Vietnam, An Epic Tragedy

by Max Hastings

  ‘I didn’t want’ AI Scotton 11.9.16

  ‘That is the colonial’ ibid.

  ‘the imbecility of’ AI Ramsey 22.9.16

  ‘I wanted to see’ AI Destatte 12.9.16

  ‘It never occurred’ Scotton, Frank Uphill Battle Texas Tech 2014 p.53

  ‘really wasn’t a military’ Charlton & Moncrieff p.76

  ‘I felt what we’ AI Gray 14.11.16

  ‘I would have been’ Scotton p.48

  ‘C’est la guerre’ ibid. p.61

  ‘The one common’ Daddis, Greg Westmoreland’s War: Reassessing American Strategy in Vietnam Oxford 2014 p.14

  ‘No superior anticipated’ Santoli p.118

  ‘That confrontation was’ Luan p.154

  ‘It could be hard to get [them] out’ ibid. p.99

  ‘a military answer’ Schlesinger, Arthur Robert Kennedy and His Times p.469

  ‘isn’t a war’ Hilsman interview 1969 quoted Daddis Westmoreland’s War p.23

  ‘The task in South Vietnam’ Colby, William Lost Victory Chicago 1989 p.34

  ‘Don’t ask for’ Dobrynin, Anatoly In Confidence: Moscow’s Ambassador to America’s Six Cold War Presidents Times Books 1995 p.51

  ‘difficult, if not impossible’ Charlton & Moncrieff p.82

  ‘Well, Lyndon’ Halberstam p.41

  ‘Some [US officers] looked like’ Luan p.235, ref McNamara visit of September 1963

  ‘seemed like a monastery’ Howard, Michael Capt. Professor Continuum 2006 pp.172–3 – he visited in 1960

  ‘There were no pacifists’ Mai Elliott RAND p.25

  ‘I hope the Americans’ UKNA FO371/170133, Home minute of 7.4.63

  ‘You must go’ Thompson Make for the Hills p.121 Rahman spoke in 1961

  ‘disastrous to British’ 3.1.62 UKNA FO371/166698

  ‘Why is Australia’ Warner in Sydney Morning Herald 12.5.62

  ‘the struggle may be’ Shapley p.132

  ‘Every quantitative measurement’ ibid.

  ‘He willed himself’ Sheehan, Neil A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam Random House 1988 p.291

  ‘Hanson Baldwin, the respected’ Saturday Evening Post 9.3.63

  ‘He has the sincerity’ New York Times 22.4.66

  ‘idyllic, just a sleepy’ AI Sullivan 12.3.16

  ‘Hell, I don’t even’ Scotton p.19

  ‘I only told’ AI Nguu 20.9.16

  ‘People were incredibly’ AI Mai Elliott 23.9.16

  ‘The emptier a barrel’ Dinh Duc Thien in Quynh Memories

  ‘Why are you people’ ibid.

  ‘We are weaker than’ Asselin p.94

  ‘There were fifty’ Elliott Mekong Delta Vol. I p.601

  ‘a credible estimate’ Andrews, William Village War 1973 pp.57–8

  ‘Nam Kinh, a local’ Elliott Mekong Delta Vol. I p.377

  ‘Talking to me about political’ ibid. p.381

  ‘You can’t really’ Scotton p.85

  ‘The Vietcong once’ Browne, Malcolm The New Face of War Bobbs-Merrill 1965 p.103

  ‘between a quarter and half’ Ramsey, Doug unpublished MS of Vietnam experience given to author MS II C19

  Chapter 7 – 1963: Coffins for Two Presidents

  ‘Saigon was a very’ AI Sheehan 5.3.16

  ‘published letters home’ USAHEC The US Army in Vietnam by William M. Hammond The Military and the Media 1990 p.77 Indianapolis News 28.3.64

  ‘The use of napalm’ ibid. p.16

  ‘This is a war fought’ New York Times 21.10.62

  ‘Homer Bigart wrote’ ibid. 25.7.62

  ‘Marine helicopters’ Newsweek 20.8.62

  ‘women said that’ Elliott Mekong Delta Vol. I p.399

  ‘Dien shook his head’ ibid. p.402

  ‘The communists seemed’ Lt. Nguyen Van Go in Brigham, Robert K. ARVN: Life and Death in the South Vietnamese Army Kansas University Press 2006 p.41

  ‘Vietcong recruits were told’ Elliott Mekong Delta Vol. I p.392

  ‘I’ve got a problem’ Sheehan Lie p.223

  ‘Ba! If you don’t’ Ha, Mai Viet Blood and Steel: Armor During the Vietnam War self-published Sugarland, Texas 2005 pp.246–50

  ‘Look, there’s my’ Sheehan Lie p.222

  ‘We knew this was’ ibid. p.274

  ‘The United States had’ Fitzgerald p.163

  ‘but a collection of individuals’ ibid. p.164

  ‘greatly hurt ARVN morale’ Luan p.221

  ‘who only wrote’ Ha Mai Viet pp.246–50

  ‘It seems fair’ Wyndham MS p.12

  ‘“individualism” and its’ Fitzgerald p.590

  ‘Seldom has an’ Burleigh, Michael Small Wars, Faraway Places Macmillan 2013 p.485

  ‘Most of the bonzes’ AI Scotton 18.9.16

  ‘Reporter Marguerite Higgins’ Higgins pp.28–9

  ‘The [Buddhist] crisis’ Luan p.237

  ‘The conflict between’ New York Times 10.6.63 & later 14.6.63, 16.6.63, 22.6.63

  ‘I could have prevented’ Nieman Reports 26 (March 1972) p.8

  ‘The president has a habit’ Schlesinger Journals 11.10.61 p.138

  ‘From most of the’ Pentagon Papers 2:46

  ‘They killed six’ Elliott Mekong Delta Vol. I p.410

  ‘it was apparent that’ Scotton p.71

  ‘Charlie, I can’t’ Hersh, Seymour The Dark Side of Camelot Little, Brown 1997 p.418

  ‘American planners would’ Logevall, Fredrik Choosing War University of California Press 1999 p.47

  ‘If there is no settlement’ New York Herald Tribune 3.9.63

  ‘Chester Cooper wrote’ Logevall Choosing War p.49

  ‘There was an almost’ Colby p.133

  ‘beneath Conein’s posturings’ AI Scotton 11.9.16

  ‘George Ball later’ Charlton & Moncrieff p.91

  ‘My comrades and I’ Luan p.188

  ‘South Vietnam had become’ Hoang Van Thai A Few Strategic Issues in the Spring 1968 Tet Offensive address to March 1986 Ho Chi Minh City conference, published in Vietnam’s Military History Magazine Issue 2 1988 p.21

  ‘If you stuck with’ AI Sheehan 5.3.16

  ‘Diem knew that if’ AI Uc 11.9.16

  ‘After Diem’s death’ AI Nguyen Tri 16.9.16

  ‘Killing Diem was’ AI Scotton 11.9.16

  ‘Some of these generals’ Scotton p.75

  ‘confident that we were’ AI Elliott 23.9.16

  ‘What Americans have not’ Wyndham MS p.8

  ‘I wanted to sit down’ Jones, Howard Death of a Generation OUP 2003 p.436

  ‘On the world stage’ The Times 23.11.63

  ‘He knows little’ Schlesinger Journals 11.3.64

  ‘the defense secretary’s biographer’ Shapley p.263

  ‘I heard [Kennedy] say’ Galbraith on NBC TV Vietnam Hindsight 1971, quoted Berman Planning a Tragedy p.23

  ‘Fine. Give us’ Rufus Phillips quoted Santoli p.3

  ‘The first major’ AI Johnson 8.3.16

  Chapter 8 – The Maze

  ‘because it represented’ AI Snider 9.3.16

  ‘If I get captured’ AI Scotton 18.9.16

  ‘His last letter’ Dietrich, Erik Jurgen-Karl The Kraut privately printed 2015 p.127

  ‘The fabric of this’ Ramsey MS II D9

  ‘the small, determined’ ibid. III A21

  ‘John’s idea’ AI Ramsey 21.9.16

  ‘shooting into school’ ibid. III E4

  ‘At worst, being’ ibid. III A23

  ‘His best claims’ Snepp Irreparable Harm p.xiv

  I fell in love’ AI Snepp 10.9.16

  ‘The sleepy colonial’ Simpson p.187

  ‘Saigon has greatly’ USAHEC Berry Papers Box 39 letter of 14.11.65

  ‘A good rest’ ibid. 15.11.65

  ‘Gee, after your’ AI Scotton 18.9.16

  ‘I loved flying’ AI Uc 11.9.16

  ‘I felt stunned’ Nam p.41

  ‘What kind of life’ ibid. p.44

  ‘T
he Vietnamese wounded’ USAHEC Sidney Berry Papers Box 38

  ‘My hands shook’ Young p.193

  ‘In the extended’ Santoli p.125

  ‘Most senior Vietnamese’ Ky p.334

  ‘So bitter became’ Huy Duc p.147

  ‘You always criticise’ Elliott Mekong Delta Vol. II p.677

  ‘Brute force and subterfuge’ ibid. p.656

  ‘The commander of one’ ibid. p.830

  ‘As a result’ ibid. p.745 – this episode took place in January 1965

  ‘[The government] will kill you’ ibid. p.754

  ‘I knew from the’ Kearns, Doris Johnson and the American Dream 1976 p.263

  ‘kept on the eleven’ Schlesinger Journals 4.4.68 p.286

  ‘Lyndon Johnson is not’ Logevall Choosing War p.77

  ‘Oh, I must have’ Karnow pp.336–7

  ‘It seems increasingly’ UKNA FO371/175468

  ‘the Southern cause was’ Taylor p.12

  ‘We young cadets’ Hai pp.58 & 61

  ‘with an abrasive’ Palmer, Bruce The Twenty-Five-Year War: America’s Military Role in Vietnam Touchstone 1984 p.20

  ‘You fly one of these’ ibid. p.27

  ‘prompt, positive, dramatic’ Greene, Wallace The Greene Papers: General Wallace M. Greene Jnr and the Escalation of the Vietnam War ed. Nicholas Schlosser USMC Quantico 2015 p.12

  ‘However, the bitter’ ibid. p.15

  ‘why do you not’ AI Ramsey 22.9.16

  ‘would have to go’ McMaster, H.R. Dereliction of Duty: Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Lies that Led to Vietnam HarperCollins 1997 p.94

  ‘I don’t mind’ Shapley p.199

  ‘The US should’ Logevall Choosing War p.112

  ‘under the direction’ ibid. p.166 – in June 1964

  ‘You always think’ Halberstam p.368

  ‘70 per cent to avoid’ memo of 25.3.65 in Herring, George C. ed. The Pentagon Papers McGraw-Hill 1993 p.115

  ‘Soon all the people’ Gole, Henry G. Depuy p.145

  ‘Gen. Khanh had assigned him’ Santoli p.87

  ‘We had carefully’ ibid. p.86

  ‘a hell of a mess’ Greene Papers p.27

  ‘to his surprise’ Dobrynin p.120

  ‘the last time in which’ Charlton & Moncrieff p.175

  ‘I sense a potentially difficult’ Greene Papers p.59

  ‘I haven’t made up’ Gole Depuy p.145

  ‘Kennedy had demanded’ White, Theodore The Making of the President 1964 Athenaeum 1965 p.254

  ‘I inherited this’ Charlton & Moncrieff p.135

  ‘It is alleged’ Dr Williamson Murray to the author

  ‘He has a good’ USMCA Chaisson letters JA/A/5/6

  ‘Very much ringing’ Charlton & Moncrieff p.134

  ‘I soon learned’ Simpson p.186

  ‘callous disregard’ Scotton p.181

  ‘My task was that’ Charlton & Moncrieff p.102

  ‘We can’t win’ Gole Depuy p.146

  ‘the situation had’ FRUS 1964–68 Vol. I pp.412–22

  ‘the crème de la crème’ Gole Depuy p.55

  ‘There is a great’ ibid. p.146

  ‘violation of a fundamental’ Greene Papers p.157

  Chapter 9 – Into the Gulf

  ‘In my shop’ Tourison, Sedgwick Secret Army p.55

  ‘The message sent to me’ ibid. p.100

  ‘We did commit’ ibid. p.125

  ‘Boats operated in’ AI Nguyen Tri 16.9.16

  ‘It was great to be’ ibid.

  ‘determining DRV coastal’ Hanyok, Robert ‘Skunks, Bogies, Silent Hounds, and the Flying Fish: The Gulf of Tonkin Mystery 2–4 August 1964’ Cryptologic Quarterly Spring 2005 pp.5–6

  ‘What? They’re asking’ Col. Hoang Nghia Khanh The Road to the General Headquarters Staff, Hanoi 2008 p.111

  ‘At Saigon’s Tan Son Nhut’ AI Williams 21.1.16

  ‘at a time when’ Khanh memoir p.111

  ‘By 0700’ USAHEC Vietnam War Document Collection Box 2 Folder 7

  ‘The more USA spreads’ Asselin p.191

  ‘The proposition was’ Charlton & Moncrieff p.163

  ‘as near to spontaneous’ UKNA FO371/175481

  ‘I began to see’ Nguyen, Dinh Kien Nguoi linh voi bau troi Ha Noi [A Soldier and the Skies Over Hanoi] People’s Army Publishing Hanoi 2013 p.36

  ‘Even if we don’t’ Van Tien Dung in Huy Duc p.149

  ‘He’s as timid’ Tin, Thanh Their True Colors: The Political Memoirs of Bui Tin Turpin Press 1994 p.192

  ‘It is no bad thing’ Westad, Odd Arne et al. eds 77 Conversations between Chinese and Foreign Leaders on the Wars in Indochina 1964–77 Wilson Centre Working Paper 22, online pp.74–7

  ‘The deft response’ White p.274

  ‘convinced that communism’ Young p.20

  ‘A yellow-robed monk’ Phan, Nhat Nam Mark of a Warrior 1963–1973: War Notes Hien Dai Publishing, Saigon 1973 p.49

  ‘One guy, with’ ibid. p.50

  ‘Nam felt a stab’ ibid. p.52

  ‘If you were twenty’ Ramsey MS I p.17

  ‘a gigantic gamble’ Greene Papers p.197

  ‘the administration should’ ibid. on 5.10.64

  ‘for the purposes of’ ibid. p.222

  ‘Maybe he is’ Scotton p.129

  ‘like a poisonous snake’ Shapley p.313

  ‘the elemental man’ Halberstam p.432

  ‘Why is it that’ 21.12.64, Air Force chief of staff in Greene Papers p.278

  ‘the Vietnamese – at least in Saigon’ ibid. p.289

  ‘If we add up’ ibid. p.286

  ‘a few soldiers’ UKNA PREM13/104

  ‘McNamara once said’ Logevall Choosing War p.373

  ‘When the Russians invade’ ibid. p.133

  ‘We Young Turks’ Ky p.112

  ‘In all my years’ Luan p.260

  ‘When a soldier begged’ Nam p.53

  ‘was enough to destroy’ ibid. p.54

  Chapter 10 – ‘We Are Puzzled About How to Proceed’

  ‘a high tide’ Nguyen Huu An New Battlefield (as told to Nguyen Tu Duong) People’s Army Publishing House Hanoi 2002 p.28

  ‘An had commanded’ this account is taken from New Battlefield Chapter 1

  ‘because of the requirements’ Pham Gia Duc The 325th Division (2 vols) People’s Army Publishing House Hanoi 1986 Vol. II p.44

  ‘he felt envious’ AI Ninh 7.10.16

  ‘acting in the name’ Luan p.253

  ‘The situation was too’ ibid. p.259

  ‘You do not know’ Hayslip p.366

  ‘It was very dangerous’ Elliott Mekong Delta Vol. I p.591

  ‘It was the 5 per cent’ AI Elliott 23.9.16

  ‘Saigon … sounded like’ Hayslip p.115

  ‘to stay with her brother’ Elliott Mekong Delta Vol. II p.908

  ‘The remarkable phenomenon’ Mai Elliott RAND p.58

  ‘Do they believe’ ibid. p.63

  ‘John, I think’ ibid. p.65

  ‘The unrestrained irresponsibility’ Tang p.59

  ‘You ask me’ Gole Depuy p.143 letter of 18.1.65

  ‘The secretary of defense’ 3.3.65 Greene Papers p.349

  ‘The time has come’ New York Times 9.2.65

  ‘deep personal instinct’ Shapley p.314

  ‘he saw no alternative’ UKNA FO371/180542

  ‘Vietnam was not forced’ McMaster p.323

  ‘Of course the debate’ Bundy private letter to Sir Michael Howard 20.3.79

  ‘The trouble was’ Charlton & Moncrieff p.121

  ‘he was disgusted’ UKNA PREM11/692

  ‘It was curious’ Taylor p.338

  ‘to guarantee 100 per cent’ Greene Papers p.314

  ‘These weren’t draftees’ AI Koltes 11.10.16

  ‘Okay, listen up’ Caputo, Philip A Rumor of War Holt, Rinehart & Winston 1977 p.58

  ‘If he was the King’ ibid. pp.82 & 27

  ‘Good air strikes’
USMHA Sidney Berry Papers Box 38 operation on 24.9.65

  ‘What we were trying’ Charlton & Moncrieff p.130

  ‘We’re incredibly’ Elliott Sacred Willow p.312

  ‘The only player’ Scotton p.145

  ‘When I first joined’ Nguyen Van Thanh in Brigham p.43

  ‘I would appreciate it’ Palmer p.26

  ‘Report that at least’ Ramsey MS III B1

  ‘Military discipline’ Ramsey letter of 6.6.65

  ‘We cursed to each other’ Hai p.174

  ‘Lt. Hai sniffed repeatedly’ ibid. p.177

  ‘Our battalion had virtually’ ibid. p.186

  ‘He proved almost the only’ ibid. p.197

  ‘We are puzzled’ 3.7.65 Memo Johnson Library quoted Gaiduk, Ilya V. The Soviet Union and the Vietnam War Ivan R. Dee 1996 p.50

  ‘I see no course’ Vietnam: The Definitive Documents p.374

  ‘As a matter of’ Katzenbach memo 10.6.65 ibid. p.375

  ‘The job had all’ Clodfelter Limits of Air Power p.77

  ‘that seemed to’ ibid. p.84

  Chapter 11 – The Escalator

  ‘Ky made a spectacular’ Cooper, Chester The Lost Crusade Dodd Mead 1970 p.281

  ‘“executive agent”’ Vietnam: The Definitive Documents p.386 memo to LBJ 20.7.65

  ‘General Westmoreland’ Greene Memorandum for the record 28.6.65 in Greene Papers

  ‘What should my’ Harold Johnson Oral History transcript LBJ Library pp.6, 12–13 quoted McMaster p.318

  ‘Politically SV is’ Ball 28.6.65

  ‘The US in 1965’ Memorandum of 23.7.65

  ‘thinks of docile’ 13 July 1965 quoted Berman Planning a Tragedy p.5

  ‘What Vietnam needs’ Charlton & Moncrieff p.220

  ‘relying on assumptions’ Thorne, Christopher Allies of a Kind Hamish Hamilton 1978 p.694

  ‘The least desirable’ Valenti, Jack A Very Human President Norton 1975 p.317

  ‘The mixture of’ Howard, Michael ‘“Many Reasons” for Vietnam’ Encounter May 1979 p.21

  ‘“Why did I go along’ McDonald The Reminiscences of Admiral David Lamar McDonald US Naval Institute 1976 pp.390, 393

  ‘We never made’ Charlton & Moncrieff p.115

  ‘All American journalists’ ibid. p.154

  ‘The Chiefs … failed’ McMaster p.328

  ‘They could not bring’ Palmer p.46

  ‘There was no “other’ Charlton & Moncrieff p.159

  ‘The moral issue’ ibid. p.166

  ‘Doug Ramsey suggests’ Ramsey MS II B9

  ‘Everything we did’ Charlton & Moncrieff p.174

  ‘There was a general sense’ Vietnam Documents p.391

  ‘The main perplexity’ ibid. p.392