Ex Green Beret Msg Condemns Vietnam WaroThe whole thing was a lie!�by Donald Duncan\HEN I WAS DRAFTED into the Army, ten years ago, I was amilitant iiGeplaat, Like most Americans, I couldnTtconceive of anybody choosing communism over democ-racy. The depths of my aversion to this ideology was, Isuppose, due in part to my being Roman Catholic, in part to the storiesin the news media about communism, and in part to the fact that mystepfather was born in Budapest, Hungary. Although he had come to theUnited States as a young man, most of his family had stayed in Europe.From time to time, I would be given examples of the horrors of lifeunder communism. Shortly after Basic Training, I was sent to Germany.I was there at the time of the Soviet suppression of the Hungarian revolt.Everything I had heard about communism was verified. Like my fellowsoldiers I felt frustrated and cheated that the United States would not goto the aid of the Hungarians. Angrily, I followed the action of the bruteforce being used against people who were armed with sticks, stolen weap-ons, and a desire for independence.While serving in Germany, I ran across the Special Forces. I was sc~impressed by their dedication and élan that I decided to volunteer forduty with this group. By 1959 I had been accepted into the SpecialForces and underwent training at Fort Bragg.NE OF THE FIRST AXIOMS one learns about unconventional war-fare is that no insurgent or guerrilla movement can endurewithout the support of the people. While doing research inmy job as an Area Specialist, I found that, in province afterprovince, the Viet Cong guerrillas had started as small teams. They werenow in battalion and regimental strength. Before I left, the Viet Congcould put troops in the field in division strengt : in almost any province.Such growth is not only impossible without popular support, it actuallyrequires an overwhelming mandateWe were still being told. both by our own government and the Saigor.government, that the vast majority of the people of South Vietnam wereopposed to the Viet Cong. When J questioned this contradiction, | wasalways told that the people only helped the Viet Cong through tea:Supposedly, the Viet Cong held the people in the grip of terror by as-sassination and torture. This argument was also against doctrine. SpeciaForces are taught that reliable support can be gained only throughfriendship and trust. History denied the oterrorTT argument. The peoplefeared and hated the French, and they rose up against them. It becamequite obvious that a minority movement could not keep tabs on a hostilemajority. South Vietnam is a relatively small country, dotted with thou-sands of small villages. In this very restricted area Companies ancbattalions of Viet Cong can maneuver and live under the very noses o.government troops; but the people donTt betray these movements, eventhough it is a relatively simple thing to pass the word. On the other hand,government troop movements are always reported. In an action againstthe Viet Cong, the only hope for surprise is for the government to movethe troops by helicopter. Even this is no guarantee: General NguyenKhan, while still head of the Saigon government, acknowledged thatViet Cong sympathizers and agents were everywhere " even in the:inner" First enlisted man in Vietnam to be nominated for Legion of Meritconsider such actions good strategy when the tables are reversed. Whenteaching Special Forces how to set up guerrilla warfare in an enemycountry, killing unpopular officials is pointed out as one method ofgaining friends among the populace. It is recommended that specialassassination teams be set up for this purpose.ANY OF OUR MILITARY, Officers and enlisted, have exportedthe color prejudice, referring to Vietnamese as oslopes�and o~gooksT* " two words of endearment left over fromKorea. Other fine examples of American Democracy inaction ar (ne segregated bars. Although there are exceptions, in Saigon,Nha Trang, anu Da Nang and some of the other larger towns, Negroesdo not gu into white bars except at the risk of being ejected. I have seenmore thaa one incident where a Negro newcomer has made a omistake�and walked into the wrong bar. If insulting catcalls weren't enough to~~" Decided ~vast majority of the people were pro-Viet Cong and anti-Saigon�" Quit Army" Now organizing a lobby in Washington for GITs 7councils " when he made the statement: oAny operation that lets morethan four hours elapse between conception and implementation .sdoomed to failure.T He made these remarks in the last days of his re-gime, right after a personally directed operation north of Saigon endedin disaster.O BACK UP THE TERROR THEORY, the killing of village chiefs andthcir families were pointed out to me. Those that were quickte point at these murders ignored certain facts. Province, dis-trict, village and hamlet chiefs are appointed, not clected. Toooften petty officials are not even people from the area but outsiders beingrewarded for political favors. Those that are from the area are thoughtof as quislings because they have gone against their own by cooperating °with Saigon. Guerrillas or partisans who killed quislings in WorldWar !1 were made heroes in American movies. Those who look on theViet Cong killings of these people with horror and use them as justifica-tion for our having to beat them, don't realize that our own militarymake him leave, he was thrown out bodily. There are cases where thissurt of thing has led to near-riots.It is obvious that the Vietnamese resent us as well. We are makingmany of the same mistakes that the French did, and in some instancesour mistakes are worse. Arrogance, disrespect, rudeness, prejudice, andour own special brand of ignorance, are not designed to win friends.This resentment runs all the way from stiff politeness to obvious hatred.It is so Common that if a Vietnamese working with or for Americans tsfound to be sincerely cooperative, energetic, conscientious, and honest,i automatically makes him suspect as a Viet Cong agent.ITTLE BY LITTLE, as all these facts made their impact on me, I hadto accept the fact that, Communist or not, the vast majorityof the people were pro-Viet Cong and anti-Saigon. I had toaccept also that the position, ~~We are in Vietnam because weare in sympathy with the aspirations and desires of the Vietnamesepeople,�T was a lie. If this is a lie, how many others are there?I suppose that one of the things that bothered me from the very be-ginning in Vietnam was the condemnation of ARVN as a fighting force:othe Vietnamese are cowardly . . . the Vietnamese canTt be disciplined . . .the Vietnamese just canTt understand tactics and strategy . . . etc., etc.�But the Viet Cong are Vietnamese. United States military files in Saigondocument time and again a Viet Cong company surrounding two or eventhree ARVN companies and annihilating them. These same files docu-ment instances of a Viet Cong company, surrounded by ARVN battal-ions, mounting a ferocious fight and breaking loose. I have seen evidenceof the Viet Cong attacking machine-gun positions across open terrainwith terrible losses. This canTt be done with undisciplined bandits. Formany years now the tactics and strategy of the Viet Cong have been sosuccessful that massive fire power and air support on our side is the onlything that has prevented a Viet Cong victory. These are all Vietnamese.What makes the difference? Major oCharging Charlie� Beckwith, theSpecial Forces commander at Plei Me, used the words odedicated,�otough,� odisciplined,� o~well-trained,� and obrave� to describe theViet Cong " and, almost in the same breath, condemned the Viet-namese on our side.T BECAME OBVIOUS that motivation is the prime. factor in this prob-lem. The Viet Cong soldier believes in his cause. He believes he isfighting for national independence. He has faith in his leaders,whose obvious dedication is probably greater than his own. HisOfficers live in the same huts and eat the same food. His governmentcounterpart knows that his leaders are in their positions because offamily money or reward for political favors. He knows his officersT.primary concern is gaining wealth and favor. Their captains and majorseat in French restaurants and pay as much for one meal as they makein a week. They sleep in guarded villas with theie mistresses. They findmany excuses for not being with their men in battle. They see the officerslie about their roles in battle. The soldier knows that he will be cheatedout of his pay if possible. He knows equipment he may need is being solddowntown. His only motivation is the knowledge that he is fighting onlyto perpetuate a system that has kept him uneducated and in poverty. Hehas had so many promises made to him, only to be broken, that now hebelieves nothing from his government.HE WHOLE THING WAS A LIE. We weren't preserving freedom inSouth Vietnam. There was no freedom to preserve. To voiceopposition to the government meant jail or death. Neutralismwas forbidden and punished. Newspapers that didnTt say theright thing were closed down. People are not even free to leave and Viet-nam is one of those rare countries that doesnTt fill its American visaquota. ItTs all there to see once the Red film is removed from the eyes.We arenTt the freedom fighters. We are the Russian tanks blasting thehopes of an Asian Hungary.ItTs not democracy we brought to Vietnam " itTs anti-communism. Thisis the only choice the people in the village have. This is why most of.them have embraced the Viet Cong and shunned the alternative. TheMeetDonald DuncanSaturday, August IAtCoffeehouseIn Fayettevilleletters to the editorRetired GeneralLikes Bragg BriefsTo the Zditor of Bragg Briefs:I have just finished readingyour July issue. I wish everyAmerican could read ite.I have written the editor ofStars and Stripes for Peace inVietnam suggesting that. now isthe time for organizing on a per-manent basis a Veterans for Peaceorganization to counter the oldline Vets organizations for WarI wish you would give thisidea some thought and sound outyour collegues and other Glgroups who are opposing the il-legal, immoral and genocidal warin Indochina. War in the thermo-nuclear age is completely out-modede It is now imperative thatwe substitute nezotiations whichare enforcable for war fare amongnation states. Unless somethingof this kind is done, thermonuc-lear war will become inevitable.Think it over and let me haveyour views. Best wishes.Hugh B MesterGeneral Hester serves as an of-ficer in the United States Armyfor 34 years. He 1s a veteran ofWorld War I, Worid War II, andthe Korean War.people remember that when they were fighting the French for theirnational independence it was the Americans who helped the French. ItTsthe American anti-Communist bombs that kill their children. ItTs Amer-ican anti-communism that has supported one dictator after another inSaigon. When anti-Communist napalm burns their children it matterslittle that an anti-Communist Special Forces medic comes later to applybandages.HEN I RETURNED: FROM VIETNAM I was asked, oDo youresent young people who have never been in Vietnam, orin any war, protesting it?� On the contrary, I am relieved.I think they should be commended. I had to wait until ]was 35 years old, after spending 10 years in the Army and 18 monthspersonally witnessing the stupidity of the war, before I could figure it out.That these young people were able to figure it out so quickly and soaccurately is not only a credit to their intelligence but a great personaltriumph over a lifetime of conditioning and indoctrination. I only hopethat the picture I have tried to create will help other people come to thetruth without wasting 10 years. Those people protesting the war in Viet-nam are not against our boys in Vietnam. On the contrary. What theyare against is our boys being in Vietnam. They are not unpatriotic. Againthe opposite is true. They are opposed to people, our own and others,dying for a lie, thereby corrupting the very word democracy.There are those who will believe that I only started to feel these thingsafter I returned from Vietnam. In my final weeks in that country I wasputting out a very small information paper for Special Forces. The mast-head of the paper was a flaming torch. I tried in my own way to bringa little light to the men with whom I worked. On the last page of thefirst issue were the names of four men " all friends of mine " reportedkilled in action on the same day. Among them was Sgt. Horner, one ofthe men I oprocured� for Special Forces when he was stationed at theArmy Presidio in San Francisco.To those friends I wrote this dedication:oWe can best immortalize our fallen members by striving for an en-lightened future where Man has found another solution to his problemsrather than resorting to the futility and stupidity of war.�Apollo 13To the editorsThe flight of Apollo 13,plagued by misfortune, has endedtriumphantly. Because it was suchan amazing and successful feat itis proof that this country isblessed with some of the greatestminds in the world.Isn*t it a shame this abilitycan't be utilized in other endea-vors? For example, wouldn't it bewonderful if these geniuses coulddevise a method to end the war inViet Nam?From the time of the mishapuntil splashdown many people wereworried about the safety of thethree astronauts. There were mo-ments of silent prayers through-out the world. Long and boring TVprograms were devoted to them.And the President greeted thempersonally and set aside a day ofthankful prayer for their safereturne All this for three men,three men who volunteered forduty filled with hazards theywere aware of and were well paidfor to performeVery few of our men fightingin Viet Nam are volunteers. Theirpay is negligent for the dutythey performe They can make nomid-course corrections.e The oneswho try are called deserters orcowards. Those who return safelyare greeted only by their immed-iate families who alone have beenpraying for their safe return.The less fortunate, the wounded,the crippled, get no heroes wel-come nor do they have a prayerfulday dedicated to them.Of course it is good the astro-nauts returned safely. But supposesomething had gone wrong and theyhad missed the earth and remainedin space. What kind of posthumouscelebration would they have beengiven here on earth? Would it havecompared with the Heavenly recep-tion given them by their dead bro-thers killed in Viet Nam?Glenn W Monigold(UeSceAcFe rete)