Vietnam's Forgotten Army: Heroism and Betrayal in the ARVN

368 Pages·2007·1.28 MB·english

by  Andrew Wiest

Vietnam’s Forgotten Army

Andrew Wiest
Vietnam’s Forgotten Army
Heroism and Betrayal in the ARVN
a
New York University Press • New York and London
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS
New York and London
www.nyupress.org
© 2008 by New York University
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Wiest, Andrew A.
Vietnam’s forgotten army : heroism and betrayal in the ARVN /
Andrew Wiest.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-8147-9410-4 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-8147-9410-6 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Vietnam War, 1961–1975—Biography. 2. Pham, Van Dinh, 1937–
3. Tran, Ngoc Hue 1942– 4. Vietnam (Republic). Quân luc—Officers—
Biography. 5. Vietnam (Republic). Quân luc—History. 6. Vietnam
War, 1961–1975. I. Title.
DS557.5.W54 2007
959.704'3320922—dc22 2007029782
[B]
New York University Press books are printed on acid-free paper,
and their binding materials are chosen for strength and durability.
Manufactured in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
This book is dedicated to those who fought to defend South Vietnam.

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Foreword by James Webb xiii
Preface:Welcome to America xvii
Introduction: Welcome to Vietnam 1
1 Coming of Age in a Time of War 11
2 AWar Transformed: Battle, Politics, and the
Americanization of the War, 1963–1966 31
3 Fighting Two Wars: Years of Attrition and
Pacification, 1966–1967 65
4 ATime for Heroes: The Tet Offensive 95
5 After Tet: The Year of Hope 124
6 Hamburger Hill: The Untold Story of the Battle for
Dong Ap Bia 157
7 AWar Transformed: Vietnamization, 1969–1970 177
8 Shattered Lives and Broken Dreams: Operation
Lam Son 719 197
9 The Making of a Traitor 229
10 Journeys Home: Life in the Wake of a Lost War 273
Conclusion 298
Notes 305
Bibliography 329
Index 339
About the Author 350
vii

Acknowledgments
It was through and because of the course I teach on Vietnam War his-
tory at the University of Southern Mississippi that that I not only came
to a real study of the Vietnam War but also came to have occasion to
traveltoVietnam,whereImetPhamVanDinh.Manyveteranspartici-
pateinthecourse,anditwasbecauseofthemthatVietnambecamemy
passion. I owe each of these brave men my gratitude and my undying
respect. Many veterans have participated in my class over the years,
but, at the risk of slighting some, I would like to thank the late Roy
Ainsworth, Charles Brown, and especially John Young. Also, I would
like to thank Dr. Leslie Root and Dr. Raymond Scurfield, himself a Vi-
etnam veteran, for their undying devotion to the Vietnam veteran
population and for their help in making our trip to Vietnam a reality.
Several key administrators and colleagues at the University of
Southern Mississippi helped to make both the journey to Vietnam and
this book possible. Dr. Tim Hudson, then Dean of the College of Inter-
national and Continuing Education, gambled that a trip to Vietnam
would not be a disaster. In the History Department, I owe special
thanks to our past chair, Dr. Charles Bolton. Finally, I would like to
thank the dedicated and overworked staff of what is now the Office
of International Education in the College of Arts and Letters: Susan
Steen, who now is the Director of the Office of International Educa-
tion, Frances Sudduth, Sylvia McNabb, and Melissa Ravencraft. As al-
ways, I would like to thank the Administrative Assistant of the His-
tory Department, Shelia Smith, for both her friendship and her con-
stant help.
In my research for this project I relied in the expert help of a fine
group of archivists and field experts. I would like to thank several per-
sons and the institutions that they represent: Mitchell Yockelson and
Cliff Snyder of the National Archives Records Administration; Dr. Jim
Ginther, Personal Papers Archivist at the Marine Corps University Re-
search Archives of the Gray Research Center in Quantico, VA; Craig
ix