“Well, it’s a go. We invade on June 6. June 14 was lucky for Napoleon; maybe June 6 will be lucky for us. The orders relieving General Abrams of command in Vietnam were sent this morning. There was no explanation. I’ll meet Creighton when he gets here and calm him down. He’s the ideal commander for this operation, but he won’t know until he gets back to Washington. His Deputy can take over what will be a somewhat depleted Military Assistance Command Vietnam (MACV). The ARVNs [South Vietnamese Army] will not be told until the morning of June 6. Their operational security sucks.”
Turning to Brigadier General Simons the Chairman said: “Bull, you’re going to run the clandestine operations.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Well…? ” “Sir, we already have ten teams in the proposed invasion area.”
“I thought it was twelve?”
“It was, sir, until last night. We lost contact with two of the teams near Haiphong.”
“Hell!…”
“Sir, to be blunt, we’re going to lose a lot more before we’re done.”
“I know, Bull, but it still gets to you.”
“Yes, sir, it does.”
“But maybe this time it’ll work and put an end to the mess.”
“Let’s hope so, for all of our sakes and that of the country.”
The Director of Central Intelligence gave a quick rundown on Eastern Europe and the Company’s assets in the Far East. There were no indications that the Russians were catching on. Key personnel were being ordered out of Europe and going either to home bases or to units that would be staging in Okinawa. He finished with: “There is a considerable communist element in Okinawa that we will have to keep an eye on and be aware of. However, as that has been a staging area before, we are going to pass it around that units coming out of Vietnam will stage there before coming home. For the short planning period, that ought to work.”
Next came the FBI Deputy Director. “The concerns we have at home are the two anti-war groups, the People’s Committee for Peace and Justice and the National Peace Action Committee. Both are in bed with the North Vietnamese and are actively aiding them in their war effort.4 We are going to discreetly,” he gave a small, sly grin, and then continued, “arrest their key personnel at the beginning of June to shake up and confuse those two organizations so that their effort to support the North Vietnamese gets disrupted and they are more concerned with getting their ‘comrades’ out of jail than spying and passing information to the enemy. We have operatives in both organizations with enough credible evidence to hang those assholes. When the invasion succeeds, we intend to indict them for treason.”
The Secretary of State was next. “As you know, we have been in contact with the Chinese seeking some type of rapprochement for some time, hopefully leading up to a meeting between Mao and the President. The Chinese, it appears, are as eager for it as we are. From our contacts, we are convinced they will not interfere in this endeavor.”
The men around the table looked both impressed and relieved. That was a major concern to all, and now the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs was reminded of a maxim of George Patton: Never Take Counsel of Your Fears. He then stood up and went to the screen and quietly and politely asked that the OPLAN schematic be put up again. “Gentlemen, I’ll be quite honest. If this had come to me first, I would have not only said no, but hell no. And I would have been wrong. This operation has to succeed. The Spartans used to have a saying, actually, it was the Spartan women, when the men went to war: ‘Come back with your shields or on it.’ We should all keep that in mind. We have an opportunity here, and we need to take advantage of it. A positive result might make the world a different place. Failure is unacceptable, and is not an option. The word is a firm go from the White House. Congress is not being told until the first wave is on the ground killing bad guys. It’s time to take the gloves off.”
Turning to the newly promoted Brigadier General Simons, the Chairman said: “Bull, you have done the country a great service at considerable personal risk. You have my personal thanks for what you have done. You have shown all of us what we should have done earlier. It would have saved the country a lot of heartache.” Looking at the rest of the grim faced senior officers around the table, he said: “I hope we kick their ass all the way to Thailand.”5
Orders went out to MACV, recalling a furious General Creighton Abrams, who handed his duties to his more than competent Deputy, reminding him that the Cambodia operation was to have the highest priority. His temper and disposition worsened on the long flight home, and was more than ready to burst out as he made his way to the office of the Chief of Staff to report. Not bothering to knock he made his way into the inner office past the office staff who did not dare say anything to Abrams, as they had seen his temper in action before.
Slamming the Chief’s door behind him, violently enough to make the office staff wince, he demanded why he had been relieved with no explanation. The Chief calmly asked Abrams to sit down and have some coffee, and then he very quietly asked him how he would like to command the expeditionary force that was going to invade North Vietnam in June.
There were not too many things that would render Creighton Abrams dumbfounded. This one did.
“Come again, Charlie?” Abrams asked with a ridiculously stupid look on his face.
“I said, Creighton, would you like to command the expeditionary force that is going to invade North Vietnam in four months?”
“You’re kidding right? This is a joke, and not a very good one?”
“No, it’s a reality. Didn’t the Chairman meet you at the airport?” Abrams shook his head. The Chief of Staff continued: “The President gave his approval last week, and the units designated for it are listed in the briefing papers you neglected to pick up from Colonel King on the way in. The Navy units, especially the amphibious ships, have already sailed for Japan and Okinawa. We’re invading on June 6. The Cambodia invasion will go ten days earlier. I’ll ask just one more time, are you interested?”
Then the Chief’s face broke into a huge grin as he handed Abrams a cigar, followed by an offer of “refreshments.” The two old friends then looked at each other and smiled conspiratorially.6
The units designated for the invasion were the 173rd Airborne Brigade (Separate), the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment, the 101st Airborne Division (Airmobile), the 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile), the 82nd Airborne Division, and the 2nd Marine Division (Provisional), and the 3rd Marine Division (minus). The 2nd Marine Division (Provisional) would be made up of the Headquarters of the 2nd Marine Division stationed at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, taking the following units organic to that division: the 6th Marine Regiment, an infantry regiment, and the 10th Marine Regiment, which was the division’s organic artillery regiment. Two infantry regiments would be attached to it after it arrived in Okinawa, one from each of the Marine divisions in Vietnam. The 4th Marine Regiment and the 9th Marine Regiment would be pulled out of South Vietnam early, and be sent to Okinawa.
The ARVN 1st Cavalry Regiment would participate in the invasion of Cambodia in place of the 11th Cavalry Regiment. Ostensibly, the 11th Cavalry would be redeploying; in reality, it was going to the DMZ to participate in the invasion of the North. The ARVN Marine Division would replace the 3rd Marine Division in I Corps along the DMZ, and the ARVN Airborne Division would be General Davison’s reserve for Cambodia. None of these units would be told why they were moving, only that they were. Too many big mouths and ears among them.
No units were going to be pulled out of Europe to participate. The units chosen for Olympic which were already deployed in Vietnam were quickly announced as being designated as part of the President’s already planned 150,000 troops reduction for the year. They would be pulled out as entire units, go to Okinawa to retrain and re-equip as well as get replacements, and then stage and embark on US Navy amphibious shipping for the trip across the South China Sea.
Three divisions from the continental United States were designated to be prepared to move t
o the Far East as follow on to the invasion if needed: the 1st Armored Division, the 3rd Armored Division, and the 5th Infantry Division (Mechanized). Hopefully, they would not be needed. If they had to deploy to Southeast Asia it would mean the invasion was in trouble. They would not even start to move until after D-Day on June 6.7
XVIII Airborne Corps Headquarters was deployed immediately to Okinawa and would control the 173rd Airborne Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division, and the 101st Airborne Division. Another corps headquarters, designated II MAF, taken mostly from Camp Lejeune, would control both the Marine Divisions and the 1st Cavalry Division. Don Starry’s 11th Cavalry Regiment would be attached to the 3rd Marine Division.
The 11th Cavalry Regiment and the 3rd Marine Division would attack across the DMZ separating North and South Vietnam, and proceed as quickly as possible up Highway 1 on the coast. The 173rd Airborne Brigade would parachute two of its battalions in the vicinity of Hanoi to establish an airhead, the rest of the brigade and the 1st Cavalry Division would reinforce the airhead and head for Hanoi. The 2nd Marine Division would conduct a seaborne assault across the beaches south of Haiphong, while one of its regiments, on four LSTs, would take Haiphong harbor by a coup de main. The 82nd Airborne Division would be the force’s reserve, to be committed on order.
Prior to this combined effort, Brigadier General Simons would lead a heliborne force of approximately 200 special operations troops to Hanoi and attempt to take the Politburo somewhat intact. This would leave the North Vietnamese virtually leaderless. A massive air and sea bombardment would precede the invasion by 90 minutes.
The Parrot’s Beak, Cambodia: May 30, 1970
The major units designated for the invasion of Cambodia were the 1st and 9th US Infantry Divisions, supported by all available artillery assets not already allocated to the invasion of the North. The 1st ARVN Cavalry Regiment would screen both units to the north to provide early warning of NVA units coming into the area to oppose the invasion of the communist sanctuaries. COSVN, the Viet Cong headquarters, was located in the Parrot’s Beak, and was a major objective, as were the known communist base camps and supply dumps, but the real objective was to draw as much of the North Vietnamese Army as far away from the DMZ as possible. After that, it was an economy of force mission, to allow the invasion to succeed nearly unopposed up north, and catch the NVA between the northern invasion force and the rest of the US Army and the ARVN.
The invasion was launched behind a massive air and artillery bombardment, and it caught the NVA by surprise, both tactically and strategically. The two American divisions quickly overran enemy supply dumps, capturing huge amounts of weapons, ammunition, and supplies, and inflicted heavy casualties on the unsuspecting enemy units. Going faster and farther into Cambodia than expected, the Americans surrounded the COSVN area, capturing it on the second day of the invasion, and with it, most of the political infrastructure that had been based there. This, coupled with the immense losses the Viet Cong had suffered in their 1968 Tet Offensive, finished off the Viet Cong as a viable political and military force in South Vietnam.
The surprised North Vietnamese rushed their closest units to oppose the invasion, but committed them piecemeal, to be torn up suffering heavy losses to the superior firepower of the American and South Vietnamese units. Fresh units had to be pulled out from other areas of South Vietnam and Cambodia to reinforce the battered remnants in the Parrot’s Beak, finally halting the American advance on June 3. MACV ordered battalions from the 25th Infantry Division and the 23rd Infantry Division to reinforce the allied effort, and the ARVN Airborne Division was also committed to the Cambodian operation. The NVA became desperate, pulling units from wherever it could to stop the allied effort, and its losses in men and material were mounting dangerously. By June 5 the entire Parrot’s Beak had been cleared of all North Vietnamese resistance, and their losses were staggering.
Allied intelligence tracked the new units being moved to support those in the invasion area, and allied air and artillery hammered them savagely. At the end of the first week of the invasion, an equivalent of seven North Vietnamese divisions had been committed to stop the allied invasion, and casualties in some units had reached a staggering 70 percent. Average losses in all units exceeded 35 percent. Their orders from Hanoi were to hold at all costs and eject the Americans from Cambodia regardless of the price.
Meanwhile, on June 1 an American naval squadron quietly took up station outside the Cambodian port of Sihanoukville, the main port in Cambodia through which the North Vietnamese funnelled supplies into Cambodia, and then into South Vietnam. Ostensibly “neutral” shipping, in actuality Soviet merchantmen bringing war supplies for the North Vietnamese, were stopped and turned away. The supply of weapons, equipment, and food coming into Cambodia by sea suddenly dried to a trickle and then stopped.8
Guam: 2100, June 5, 1970
The first B-52 bomber rumbled down the runway, slowly building up speed to lift its huge load from the earth to the sky. The internal bomb bays of each of the huge aircraft were filled to capacity with 500lb bombs. Additionally, each of the monsters had external loads of the same lethal weapons slung under its wings. As the bombers picked up speed and started to lift off the runway, the long sleek wings literally started to flap, oscillating majestically up and down under the weight of the external bomb loads, giving each aircraft the look of a gigantic bird of prey, which, in effect, each of them was.
They were going in three plane groups, an “arclight strike,” to North Vietnam to bomb strategic targets in the Hanoi and Haiphong areas. They would carpet-bomb their targets, leaving whatever they hit nothing but a pockmarked ruin. As one witness described such a raid, they did not have to hit their target, just get close to it to neutralize it.9
The bomber crews knew nothing of the planned invasion, just that their new air offensive against the North was to force the North Vietnamese to get serious at the conference table. The air portion of the invasion, dubbed Linebacker II, was an all-out air effort against North Vietnam. Air Force aircraft from Thailand, as well as Navy and Marine aircraft from US Navy aircraft carriers in the Tonkin Gulf were also flying sorties in this new offensive which would continue until the North Vietnamese cried “uncle.” The aircrews were told the gloves were off and that Washington was serious. They would see later if their efforts were worth it or not.
By the time the B-52s returned to Guam, the American assault force would be ashore in North Vietnam.
Over North Vietnam: 0300, June 6, 1970
“Wild Weasel” was their nickname, and they were F-105 Thunderchief two seat fighter-bombers, affectionately called “Thuds” by their crews. They were armed with an impressive array of electronic detection equipment as well as Shrike anti-radar missiles as their payload. They were SAM hunters.
They went into the night to ferret out the North Vietnamese anti-aircraft sites for destruction by allied aircraft. They hunted alone, and their job was to get the North Vietnamese, and the Russians who also manned anti-aircraft sites in the North, to light up their target acquisition radars and fire at them. It was exciting, lonely, dangerous, and very deadly.
Within striking distance, but out of radar range of the SAMs, the strike force which would actually launch the ordnance against the targets waited for the call from the Weasel. Tonight, the strike force was made of Air Force F-4s, and they had worked with this particular Weasel before.
Lieutenant Colonel Sam FitzHugh, and his backseater Major William Morrow, were expert at playing the game. Shot down once, they had still been successful in every Weasel mission they had flown. Skirting the hills and flying low, periodically popping up long enough to provoke a radar contact, and usually the missile that went with it, they were carefully scanning the darkened terrain below, looking for the telltale missile blast.
“Come on, Luke, time to come out and play with Daddy,” FitzHugh spoke conversationally into the microphone. Morrow chuckled, and then shouted “missile launch” as the alarm beeper went off in
the cockpit. FitzHugh immediately took the Thud into a steep dive; the missile veered, and then went into the aluminum chaff that FitzHugh had released behind them, exploding harmlessly. “Target acquired, ordnance launched,” came in from the strike leader, and both FitzHugh and Morrow watched satisfied as the SAM site was hit and neutralized.10
“One down, three to go,” muttered Morrow as FitzHugh turned the aircraft towards the next target. All over North Vietnam the same thing was happening to the enemy anti-aircraft network. The gloves had indeed come off.
Outside Haiphong Harbor: 0400, June 6, 1970
The four LSTs carrying Battalion Landing Team 2/6 (Reinforced), flying Soviet naval ensigns and having their running lights rigged as merchantmen silently glided towards the entrance to Haiphong harbor. Their mission was to land at the quayside in the harbor, disembark the three Marine battalions crammed into their flat-bottomed hulls, and attempt to capture and hold, relatively intact, a portion of the port until relieved by ground forces.
The four captains had been told that their ships were expendable and to get the Marines ashore at all costs. The harbor must be taken and held. There would be air support once it was light, and reinforcements should be there by 1800 on D-Day, but the section of the harbor seized by them had to be held at all costs. They must not get sunk until all the Marines and their equipment were ashore.
There was a flotilla of four destroyers close by in case they got into trouble on the way in to the approaches to the harbor, but once inside, they were on their own. They were to enter the harbor at H-90 and hoped to land their troops by H-60. Then they had to hold until relieved.11
Cold War Hot: Alternate Decisions of the Cold War Page 22
