We Are Soldiers Still: A Journey Back to the Battlefields of Vietnam
Page 22
Bong Son Plain, 62, 207
Cam Ranh Bay, 149–50
capitalism, modern, in, 43, 151–52
Catecka Tea Plantation, 9
Central Highlands, xi, xv, 1, 3, 16, 35, 63, 68, 152, 207
Chu Lai air base removed, 54–55
Chu Pong Massif, 5, 6, 11, 21, 33, 36, 38, 88, 97
contemporary, 43, 53–54, 56, 57–62, 63, 64, 65, 68, 149–52
Danang air base today, 53–54
diplomatic recognition and most-favored-nation trade status sought, 2, 26–27
Duc Co, 110
economic boom, 42–43, 149–51
French in, 22, 31, 34, 45–47, 60, 61, 67–68, 129–30, 134, 137, 147–48 (see also
Dien Bien Phu)
Hanoi (see
Hanoi)
Hong Kong Mountain, 65
hotels, seedy, 62, 83–84
An Khe base, 84
lessons of the French ignored by American leaders, 26, 31, 45, 67–68, 130, 131
Mang Yang Pass, 67–68
military cemeteries, 60, 97–98, 141
modern revolutionary movement, 30
modern technology in, 153
Nha Trang, 149
nuoc mam, 59
Phan Thiet, 150
Pleiku, 3, 6, 10, 38, 68, 79, 83–86, 110, 122, 125
Plei Me village, 6, 10, 97
port city of Qui Nhon, 54
Quang Ngai province, 55
Qui Nhon, 62
Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City (see
Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City) smells of, 59
thousand years of war, xiii, 25
tigers of, 96, 104, 105, 148
trade with China and the U.S., 151–52
“two-step” viper, 104
village life, 57
Xuan Loc, 150
Vietnamese Communist Party, 43
Vietnam Historical Museum, 25
Vietnam Memorial, Washington, D.C., 106
Vietnam Military Museum, 42, 44
Vietnam War, xiii, 192–93
American POWs, 140
as “American War,” 56
Ap Bac battle, Mekong Delta, 31–32
B-2 Front (North Vietnamese), 35
B-52 bombing raids, Christmas, 1972, 40
battle for Ban Me Thuot, 36
Battle of Hill 875 (Dak To), 68
Battle of Xuan Loc, 150
bloodiest battle, xvi (See
Ia Drang Valley, battles of)
C-123 crash, 63
casualties, American, 107, 190, 193
casualties, Vietnamese and Cambodian, 107, 190
Chu Lai air base, 54–55
Danang, 28, 36, 35, 53–54
draftees sent to, 56, 78, 180
Duc Co, xi, 88
erasure of all evidence of, 60–62
failure of leadership and, 55–56, 193
fall of Saigon and South Vietnam, 4, 22, 35, 36, 58, 68, 153–54
fuel-air bomb used, 150
futility of, 62
Giap’s analysis, 189
H and I fire, 65–66
history’s view of, 108
Ho Chi Minh Trail, xv, 4, 22, 28, 37, 85, 136
Hue massacre, 55
An Khe base, 64–67, 87
An Khe Pass, 63
lack of officer training, 56
learning from, xx, 45, 196
MIA issue, 27
Moore and Galloway’s quest for truth, 2
Moore’s plan for an operation, 165
My Lai massacre, 55–56
North Vietnamese killing of
U.S. prisoners, 86
North Vietnamese killing of U.S. wounded, 44, 50
North Vietnam generals, 16 (see also specific generals
)
North Vietnam tactics and strategy, 35–37
Operation Masher–White Wing, 62, 63
Operation Starlight, 35
as “people’s war,” 32
Pleiku Campaign (Tay Nguyen Campaign), xv–xvi, xvii, 13, 22, 34, 35 (see also
Ia Drang Valley battles)
Plei Me Camp, 6, 10, 35, 36, 88
POW camp, Mekong Delta, 24–25
press coverage, 55–56
Qui Nhon, 85th Evacuation
Hospital at, 123
Qui Nhon, troop landing at, 54, 62, 87
refugees after fall of Saigon, 148
reporters and newsmen in, 10, 55, 151 (see also
Galloway, Joseph L.)
resolution of Vietnamese opposition, 31, 145
soldiers, both sides, as blood brothers, 40
start of U.S., 7
Tet Offensive, 32, 55
“Trail of Tears,” 148
tunnels and trenches, 138–39
U.S. technology vs. peasant army, 37
U.S. veterans, unresolved anger, 44
veterans from both sides meeting, 48–51
Wallenius, Jon, 200
war, 187–201
American reluctance to start, historically, 192
on American soil, 190
doctrine of preemptive military action, 191–92
Erasmus on, 195
as failure of leadership, xx, 55–56, 188, 192, 193
as last resort, 188
no “noble” war, 108
psychological effects on survivors, 155
soldier’s motivation in, 108
Sun Tzu on, 137
tests to meet, questions to answer before committing to, 188–89
trench warfare, 131, 132, 137–39
World War II as necessary war, 189–90
War, The (TV documentary), 155
War of 1812, 190
weapons, North Vietnamese
105mm howitzers, 45, 136
AK-47s, 8
antiaircraft guns, 136
Katyusha rockets, 136
weapons, U.S.
40mm M79 grenades, 91, 116
105mm howitzers, 9, 65–66
flechettes, 60
fuel-air bomb, 150
M16 machine guns, 7
M60 machine guns, 7
rocket-firing helicopter gunships, 9
Westmoreland, Gen. William C., 122–24
We Were Soldiers (film), xvi
Julia Moore’s influence on, 221–22
We Were Soldiers Once…and Young (Moore and Galloway), xii, xvi, 4, 41, 76–77, 200, 206, 218–19
evolution of book, 14–17
translated into Vietnamese, 2, 49
World War I, 190
World War II
Americans in, 190
attack on Pearl Harbor, 159, 172
Battle of the Bulge, 172
Bishop in, 178
Burns’s documentary on, 155
casualties, 190
casualties, American, 190
combat jumps of 82nd Airborne (Sicily, Salerno, Normandy, Market Garden), 76
failure of leadership and, 172
German invasion of Poland, 190
as necessary war, 189–90
Plumley in, 74, 75, 76
Wrong, Terry, 41, 42, 99, 228
PHOTOGRAPHY CREDITS
U.S. Army photograph
Courtesy Hal Moore
Courtesy Hal Moore
Courtesy Hal Moore
Courtesy Hal Moore
Courtesy Hal Moore
Courtesy Joe Galloway
Courtesy Joe Galloway
Courtesy Joe Galloway
Photograph by Joe Galloway
Photograph by Joe Galloway
Photograph by Joe Galloway
Photograph by Joe Galloway
Photograph by Joe Galloway
Courtesy Joe Galloway
Photograph by Joe Galloway
Photograph by Joe Galloway
Photograph courtesy Bill Beck
Photograph by Joe Galloway
Photograph by Joe Galloway
Courtesy Hal Moore
Courtesy Hal Moore
Photograph by Joe Galloway
Photograph by Bill Beck
Courtesy Hal Moore
Courtesy Hal Moore
Courtesy Hal Moore
Courtesy Susan Rescorla
Courtesy Susan Rescorla
Courtesy Susan Rescorla
Courtesy Hal Moore
Courtesy Hal Moore
Photograph by Joe Galloway
Courtesy Hal Moore
Courtesy Joe Galloway
About the Authors
LT. GEN. HAROLD G. MOORE (USA RET.), now eighty-six, was born in Kentucky. A West Point graduate, Moore was a master parachutist and Army aviator, commanded two infantry companies in the Korean War, and was a battalion and brigade commander in Vietnam. He retired from the Army in 1977 with thirty-two years’ service, and served as executive vice president of a Colorado ski resort for four years before founding a computer software company. Moore lives in Auburn, Alabama.
JOSEPH L. GALLOWAY, sixty-six, is a native of Refugio, Texas. The author of a weekly syndicated column on military and national security affairs, he recently retired as senior military correspondent of Knight-Ridder Newspapers. Galloway was a special consultant to Gen. Colin Powell at the State Department in 2001 and 2002. Galloway spent twenty-two years as a foreign and war correspondent and bureau chief for United Press International, and nearly twenty years as a senior editor and senior writer for U.S. News & World Report. He lives in Bayside, Texas.
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ALSO BY LT. GEN. HAROLD G. MOORE AND JOSEPH L. GALLOWAY
We Were Soldiers Once…and Young
Copyright
WE ARE SOLDIERS STILL. Copyright © 2008 by Lt. Gen. Harold G. Moore and Joseph L. Galloway. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Sony Reader July 2008 ISBN 978-0-06-169983-2
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Table of Contents
Foreword by Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf
Preface
Chapter 1 Back to Our Battlefields
Chapter 2 Conversations with the Enemy
Chapter 3 You Killed My Battalion!
Chapter 4 Traveling in Time
Chapter 5 The Backbone of the Army
Chapter 6 Back to the Ia Drang!
Chapter 7 A Night Alone on the Battlefield
Chapter 8 Back to the Hell That Was Albany
Chapter 9 Walking the Ground at Dien Bien Phu
Chapter 10 The Never-Ending Story
Chapter 11 Lessons on Leadership
Photographic Insert
Chapter 12 On War
Epilogue
Appendix: Two Heroes for America
Acknowledgments
An Appeal
Searchable Terms
Photography Credits
About the Authors
Other Books by Lt. Gen. Harold G. Moore and Joseph L. Galloway
Copyright
About the Publisher