Reading these words rekindles feelings. Such feelings...
3
Terrific piece.
Quang Nam Province 70-71
Quang Nam Province 70-71
3
I was so lucky to beat the draft by having a high lottery number (187 when the December draft number reacher 178).
So I did not have to be an invader in a foreign land and kill them.
By the way, we lost and the Vietnamese finally got their own country without foreign (French, Japanese or American) oppressors.
What a waste. And Kissinger still lives.
So I did not have to be an invader in a foreign land and kill them.
By the way, we lost and the Vietnamese finally got their own country without foreign (French, Japanese or American) oppressors.
What a waste. And Kissinger still lives.
5
Wow. Gripping. I kept waiting for the classic, "then all hell broke loose" at any second. But of coarse that would have been almost anticlimactic. The tension is from not knowing what awaits around the next turn that is almost palpable. Mr Taft I can see why you remember the details so clearly after so long. Every instant must have been seared into your mind, as it usually is, when you think it could be your last. You are a true hero and example of selflessness as is every man or woman who places themselves in danger for the rest of us. I just wish we had more leaders and citizens worthy of you.
5
My brother, John was in Viet Nam from Nov 67-Summer 69. He was in Khe Sanh at the same time as Michael Taft. He went through so much and was trapped inside Khe Sanh for quite a while. We finally got word that he had survived it. Thank you Michael Taft for this excellent piece. John passed in December.
10
In the course of majoring in US History and writing an Honors Thesis on Vietnam, I read scores of the academic histories, including the "Report of the Office of the Secretary of Defense Vietnam Task Force" (aka: "The Pentagon Papers"). One of the most valuable resources for understanding the experiences of the Americans who served there is "The Bad War: An Oral History of the Vietnam War."
Even better, though, is the experience of actually talking to those who served. The people I've known who were willing to talk about their experiences ranged from a Force Recon Marine involved in assassinations in connection with The Phoenix Program, to a B-52 pilot who never set foot in the country upon which he dropped the bombs, to a young man who literally could not find Vietnam on a map prior to arriving there, and who has no recollections of leaving, because he regained consciousness in hospital in Japan after being horribly wounded in an ambush near where Michael Taft's narrative is set.
The best way to learn about the reality of war is to listen those who've been there.
Even better, though, is the experience of actually talking to those who served. The people I've known who were willing to talk about their experiences ranged from a Force Recon Marine involved in assassinations in connection with The Phoenix Program, to a B-52 pilot who never set foot in the country upon which he dropped the bombs, to a young man who literally could not find Vietnam on a map prior to arriving there, and who has no recollections of leaving, because he regained consciousness in hospital in Japan after being horribly wounded in an ambush near where Michael Taft's narrative is set.
The best way to learn about the reality of war is to listen those who've been there.
11
Really excellent writing by Michael Taft. A few years later I was in the Marine C-130 crew. It's hard to imagine the arduous circumstances brought about by bad terrain, bad communications and poor intelligence, but Michael gives us a good picture.
Back then some of us enlisted, and some were drafted. It's also difficult for someone today to understand why men would enlist to undergo such abuse. Service today is optional, and a paycheck. Back then, no one enlisted for the pay. Michael's detail of the jungle and terrain means that he's chosen to remember that experience. For some, it's difficult to bring up their extraordinarily painful encounters from that time.
I can feel the sweat and thick humidity again and smell the jungle. It's hard to admit the beauty when all you wanted to do was to go home. In the end, war is simply destructive. Governments do it and we all respond. We deployed in that jungle, dropped the napalm, arc-lighted the hills into oblivion with massive bombing. We learned to hate the combative people but also establish relations with the friendly people. Some of us had established odd business relationships with some of the citizens in the villages. And there was dope. I learned some of the Vietnamese language.
We are left with only the personal experiences that each of us got, deeply emotional ones that become increasingly difficult to communicate to others as time goes on. Michael Taft has preserved some of that experience for us.
Back then some of us enlisted, and some were drafted. It's also difficult for someone today to understand why men would enlist to undergo such abuse. Service today is optional, and a paycheck. Back then, no one enlisted for the pay. Michael's detail of the jungle and terrain means that he's chosen to remember that experience. For some, it's difficult to bring up their extraordinarily painful encounters from that time.
I can feel the sweat and thick humidity again and smell the jungle. It's hard to admit the beauty when all you wanted to do was to go home. In the end, war is simply destructive. Governments do it and we all respond. We deployed in that jungle, dropped the napalm, arc-lighted the hills into oblivion with massive bombing. We learned to hate the combative people but also establish relations with the friendly people. Some of us had established odd business relationships with some of the citizens in the villages. And there was dope. I learned some of the Vietnamese language.
We are left with only the personal experiences that each of us got, deeply emotional ones that become increasingly difficult to communicate to others as time goes on. Michael Taft has preserved some of that experience for us.
17
Terrible thigs result from invading nations that have not attacked us.
8
Close calls can be as haunting as actual happenings. Taft had stumbled onto the NVA's massive build-up preceding the Tet Offensive and the Siege of Khe San. The only reason his squad was spared is that the enemy was not yet ready to reveal their infiltration. His account chilled me to the bone.
12
Steve, I think your chronology is off by about a year. Mr. Taft's patrol was in January, 1967. The Tet Offensive began on January 30, 1968. The North Vietnamese Politburo didn't decide the timing of the offensive until October, 1967. The Siege of Khe Sanh began ten days before the Tet Offensive, during the night of 20-21 January. It started with a big bang when the NVA scored a hit on the main ammo dump at Khe Sanh Combat Base. I remember that night, scared the bejesus out of me. I'd only been at Khe Sanh a short time. Semper fi . . . .
4
Thanks for this great piece. It dramatically depicts the fear, misery and near overwhelming difficulty of being in Vietnam. What's perhaps even more impressive is that it does so without even covering engagement in direct fire. Some commenters here seem to disagree. They're entitled to their opinions, but I wonder where they were while Mr. Taft and his comrades were burning leeches off each other.
I admittedly spent those days protected by student deferment followed by a high draft lottery number. That may have saved my sanity, perhaps even my life. Thank you again for what you did, and your excellent writing.
I admittedly spent those days protected by student deferment followed by a high draft lottery number. That may have saved my sanity, perhaps even my life. Thank you again for what you did, and your excellent writing.
14
"You evil man" is a perfect turn of phrase regarding Mr. (Peace is at hand) Kissinger.
My dad described Nixon as a successful Joe McCarthy. My dad was correct.
My dad described Nixon as a successful Joe McCarthy. My dad was correct.
6
That photograph says it all. My country trained me as a specialist in counterinsurgency and jungle warfare. Spend time in the jungle and your senses become like an animals and you can smell stuff that doesn't belong. That cigarette might as well be a neon sign. As Michael here put it, the United States marine corps in vietnam was the most effiecient instrument in history for killing young Americans.
9
This comment is quite likely one of the most ignorant comments I have ever read regarding a topic related to the Vietnam war. In part, it reflects the true meaning of cultural incompetence.
5
This article gave me the chills, reminding me of the time I spent at Khe Sanh, as a machine gunner with 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines. The operation I was on was a terrifying, miserable experience that lasted for nearly one month. Besides hoards of NVA (with Chinese military included) swarming through jungle trails, there was the constant Monsoon downpour, bugs, snakes, mortars, ambushes, booby traps, and more that we had to deal with. The young 19 and 20 year-old Marines, many of them Latinos, Blacks, poor Anglos, who showed remarkable courage, left a lasting impression on me. Now as I sleep in my comfortable bed at night, it seems like an out-of-body experience, remembering slumber in a half rain-filled foxhole with one eye always kept open so that I would last at least another day.
14
You were lucky to get a single beer, one that made it through to the troops. Most of the rest of the beer was stolen and sold on the black market, sent to officers clubs or scarfed up by the rear echelon.
9
Nice metaphor: "lost in Vietnam." And in the jungle! A jungle as "impenetrable" as the US politicians' excuses for that modern replay of our army's massacre of American Indians.
Jane Fonda and a majority of Americans earned the right to say "I told you so" to you blundering bloodthirsty hawks on Vietnam.
Jane Fonda and a majority of Americans earned the right to say "I told you so" to you blundering bloodthirsty hawks on Vietnam.
5
I served with the US Navy out of Danang from 67 to 68 and visited Dong Ha many times with my boats, Dong Ha being a major re-supply point along with Hue to the South. We called the river the Cua Viet, by the way. Our mission was to serve you Marines and I have the utmost admiration for the Corps and the job you did and do. Semper Fi from a squid.
10
Thank you Mr Taft for this account of the King Kong operation and for your service, but more importantly for the sensual and vivid description of the jungle environment, teeming with life. This description of the lush terrain and diverse wildlife serves as a reminder of the environmental costs of our irresponsible and destructive actions in Vietnam, or any other war. The human sacrifice and cost were brutal and tragic, compounded by the blatant disregard and ignorant destruction of unknown biological treasures, forever lost.
7
Glad you carried the reliable M-14 rather than the jam-prone M-16. Thank you for your service.
12
The sound of a tiger's roar. The leech removal by lit cigarette. The tension throughoout followed by the simple "celebration" upon the safe return to base. I fellt as though I was walking in your shoes, or behind you in that single file line. Whew.
14
This writer enlisted in 1967 to serve as a Hospital Corpsman and patrolled those same hills in the spring of 1969. By that time the marine corps had been up on the DMZ for more than four years and by my estimate even then I could see the corps had exhausted itself. The best junior officers (company commanders/platoon leaders and senior Non Commissioned Officers had been killed, wounded or rotated. None the less my 19 year old squad leaders were intrepid. At the same time I also saw what we were up to as futile. That terrain and climate alone when resupply was impossible for days socked in on those mountains had the capacity to ware away at our souls and our humanity. Add in our fierce enemy and you get a real challenge in readjusting.
About Kissinger: he not only prolonged the war he also sold out our POW's. Leaving behind significant numbers of our airmen shot down over Laos by reneging on the 2 billion dollars in reparations. Tragedy upon tragedy upon tragedy. The Vietnamese, Laotians and Cambodians as well as our sons and daughters. America's good children, mostly volunteers who heard President Kennedy's call to service.
About Kissinger: he not only prolonged the war he also sold out our POW's. Leaving behind significant numbers of our airmen shot down over Laos by reneging on the 2 billion dollars in reparations. Tragedy upon tragedy upon tragedy. The Vietnamese, Laotians and Cambodians as well as our sons and daughters. America's good children, mostly volunteers who heard President Kennedy's call to service.
15
No, by the spring of 1969, the Marine Corps had not been up on the DMZ for more than four years. It was in March 1965 that the Marines first landed in South Vietnam, at Da Nang, quite a bit south of the DMZ. Semper fi . . . .
3
I can speak from first hand experience that the first ground marines were sent to the DMZ in June 1966.
My bunk mate Ron L was the first ground marine killed up at the DMZ ------June 1966.
This became Operation Hasting which occured late July early August 1966.
My bunk mate Ron L was the first ground marine killed up at the DMZ ------June 1966.
This became Operation Hasting which occured late July early August 1966.
2
The area around KSCombatBase and the DMZ was very quiet even during much of 1966. At least till June. It was June 1966 that General Walt sent about 60 of us from our BNs Alpha and Force Recon Companies north.
60 or so of us sent out on small teams trying to track (and avoid) 10,000 NVA regulars from the 324B Division that had crossed the DMZ.
That was the start of the true war in the north of south Vietnam.
Terrifying. Even if nothing happened. I was writing my death letter to my parents----I had less than a few weeks in country.
The interesting thing about being on a small quiet recon team in the jungle----we made first hand contact with those tigers.
We saw sign, we saw tigers close up, we were attacked by them at least on one occassion.
The year after I left one of those in our Bn was dragged out of his sleeping space in the night harbor-site and killed.
A react team of recon marines was inserted and tracked and killed that tiger.
The jungle was indeed beautiful. And so very dangerous and at times terrifying.
Neither the jungle nor small team work is for the weak of heart, mind or body
S/F
60 or so of us sent out on small teams trying to track (and avoid) 10,000 NVA regulars from the 324B Division that had crossed the DMZ.
That was the start of the true war in the north of south Vietnam.
Terrifying. Even if nothing happened. I was writing my death letter to my parents----I had less than a few weeks in country.
The interesting thing about being on a small quiet recon team in the jungle----we made first hand contact with those tigers.
We saw sign, we saw tigers close up, we were attacked by them at least on one occassion.
The year after I left one of those in our Bn was dragged out of his sleeping space in the night harbor-site and killed.
A react team of recon marines was inserted and tracked and killed that tiger.
The jungle was indeed beautiful. And so very dangerous and at times terrifying.
Neither the jungle nor small team work is for the weak of heart, mind or body
S/F
19
First person accounts of what "war" actually is....are rare.
10
thank you. missed the war by a few years I'm 60. big part of my life though. great article. The point of the article is the fact that there was no point except to evoke anxiety and fear.
3
Well written Mr. Taft. You artfully evoked the experience of being in that environment. Although that war is 47 years behind me there are few days when I don't consider memories very much like yours if in a very different region of South Vietnam. I also carried a radio, a job that few wanted but I took on because of the danger associated with the task. Our patrols lasted from a few days to as much as nearly a month. Some were filled only with the 24 hour a day anxiety of not knowing what would happen next, others with mayhem. Unlike your AO, ours is one lost in history, a fraction of the war that only those who served there remember, and, thus, only we care about. I sometimes dream that those we lost are waiting there for the rest of us to come back and join them. Who knows, maybe we will, maybe we deserve to, maybe we have to, maybe as they would never have left us, we need to relieve them.
Ya. Thanks. Very well done.
Ya. Thanks. Very well done.
33
The best by far of an excellent series. I'm sure you were a helluva ironworker and dairy farmer, but I think you missed your calling as a writer. Semper Fi, do or die.
23
Oops.... sorry, got my acronyms mixed up. ARVN was the army of South Vietnam, not North Vietnam.
1
Dear god, this is a chilling narrative. We forget.
Thank you.
Thank you.
15
I remember how beautiful that part of Vietnam looked when high overhead in a helicopter (July, 1968).
I am steeling myself to finish reading McMaster's "Dereliction of Duty". Holy crap, from the insane American coup that killed the country's leaders with bullets to the back of the head, to...well, 1968, where I left off, American leaders pretty much defined the term "stupid".
War should be entered with clear eyes and objectives. Bring back the draft, so the kids, both male and female, of the rich and powerful have to face the risk.
Hugh Massengill, Eugene Oregon
I am steeling myself to finish reading McMaster's "Dereliction of Duty". Holy crap, from the insane American coup that killed the country's leaders with bullets to the back of the head, to...well, 1968, where I left off, American leaders pretty much defined the term "stupid".
War should be entered with clear eyes and objectives. Bring back the draft, so the kids, both male and female, of the rich and powerful have to face the risk.
Hugh Massengill, Eugene Oregon
30
Thank you for the story, Mr. Taft. I read so many, when I was young and Vietnam was a fresh memory. But I still learned from yours. Thank you for your service.
Don Brown
Don Brown
14
You write well. Perhaps write a book about your experiences?
12
Brutal and dangerous natural conditions, aside from being in the middle of the war. I'm glad that you and your Company persevered and made it out. Thank you for your service, and for writing such a gripping physical account of the mission at hand.
8
And still, young men and women are put in harm's way, with no real, clear cut end game.
8
When I got to the end of the article I thought it was a joke. Nothing happened. Apparently this guy walked around a jungle for a couple days, interspersed with drinking beer. This story was as pointless as America's involvement in Vietnam, so I guess that's the metaphor here. But somehow these guys are considered "heroes" that defend our freedom? Please....
4
Spend one five day mission in the jungle with a small five -10 man team trying to track a NVA Bn or even a Division.
Then you might have some actual first hand experience to qualify your opinions.
Rear echelon combat avoiders tend to see this sort of thing differently than those of us that did the actual work.
It's the same in every war
Then you might have some actual first hand experience to qualify your opinions.
Rear echelon combat avoiders tend to see this sort of thing differently than those of us that did the actual work.
It's the same in every war
10
You missed the point. Of all that's been written about 'Nam, this one leaves out the horrific violence and drama and rests for a moment on the brief interludes where the natural magnificence of the jungle is sufficient to instill both awe and fear. You exist in an environment where everything is hostile, 24/7. The adversarial anticipation becomes commonplace, second nature. You never rest not even in sleep. He doesn't need to develope your gut reaction with tales of body parts, napalm or watching your buddy's guts leaking out into the dirt. It's all there if you just be quiet and listen.
10
But they were heroes_BECAUSE THEY DID NOT WANT TO BE THERE!!! At home with their girlfriends and cars or 10,000 miles away picking up pieces of their friends. There is a difference between the volunteer army and draftees. A huge difference. Bullies versus victims. The volunteer guys are looking for a job in law enforcement afterwords and a pension. The draftees want to go home to a life.
3
Fascinating read. Thank you, Mr. Taft.
9
I have always felt fortunate that my time in Corps was from 54 to 57. At that time we did not know how close we came to being sent in to Nam, by Eisenhower, to bolster the French, who did not even want us there.
7
A waste of good yellow paint.
"My Corps and my marines were at war and I am so glad I took a pass"
"My Corps and my marines were at war and I am so glad I took a pass"
1
Meanwhile our current Commander In Chief was massaging his feet in NYC. Poor baby. He loves war.
2
I am so extraordinarily grateful I was just young enough to not be called to active duty. A student deferment lasted just long enough for the war to end. Even if I had been I probably would have ended up flying A6s over North Viet Nam, rather than fighting on the ground through Khe Sanh.
The tragedy of the Viet Nam war is that subsequent history makes it clear it was a war we are better off for having lost, than won. No war is a greater folly than than that.
The tragedy of the Viet Nam war is that subsequent history makes it clear it was a war we are better off for having lost, than won. No war is a greater folly than than that.
6
I kept waiting for a point to this piece. Maybe I missed it. Or maybe its lack of a point was intentional, symbolic of the war.
2
@tjm: That is perhaps due to the fact that you did not serve as a grunt there. I did, and his story resonated totally - the story is the point. I served as an infantry machine gunner in the mountains of DaNang, enduring many of these same type of patrols, many of them 30 days long (with resupply about every 5-7 days, depending on weather and contact). They were, like so much of military actions or combat, immense periods of heat and mind-numbing tiredness, broken by times of contact or, worst of all, booby traps. In the end, there was no point. Thank you, Mr. Taft, for an excellent snapshot in time.
15
Everyone gets a different point I would think. Hard to believe you couldn't extract something even if it was only a bit of gratitude that some other guys pulled the load we probably couldn't have hacked.
4
The life of a grunt.
12
Americans really endured hell at Khe Sanh
Rpbert Kennedy referred to that miserable place in his 1968 campaign for President which was premised, in large measure, on opposition to that war.
Toward the end a speech, in March 1968, to an enthusiastic group of college students in Kansas, he said words to the effect that if holding on to Khe Sanh is so important to the regime in Saigon, let South Vietnam put their own troops there so our troops can come home. Then he said that South Vietnam should draft their 19 year olds and that American 19 year olds shouldn't be drafted to fight their war. The students were in ecstasy. And then in three short months, that prince, that knight, was killed.
Rpbert Kennedy referred to that miserable place in his 1968 campaign for President which was premised, in large measure, on opposition to that war.
Toward the end a speech, in March 1968, to an enthusiastic group of college students in Kansas, he said words to the effect that if holding on to Khe Sanh is so important to the regime in Saigon, let South Vietnam put their own troops there so our troops can come home. Then he said that South Vietnam should draft their 19 year olds and that American 19 year olds shouldn't be drafted to fight their war. The students were in ecstasy. And then in three short months, that prince, that knight, was killed.
36
The South Vietnamese did not draft teen-agers at this time. I don't know about later RFK was correct.
I remember a political cartoon depicting a 19 year old dead American soldier beside a South Vietnames 19 year old in civilian attire astride a motorbike.
I remember a political cartoon depicting a 19 year old dead American soldier beside a South Vietnames 19 year old in civilian attire astride a motorbike.
Perhaps lost in all the butch celebration of this account is some understanding why the US was there in the first place. That is the only way that this kind of tragic meddling in the civil wars abroad can be avoided. The ridiculous military worship in the US serves neither the military nor the populous - it simply serves to perpetuate a destructive 'culture' than has wreaked havoc for many years.
34
Yes but the large corporations make money off of them. Our government wraps these young kids in the flag, and since an 18 year old thinks he will never die, sends him off to war. Then says "Whoops". But, thank you for your service. That is the most demeaning phrase ever. How about, "thanks sap", and yes my defense portfolio is up 20%. So some young kid who dreamt of his girlfriend and a '68 GTO is instead gasping his last breath out in a rice paddy. Iraq-same thing. Uglier countryside though.
11
I sincerely doubt anyone is thinking "Yay, war!" after reading this; any anyway, not everything written on armed conflict requires a preachy disclaimer about the horror/injustice/folly/sadness of military history and martial culture.
Also: "butch celebration"? You must be joking.
Also: "butch celebration"? You must be joking.
9
Young kids were forced to fight in a war far from home. If they didn't die, their lives were forever shaped by it. Who are you to silence their stories? It's becoming harder and harder to be a liberal.
19
The spookiness of the forbidding terrain around Khe Sanh was well captured by the late Michael Herr in his New Journalistic memoir "Dispatches." In fact, his whole account of the "siege" of the Marine base there is superb.
14
Dispatches is a haunting read. And it captures the war in VN as well as anything written.
1
Mr Taft: thank you
21
A fascinating and very believable account that conveys a soldier's experience of damp discomfort, exhaustion and anxiety. As a tourist, I've walked along the edges of those misty, chilly jungles. I can scarcely imagine attempting to sleep in them at night or navigate the terrain from old maps or the unalloyed relief of surviving the assignment. Excellent writing Mr Taft.
59
Oprah and Semper Fi Michael Taft! A great story I will make sure my kids read too!
7
Oprah? Think you mean something closer to "oorah."
I loved this piece for the description of the flora and fauna. I could feel the spookiness of moving silently under the dark canopy through the underbrush. You have a definite talent for writing and first hand experience of jungle patrols. The only writing like this I have read is the wonderful, but heartbreaking book "Matterhorn" about a bloody, but ultimately unsuccessful, attempt to get control of three 3000 foot hills in Vietnam from ARVN and the Viet Cong.
I am glad you came home from that evil and pointless war in one piece.
I saw a picture of a shrunken Kissinger (one of Trump's "advisors") sitting in the Oval Office with Trump yesterday and thought "You evil man." Conspiring with Tricky Dick to prolong the Paris Peace Accords for your own political purposes. Kissinger: How many men died in the time you dragged out the ending of the war? How many names on the Vietnam Memorial are attributable to your scheming with Nixon?
I loved this piece for the description of the flora and fauna. I could feel the spookiness of moving silently under the dark canopy through the underbrush. You have a definite talent for writing and first hand experience of jungle patrols. The only writing like this I have read is the wonderful, but heartbreaking book "Matterhorn" about a bloody, but ultimately unsuccessful, attempt to get control of three 3000 foot hills in Vietnam from ARVN and the Viet Cong.
I am glad you came home from that evil and pointless war in one piece.
I saw a picture of a shrunken Kissinger (one of Trump's "advisors") sitting in the Oval Office with Trump yesterday and thought "You evil man." Conspiring with Tricky Dick to prolong the Paris Peace Accords for your own political purposes. Kissinger: How many men died in the time you dragged out the ending of the war? How many names on the Vietnam Memorial are attributable to your scheming with Nixon?
32
I really enjoyed Mr. Taft's evocative account. As one who grew up in the sixties and did not go to Viet Nam, I feel like the men and women who are able to write about their experiences there are doing me the favor of helping me to understand a part our history which is not that well known to most Americans. Whatever mistakes American leaders may have made during that period, it does not help to pretend it didn't happen, and doing so improperly dishonors the service of the troops who served and sacrificed there. Better to discover what we can from former soldiers like Mr. Taft, with gratitude for the true stories they can tell us, and the resolve to learn from them.
74