Basic U.S. Soldier Pay In 1969

WNU Editor: The above picture is from the Facebook page Vietnam Veterans.

45 Years Ago The U.S. Evacuated Saigon

American Military News: US Marines release video for 45th anniversary of Saigon evacuation

On April 29, 1975, the U.S. military launched Operation Frequent Wind, where the last U.S. forces were airlifted out of Vietnam.

In recognition of the 45 anniversary, the U.S. Marine Corps posted a video on Wednesday documenting the evacuation mission in the last days of the Vietnam War. The evacuation mission saw the last U.S. personnel and at-risk Vietnamese citizens carried out of South Vietnam amid the fall of Saigon.

The evacuation lasted from April 29 through April 30, 1975, as U.S. Marines formed a security force to protect the evacuation flights, which carried on through the night to evacuate thousands of people. U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Air Force helicopters participated in the aerial evacuations, bringing those evacuees to U.S. Navy ships waiting offshore.

In total, the evacuation operation successfully carried out over 7,000 U.S. personnel, South Vietnamese individuals, and third country nationals.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: When I look at the videos of the time. I am always struck by the fear and desperation that was on everyone's face as they tried to break into the US embassy for a desperate flight out of the country.

The Battle Of Hue Began 52 Years Ago Today

Business Insider: 52 years ago, the bloodiest battle of Vietnam began and changed forever how Americans felt about the war

* The Battle of Hue began early on January 31, 1968.
* Hue was a major part of North Vietnam's Tet Offensive, and even though the US and South Vietnam thwarted the attack, the battle had a profound effect on the war.

In the middle of the night on January 31, 1968, 10,000 North Vietnamese and Vietcong troops swept into the historic city of Hue, a major cultural center in South Vietnam.

Within days, those troops captured the city, surprising US commanders, who were slow to understand what had happened and the opponent they now faced.

The city was retaken by early March. Ostensibly it was a US and South Vietnamese victory, won at the toll of 250 US Marines and soldiers and more than 450 South Vietnamese troops. With several thousand North Vietnamese and thousands more civilians killed, the number of dead in the shattered city was more than 10,000.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: The Tet Offensive certainly did change how Americans felt about the war.

This Is What Happened When The North Vietnamese Attacked A Special Forces Base

The Civil Irregular Defense Group compound at Loc Ninh. The airstrip is to the right of the photo. (U.S. Army)

We Are The Mighty: What happened when the VC attacked a Special Forces base

It was a small airbase on the border with Cambodia. It bordered a town of 6,000 that survived on the proceeds of local rubber plantations. The airbase was guarded by a few hundred South Vietnamese regulars supported by 11 U.S. Army Special Forces soldiers. But it would host a 10-day battle that would see hundreds of North Vietnamese forces killed while that tiny force held the ground.

The small town and airbase were important for two reasons. First, the airbase was a logistical hub for military and espionage operations conducted by the U.S.; something communist forces were keen to excise. But the town was also the district capital. With a new president awaiting inauguration in Vietnam, the North Vietnamese wanted to embarrass him before he took office.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: When the fighting had ended, the U.S. had lost 50 dead and hundreds wounded. If that happened today in Afghanistan or Syria, with those type of casualties, there would be a huge debate in the U.S. where the media would be saying that the U.S. had lost, and it is time to withdraw.

Missing For 52 Years, Air Force Fighter Pilot Killed In Action In The Vietnam War Returns Home To North Texas

CNN: Southwest pilot flew his Vietnam veteran father's remains back to the place where he last saw him 52 years ago

Bryan Knight was 5 years old when he said goodbye to his father at an airport in Dallas, Texas, just before he was sent off to the Vietnam War.

That was the last time he saw his father.

A few months later, US Air Force Maj. Roy A. Knight Jr., 36, went missing in action on May 19, 1967. The pilot was leading a flight of two A-1E Skyraider aircraft on a strike mission over northern Laos when his aircraft was shot down by anti-aircraft fire.

Read more ....

More News On the Incredible Story Of US Air Force Maj. Roy A. Knight Jr.

Missing 52 Years, Air Force Fighter Pilot Killed in Action Returns Home to North Texas -- NBC Channel 5
Vietnam Veteran's Remains Flown Home By His Son -- NPR
Behind the deeply personal mission to bring Vietnam War vet’s remains home -- NYPost
Son flies father’s remains home 52 years after Air Force colonel was shot down over Vietnam -- New York Daily News
This Video About a Pilot Flying His Fallen Vietnam War Hero Dad Home Will Move You to Tears -- Military.com
Viral Twitter thread tells story of pilot's body returned home from Vietnam War -- The Hill

Why Did No One Listen To CIA Predictions Of Disaster In Vietnam

Source: Vanity Fair

James A Warren, Daily Beast: The CIA Predicted Disaster in Vietnam. Why Did No One Listen?

President Trump is famous for ignoring the advice and expertise of advisers who tell him something he doesn’t want to hear. But he is not the first president to spurn good counsel.

No American president—no chief executive of a Western democratic country—has displayed so much open disdain for the professional intelligence services of his own government as Donald J. Trump. He’s repeatedly disparaged authoritative CIA analyses that concluded Russia meddled with the 2016 election. He ignores his own intelligence officials’ assessments of the dangers of global warming. Just last month, when Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats told Congress that North Korea shows no signs of dismantling its nukes, and that the Iran nuclear deal was working just fine, Trump struck back, just as he always does when reality intrudes on his dream world. “The intelligence people seem to be extremely passive when it comes to the dangers of Iran,” he tweeted. “They are wrong... Perhaps the intelligence people should go back to school.”

Read more ....

WNU Editor: I recall seeing years ago a documentary on Russian TV that Soviet intelligence told the Kremlin that their occupation of Afghanistan was going to end up as a disaster, but the leadership chose to ignore them. I think in both cases we had a situation where the leadership of both nations were focused on the "big picture" .... falling dominoes from Washington, and having a critical ally for Moscow in this part of Asia. And while both governments expected a bloody conflict, they calculated that the consequences of not becoming involved would be worse. Both Washington and Moscow were wrong. They miscalculated on the resolve of the people they were fighting, and they certainly miscalculated public support for these wars.

The Fascinating Story Of Army Colonel Robert Rheault

Rheault shortly after the end of the "Green Beret Case."

Task & Purpose: A Green Beret was the inspiration for Col. Kurtz in 'Apocalypse Now'

The Army's Special Forces command came down to one man during the Vietnam War. His job performance earned him the nod from screenwriter John Milius, who turned retired Army Colonel Robert Rheault's legacy into something more enduring than he ever imagined. He was immortalized forever by actor Marlon Brando in Apocalypse Now.

Unlike Col. Kurtz, however, there was nothing insane or dark about Col. Rheault.

Robert Rheault grew up in a privileged New England family, went to West Point and later studied in Paris, at the Sorbonne. The young Army officer picked up a Silver Star for service in Korea, but it was his time in Vietnam that would change his career forever, devastating the man who only ever wanted the Army life.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: These war stories never get old.

50 Years Ago, a Top-Secret CIA Base Was Overrun By Vietnamese Commandos In Laos

Lima Site 85 in Laos. Lt/Col Jeannie Schiff, USAF (Wikimedia)

Sebastien Roblin, National Interest: Revealed: 50 Years Ago, a Top-Secret U.S. Base Was Overrun By Elite Vietnamese Commandos

Fifty years ago on March 12, 1968, a top-secret U.S. base on a mountain top in Laos was overrun by an elite force of Vietnamese commandos. Only six of the eighteen CIA and Air Force personnel manning the remote outpost escaped with their lives in an incident that would remain veiled in secrecy for three decades.

This was because the U.S. military was legally prohibited from operating in Laos. The southeast Asian nation had been wracked by a civil war pitting right-wing royalists against Pathet Lao communists—the latter backed by North Vietnam, which used Laotian territory to clandestinely funnel troops into South Vietnam via the Ho Chi Minh trail. However, in 1962 Washington, Hanoi and Laotian factions all signed a peace treaty in which the foreign powers agreed to withdraw their forces from the country.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: Only "six of the eighteen CIA and Air Force personnel manning the remote outpost escaped with their lives". Those six survivors must have quite a story to tell.

The My Lai Massacre Happened 50 Years Ago

Daily Mail: Vietnam marks 50 years since My Lai massacre: More than 1,000 gather to mark one of the most notorious episodes in U.S. military history where 504 unarmed civilians were gunned down by troops

*** WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT ***
* Some 504 unarmed civilians were killed by U.S. soldiers on March 16, 1968 in Son My, Quang Ngai Province
* Among those slaughtered in the attack were 182 women - 17 of whom were pregnant - and 173 children
* More than 1,000 people remembered victims of the most notorious episode in modern U.S. military history

Vietnam has marked 50 years since the horrific My Lai massacre in a memorial ceremony at the site of the killings.

On Friday more than 1,000 people gathered to remember the victims of the most notorious episode in modern U.S. military history.

Some 504 unarmed civilians were butchered by American soldiers on March 16, 1968 in Son My, Quang Ngai Province, making it one of the worst recorded U.S. war crimes committed in the 20th century.

Among them were 182 women - 17 of whom were pregnant - and 173 children.

Read more ....

More News On The My Lai Massacre

Vietnam commemorates 50th anniversary of My Lai massacre -- AP
50 years ago, US troops massacred more than 500 civilians in Vietnam during the My Lai massacre -- Business Insider/Reuters
My Lai Massacre Of 1968 Continues To Resonate In America -- NPR
Lessons for the US from My Lai, 50 years after the massacre -- Clare Richardson, DW
‘It was a Rampage’: My Lai Massacre 50 Years Later -- Sputnik
The My Lai Massacre -- Seymour M. Hersh, New Yorker

A Look Back At The U.S. Combat Advisers In Vietnam Who Knew Long Before Anyone Else That The War Was Lost

Alexia Rutkowski IB History

James A. Warren, Daily Beast: U.S. Combat Advisers in Vietnam Knew the Score and Got Ignored

American officers advising the South Vietnamese Army repeatedly warned Washington that the war was misguided. This, they quickly learned, was the fast track to career suicide.

While attending the Armed Forces Staff College in late 1964, just as the U.S. Army was gearing up to deploy its own combat forces to Vietnam, Col. Volney F. Warner attended a speech by the Marine commandant, Gen. Wallace Greene. Before he began his talk, Gen. Greene asked his audience of a hundred 100 majors and colonels a pointed question: “How many of you think that U.S. forces should be sent to fight in Vietnam and draw the line against communism there?”

Virtually everyone in the audience raised their hands enthusiastically. Then Greene, a decidedly hawkish member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, asked a second question: “How many think we should stay out of Vietnam?” Six officers raised their hands … hesitantly. Warner was among them.

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WNU Editor: Who are the Lt. Col. John Paul Vanns and Col. Arthur Gregorys of today?

1968 Was The Year That Everything Went To Hell Starting With TET

Wikipedia

Stars and Stripes: The Year It All Went To Hell

TET Offensive Tested America's Will To Fight

For years the American brass had dreamed of finding a way to draw Viet Cong guerrillas and the North Vietnamese regulars into big head-on fights, where overwhelming U.S. firepower could decimate their ranks and force the Communists into peace talks on American terms. The generals got what they wanted in late January 1968.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: A look back at the TET Offensive.

50 Years Ago The Viet Cong And The North Vietnamese Were Getting Ready For The Tet Offensive

Daily Mail: Why this man deserved to die - but the photo of his execution helped America to lose the Vietnam War: MAX HASTINGS explains how the bloody Tet offensive humiliated U.S. troops

* The surprise Viet Cong attack 50 years ago caught the Americans off guard
* An image of a Viet Cong member's execution cost the U.S. in public relations
* The American people were traumatised by the bloodshed, says Max Hastings

At 2.47 on the morning of January 31, 1968, an American military policeman sent an emergency radio message from his post outside a U.S. embassy on the far side of the world: ‘Signal 300! They’re coming in! Help me! Help me!’ — before being shot dead, along with another guard.

The soldier’s terrified warning, out of the darkness half a century ago, signalled the onset of the most devastating attack on American pride and prestige since Pearl Harbor in 1941.

Viet Cong commandos spilled out of a taxi and a small truck in front of the embassy compound in Saigon, used a satchel charge to blast a hole in its perimeter wall, then dashed inside firing AK-47 assault rifles.

Here was the most spectacular event of the so-called Tet Offensive 50 years ago — co-ordinated attacks by 67,000 guerillas and regular North Vietnamese troops, taking advantage of the annual lunar New Year ‘Tet’ holiday and truce to catch the Americans and their South Vietnamese allies unprepared.

Read more ....

WNU Editor:  We were living in a very different time then.

Update: Yup .... Grim reminders of a war in Vietnam, a generation later (AP)

The Battle For Khe Sanh Started 50 Years Ago

FOX News: Khe Sanh veterans recall Vietnam battle's start 50 years ago Sunday

Sunday marks the 50th anniversary of the start of one of the most significant battles of the Vietnam War – the Battle of Khe Sanh.

Across the U.S., groups of Vietnam veterans will gather to commemorate the 77-day battle, in which some 6,000 U.S. Marines defended a small combat base from tens of thousands of North Vietnamese fighters.

Others are making plans to attend a reunion of Khe Sanh veterans scheduled for August in Washington, D.C.

One such gathering Sunday is planned in Oroville, Calif. Its organizer is Tom Horchler, 71, who served at Khe Sanh as a lance corporal with the 1st Battalion 13th Marines Headquarters Battery Motor Transport Section.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: Wikipedia does a good job in covering this battle (the link is here). On a side note .... US Secretary of Defense Mattis will be in Vietnam two days from now .... 50 Years After Key Vietnam Battles, Mattis Seeks Closer Ties (AP).

Is A Jungle Parasite From Southeast Asia Killing American Veterans Decades After The End Of The War?

Daily Mail: Vietnam's silent bullet: Terrifying study shows jungle parasite from Southeast Asia may be killing American veterans decades after end of the war

* Cholangiocarcinoma is a rare bile duct cancer that is killing Vietnam veterans
* Disease's origins believed to stem from ingesting raw or undercooked fish
* Small pilot study found out of 50 veterans tested, 20 percent were positive
* It can take decades for symptoms to appear and by then, patients are often in tremendous pain with just a few months to live

Half a century after serving in Vietnam, test results show some men may have been infected by a slow-killing parasite while fighting in the jungles of Southeast Asia.

The Department of Veterans Affairs this spring commissioned a small pilot study to look into the link between liver flukes ingested through raw or undercooked fish and a rare bile duct cancer.

It can take decades for symptoms to appear.

By then, patients are often in tremendous pain, with just a few months to live.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: There are a lot of Vietnam vets who read this blog .... I suspect many of you are now wondering if you ate raw fish when you were deployed to Vietnam.

More News On Reports That A Jungle Parasite From Southeast Asia May Be Killing American Veterans Decades After The End Of The War

Hundreds of Vietnam Veterans May Be Infected With a Slow-Killing Parasitic Worm: Study -- Newsweek
What is liver fluke? Slow-killing parasite from Southeast Asian jungles could be responsible for death of Vietnam War vets -- International Business Times
Parasite from Vietnam could be killing war veterans -- Washington Times
Cancer In Vietnam War Veterans May Be Linked To Lethal Parasite From Southeast Asia -- Tech Times
Decades later, Vietnam vets may be silently fighting cancer-causing parasite -- Ars Technica

Top Vietnamese Communist Leader Thanks Veteran American Anti-War Activists For Their Support In Winning The War

Photo: Viet Cong Leader Nguyễn Thị Bình. Wikipedia

Daily Caller: Vietnamese Communist Leader Says US Anti-War Activists Helped Their Victory


In the weeks leading up to Memorial Day and President Barack Obama’s scheduled trip to Vietnam, a prominent Vietcong communist leader privately thanked American anti-war activists for helping defeat the U.S.-allied government in Vietnam in the 1970s, saying protest demonstrations throughout the United States were “extremely important in contributing to Vietnam’s victory.”

For Vietnamese guerrilla leader Madam Nguyen Thi Binh, who sent the private letter from Hanoi dated April 20, “victory” meant the communist takeover of South Vietnam. The letter addressed veteran American anti-war activists who gathered in Washington, D.C., at a May 3 reunion of radical “May Day” anti-war leaders.

The Daily Caller News Foundation obtained a copy of the letter at the meeting.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: I first read up on this story in a Russian publication a few weeks ago .... but it is only now that someone in the U.S. is posting this story. Here is an easy bet .... no one in the main stream media is going to touch this story .... especially on Memorial Day. As to what is my take .... I was too young during this time to follow the war, but later .... when I was old enough to ask questions about the Vietnam war .... many old Soviet hands credited the anti-war movement and a hostile mainstream press for helping them and their Vietnamese allies to stick-it-out (even though many had wanted to end it) and to win the war. Viet Cong Leader Nguyễn Thị Bình's letter and thanks is just another confirmation of that.

A Photo Gallery Of The Vietnam War From The North Vietnamese/Viet Cong Side

June 1972

Militia members sort through the debris of an American plane downed by small-arms fire in the Hanoi suburbs. The pilot had been flying at treetop level to avoid radar detection, but such low-flying planes were more vulnerable to small arms. U.S. planes targeted Hanoi industrial sites, but most industries were relocated to the countryside. IMAGE: DOAN CONG TINH/ANOTHER VIETNAM/NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC BOOKS

Alex Q. Arbuckle, Mashale: 1965-1975: Another Vietnam, Unseen images of the war from the winning side

For much of the world, the visual history of the Vietnam War has been defined by a handful of iconic photographs: Eddie Adams’ image of a Viet Cong fighter being executed, Nick Ut’s picture of nine-year-old Kim Phúc fleeing a napalm strike, Malcolm Browne’s photo of Thích Quang Duc self-immolating in a Saigon intersection.

Many famous images of the war were taken by Western photographers and news agencies, working alongside American or South Vietnamese troops.

But the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong had hundreds of photographers of their own, who documented every facet of the war under the most dangerous conditions.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: An interesting (and rare) photo gallery from the North Vietnamese/Viet Cong side during the Vietnam war.

Hat Tip to Jay for this link.

The Incredible Story Of A South Vietnamese Major Who Fled The Fall Of Saigan And Made His First Carrier Landing On The USS Midway

From YouTube: South Vietnamese Air Force Pilot, Major Ly Bung, "in his own words", of his frightful flight and perilous landing on USS Midway, 30 April 1975.

WNU Editor: Hat Tip to OFS for this incredible story.

15 Iconic Photos From The Vietnam War

Source: Vanity Fair

Business Insider: 15 poignant photos that show what life was like during the Vietnam War

In 1954, America entered into a messy war to support South Vietnam against the communist regime in North Vietnam and its allies in southern Vietnam, known as the Viet Cong.

The two-decade long war claimed the lives of more than 3 million people, with the majority of the casualties being Vietnamese civilians.

In honor of the 40th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War, here are some of the most gripping and recognizable photos from the conflict.

Editors note: Some of the following images are graphic in nature and may be disturbing to viewers.

Remembering The Fall Of Saigon 40 Years Ago

USA Today: Vietnam celebrates 40 years since end of war

Thousands of people marked the 40th anniversary of end of the Vietnam War on Thursday with a massive military parade in the capital of Ho Chi Minh City.

More than 3 million Vietnamese and nearly 60,000 American troops were killed before Saigon, then the capital of U.S.-backed South Vietnam, was captured by communist troops from the North on April 30, 1975.

North Vietnamese tanks crashed through the front gate of the presidential palace, before the troops hoisted the communist flag.

The following year, North and South Vietnam were reunified.

Remembering The Fall Of Saigon 40 Years Ago

Vietnam Celebrates 40th Anniversary of End of War -- VOA
40 years after Vietnam War, communists celebrate victory; Americans reflect on fall of Saigon -- FOX News/AP
Vietnam, 40 years after the fall of Saigon -- Al Jazeera
Forty years since the Fall of Saigon: Thousands gather in Vietnam to mark anniversary of the day communist forces seized control of the country -- Daily Mail
Vietnam PM: US 'committed barbarous crimes' during war -- BBC
Vietnam Celebrates War Anniversary, Slams 'Barbarous' American Crimes -- IBTimes
The U.S. and Vietnam: 40 Years After the Fall of Saigon -- US News and World Report
1975 CBS News footage shows dramatic evacuation of Saigon -- CBS News
Inside the Final Days of Vietnam -- Politico
The last Marines of Vietnam remember the fall of Saigon -- PBS News Hour
Enemy at the gate: The history-making, chaotic evacuation of Saigon -- CNN
Last US Marines to Leave Saigon Describe Chaos of War's End -- NYT
40 years after Vietnam War, north-south wounds fester -- SF Gate
Vietnam War: 40 years later, the fall of Saigon remains an endless abyss of sorrow for some -- Bruce Newman, San Jose Mercury News
40 years later, Vietnam still deeply divided over war -- USA Today
Vietnam's reunification turns 40: A retrospective -- UPI
Forty Years After Fall of Saigon, Entrepreneurs Return to Vietnam -- WSJ
Vietnam, ruled by communists for 40 years, is now the No. 1 fan of capitalism on the planet -- Quartz
Forty years after fall of Saigon, Vietnam now directs anger at China -- Donald Kirk, CSM
A Photojournalist Recalls the Unvarnished Truth of Vietnam -- Tim Page, Newsweek
Photos: The Fall of Saigon -- US News and World Report
Then and Now: Amazing photos show how Vietnam has healed...40 years after fall of Saigon -- Express.com

A North Vietnamese Commando Reflects On How His Team Sunk The U.S. Aircraft Carrrier USNS Card During The Vietnam War

This photograph, taken on May 2 1964, showed the USNS Card in Saigon after it was attacked by Viet Cong commandos of the 65th Special Operations Group. Wikipedia

Vietnam.net: Commando recalls sinking of US aircraft carrier

VietNamNet Bridge – Seventy-nine-year-old former Vietnamese commando Lam Son Nao still feels uncomfortable whenever he thinks about the moment he tried to recover 84 kilos of explosives that had been left near the USNS Core aircraft carrier.

Recalling the event of 52 years ago during a recent interview at his home in HCM City, Nao said he first conducted a feasibility study for the attack by inspecting a two kilometre-long sewer tunnel three times before he and his comrade Nguyen Van Cay were approved to proceed with the mission.

They later set the explosives to go off at 7pm on December 29, 1963, but they failed to detonate because of a weak battery.

Nao then decided to return to the aircraft carrier to retrieve the explosives.

WNU Editor: A fascinating story. For more information Wikipedia has put together a good summary of this attack .... Attack on the USNS Card (Wikipedia).