Interview with Senator Charles Hagel.”

  CHAPTER 10. CHILDREN OF NYX

  1. Hesiod, Theogony, Stanley Lombardo, trans. (Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Classics, 1993), 67. A Greek contemporary of Homer, Hesiod wrote his Theogony, the genealogy of the gods, sometime between 750 and 650 B.C. Among her many progeny, the primordial goddess Night (Nyx) gave birth to Doom (Moros), Fate (Ker), Death (Thanatos), Sleep (Hypnos), and Dreams (Oneiroi).

  2. Bolger interview with Thomas L. Hagel; see also Vance, “Chuck Hagel Nomination,” 31.

  3. For the phases of breakdown, see Roy L. Swank and Walter E. Marchand, “Combat Neuroses: Development of Combat Exhaustion,” American Medical Association: Archives of Neurology and Psychology, March, 1946, 236–43. For the official military findings, see Robert R. Palmer, Bell I. Wiley, and William R. Keast, U.S. Army in World War II: The Army Ground Forces, Vol. 2: The Procurement and Training of Ground Combat Troops (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1991), 228.

  4. Gittinger, Interview with Lieutenant General Julian J. Ewell, 5–6.

  5. Ewell and Hunt, Sharpening the Combat Edge, 102, 127.

  6. Perry, “Interview with Senator Charles Hagel.”

  7. MacPherson, Long Time Passing, 181.

  8. Sheehan, A Bright Shining Lie, 719. Reporter Peter Arnett, a longtime Vietnam hand, secured this evocative quote for a story published on February 8, 1968. Like the “lions led by donkeys” line in World War I, it has been much disputed. Colleagues Neil Sheehan and David Halberstam, two award-winning journalists and historians of the Vietnam War, supported the integrity of Arnett’s reporting. Both Major Phil Cannella, U.S. Army, and Major Chester L. Brown, U.S. Air Force, have been named as the sources. Arnett interviewed four officers that day in Ben Tre and could not recall who said it.

  9. Westmoreland, A Soldier Reports, 369–70. While there are many dictionaries of Vietnam War slang, the thoughts of the longtime MACV commander are rather interesting. He certainly heard the words and knew their definitions. Whether he understood what it all really meant is another matter.

  10. Perry, “Interview with Senator Charles Hagel,” offers thoughts on the battalion and brigade commanders, including Emerson. For Chuck Hagel’s positive view of Ewell’s field leadership, see Sullivan, “A Vietnam War That Never Ends.”

  11. Bergerud, Red Thunder, Tropic Lightning, 112.

  12. Philip Caputo, Indian Country (New York: Vintage, 1987), vi. Caputo served in Vietnam as a U.S. marine lieutenant in 1965–66, to include service as a rifle platoon commander. This novel is one of several books he wrote based on his experiences in combat and subsequent role as a journalist.

  13. Penner, “Interview with Charles Timothy Hagel and Thomas Leo Hagel, Part 5 of 21.”

  14. Penner, “Interview with Charles Timothy Hagel and Thomas Leo Hagel, Part 9 of 21.” For “Charlie worship,” see Bergerud, Red Thunder, Tropic Lightning, 255.

  15. Herr, Dispatches, 178, recounts a colonel calmly discussing the etymology of “dinks.”

  16. Westmoreland, A Soldier Reports, 369–70. With regard to “gook,” the Korean language makes broad use of the word. Koreans are Hanguk. Americans are Miguk, literally “the beautiful people.” The Chinese are Chunguk. English are Anguk.

  17. Get Smart, CBS Studios, 1965–70. T
his comic look at spies and espionage followed the adventures of Maxwell Smart, Agent 86, and his female partner, known only as Agent 99. World War II veteran and noted comedian Mel Brooks joined with Buck Henry to develop the show.

  18. Penner, “Interview with Charles Timothy Hagel and Thomas Leo Hagel, Part 9 of 21.”

  19. Davidson, Vietnam at War, 390; Gittinger, Interview with Lieutenant General Julian J. Ewell, 2–3, 32.

  20. Bunting, The Lionheads, 67.

  21. 9th Infantry Division, Operational Report of 9th Infantry Division for Period Ending 31 July 1968, 81–82, 84.

  22. The no alcohol rule, known as General Order Number One, originated in the 1990–91 war with Iraq. Vietnam veteran General H. Norman Schwarzkopf Jr. banned beer and hard liquor in deference to the customs of Saudi Arabia, the country where American troops staged. Whatever the Saudis made of it—and despite their ostensible religious views, most Saudis liked a drink as much as anyone—the lack of alcohol greatly reduced disciplinary problems. Every subsequent U.S. overseas operation has followed that example. See H. Norman Schwarzkopf Jr. and Peter Petre, It Doesn’t Take a Hero: The Autobiography of General H. Norman Schwarzkopf (New York: Bantam, 1992), 360, 384.

  23. Nolan, House to House, 59. Lieutenant Colonel Eric F. Antila of 5-60th Infantry offered that statement. For Ewell drinking beer with 2-47th Infantry troops, see Chuck Hagel’s comments in Sullivan, “A Vietnam War That Never Ends.”

  24. Penner, “Interview with Charles Timothy Hagel and Thomas Leo Hagel, Part 8 of 21”; Bolger interview with Thomas L. Hagel.

  25. Jeffrey Race, War Comes to Long An: Revolutionary Conflict in a Vietnamese Province (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2010), i, 330–31.

  26. Lieutenant General Carroll H. Dunn, U.S. Army, Vietnam Studies: Base Development 1965–1970 (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1991), 135; Stanton, Vietnam Order of Battle, 77–78.

  27. Penner, “Interview with Charles Timothy Hagel and Thomas Leo Hagel, Part 8 of 21.”

  28. Hunt, The 9th Infantry Division, 72–78.

  29. 9th Infantry Division, Operational Report of 9th Infantry Division for Period Ending 31 July 1968, 21.

  30. Penner, “Interview with Charles Timothy Hagel and Thomas Leo Hagel, Part 8 of 21”; Bolger interview with Thomas L. Hagel.

  31. Bolger interview with Thomas L. Hagel.

  32. Penner, “Interview with Charles Timothy Hagel and Thomas Leo Hagel, Part 8 of 21.”

  33. Penner, “Interview with Charles Timothy Hagel and Thomas Leo Hagel, Part 9 of 21.” For artillery round counts, see 9th Infantry Division, Operational Report of 9th Infantry Division for Period Ending 31 October 1968, 22. About 70 percent of all artillery fired went toward these harassment and interdiction missions, all based on intelligence reports and aerial spottings of varying reliability. See Krepinevich, The Army and Vietnam, 201.

  34. Stanton, Vietnam Order of Battle, 276.

  35. Penner, “Interview with Charles Timothy Hagel and Thomas Leo Hagel, Part 9 of 21.”

  36. For an excellent overhead view of Bien Phuoc, see Bob Pries, Welcome to Binh Phouc! at http://www.angelfire.com/ny/binhphouc/, accessed July 15, 2016.

  37. Penner, “Interview with Charles Timothy Hagel and Thomas Leo Hagel, Part 9 of 21”; 9th Infantry Division, Operational Report of 9th Infantry Division for Period Ending 31 October 1968, 5, 16.

  38. Perry, “Interview with Senator Charles Hagel.”

  39. Brad Penner, producer, writer, reporter, “Interview with Charles Timothy Hagel and Thomas Leo Hagel, Part 10 of 21,” Nebraska Educational Television, August 14, 1999, at http://memory.loc.gov/diglib/vhp/story/loc.natlib.afc2001 001.88134/, accessed July 15, 2016.

  40. Penner, “Interview with Charles Timothy Hagel and Thomas Leo Hagel, Part 9 of 21”; Bolger interview with Thomas L. Hagel.

  41. Perry, “Interview with Senator Charles Hagel.” Chuck Hagel described a similar enemy attack from his time in country.

  42. Bergerud, Red Thunder, Tropic Lightning, 159, describes this method of artillery direct fire.

  43. Penner, “Interview with Charles Timothy Hagel and Thomas Leo Hagel, Part 9 of 21.”

  44. MacPherson, Long Time Passing, 177; Bolger interview with Thomas L. Hagel.

  45. 9th Infantry Division, Operational Report of 9th Infantry Division for Period Ending 31 July 1968, 12; 9th Infantry Division, Operational Report of 9th Infantry Division for Period Ending 31 October 1968, 11; Hunt, The 9th Infantry Division, 109–10; Clemis, “The Control War,” 475–77. See also Race, War Comes to Long An, 417, 419. In that province, enemy force strength increased from 2,180 to 3,100 and 79.7 percent of villages remained outside of Saigon’s authority.

  46. In a later operation named Speedy Express (December 1, 1968 to June 1, 1969), the 9th Infantry Division reported 10,899 enemy killed and 748 weapons taken. See U.S. Headquarters Military Assistance Command Vietnam, Review of Ground Operations (Tan Son Nhut Air Base, Republic of Vietnam: Headquarters, MACV, June 1969), 94.

  47. Turse, Kill Anything That Moves, 217. Turse quotes from “A Concerned Sergeant” letter sent to the secretary of the army and subject to an extensive investigation. Turse had access to the investigation documents.

  48. Gittinger, Interview with Lieutenant General Julian J. Ewell, 33–36, 39–40.

  49. Doleman, Tools of War, 164–76.

  50. Ibid., 27–28.

  51. Turse, Kill Anything That Moves, 211–12. Major Bill Taylor reported these rationalizations after he witnessed a UH-1 Huey door gunner engage Vietnamese in race paddies.

  52. Gittinger, Interview with Lieutenant General Julian J. Ewell, 11, 38.

  53. Penner, “Interview with Charles Timothy Hagel and Thomas Leo Hagel, Part 10 of 21.” At My Lai, Quang Ngai Province, on March 16, 1968, U.S. soldiers of Company C, 1st Battalion, 20th Infantry, killed hundreds of unarmed Vietnamese villagers in an unprovoked atrocity. See Westmoreland, A Soldier Reports, 456–62.

  54. Bolger interview with Thomas L. Hagel.

  55. MacPherson, Long Time Passing, 22.

  56. Toby Harnden, “Chuck Hagel, Obama’s Pick for Pentagon, Was ‘Very, Very Good at Killing’ in Vietnam,” Sunday Times (UK), January 27, 2013.

  57. Penner, “Interview with Charles Timothy Hagel and Thomas Leo Hagel, Part 10 of 21.”

  58. Ibid.; MacPherson, Long Time Passing, 21.

  59. Perry, “Interview with Senator Charles Hagel.”

  60. Argabright, The 9th Infantry Division “The Old Reliables” Those Who Gave Their Lives in Southeast Asia 1966–1970, 1–52. During the time the Hagel brothers served in 2-47th Infantry (December 4, 1967 until January 31, 1968), the battalion lost eighty-two soldiers killed in action.

  61. Perry, “Interview with Senator Charles Hagel.”

  62. Ibid.

  63. Penner, “Interview with Charles Timothy Hagel and Thomas Leo Hagel, Part 7 of 21.”

  64. Perry, “Interview with Senator Charles Hagel.”

  CHAPTER 11. ASHES

  1. Sorley, Westmoreland, 258.

  2. Adam Fletcher Sasse, “A History of North Omaha’s June 1969 Riot,” North Omaha History blog, August 21, 2015, at http://northomaha.blogspot.com/2015/08/remembering-vivian-strong.html, accessed July 18, 2016.

  3. Amy Helene Forss, Black Print with a White Carnation: Mildred Brown and the Omaha Star Newspaper, 1938–1989 (Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2014), 143–44.

  4. For the role of helicopters in riot control, see Scheips, The Role of Federal Military Forces in Civil Disorders 1945–1992, 76, 321, 347, 389.

  5. Andrew Chaikin, A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts (New York: Penguin, 1998), 211, 226. The second American to walk on the moon, Lieutenant Colonel Edwin E. “Buzz” Aldrin Jr., U.S. Air Force, spoke the words “magnificent desolation” as he stepped off the lander.

  6. Vance, “Chuck Hagel Nomination,” 32.

  7. Adam Fletcher Sasse, “A History of the Logan Fontenelle Housing Pr
ojects,” North Omaha History blog, August 20, 2015, at http://northomaha.blogspot .com/2015/08/a-history-of-logan-fontenelle-housing.html, accessed July 18, 2016. Hall of Fame St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Bob Gibson grew up in this housing area. The project was named for Logan Fontenelle (1825–1855), an Omaha Indian with a French father. Fontenelle acted as an interpreter in early negotiations between the Omaha and arriving settlers.

  8. Forss, Black Print with a White Carnation, 143.

  9. Frederick C. Luebke, Nebraska: An Illustrated History (Lincoln, NE: Bison Books, 2005), 336–37.

  10. Sasse, “A History of North Omaha’s June 1969 Riot”; Forss, Black Print with a White Carnation, 144.

  11. Scheips, The Role of Federal Military Forces in Civil Disorders 1945–1992, 335.

  12. United Press International, “Omaha Negroes Urged to End Disorder,” Arizona Republic, June 27, 1969, 36.

  13. For FBI interest in Omaha, Nebraska, see U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, Special Agent in Charge, Omaha, Memorandum for Director, Subject: Counterintelligence Program, Racial Intelligence, Black Nationalist-Hate Groups, Racial Intelligence, Black Panther Party (BPP) (Omaha, NE: FBI Special Agent in Charge, July 14, 1969), 1. For reference to photographs of Black Panthers guarding a location in North Omaha, see Leo Adam Biga, “A Brief History of Omaha’s Civil Rights Struggle Distilled in Back and White by Photographer Rudy Smith,” Leo Adam Biga’s My Inside Stories, May 2, 2012, at https://leo adambiga.com/2012/05/02/a-brief-history-of-omahas-civil-rights-struggle -distilled-in-black-and-white-by-photographer-rudy-smith/, accessed July 18, 2016. Photojournalist Rudy Smith captured key images of the 1969 Omaha riot.

  14. Tom Weiner, Enemies: A History of the FBI (New York: Random House, 2013), 195–96, 270, 279, 283, 347.

  15. For anti-government groups targeted by the FBI Counterintelligence Program, see U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, “COINTELPRO,” FBI Records: The Vault at https://vault.fbi.gov/cointel-pro, accessed July 19, 2016.

  16. Perlstein, Nixonland, 331, 363.

  17. Biga, “A Brief History of Omaha’s Civil Rights Struggle Distilled in Back and White by Photographer Rudy Smith.”