Tilting at Mekong Windmills: A Historical Narrative

By Marvin Baker Schaffer

Tilting at Mekong Windmills is the true story of
four participants in the Vietnam tragedy: John
Paul Vann, a very senior American civilian; Philip
(Ted) Serong, an Australian Army brigadier who
became a CIA agent; and two Vietnamese
siblings on opposite sides of the struggle. All
made significant contributions to the war effort but
met undeserved fates. For the author, this is a work
of admiration for Vann and Serong. Heroes, who
performed extraordinary service for the American
side, both made strategic recommendations that
might have led to a more favorable outcome.
The other characters reflect the irony of the times.
All were tilting at windmills.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Sep 1, 2011
• ISBN: 9781465360373

Marvin Baker Schaffer

Marvin Baker Schaffer is superbly qualified to write this narrative about the Vietnam War. He is a World War II veteran who served in the Army of Occupation in Germany before devoting ten years designing new artillery for the US Army that was pivotal in both the Korean and Vietnam conflicts. As an analyst for the RAND Corporation, he then spent a year in Vietnam working on issues critical to the war. He was a confidant of one of the book’s heroic characters, Ted Serong, and had met the other, John Paul Vann. His views about the war are timely and worth pondering.

Book preview

Tilting At Mekong

WindMills

A Historical Narrative

Marvin Baker Schaffer

Copyright © 2011 by Marvin Baker Schaffer.

Library of Congress Control Number:       2011915587

ISBN:         Hardcover                               978-1-4653-6036-6

                   Softcover                                 978-1-4653-6035-9

                   Ebook                                      978-1-4653-6037-3

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This book was printed in the United States of America.

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris Corporation

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

[e-mail]

101287

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

LIST OF ACRONYMS & ABBREVIATIONS

NOTES

FORWARD

BOOK ONE

Chapter 1 John Paul Vann Killed

Chapter 2 Vann as a Young Man

Chapter 3 In the Army

Chapter 4 Vann in Vietnam

Chapter 5 Vann’s Second Tour in Vietnam

BOOK TWO

Chapter 6 Xuyen Van Li

Chapter 7 Xuyen Van Phouc

BOOK THREE

Chapter 8 Ted Serong

Chapter 9 The Fall of Saigon

Chapter 10 Author’s War-Related Memoir

Chapter 11 Epilogue

Chapter 12 What Have We Learned?

NOTES

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Mekong River Delta

SA-7 SAM

WW II Recruits

North Korean Offensive

L-5 Light Observation Aircraft

Inchon Flanking Counterattack

ARVN M113 Armored Personnel Carrier

Continental Palace Hotel Saigon

Hole Blown in US Embassy Wall, Saigon

Anti-War Protest in Berkeley

OH-58 Kiowa Warrior

NVA Easter Offensive

B-52 Bombing

John Paul Vann & Staff in 1972

Vann’s Tombstone at Arlington Cemetery

Tu Do Street Saigon

Ngo Dinh Diem

Saigon Parliament Building

1967 CL90 Honda Motorcycle

Execution of Nguyen Van Lem

North Vietnamese Tank Crashing Palace Gate

Reeducation Camp Vietnam 1975-1985

Ted Serong

Order of Battle—1974

Evacuation From Roof of 22 Gia Long Street

North Vietnamese Tanks Entering Da Nang

Civilians Storming U.S. Embassy

Newport Class LST

Schaffer Boys in 1943, Author on the Left

60-mm Mortar

Gasthaus Traub Konig Strasse in Dillingen

Guarding the Colonel’s Mansion 1945

105-mm Beehive Shell

Gravel Mine

F-5A Fighter/Bomber

Burning Monk 1963

1938 Citroen Avant Sedan

1967 Transportation on Air America

Dornier Do28

Interior of C-47A Gooney Bird

Swarm of Saigon Cyclists

Rocket Impact Ellipse 1968

Typical Average Hamlet Score by District

Don Quixote, Man of La Mancha

Naval Shipyard 1935

Ferrum College Campus

Canister Ammunition

Cu Chi Tunnel Complex

Courtesy New York Times

T-54 Tank

Cholon 1955

Body of Diem in the Back of an APC

Trung Sisters Statue/Madam Nhu

ADSID and ACOUSID Sensors

Notre Dame Cathedral Saigon

LIST OF ACRONYMS & ABBREVIATIONS

ACOUSID Acoustic Intrusion Detector

ADSID Air Delivered Seismic Intrusion Detector

AID Agency for International Development

APC Armored Personnel Carrier

ARVN Army of the Republic of Vietnam

CIA Central Intelligence Agency

CMF Civilian Military Forces

CORDS Civil Ops and Revolutionary Developm’t Support

DMZ Demilitarized Zone

DOD Department of Defense

DP Displaced Person

DSO Distinguished Service Order

FT Feet

GI Government Issue; also American Soldier

HES Hamlet Evaluation System

HQ Headquarters

ICC International Control Commission

IRO International Refuge Organization

JASON July, August, September, October, November

JFK John Fitzgerald Kennedy

JGS Joint General Staff

LAW Light Assault Weapon

LBJ Lyndon Baines Johnson

LST Landing Ship Tank

MAAG Military Assistance Advisory Group

MACV Military Assistance Command Vietnam

MIT Massachusetts Institute of Technology

MM Millimeters

MP Military Police

MPC Military Payment Certificates

ACRONYMS & ABBREVIATIONS (Cont)

NDC National Defense College

NLF National Liberation Front

NPFF National Police Field Forces

NVA North Vietnamese Army

NVN North Vietnam

OBE Order of the British Empire

PF Popular Forces

PFF Police Field Forces

PM Prime Minister

PX Post Exchange

RAAF Royal Australian Air Force

RF Regional Forces

ROTC Reserve Officers Training Corps

RMC Royal Military College

RVNAF Republic of Vietnam Air Force

SAM Surface to Air Missile

SHAEF Supreme HQ Allied Expeditionary Forces

SITREPS Situation Reports

SNAFU Situation Normal All Fouled Up

UNRAA United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Agency

USHA United States Housing Authority

USOM United States Operations Mission

VC Viet Cong

VIP Very Important Person

VW Volkswagen

WAC Women’s Army Corps

NOTES

1.  Norfolk, Virginia—Early 20th Century

2.  Ferrum College

3.  Canister Ammunition

4.  Cu Chi

5.  Harnessing the Revolution

6.  Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers

7.  T54-T55 Tanks

8.  Cholon

9.  Nho Dinh Diem

10.  Madam Nho Dinh Nhu

11.  Reeducation Camps

12.  National Police Field Force (NPFF)

13.  Phoenix Program

14.  Vietnam’s Menacing Cease Fire

15.  Duong Van Minh

16.  Displaced Persons Camps

17.  McNamara Line

18.  Lanchester Theory

19.  Rocketing of Downtown Saigon

FORWARD

ALMOST 400 YEARS ago, Miguelle Cervantes wrote about a Spanish gentleman who, in his dotage, donned a suit of armor, mounted a steed, and set out on an impossible task to right the wrongs of the world. It has subsequently become a part of our lexicon that Don Quixote futilely tilted at windmills. The human impulse to create a better society has been much ridiculed and maligned, but it is one of the dominant forces in our culture, and it takes many forms. Perhaps, despite the cynicism of our time, "tilting at Mekong windmills" is the best explanation for the 20-year American presence in Vietnam ending in agony in 1975.

The author spent 13 months in Vietnam in 1966-1968 doing research related to the war. He was personally acquainted with one of this book’s principal characters, Ted Serong and had met the second, John Paul Vann. Other main characters are fictitious although they bear resemblance to real, well-known people. In particular, Xuyen Van Li under a different name was actually rescued by Ted Serong and escorted safely out of Vietnam. However, details of her earlier life have been fictionalized. Xuyen Van Phouc, her sibling, is also fictitious but the events he participated in are historically accurate.

This is the intertwined story of four participants in the Vietnam tragedy: a senior American civilian with the equivalent rank of U.S. Army major general, a retired Australian Army brigadier who ultimately became a CIA agent, and two Vietnamese siblings on opposite sides of the struggle. All made significant contributions to the war effort and all met undeserved fates.

For the author, this is a work of admiration for Serong and Vann. Both were heroes who performed extraordinary service for the American side. Both made insightful strategic recommendations which, had they been implemented in a timely manner, might have led to a more favorable outcome. Neither received the full appreciation and respect that is warranted. The fictitious characters reflect the confusion and irony of the times. They too were tilting at windmills.

The author’s personal experiences leading up to and during the Vietnamese conflict receive selective, anecdotal treatment insofar as they illuminate the narrative. The author is by no stretch of the imagination a war hero. He was a citizen soldier who deployed to the European Theater in WW II but saw no combat. However, after he demobilized and graduated college, he spent the bulk of his career working on military issues including many relating to the Korean and Vietnamese Wars. A retrospective strategic analysis of the Vietnamese War from the author’s perspective is also provided.

The most important insight is that Hanoi knew from the start it was fighting the American public and not its military machine. All North Vietnam had to do for victory was to persist long enough until Main Street America called it quits. That, of course, eventually happened. Neither Lyndon Johnson nor Richard Nixon attempted regime change in Hanoi since they were concerned about and intimidated by possible Chinese intervention. However, regime change was the only way America could have been victorious in Vietnam.

America’s involvement in Vietnam was clearly a disaster. In the 36 years that have since elapsed, the cataclysmic predictions that many made have only partially been fulfilled. We do not know of course what the long-term future holds for the region. However, the Chinese and Vietnamese models are closely related. The author believes that whatever is in store for China will be the model for Vietnam. There is hope for a good outcome without any indication that it will happen soon.

image001.jpg

Mekong River Delta

Courtesy of Microsoft Corporation

BOOK ONE

John Paul Vann

CHAPTER 1

John Paul Vann Killed

Kontum Province, South Vietnam

June 9, 1972

FIVE VIETNAMESE MEN are hiding in tall grass on hilly terrain. They are Viet Cong guerrillas on a mission to ambush the most important American in a bloody war that has dragged on for ten years. It is late evening, the sky has scattered clouds dimly illuminated by a setting reddish sun. The men are wiry, of indeterminate age, and small by Western standards. They are exhausted, having walked over rough ground, avoiding roads for five hours, carrying their weapons and equipment. The ambushers wear nondescript military clothing but their gear is surprisingly modern.

Capt. Phouc is in command. Vung. You are in charge of the water. Take a position under the tree. We may be here for two or three hours. Make sure it lasts, but bring the water when the men call.

Sgt. Lom. Hide in the tall grass with Comrade Dao. Make sure the missile is ready to fire. Keep it dry and free of mud. Comrade Dao will help you.

Phouc crawls under a bush with the radio operator at his side. PL-2 at designated site, goes out the coded message. Phouc scans the horizon with olive drab binoculars. Time passes slowly. After 10 minutes, Phouc calls out, I hear it. It’s coming from the south. Point the launcher and arm the missile!

An OH-58 Kiowa Ranger helicopter appears on the horizon with its characteristic chop-chop sound. John Paul Vann, a civilian with a de facto military rank of major general, is at the controls; two U.S. Army passengers are also on board. Phouc waits expectantly. After 30 seconds, he roars, Now! Fire! Fire! Sgt. Lom squeezes the firing mechanism and the missile flashes toward its target. After five seconds that seem like an hour, the helicopter explodes in flames and crashes to the ground. Phouc straps a rifle on his back, draws his pistol, and runs toward the crash scene trailed by Dao.

We did it, we did it! Dao is bug-eyed even though he can only approach the flaming wreck to within 100 feet. This is a glorious day. Vann is dead. Phouc crawls closer, and empties his rifle followed by his pistol in the direction of the helicopter cockpit where two slumping human forms can be seen. Phouc turns and starts back to the ambush site. You are a hero, Comrade Phouc, Dao exclaims.

Let’s get out of here! Phouc orders.

image002.jpg

SA-7 SAM

Photo courtesy of the Federation of American Scientists

(www.fas.org)

CHAPTER 2

Vann as a Young Man

NORFOLK, VIRGINIA—1932. FRANK and Myrtle Vann are having a loud argument in their second story railroad flat. The neighborhood is called Atlantic City. It is run down and clearly displaying the effects of the Great Depression. There are a few older-model Fords parked in garbage-littered streets. The most distinctive features of the neighborhood are an ancient cotton mill and a sprawling lumber factory, both of which are in bad repair and operate only intermittently. Atlantic City is adjacent to another working-class area called Lamberts Point, close to the mouth of the Elizabeth River. Anchored in the river are barges unloading coal to supply the Norfolk and Western Railroad which originates there.

John, age 8, crouches on the fire escape outside the apartment listening.

I need seven dollars for John’s school uniform Myrtle demands.

Seven dollars hell! What’s he need a uniform for? The little bastard ain’t even my kid. Who’s his father, anyhow? Frank bellows at the top of his voice.

That isn’t fair. You know Johnny Spry is his father, Myrtle plaintively whispers.