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Vietnam|April 2018JOIN THE DISCUSSION AT VIETNAM MAG.COMHISTORIC FIGHT The siege of Khe Sahn, one of the great battles of the Vietnam War, ends when the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) reaches the Marine base in Operation Pegasus during April 1968, as recounted in this issue. For more on the battle, visit HistoryNet.com and search: “Khe Sanh.” Through firsthand accounts and stunning photos, our website puts you in the field with the troops who fought in one of America’s most controversial wars. HISTORY NETNOW Sign up for our FREE monthly e-newsletter at: historynet.com/newsletters Let’s connect Vietnam magazine Go digital Vietnam magazine is available on Zinio, Kindle and Nook.…1 min
Vietnam|April 2018TODAYCAMBODIA STOPS RECOVERY OF U.S. REMAINS Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, amid heated exchanges with U.S. officials in a deportation dispute, halted his country’s cooperation with efforts to find the remains of American troops missing in action during the Vietnam War. “The search cooperation is postponed until a number of issues are resolved between Cambodia and the United States,” Hun Sen said in a report on website Fresh News, a pro-government Cambodian news service. The diplomatic dust-up began, according to Agence France-Presse, in early September 2017 when Hun Sen arrested an opposition party leader, Kem Sokha, for treason and accused the United States of aiding him. The U.S. Embassy called for the opponent’s release. In another sore spot, Cambodia said it would not take back Cambodian citizens living in the…3 min
Vietnam|April 2018JOHN ROWANBorn: Sept. 18, 1945, Queens, New York Residence: Middle Village (Queens borough), New York Education: Queens College, bachelor’s in political science, 1970; Hunter College, master’s in urban affairs, 1972 Military service: U.S. Air Force, July 1965-December 1967; highest rank: sergeant In Vietnam: June-July 1967; voice intercept processing specialist, 6988th and 6990th security squadrons Professional career:Worked for Bronx Borough President Robert Abrams, 1973: community liaison for U.S. Rep. Ben Rosenthal, D-N.Y., 1973-77; district manager, Queens Community Board No. 4, 1977-85; chief investigator, New York City Council Office of Oversight and Investigation, 1985-96; manager-investigator, New York City Comptroller’s Office, 1996-2002 Today: Vietnam Veterans of America, president since 2005 Airman John Rowan flew in planes over North Vietnam with a team listening in on the enemy’s communications and translating them into English to…7 min
Vietnam|April 2018THE PEGASUS RIDE THROUGH HELLIn the opening week of April 1968, the sky over the northwestern corner of South Vietnam looked like someone had disturbed a beehive as swarms of U.S. Cavalry helicopters flitted about, marshaling troops, equipment and firepower to various landing zones. This was Operation Pegasus, one of the Vietnam War’s largest offensive campaigns, an attack on the enemy forces besieging a Marine base at Khe Sanh. A letter home by Sgt. Doug McPhee, 4th Platoon, Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment, on April 8, 1968, described the conditions witnessed by troops of the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) at the operation’s Landing Zone Wharton: “You probably know where the 1st Cav is now—the immediate vicinity of Khe Sahn—and it is really bad news. The NVA are as well equipped as we…16 min
Vietnam|April 2018THE WAR’S FINAL ACTRufus Phillips served with the Army, CIA and U.S. Agency for International Development in South Vietnam from 1954 to 1968, working undercover and on “pacification” projects to provide security, economic development and social services in rural areas. He put his expertise to use as an adviser to U.S. officials, including Vice President Hubert Humphrey, and attempted to steer government policy toward actions that would achieve a “meaningful outcome” in the war, but he had little success. In Why Vietnam Matters, Phillips draws on his experiences to catalog the reasons for the war’s tragic ending. The United States in July 1968 was a country in severe turmoil. Parts of Washington remained in smoking ruins from the riots after Martin Luther King Jr.’s death on April 4. Robert Kennedy was dead, shot…14 min
Vietnam|April 2018JIMMIE HOWARDWhen 36-year-old Jimmie Earl Howard arrived in Vietnam in April 1966, he was the perfect recruiting-poster Marine. The stocky native of Burlington, Iowa, enlisted in 1950 after a year at the University of Iowa. Two years later he was a corporal in Korea, where he earned two Purple Hearts and a Silver Star. On June 13, 1966, Staff Sgt. Howard’s platoon of 15 other Marines and two Navy hospital corpsmen from C Company, 1st Reconnaissance Battalion, 1st Marine Division, were helicoptered to Nui Vu Hill inside enemy-controlled Hiep Duc Valley in northern South Vietnam. The 1,500-foot observation point was Hill 488 on military maps, but two days later would be rechristened in blood as “Howard’s Hill.” A valiant defense of the hill by Howard and his men made them the…3 min
Vietnam|April 2018A Real Band of BrothersThe article on the Marine band in the December 2017 issue (by Jack Wells, “The Marine Band in Action,” which recounts the death of three musicians in a battle on Feb. 23, 1969) is well-written. The Marines lost one more bandsman in Vietnam. Nate F. Lee was killed at Quang Nam on May 17, 1968. The Marines also lost two musicians killed in Korea, 38 in World War II and 23 in World War I. In World War I and II, some of the bandsmen were field musics, or FMs—buglers who were taught how to play the snare drum so they could help in the marching of the troops and were used as runners for the battalion or regiment commanding officer. All of the Marine musicians killed in World War…1 min
Vietnam|April 2018Parasite From Vietnam May Be Killing VetsHundreds of Vietnam veterans could unknowingly be hosts for a parasitic worm found in the rivers of Vietnam, according to Newsweek. A study conducted in 2017 by the Department of Veterans Affairs found that Vietnam veterans have been infected with the parasites, called liver flukes, linked to a rare bile duct cancer. Veterans often show no symptoms for decades and then have a painful onset with just months to live. The parasite is contracted by eating raw or undercooked freshwater fish. The VA has seen about 700 cases of the bile duct cancer in the last 15 years, according to The Associated Press, but many of the veterans weren’t aware of the disease’s possible connection to Vietnam. In the pilot study, 20 percent of the 50 participants tested positive for…1 min
Vietnam|April 2018THE M14 RIFLERounds: 7.62-by- 51 mm ball, armor-piercing and tracer Magazine: 20 rounds Weight: 10.7 pounds loaded; 12 pounds with bipod Overall length: 44.3 inches Barrel length: 22 inches Maximum rate of fire: 750 rounds per minute Effective rate (in combat): 60 rpm automatic; 40 rpm semi-automatic Muzzle velocity: 850 meters (2,801 feet) per second Maximum effective range: 460 meters (500 yards) In April 1958, the government-owned Springfield Armory in Massachusetts initiated production of the M14 rifle. The product of nearly 15 years of research and development, the new weapon could switch between semi-automatic and fully automatic modes to increase firepower. But production started slowly, and early operational experience identified problems. The primary complaints were fragile receivers, malformed bolts, poor accuracy and instability during automatic fire. All of those problems but the…2 min
Vietnam|April 2018LAST PLANE OUT OF CAMBODIAFlying for Air America Inc., an airline secretly owned by the CIA in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War, had been the most fulfilling nine years of my life. From 1964 to 1973, I had been based in Saigon and Vientiane, Laos, flying cargo and making airdrops of supplies to friendly locals in hostile territory. I left it in September 1973 when Air America’s Vientiane base closed. I joined my family who had been living in New Zealand and easily landed a couple of unstimulating jobs, flying tourists over a volcano crater and looking for smoke or lightning strikes in the forests. After a year of that drudgery, I needed a fix. I was filled with intermingled relief and ecstasy when I received a call from former Air America colleague…16 min
Vietnam|April 2018Big ShotsAn explosion in ammunition The most notable artillery innovations in Vietnam were in the shells. One example, introduced in 1961 in 105 mm form, is “improved conventional ammunition,” or ICM, rounds that are fired and then burst into smaller munitions, called “anti-personnel grenades,” showered on top of enemy troops. Other 105 mm shells, called “anti-personnel tracers,” or APERS-T, could shoot out 8,000 flechettes (French for dart or arrow). First used in 1966, they are also known as “beehive rounds.” From 1967 to ’71, some 105 mm artillery units fired “rocket assisted projectiles,” or RAP, which had the added thrust of a rocket motor, but the gain in range sacrificed firepower and accuracy. Other ammo consisted of 8-inch (203 mm) high-explosive shells, shown here near an M110 self-propelled howitzer. Most 105…3 min
Vietnam|April 2018LIKE READING AN INTEL REPORT“The NVA’s Plan for a Great Escape” (by Erik Villard, February 2018) is an excellent article. As S-2 [staff officer for intelligence operations] 577th Engineer Battalion, and from September 1967 to January1968, the 18th Engineer Brigade liaison officer to the 173rd Airborne Brigade, I found the article very accurate; reads as if it was the weekly intel brief during that period in Phu Yen province. Ken Jobe Virginia Beach, Va. Correction: In the Hall of Valor article on Marvin Shields (December 2017), an incorrect rank for Shields was given because of a typographical error. He was a petty officer third class. Send lettersand email:Vietnam editor 1919 Gallows Road, Suite 400, Vienna, VA 22182-4038 Vietnam@HistoryNet.com…1 min
Vietnam|April 2018FAREWELLRichard Edward Cavazos, the Army’s first Hispanic four-star general, died Oct. 29, 2017, in San Antonio. He was 88. Cavazos grew up on the King Ranch in Texas and was an ROTC graduate at Texas Technological University in 1951. He served in the Korean War as a lieutenant in the 65th Infantry Regiment. In Vietnam, he was a lieutenant colonel commanding the 1st Battalion, 18th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division. Cavazos got his fourth star in 1982. He received two Distinguished Service Crosses (one in Korea and one in Vietnam) and a Silver Star. Wesley L. Fox, a Medal of Honor recipient, died Nov. 24, 2017, at age 86 in Blacksburg, Virginia. Fox was a Virginia farm boy who followed a family tradition of military service by enlisting in the…1 min
Vietnam|April 2018MARCH-APRIL 1968March 19 Students at Howard University in Washington, D.C., stage the first takeover of a campus building as they protest the draft and make demands for changes at the school, including creation of a black studies program. The sit-in ended March 23 with many of the demands met. April 2 Audiences join 2001: A Space Odyssey on a mission to Jupiter that combines stellar special effects with philosophical musings on mankind’s destiny and the dangers of humanlike computers. March 31 Lyndon B. Johnson, with support for the war dropping and “peace candidates” on the rise, announces a halt to most bombing of North Vietnam, adding: “I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your president.” April 4 Martin Luther King…3 min
Vietnam|April 2018PAVING THE WAY FOR AMERICA’S FIGHTING FORCESCorrespondents who covered the Vietnam War typically concentrated on the more glamorous branches of the combat arms—infantry, armor and artillery. Too often unfairly ignored in the box-score statistics that measured success in countless combat operations were the accomplishments of the combat engineers who made that success possible. An army can’t go very far without roads, bridges, runways, landing pads, ports, fuel tanks, supply depots, ammo dumps, fortifications and other critical facilities that support its operations. That’s where my unit and other battalions of the 937th Engineer Group (Combat) contributed. As captain of C Company, 19th Engineer Battalion (Combat), stationed at Fort Meade, Maryland, I was in a classroom with the approximately 150 men in my unit watching President Lyndon B. Johnson announce during his July 28, 1965, news conference that…13 min
Vietnam|April 2018THE EVERYDAY COURAGE OF GRUNTS IN VIETNAMPart photographic history, part battle anthology, Brutal Battles of Vietnam emerged from VFW magazine’s award-winning Vietnam series. The result is a visually spectacular, year-by-year account of the bloodiest battles waged by American forces in Vietnam. In this book, skillfully edited by Richard K. Kolb, “brutal battles” are clearly, if subjectively, defined according to American casualties. “For battles fought from 1965 through 1968,” explains Kolb, “that number was generally 30. Starting in 1969 and running through 1972, it was roughly 20.” Numerous exceptions were made, however, to include the historically significant invasions of Cambodia (1970) and Laos (1971) and to ensure that every major U.S. ground unit is represented. While the accounts detailing the most highly publicized battles of the war—Ia Drang, Dak To, Khe Sanh, Hue, Ripcord—will resonate with many…6 min
